winshuttle-technicalarchitecture for automating sap processes using forms and workflow-whitepaper-en

©2012 Winshuttle, LLC. All rights reserved. 2/12 www.winshuttle.com

The Winshuttle Platform: Technical Architecture for Automating

SAP Processes using Forms and Workflow

The Winshuttle Platform is a collection of client and server components that helps customers maximize the potential of their SAP investment by simplifying and streamlining common SAP business processes. With the addition of the Winshuttle Designer authoring tool and the Winshuttle Workflow application engine, Winshuttle now offers a complete environment for building and deploying custom solutions that automate SAP business processes—from data collection to workflow routing and approval to transaction execution. This paper provides an overview of the technical architecture of the Winshuttle Platform, including:

• System Requirements and Licensing

• SAP Integration

• SharePoint Dependencies

• Security and Authentication

• Load Balancing, Backup, and Disaster Recovery

The information presented herein is intended to assist IT managers and administrators with evaluating the Winshuttle Platform for deployment in their organizations.

2Winshuttle Technical Architecture White Paper

Platform Overview

The Winshuttle Platform is composed of seven products that run on Microsoft client and server software and integrate with SAP. The four client components collectively make up Winshuttle Studio (Table 1) and are used to create forms, templates, and Web services for creating SAP business process automation solutions.

Table 1: Winshuttle Studio

Product FunctionalityWinshuttle Transaction Codeless development of templates and Web

services that perform SAP transactions and data operations

Winshuttle Query

Winshuttle Direct

Winshuttle Designer Codeless development of forms and workflows

The three server components (Table 2) provide the runtime environment for solutions built using Winshuttle Studio, as well as control and governance functions for the Platform as a whole.

Table 2: Winshuttle Platform Server Components

Product FunctionalityWinshuttle Workflow Workflow execution and form rendering

Winshuttle Server Web service execution and SAP integration

Winshuttle Central Web service directory, governance, and control

Winshuttle Server is composed of two services: Transaction Services and Query Services. Transaction Services can expose scripts written with Winshuttle Transaction as Web services and process Transaction runs immediately or on a scheduled basis. Query Services can expose Winshuttle Query scripts as Web services and run immediate or scheduled Query extracts.

Design -Time Architecture

During design time (Figure 1), solution builders use Winshuttle Transaction, Query, or Direct to create scripts that perform SAP transactions and publish these scripts as Web services to Winshuttle Server. They then use Designer to build forms that consume those Web services, model workflows to route those forms, and publish the completed solutions to Microsoft SharePoint.

Interaction between Winshuttle Studio and the Winshuttle Server components occurs via the SOAP protocol, as does interaction among the server components. Any interaction between Winshuttle components and SAP is done via Remote Function Call (RFC), the standard interface also used by the SAP GUI.


Figure 1: Winshuttle design-time architecture

Runtime Architecture

At runtime (Figure2), users access SharePoint-hosted Web forms built with Winshuttle Designer using Microsoft Internet Explorer. Winshuttle Workflow executes the workflow logic, and Winshuttle Server executes the Web services that perform operations against SAP.

Interaction between Internet Explorer and the Winshuttle Server components occurs via HTTP, and interaction among the server components proceeds via SOAP. The HTTPS protocol is also fully supported for uses requiring additional security. Any interaction between Winshuttle components and SAP is done via Remote Function Call (RFC), the standard interface also used by the SAP GUI.

Figure 2: Winshuttle runtime architecture


System Requirements and LicensingWinshuttle Studio runs on Microsoft Windows clients. Winshuttle Designer also requires Microsoft InfoPath for building forms. The full system requirements for Winshuttle Studio are listed in Table 3.

Table 3: Winshuttle Studio System Requirements

To run solutions built with Winshuttle Studio, end users need only Internet Explorer, along with the operating system and .NET Framework requirements listed in Table 3.

The Winshuttle Server components run on the Microsoft Windows server stack. Winshuttle Central and Winshuttle Workflow are Microsoft SharePoint applications. The full system requirements for the Winshuttle Server components are listed in Table 4.

Table 4: Winshuttle Platform Server Components System RequirementsComponent Minimum Requirement

Central Workflow Server

Server Software

Operating System Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit/64-bit)Windows Server 2008 R2 (32-bit/64-bit)

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 or higher

Microsoft SharePoint SharePoint 2007 (all editions, including WSS)SharePoint 2010 (all editions, including Foundation)

N/A

Database MS SQL Server 2005 (any edition, including Express)MS SQL Server 2008 (any edition, including Express)

N/A

SAP GUI None 7.10 Patch 11

Server Hardware

Processor Single, 2.5 GHz

Memory 8 GB

Storage 3 GB of free space N/A

Network 56 Kbps between clients and server N/A

Network Ports N/A RFC calls require ports 33xx to be open

Desktop Software

Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher 7.0 or higher N/A

Component Minimum Requirement

Desktop Software

Operating System Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32/64-bit)

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 or higher

Microsoft Excel or Access(Transaction and Query only)

Office 2000 or higher (including 2010 64-bit)

Microsoft InfoPath(Designer only)

2007/2010

Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

SAP Basis 4.6C or higher

SAP GUI 6.40 or higher

RFC Authorizations See required SAP authorizations

Desktop Hardware

Memory 512 MB

Storage 250 MB of free space


Licensing

All Microsoft and Winshuttle licensing requirements are based on the version of the software deployed. Winshuttle Workflow and Server run on SharePoint 2007 WSS or SharePoint 2010 Foundation, so no SharePoint CALs are required for either design-time or runtime deployment.

SAP Integration

The Winshuttle Platform has a light footprint on the SAP environment. The Query Services component of Winshuttle Server requires a module to be installed on the SAP system. Neither Transaction Services nor any other Winshuttle functionality requires installation of additional software on the SAP instance.

All interaction between SAP and Winshuttle components occurs via Remote Function Call (RFC), the standard interface also used by the SAP GUI.

SharePoint Dependencies

Both Winshuttle Central and Winshuttle Workflow are built on the SharePoint foundation and are deployed via SharePoint’s solution deployment framework (.wsp deployment).

However, Winshuttle uses proprietary technology, instead of the native features of SharePoint, when doing so improves performance or simplifies the user experience. Specifically:

•Forms and templates connect to SAP directly via Winshuttle Web services. Data is not passed through SharePoint Business Connectivity Services (BCS).

•The Winshuttle Workflow engine is a Winshuttle technology and is not based on Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).

•Forms rendering is done using Winshuttle technology and is not based on InfoPath Forms Services.

Security and Authentication

Winshuttle uses Windows Integrated Security to provide authentication between the user and the server components of the Winshuttle Platform (i.e., Winshuttle Workflow, Server, and Central). SAP native security is used for interaction between the user and the SAP system.

There are four ways to configure authentication to SAP, and the user experience and deployment procedure will vary depending on the chosen option:

User enters SAP credentials. When the user executes an SAP transaction via a Winshuttle Web service, Winshuttle Server prompts for the user’s SAP username and password and then creates an RFC connection to SAP using that user’s SAP credentials (Figure 3).

Figure 3: User enters SAP credentials


User’s SAP credentials are stored on Winshuttle Central. Users’ Windows Integrated Security credentials are mapped to their SAP credentials; the mapping is stored on Winshuttle Central. When the user executes an SAP transaction via a Winshuttle Web service, Winshuttle Server retrieves the user’s SAP credentials from Central and creates an RFC connection to SAP (Figure 4).

Figure 4: SAP credentials stored on Winshuttle Central

User connects to SAP using a shared service account. SAP credentials for a shared service account are stored on Winshuttle Central. When a user executes an SAP transaction via a Winshuttle Web service, Winshuttle Server retrieves the system account credentials and creates an RFC connection to SAP (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Shared system account


User logs on using an SAP logon ticket. When the user executes an SAP transaction via a Winshuttle Web service, Winshuttle Server prompts for the user’s Windows Integrated Security username and password. Winshuttle Server passes these credentials to a ticketing issuing system and receives an SAP logon ticket, which is then used to create an RFC connection to SAP (Figure 6).

Figure 6: SAP logon ticket

It is important to note that only users who execute transactions or otherwise interact with SAP need a mechanism for logging on to the SAP system. In a workflow solution, for example, some participants in the process may perform steps that do not require access to SAP; these users will only need their Windows Integrated Security logon to access the forms and perform their part of the process.

Load Balancing, Backup, and Recovery

Winshuttle Central and Winshuttle Workflow are Microsoft SharePoint applications, supported by the load-balancing, backup, and disaster-recovery features of that platform. Winshuttle Server runs on Windows Internet Information Service (IIS) and is similarly supported by that platform’s features and functionality.

Load Balancing

Winshuttle Central and Workflow are fully supported in a load-balanced SharePoint environment with multiple Web front-ends. Both components are deployed as standard SharePoint Solution Packages (.wsp); the SharePoint infrastructure automatically manages the deployment of a given solution to all Web front-ends in the server farm.

Winshuttle Server is designed to take advantage of load-balancing features in Windows Server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Backup and restore of Winshuttle Central, Workflow, and Server can be handled by Microsoft’s recommended tools and procedures for administrating SharePoint, IIS, and SQL Server.

Additional Resources

For more information, see the Products and Support & Training sections at www.winshuttle.com or contact a pre-sales engineer at [email protected].

Corporate HeadquartersBothell, WATel + 1 (800) 711-9798Fax + 1 (425) 527-6666www.winshuttle.com

United KingdomLondon, U.K.Tel +44 (0) 208 704 4170Fax +44 (0) 208 711 2665www.winshuttle.co.uk

FranceMaisons-Alfort, FranceTel +33 (0) 148 937 171Fax +33 (0) 143 683 768www.winshuttle.fr

IndiaResearch & DevelopmentChandigarh, IndiaTel +91 (0) 172 663 9800


GermanyBremerhaven, GermanyTel +49 (0) 471 140840Fax +49 (0)471 140849www.winshuttle-software.de

Winshuttle provides software products that improve how business users work with SAP. Whether you simply want to move data between SAP and Excel or you need SharePoint-based interactive forms and workflows for SAP, Winshuttle has the solution. Our Usability Platform enables customers to adapt SAP data and processes to meet changing business conditions in a timely and cost-effective manner, without requiring any programming. Thousands of customers have radically accelerated SAP processes, saving and redirecting millions of dollars every day.

Winshuttle supports customers worldwide from our offices in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and India.

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