Extending Duet Enterprise to Create Custom Solutions

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Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP can be customized and extended to provide custom solutions that display SAP data in Microsoft Office 2010 client applications.

Applies to: Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP Server 2.0 | Office 2010 | SharePoint Server 2010

In this article
Exposing SAP Information Using Duet Enterprise
Tools for Duet Enterprise Solution Development
Extending Duet Enterprise Solutions

Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) developers can provide new views of information from the SAP external system that Duet Enterprise or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 developers can display by using external lists and custom Web Parts. Developers can extend Duet Enterprise without writing code by using Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, or by writing code using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Independent software vendors (ISV) can create and package customized Duet Enterprise installations for vertical markets.

Exposing SAP Information Using Duet Enterprise

SAP content and solutions that you build can be exposed in SharePoint Server 2010 by using Duet Enterprise. SAP content can be exposed in SharePoint external lists, in a Microsoft Outlook 2010 task pane, or in other Microsoft Office applications.

Information workers can take SAP data that is exposed in Outlook 2010 as Contacts or Tasks offline in the following ways:

  • By creating external content types in SharePoint Server 2010 that are based on the native Outlook 2010 data types, such as Contacts, Tasks, Calendars, and Posts.

  • By downloading external lists, SAP reports, and libraries with external data columns to SharePoint Workspace 2010.

Tools for Duet Enterprise Solution Development

Duet Enterprise delivers an enterprise-ready framework and tools for efficient development of applications that are based on SAP Business Processes, SharePoint 2010, and Office 2010. Developers can use three main tools to extend existing solutions or to develop new Duet Enterprise solutions: SAP ABAP Workbench, SharePoint Designer 2010, and Visual Studio 2010.

SAP ABAP Workbench

Developers can use ABAP Workbench to do the following:

  • Extend existing services

  • Develop new services

  • Develop new custom business logic

  • Enable new field configurations

SharePoint Designer 2010

Developers can use SharePoint Designer 2010 to extend existing Duet Enterprise solutions or create new Duet Enterprise solutions, as follows:

  • Create custom solutions without having to write code

  • Create external lists and document libraries

  • Design views and forms

  • Create custom solutions by using SharePoint site templates

  • Customize specialized Web Parts provided with Duet Enterprise

For more information about ways to extend Duet Enterprise without writing code, see Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP Help and How-to(https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/duet-enterprise-help/?CTT=97).

Visual Studio 2010

Developers can use Visual Studio 2010 to extend existing Duet Enterprise applications or create new Duet Enterprise applications, as follows:

  • Modify Duet Enterprise installations

  • Modify solutions created by using SharePoint Designer 2010

  • Create and edit Web Parts to display SAP information in SharePoint sites

  • Create site definitions, custom workflows, and event receivers

  • Display SAP business data in custom Microsoft Silverlight Web Parts

Extending Duet Enterprise Solutions

Creating a custom Duet Enterprise solution requires collaboration between ABAP developers and SharePoint 2010 developers. The ABAP developer performs the tasks in SAP that are necessary to make the data available to the SharePoint developer. Then, the SharePoint developer can use that data to create an external content type and the end user solution, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Steps to create a custom Duet Enterprise solution

Steps to create a custom Duet Enterprise solution

To create custom Duet Enterprise solutions by using SAP ABAP Workbench

SAP developers follow these steps to create custom Duet Enterprise solutions by using SAP ABAP Workbench:

  1. Pick an RFC or web service by using ES Workplace.

  2. Model an SAP object in the SAP Runtime Repository Editor.

  3. Create an adaptation layer.

  4. Create proxies.

  5. Create a "flattened" WSDL structure by using the SAP Flat Service Generator.

    SAP WSDL structures can be hierarchical. However, to use these structures in SharePoint, they need to be flattened. The Flat Service Generator generates the flat structures for consumption by SharePoint.

  6. View the WSDL in SOA Manager.

To create custom Duet Enterprise solutions by using Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010

SharePoint developers follow these steps to create custom Duet Enterprise solutions:

  1. Import the "flattened" WSDL to create a new external content type.

  2. Export the BDC model.

  3. Create external lists, new site definitions, workflows, and user interface elements such as ribbons and buttons as needed.

  4. Test the custom solution, and then deploy it.

See Also

Concepts

Customizing Duet Enterprise Using SharePoint Server 2010

Duet Enterprise: How Tos

Duet Enterprise Overview