XI - what`s it all about?

Question

When installing auto-id there is XI required.
Is there no possibility to communicate between mit R/3 and the Netweaver (AII) without XI?
What does the XI do?
I think it bases on all the message types and basic types and imho there should be a way without XI to work properly?
Which job does XI have in this scenario and why is it obligatory?

Answer 1

HI
A Middleware solution that provides out of the box integration scenarios eliminates the need to hard code point to point connections between applications or businesses.
         A successfully integrated enterprise can reward your organization with significant cost, resource, and time savings. Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI) connects existing and new systems to enable collaborative operation within your entire organization.
         A successfully integrated system allows information to work harder and smarter, increasing the speed of business reaction time, and facilitating seamless, straight-through transaction processing
Sap XI
       XI is well suited for connecting SAP systems with each other and with non-SAP. SAP XI provides an integrated workflow engine that allows defining adapters to non-XML protocols and mappings to convert data content from source to target format.
XI comes handy particularly incase of SAP - Non SAP interfaces where you can import standard integration content. Also XI has got sophisticated open standard adapter framework which is very easy to implement and custom logic can be implemented using Adapter module programming.
Advantages
u2022     Monitoring is better than any other middleware product. It offers exhaustive monitoring features like message, performance, component monitoring etc, all of which can be used to track and rectify the errors. It follows a hub and spoke model.
u2022     When you need to integrate with an SAP system XI has an advantage in supporting various SAP components and so on.
u2022     Process functionalities inside XI to modify content in the communication channel on own defined rules for business purposes.
u2022     Mappings and adapters are good as comparable with any other middleware product.
u2022     Synchronous & Asynchronous communication is possible.
  Dis-Advantages
u2022     Web methods are particularly good if u have B2B kind of communication with their Trading Partners product.
u2022     XI is lacking full-fledged Message Queue compared to other established Middleware products.
u2022     It lacks in ability to process huge messages but SAP is working on that.
u2022     It does not have a messaging layer exposed by APIs like IBM MQ-Series.
u2022     It is not comparable to Tibco in terms of speed.
u2022     SAP relies on other vendors except for a few adapters
Welcome to XI, but before posting queries please refer to the earlier blogs/ forms for materials,
refer these links and blog in it to gain knowledge of SAP XI.
/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/27/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-iii
/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/26/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-ii
/people/sravya.talanki2/blog/2006/12/25/aspirant-to-learn-sap-xiyou-won-the-jackpot-if-you-read-this-part-i
What is XI?
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm
What is IR and ID?
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/61/fec608bc27654daadb20c1e6da7dd1/content.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/b9/64663c7a6c2545ae292fb26d8c33c4/content.htm
Runtime
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/2e/278a8363b5ac4483dc1efc382e51df/content.htm
Good Blog for new to XI:
/people/sap.user72/blog/2005/12/22/new-to-xi
XI u2013Starter
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/e1/8e51341a06084de10000009b38f83b/frameset.htm
SAP XI - Where to Find Information
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/library/xi/sap%20xi%20-%20where%20to%20find%20information.pdf
All the information you need in XI :
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/0f/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm
Understand the Architecture of XI
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/14/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/frameset.htm
You can also go through the url for Elearning :
https://www.sdn.sap.com/sdn/elearning.sdn
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/sdnpilot/elearning
Following is the link for 'how to guides', A step by step guide to create scenarios:
https://websmp201.sap-ag.de/nw-howtoguides
Configuration of Adapters
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/0d/5ab43b274a960de10000000a114084/frameset.htm
One of the most powerful feature of XI, Business Process Management:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/3c/831620a4f1044dba38b370f77835cc/frameset.htm
How the messages are delivered through XI:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/17/50d440e14f8431e10000000a1550b0/frameset.htm
cheers
reward points if found useful