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SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM), SAP Document Management System (SAP DMS)
Summary
This article describes the required steps to set up the SAP Conversion Server and to integrate it with a 3ed Party Software. In this example the Deep Server from Right Hemisphere was selected, as conversion of graphical information is a very common usecase. In addition SAP is shipping the viewing technology from Right Hemisphere.
The article is only intended as an example.
Author: Martin Bachmann
Company: SAP AG
Created on: 28 August 2010
Author Bio
Martin finished university as a mechanical engineer in 1997. Directly after that he joined SAP as a developer for order specific BOMs. Over the time I have been part of several other organizations inside SAP AG (PLM Field Services, Automotive Industry), but always dedicated towards the topic of PLM. A few years ago he moved to the Product Management Team for SAP PLM in Walldorf where Martin was involved with the planning and realization of SAP PLM 7.0
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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Setting Up the Conversion Server ...................................................................................................................... 3
Step1: Copy the Required Files on to Conversion Server .............................................................................. 4
Step 2: Start the Conversion Server Using the Batch File RunConvUtil.bat. ................................................. 4
Step 3: Setting up Batch Files ......................................................................................................................... 4
Step 4: Configure the Conversion Server to run as a Windows Service ........................................................ 5
Required Customizing in SAP ECC ................................................................................................................ 7 Create a RFC Destination ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Deep Server ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
Preparation of Deep Server .......................................................................................................................... 12
Exemplary Workflow for a Conversion to the *.rh format. ............................................................................. 14
Result of the Conversion .................................................................................................................................. 21
Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 23
Appendix A: MS DOS Batch file: Start Conversion Server (RunConvUtil.bat) ................................................. 24
Appendix B: MS DOS Batch File to Trigger the Conversion (ConvServ.bat) ................................................... 24
Appendix C: MS DOS Batch File to Start Deep Server (file2conv.bat) ............................................................ 25
In SAP PLM very often there is a need for conversion of a file from one format to the other, like from a MS Word-file to a Adobe PDF format. These conversions usually happen during file check-in or a status change.
SAP PLM supports these conversions since SAP PLM 4.6c. In this document the functionality of the SAP Conversion Server is described by using a real-live example, the integration of the Right Hemisphere Deep Server.
A lot of the information shown below is coming of the Article „Integration of Microsoft Rights Management in SAP PLM‟. It was added here again to show the complete end-to-end process of the setting up.
In this example the conversion from CAD Files to various neutral files (RH, Animated GIF, PDF, JT, …) is highlighted.
SAP changed the SAP Conversion Server massively to address also very high load on the conversion server. The architecture was based on jobs earlier, with note 687199 a workflow based conversion server was introduced. This newer version is recommended because of the higher reliability. Additionally individual workflows (e.g. email notification on failure) can now be implemented without modification.
Setting Up the Conversion Server
As part of the SAP PLM shipment SAP provides a basic conversion server that can be used to perform document conversions using command line tools.
Technically the conversion server is a simple RFC Registered Server Program. An RFC server program can be registered with the SAP gateway and wait for incoming RFC call requests.
From the SAP PLM System it is thus accessed through a TCP IP RFC destination with activation type „T‟ Registered Server Program.
In this integration scenario the Conversion server must run on a Windows server where the Right Hemisphere Deep Server is installed (http://www.righthemisphere.com)
On the conversion server there are two ways to start the service (either or – not both…):
1. Manually by the user starting batch file or
2. Automatically as a Windows service.
You should start with option 1 when setting up the configuration because any error messages are available in clear text in the command prompt. Since option1 is not ideal for productive usage you should start the Conversion server as a Windows server once the setup has been tested.
Please note that you cannot start the conversion server at the same time manually and as a Windows service. The second attempt to register the Conversion server would fail it is only possible to register once using the same registration ID at the SAP Gateway.
Step1: Copy the Required Files on to Conversion Server
Create a separate directory on the Windows server and copy the required files into this directory. You should always make sure to have up-to-date versions of the .exe and .dll files).
In this Wiki you can see where to find the files:
- SAPhttp.exe (use the latest version from the SAPGUI installer)
- SAPftp.exe (use the latest version from the SAPGUI installer)
- Librfc32.dll (use the latest version from the SAPGUI installer)
- ConvServSamp.exe
- ConvUtil.exe
- Sleep.exe
Step 2: Start the Conversion Server Using the Batch File RunConvUtil.bat.
You can start the conversion server using the batch file RunConvUtil.bat. The coding for the batch file is available in Appendix A.
Starting the Conversion server this way is easier for development and debugging but is usually not ideal for productive usage. The batch file has to be started one time, only then the SM59 can be used to check whether the system is able to connect to this RFC server program.
A Gateway Server should be installed on the Conversion Server. For this demo example we used the Gateway host from the SAP PLM System.
As a hint please add the path where the Conversion Server files are stored also to the global path in the Environment Variables to avoid issues with files that cannot be found.
Step 3: Setting up Batch Files
A script file is required for setting up the start parameters of the real conversion batch file (ConvServ.bat) -> Appendix B
In a third file the real conversion from CAD File to a graphical file is done. In this batch file the Deep Server is called with the required parameters (Appendix C). This Batch file checks, what outcome is required (jt, rh, gif, …) and moves then the file to the correct folder.
It then monitors, if Deep Server has completed the conversion. This is indicated by the creation of a „ConvPath.txt‟ file in the out-directory. The Batch file polls to see, if this file was created. As soon as it is created, the Conversion Server copies back the result to SAP PLM.
More details on the used syntax in the MS-DOS Batch can be found in the Related Content Section.
These Batch files are only templates to illustrate the general idea. Of course they can be changed depending to customer requirements. In addition the batch-files from the appendix contain a lot of remarks and comments for information.
As a result the SAP Conversion Server is creating for every conversion a directory with a GUID as directory name. In the „in‟ and „out‟ folders the server is copying the CAD Part and additional information from the SAP System. The filename from the imported CAD Part is concatenated with the directory name and is moved to the folder which Deep Server monitors.
Step 4: Configure the Conversion Server to run as a Windows Service
The procedure how to start a registered RFC server program as a Windows service is described in detail in the blog How to start a RFC Registered Server Program as a Windows service that Andre has published in SDN recently.
The executable ConvUtil.exe is called using the following syntax
ConvUtil.exe -a DEWDFIAS181.ConvUtil -x sapgw26 -g uxai2e6c.wdf.sap.corp
Therefore the following value has to be entered in the Windows service registry settings
In „Define Conversion‟ the parameters for the Conversion need to be entered (which Document Type, which Workstation Application as a source and target, timeouts, …). Also the path on the conversion server is required. At this path on the conversion server the folders containing the information will be created.
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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The Deep Server from Right Hemisphere has to be already installed and running on the server. In this document this topic will not be covered. http://www.righthemisphere.com/support/ offers various articles, documents, … that help during the setting up of the Deep Server. In our example we were using Deep Server 5.7.
Preparation of Deep Server
In order to separate the various conversion results we need a folder for every conversion type. These folders are created manually on the conversion server.
Inside Deep Server a process is then looking at every directory. As soon as the MS DOS Batch file has moved a file into a folder, Deep Server is triggering the right conversion process.
Exemplary Workflow for a Conversion to the *.rh format.
The following steps explain the details of a conversion process.
This picture shows, how the overall process looks like. Deep Server offers so called „variables‟ to enter parameters or to save calculated results. This workflow makes use of these variables to store information needed for later steps.
In the MS DOS Batch file the generic GUID and the filename are concatenated. In the set_GUID and set_Filename activities inside Deep Server these concatenation is then copied to the variables GUID and Filename. Also additional information (the name of the out-dir) is calculated inside set_outdir.
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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Via the very powerful XPath modeling inside Deep Server it is possible to perform these actions without any programming, only via drag & drop. This guide explains the basics of XPath.
The set_GUID action uses the first 32 Bytes to calculate the name of the working directory from the SAP conversion server.
As a last step in AppendFile the ConvPath.txt file is created by Deep Server. The name of the resulting neutral file is added to the ConvPath file. The ConvPath file is required by the SAP Conversion Server, as this file is required to find the converted neutral file.
An additional option is to use the Deep Server for the creation of Animated GIFs. In this element (go_animatethumbnail) this is shown.
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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A click to the process is displaying the result and the status of each conversion activity. Additionally one could also enhance the workflows, so that a failure e.g. sends out an email, writes an error-log to the conversion server, …
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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The Transaction CONV01 gives an overview on the conversions.
An additional overview gives the customizing transaction. If for example a conversion gets stuck by a time-out, … sometimes it is required to set the status manually to „ready‟ again here.
Some customers even scheduled a job to change the status to „Ready‟ every few minutes.
Setting up the SAP Conversion Server to convert Graphical Information via Right Hemisphere’s Deep Server
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