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 processesfrom 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.

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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 Winshuttle Transaction Winshuttle Query Winshuttle Direct Winshuttle Designer Functionality Codeless development of templates and Web services that perform SAP transactions and data operations 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 Winshuttle Workflow Winshuttle Server Winshuttle Central Functionality Workflow execution and form rendering Web service execution and SAP integration 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.

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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

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System Requirements and Licensing

Winshuttle 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
Component Desktop Software Operating System .NET Framework Microsoft Excel or Access (Transaction and Query only) Microsoft InfoPath (Designer only) Internet Explorer SAP Basis SAP GUI RFC Authorizations Desktop Hardware Memory Storage 512 MB 250 MB of free space Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32/64-bit) 3.5 SP1 or higher Office 2000 or higher (including 2010 64-bit) 2007/2010 6.0 or higher 4.6C or higher 6.40 or higher See required SAP authorizations Minimum Requirement

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 Requirements
Component Server Software Operating System .NET Framework Microsoft SharePoint Minimum Requirement Central Workflow Server

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

3.5 SP1 or higher SharePoint 2007 (all editions, including WSS) SharePoint 2010 (all editions, including Foundation) MS SQL Server 2005 (any edition, including Express) MS SQL Server 2008 (any edition, including Express) None Single, 2.5 GHz 8 GB 3 GB of free space 56 Kbps between clients and server N/A N/A N/A RFC calls require ports 33xx to be open 7.0 or higher N/A N/A

Database

N/A

SAP GUI Server Hardware Processor Memory Storage Network Network Ports Desktop Software Internet Explorer

7.10 Patch 11

6.0 or higher

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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 SharePoints 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 users SAP username and password and then creates an RFC connection to SAP using that users SAP credentials (Figure 3).

Figure 3: User enters SAP credentials

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Users 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 users 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

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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 users 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 loadbalancing, backup, and disaster-recovery features of that platform. Winshuttle Server runs on Windows Internet Information Service (IIS) and is similarly supported by that platforms 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 Microsofts 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].

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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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