OPC Router - SAP Connectivity for PLC, DCS, OPC DA, OPC UA & More

Rapid Visual Integration

SAP to PLC, DCS, Control System connectivity and integration does not have to be costly or time consuming when using OPC Router.  Off-the-shelf solutions with OPC Router enable rapid return on investment.  New to the idea of ERP & SAP Integration? Learn more with our whitepaper on integrating PLCs/OT/Production with SAP and our blog post on plant floor PLC connectivity to SAP.

Solution strengths

• No programming required in OPC Router
• Industry standard OPC interfaces connect you to all major PLCs, DCS, and control system hardware 
• Extensive choice of SAP interfaces 
• SAP Certified connector
• SAP MII not required
• Only SAP user needed is a non-interactive standard login
• SNC secure communications supported
• Browsing interface to view BAPIs, RFCs, IDocs and select tags, import/export parameters for use as data points 
• Perform calculations from multiple sources in OPC Router before sending to SAP
• Works with SAP Plant Maintenance (PM)
• Not subject to the 128 device limit of SAP PCo
• Connection health monitoring

Flexible Connection Methods 

The OPC Router offers multiple ways to connect to SAP. 

• RFC
• BAPI
• IDoc
• SOAP 
• REST to SAP Gateway and PI
• SAP HANA

Learn more in the video tutorial below.

Remote Function Call (RFC) Interfaces

A RFC is used to call a function in an SAP system. Import and export parameters of different types can be used (simple, structures, tables). The calls are carried out synchronously. RFC  is the classic way of connecting to SAP and has been available since SAP/R3.

Because the calls are synchronous, they are suitable for applications where data is needed in order for production to proceed. 

The OPC Router can be configured as an RFC Server that SAP or other applications supporting SAP RFC can make calls into, or as an RFC client that makes calls into SAP systems.  Using the powerful JSON Transformation Object as part of the ETL tools, users can exchange data directly with external systems more rapidly.

IDoc (Intermediate Document) Interface

IDoc is an SAP file type intended for exchange of transactional information. The IDoc interface has been around for many years and is a tried true method of exchanging data asynchronously, but of course is likely not going to be as fast as newer RFC and RFC+BAPI methods or others, but does have the benefit of being an asychronous exchange. You can drop off IDoc files or pick them up at any time and process them.  Support for specifying SAP queues enables you to manage the order of processing of IDoc documents. 

IDoc structures are defined by the SAP document type they represent, contain a header and any number of data segments and status records. Using the powerful JSON Transformation Object as part of the ETL tools, users can exchange data directly with external systems more rapidly.

You can use the OPC Router SAP Plug-In to send IDocs containing any data that you can get into OPC Router. 

SOAP Interface

Since SAP 7.0 and the introduction of SAP NetWeaver, web services have been a common way to integrate to SAP.

SAP RFC interfaces and ABAP programs can be exposed via the SOAP interface. In SAP, SOAP web services are defined using WebDynpro. SAP MII also allows you to publish RFC functions as web services. 

OPC Router's SOAP Plug-In discovers the WSDL (Web Service Description Language) for available functions and parameters, and make them available for use in the OPC Router visual workflows. The SOAP plug-in is also used for integrating other ERP systems besides SAP.