Traditional SAP integration can be time consuming, expensive, and disruptive to business and IT operations. The EEA product was designed to address common obstacles encountered during SAP integration projects, and streamline delivery of applications for production use.

SAP Business Suite exposes three (3) main external interfaces that can be used for application integration: IDoc, BAPI and Web Services. The EEA product supports all three interfaces, through the following features:

• SAP-specific metadata import: The EEA product enables metadata management features in the EEI and EBI base products, for generation of internal IDoc definitions from imported IDoc parser file metadata. The EBI product also imports W3C v1.1 WSDL for documents that are sent and received using web services.
• The Integration Pattern Repository (IPR) includes preloaded mapping history patterns for SAP to facilitate rapid integration development.
• EDI transaction examples: The EEA product contains sample EDI configuration objects for the following X12/IDoc transaction combinations:

Direction	X12 ID	X12 Version	IDoc
Inbound	850	4010	ORDERS05
Outbound	856	4010	DELVRY03
Outbound	810	4010	INVOIC02

Users of the EEA-SAP product can use these object sets as “base” configurations, and revise, as needed, to meet specific integration project requirements.

The EEA product includes the following items specifically developed for use in SAP integration projects:

• IDoc status database and EXTOL Dashboard Portlet: The EEA package for SAP Business Suite includes a database for capturing outbound IDoc status information, and communicating information back to the SAP application. You can use the included EXTOL Dashboard portlet to view the status database information and diagnose IDoc processing errors.
• Client APIs: Automated initiation of communications and application activities is an essential component of SAP-related integration processes. The EEA product includes actions to initiate STARTRFC commands and define BAPI interactions.
• Implementation documentation: The EEA product includes Installation and User Guides, plus a full source / target cross reference for the EDI transactions listed above, including notes on specific message- and segment-level processing requirements.