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AmulyaAmulya 

Integrating Salesforce and SAP Business Objects

Hi All,

I am beginner to SF Web Services and have got a requirement to Integrate SF and SAP Business Objects(BOJ). Basically I need to create a Visualforce page which fetches Service Request records from BOJ and display as related list under Accounts. Can anybody suggest how to start with. Whether to go for SOAP or REST API. Any suggestions related to Integration strategies is much appreciated. This is kind of temporary solution so our Management doesn't want to go for any paid service.
Thanks.
Best Answer chosen by Amulya
LBKLBK
Salesforce classic is a way of accessing your SFDC platform. Salesforce Lightning would be another.
You need to figure out what edition of Salesforce platform you are having.
If it is an Enterprise Edition or above, it would be good enough to setup the External Data Source.
If you are trying it out yourself, I would suggest you to create a Developer Edition and do it (Goto https://developer.salesforce.com/ to sign up).

For SOAP integration (consuming BOJ web service from SFDC), you need to follow the steps below.

1. Generate WSDL file from your BOJ Web Service.
2. Go to Setup >> Develop >> Apex classes, Click on "Generate from WSDL" button
3. Choose your WSDL file, click "Parse WSDL"
4. Provide a meaningful APEX classname (Or leave the default name as it is).

This will generate the SOAP Callout Proxy for your Webservice. You can consume the web service using this Proxy class.

For more information on SOAP Callouts, refer the links below.

1. https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api.meta/api/sforce_api_quickstart_intro.htm

2. https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_callouts.htm

3. http://writeforce.blogspot.in/2013/02/calling-external-web-services-from_9.html

4. http://www.jitendrazaa.com/blog/salesforce/consuming-external-webservice-in-apex/

Hope this helps.

Let me know how it goes.

All Answers

LBKLBK
If BOJ has exposed data using OData Producers (REST), you can use External Data Sources in SFDC to bring in the data. You can setup a Indirect Lookup with Account to make it as a related list of Accounts.

Refer these links.
https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api.meta/api/sforce_api_objects_external_objects.htm

Also, this Trailhead Module would be a great place to start.
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/projects/quickstart-lightning-connect
 
AmulyaAmulya
@LBK: It's a great suggestion and I was excited to implement it. But as I started implementing, I don't see that option of using 'Odata type' while configuring External Data Source. We are using Salesforce Classic and looks like it's a paid feature from Salesforce. 
Any suggestion on to go for SOAP Integration for this?
LBKLBK
Salesforce classic is a way of accessing your SFDC platform. Salesforce Lightning would be another.
You need to figure out what edition of Salesforce platform you are having.
If it is an Enterprise Edition or above, it would be good enough to setup the External Data Source.
If you are trying it out yourself, I would suggest you to create a Developer Edition and do it (Goto https://developer.salesforce.com/ to sign up).

For SOAP integration (consuming BOJ web service from SFDC), you need to follow the steps below.

1. Generate WSDL file from your BOJ Web Service.
2. Go to Setup >> Develop >> Apex classes, Click on "Generate from WSDL" button
3. Choose your WSDL file, click "Parse WSDL"
4. Provide a meaningful APEX classname (Or leave the default name as it is).

This will generate the SOAP Callout Proxy for your Webservice. You can consume the web service using this Proxy class.

For more information on SOAP Callouts, refer the links below.

1. https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api.meta/api/sforce_api_quickstart_intro.htm

2. https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_callouts.htm

3. http://writeforce.blogspot.in/2013/02/calling-external-web-services-from_9.html

4. http://www.jitendrazaa.com/blog/salesforce/consuming-external-webservice-in-apex/

Hope this helps.

Let me know how it goes.
This was selected as the best answer
AmulyaAmulya
@LBK: We use Enterprise Edition and I am trying it in 'Dev Pro' sandbox and the feature is not available. Read in one of the communities that, we need to pay and get it enabled whether Classic or Lightning. Thank you very much for sharing information on SOAP implementation, i will go through the links and decide whichever feasible.
AmulyaAmulya
I came across the below point in SOAP Developer guide. Does it mean, SF is not entertaining SOAP implementation?

SOAP API End-of-Life
Salesforce is committed to supporting each SOAP API version for a minimum of three years from the date of first release. In order to improve the quality and performance of SOAP API, versions that are more than three years old may cease to be supported.
When a SOAP API version is scheduled to be unsupported, an advance end-of-life notice will be given at least one year before support for SOAP API version is ended. Salesforce will directly notify customers using SOAP API versions scheduled for end of life.