PSF/AIX: Is sap2afp supported with SAP R/3 release 4?
ITEM: RTA000148214
Q:
Topic thread:
Printer Systems (PRINT)
PSF/AIX
PRINT XPSF6000
A customer wants a confirmation that the SAP2AFP feature of PSF/AIX
(5765-505) will work with the new version of SAP R/3 Version 4.
Thank you.
A:
The short answer is yes, it should. The long answer is a bit more
involved. Let me include a list of questions and answers that should
help answer your question. If not, please reopen the item.
Q1) Is Access Method Z (which PSF/AIX's sap2afp transform uses)
supported in SAP R/3 release 4?
R1) SAP is dropping formal technical support for Access Method Z in
Release 4, but they have told us that the Access Method Z code will
still be included in their product and usable; for how long we're not
sure. Our understanding from SAP in Walldorf is that customers can use
Access Method Z in Release 4, with the understanding that, if they
encounter problems in SAP, SAP Technical Support may require them to
change to a different Access Method that is supported. (See item
3 below.)
Q2) Is Access Method E a superset of function in Access Method Z (Z
plus additional output management function)?
R2) The new Access Method E is totally different than Z.
Access Method E is a way to interface a separate Output Management
System (OMS) like InfoPrint (or the competitive product from Dazel)
to SAP. SAP itself is not an output management system -- the
customer's SAP R/3 administrator selects a particular OMS for SAP to
use, and SAP users submit print jobs to that OMS. Each OMS defines a
print command, a job query command, a device query command and a job
cancel command to be issued when the SAP user requests these
functions. In the case of InfoPrint Manager, we use a pdpr
-xnotification-profile(delivery-method=sapcb), or a pdrm, or a pdls,
respectively.
Thus Access Method E provides more function than Access Method Z,
including the ability to query jobs and queues and to cancel jobs as
well as to send notification back to SAP about what happened or is
happening to the job.
As background, with access method Z, SAP produces OTF or ABAP and
invokes the sap2afp transform. The transform immediately converts
the datastream to AFP or line-data and issues the print command,
pdpr, which queues the job. With ABAP, the line-data gets run thru
ACIF at the physical-printer and then printed.
In comparison, with Access Method E SAP R3 release 4.0 can produce
whatever datastream you want (PS, PCL, OTF, etc.) and will invoke a
command provided by the chosen Output Management System. Since
InfoPrint can handle the various SAP output datastreams through our
transforms, it will put the job on the queue and then schedule it to
whatever printer can handle the job (based on how the customer has
configured their InfoPrint Manager system).
For example, when an SAP user sends a file to print, the InfoPrint
Manager OMS will take information (parameters) available from the
SAP system and issue a pdpr command with a notification-profile to
provide notification back to the SAP system. After validation and
scheduling, the datastreams are delivered to an InfoPrint Manager
physical-printer object capable of supporting the job attributes,
and the appropriate transform is called at that point (e.g., sap2afp
if the datastream is ABAP or OTF). InfoPrint Manager obtains the
information (parameters) from the header in the datastream.
Whatever sap2afp configuration tables, etc. are used today with
Access Method Z will still be used with Access Method E and OTF/ABAP
data; however, rather than needing to be available at the job
submission point, they now just need to be available to the
physical-printer object(s) on the print server, as the actual data
stream transform now occurs at the end of print process rather than
the beginning. This should simplify remote job submission.
Q2) Will PSF/AIX continue to support Access Method Z?
R2) Yes.
Q3) Will PSF/AIX support Access Method E?
R3) No, it will not. If PSF/AIX customers need to migrate away from
Access Method Z, SAP in Walldorf has told us that there is a way to
use Access Method L to continue to support PSF/AIX directly with the
sap2afp transform (see #1), but instructions for this will need to
come from SAP.
Q4) Will InfoPrint Manager support Access Method Z?
R4) Yes, it does today.
Q5) Will InfoPrint Manager support Access Method E?
R5) InfoPrint Manager V3.1 and later supports Access Method E. The
OMS support in InfoPrint Manager V3.1 has been certified by SAP R/3
in Walldorf.
For additional information, please see the Printing Systems Company
website (http://www.printers.ibm.com) under the InfoPrint topic.
To summarize, the strategic product direction is to move to
InfoPrint Manager V3.1 with Access Method E in conjunction with a
move to SAP R/3 release 4.0. In the interim, based on my
conversation with the developers, it is our recommendation that the
customer continue to use Access Method Z under SAP R/3 Release 4 as
long as they run PSF/AIX or until they encounter some problem with
Access Method Z (at which point they might consider Access Method L).
At the point they choose to migrate to InfoPrint Manager, they could
continue to use Access Method Z or move to a different Access Method
(preferably E, for enhanced function, or possibly L, for a level of
function comparable to Z).
I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have additional
questions.
| Revised 15 January 1999
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/6000 psf/aix ipmgr infoprint manager otf2afp sap2afp SAP r/3 OTF
psf aix Access Method certified certification e z abap pcl postscript
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000148214 ITEM: RTA000148214
Dated: 01/1999 Category: XPSF6000
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