abap-sdk-nwas

ABAP SDK for IBM Watson, using SAP NetWeaver

ABAP client library to use the IBM Watson APIs. This is a Community SDK written by ABAPers for the ABAPers in the Open Source community, to provide easy usage of IBM Watson Developer Services in innovation initiatives combined with any SAP Application which is run on SAP NetWeaver 7.50 and above, such as SAP Business Suite or SAP S/4HANA on-premises edition. It is the choice and responsibility of application developers how this Community SDK is used.

Additionally, as the ABAP SDK is a community release it is not updated with the same schedule as IBM-supported SDKs. Please see more information in Questions.

Choose ABAP SDK release for the applicable ABAP Runtime

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Major version 2.0.0 released

Version v2.0.0 of the SDK has been released and includes breaking changes - see what's changed in the migration guide.

Before you begin

• You need an IBM Cloud account.

Installation

The client library is provided as ABAP Git Repository. Proceed as follows to clone the ABAP SDK code to your SAP system.

1. Install abapGit, using the abapGit Docs
2. Use abapGit to clone the ABAP SDK Git repository into your SAP system.
3. Assign the ABAP SDK to the package ZIBMC when performing setup of the abapGit repository.

SAP System Configuration

SAP Profile Parameters

The following SAP profile parameter settings are recommended.

icm/HTTPS/client_sni_enabled = TRUE
ssl/ciphersuites = 135:PFS:HIGH::EC_P256:EC_HIGH
ssl/client_ciphersuites = 150:PFS:HIGH::EC_P256:EC_HIGH
wdisp/ssl_ignore_host_mismatch = TRUE

Proxy configuration

The client library respects the ABAP proxy settings. If you are using a central proxy server that is not already configured in your SAP system, proceed as follows.

1. Logon to the SAP system and call transaction SICF.
2. Click Execute (or press F8).
3. Select menu item Client → Proxy Settings.
4. On tab Global Settings: Select Proxy Setting is Active and No Proxy Setting for Local Server.
5. On tabs HTTP Protocol and HTTPS Protocol specify the proxy Host Name and Port. If the proxy server requires logon credentials, also specify User Name and Password.
6. Click Execute (F8) and OK.

SSL Certificates

Communication between SAP and the IBM Cloud is secured by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, also known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL requires certificates that must be stored on the SAP application server in the Personal Security Environment (PSE). Transaction STRUST is used to maintain the PSE.

Determine required certificate

If a call to an IBM Cloud service failed due to a missing SSL certificate, check the ICM trace file to find the required certificate. To do so, call transaction SMICM and select menu item Goto → Trace File → Display End. Alternatively, call transaction AL11 and navigate to file DIR_HOME/dev_icm. Find last entry in trace file that indicates error SSSLERR_PEER_CERT_UNTRUSTED, as shown in the example below.

[Thr nn] Peer not trusted
[Thr nn] Certificate:
[Thr nn]  Certificate:
[Thr nn]   Subject:                CN=*.watsonplatform.net, O=INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, L=Armonk, SP=New York, C=US
[Thr nn]   Issuer:                 CN=GeoTrust RSA CA 2018, OU=www.digicert.com, O=DigiCert Inc, C=US
[Thr nn]   Serial Number:          05:1C:46:1B:6E:C2:29:48:BD:F0:03:B3:A6:87:1A:5B
[Thr nn]  Verification result:
[...]
[Thr nn]    SignerCert:
[Thr nn]     Certificate:
[Thr nn]      Subject:                CN=GeoTrust RSA CA 2018, OU=www.digicert.com, O=DigiCert Inc, C=US
[Thr nn]      Issuer:                 CN=DigiCert Global Root CA, OU=www.digicert.com, O=DigiCert Inc, C=US
[Thr nn]      Serial Number:          05:46:FE:18:23:F7:E1:94:1D:A3:9F:CE:14:C4:61:73
[Thr nn]     Verification result:
[...]
[Thr nn]       SignerCert:
[Thr nn]        Certificate:
[Thr nn]         Subject:                CN=DigiCert Global Root CA, OU=www.digicert.com, O=DigiCert Inc, C=US
[...]
[Thr nn] << ---------- End of Secu-SSL Errorstack ----------
[Thr nn]   Target Hostname="stream.watsonplatform.net"
[Thr nn]   SSL NI-hdl 463: local=9.152.20.145:56542  peer=169.48.115.62:443
[Thr nn] <<- ERROR: SapSSLSessionStartNB(sssl_hdl=3fef0000c70)==SSSLERR_PEER_CERT_UNTRUSTED
[Thr nn] *** ERROR => SSL handshake with stream.watsonplatform.net:443 failed: SSSLERR_PEER_CERT_UNTRUSTED (-102)
[Thr nn] The peer's X.509 Certificate (chain) is untrusted

The SSL error stack shows the SSL certificate chain, which in the example above looks like follows:

You can install any of these SSL certificates. However, it is recommended to install the root CA certificate.
Download the appropriate SSL certificate from the provider's website, for example https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm. Store the certificate file on your computer.

Add an SSL certificate to the PSE

Proceed as follows to add the downloaded SSL certificate to your SAP system's Standard SSL Client PSE.

1. Logon to the SAP system and call transaction STRUST.
2. Switch to edit mode (press according tool bar icon).
3. If a local PSE file does not exist already, create it by right-clicking on SSL client SSL Client (Standard) and selecting Create from context menu. Keep all default settings in next popup dialog.
4. In Certificate section, click Import (alternatively select menu item Certificate → Import). Choose the certificate file that you have downloaded and import the certificate.
5. Click button Add to Certificate List.
6. Click Save (F3).

Restart the ICM (Internet Communication Manager)

It is recommended to restart the ICM after a new SSL certificate has been applied to the PSE. To do so, proceed as follows.

1. Logon to the SAP system and call transaction SMICM.
2. Select menu item Administration → ICM → Restart → Yes.

Credentials

Before you can access a specific service from your SAP system, you must create a service instance in the IBM Cloud and obtain credentials. The credentials can be shared among multiple end users of the SAP system, but you must ensure that the selected plan is sufficient to support the expected number of calls or the expected data volume. Please note that some plans may have restrictions on the allowed methods, so make sure to select the right plan for your purpose.

All currently supported services support IAM authentication (see below). Service credentials consist of an API Key and a URL. Both the API Key and the URL are character values that can be viewed through the IBM Cloud dashboard and need to be provided as parameters i_apikey and i_url to method zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance.

You can store the values with your application, but it is suggested to do that in an encrypted format. Using cloud services usually creates costs based on usage for the owner of the service instance, and anyone with the credentials can use the service instance at the owner's expenses. If you want to distribute the costs over multiple cost centers, you need to create a service instance and provide service credentials for each cost center separately.

Configuration table

Service credentials and other parameters that must be specified at Watson service wrapper ABAP class instantiation can also be provided in table ZIBMC_CONFIG. This table has three keys:

IAM Authentication

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a bearer-token based authentication method. Token management is either performed by the ABAP SDK or must be implemented by the SDK user.
If a value for apikey is provided by the caller in method zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(), the ABAP SDK generates a bearer-token under the cover when needed and refreshes it when it is about to expire.
If apikey is not provided for method zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(), the ABAP SDK user must implement an individual token management. Before a service method is called the first time, a valid bearer-token must be provided to the Watson service wrapper ABAP class instance as follows:

  lo_service_class->set_bearer_token( i_bearer_token = '...' ).

Afterwards, service methods can be called as long as the provided token is valid. When the token has expired, the method above must be called again with a new (refreshed) bearer-token as parameter.

Usage

The client library is delivered as package ZIBMC. Once the Git Repository has been cloned to the SAP system, a Watson service instance is wrapped by an ABAP class instance.
The following Watson services are currently supported:

(*) Deprecated service; will be discontinued in the future.

Using the client library requires two steps:

1. Create an instance of the Watson service wrapper ABAP class by calling method zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance.

  data:
    lo_service_class type <ABAP Class Name>.

  zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(
    exporting
      i_url      = <url>
      i_apikey   = <api key>
      ...
    importing
      eo_instance = lo_service_class ).

2. Call the Watson service API endpoint by invoking the corresponding class method.

  try.
      lo_service_class->method(
        exporting
          is_input = ...
        importing
          es_output = ... ).
    catch zcx_ibmc_service_exception into data(lo_service_exception).
      ...
  endtry.

* List all voices provided by Watson Text to Speech

  " declare variables
  data:
    lv_apikey            type string value '...',
    lo_text_to_speech    type ref to zcl_ibmc_text_to_speech_v1,
    lo_service_exception type ref to zcx_ibmc_service_exception,
    ls_voice             type zcl_ibmc_text_to_speech_v1=>t_voice,
    lt_voices            type zcl_ibmc_text_to_speech_v1=>t_voices.

  " get Watson Text-to-Speech service instance
  zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(
    exporting
      i_url    = 'https://api.kr-seo.text-to-speech.watson.cloud.ibm.com/instances/<uuid>'
      i_apikey = lv_apikey
    importing
      eo_instance = lo_text_to_speech ).

  " call Watson Text-to-Speech service to retrieve available voices
  try.
      lo_text_to_speech->list_voices(
        importing
          e_response = lt_voices ).

    catch zcx_ibmc_service_exception into lo_service_exception.
      message lo_service_exception type 'E'.
  endtry.

  " evaluate voices
  loop at lt_voices-voices into ls_voice.
    ...
  endloop.

* Analyze www.ibm.com using Watson Natural Language Understanding

  " declare variables
  data:
    lv_apikey            type string value '...',
    lo_instance          type ref to zcl_ibmc_nat_lang_undrstnd_v1,
    lo_service_exception type ref to zcx_ibmc_service_exception,
    ls_parameter         type zcl_ibmc_nat_lang_undrstnd_v1=>t_parameters,
    ls_analysis_results  type zcl_ibmc_nat_lang_undrstnd_v1=>t_analysis_results.

  " get Watson Natural Language Understanding service instance
  zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(
    exporting
      i_url     = 'https://api.eu-de.natural-language-understanding.watson.cloud.ibm.com/instances/<uuid>'
      i_apikey  = lv_apikey
      i_version = '2019-07-12'
    importing
      eo_instance = lo_instance ).

  " set the input parameters
  ls_parameters-url                         = 'www.ibm.com'.
  ls_parameters-return_analyzed_text        = zcl_ibmc_service=>c_boolean_true.
  ls_parameters-features-entities-emotion   = zcl_ibmc_service=>c_boolean_true.
  ls_parameters-features-entities-sentiment = zcl_ibmc_service=>c_boolean_true.
  ls_parameters-features-keywords-emotion   = zcl_ibmc_service=>c_boolean_true.
  ls_parameters-features-keywords-sentiment = zcl_ibmc_service=>c_boolean_true.

  " call Watson Natural Language Understanding service to analyze URL www.ibm.com
  try.
      lo_instance->analyze(
        exporting
	  i_parameters = ls_parameters
        importing
          e_response = ls_analysis_results ).

    catch zcx_ibmc_service_exception into lo_service_exception.
      message lo_service_exception type 'E'.
  endtry.

  " retreive analysis results from ls_analysis_results

* Translate text from English to German using Watson Language Translator

  " declare variables
  data:
    lv_apikey            type string value '...',
    lo_lang_translator   type ref to zcl_ibmc_lang_translator_v3,
    lo_service_exception type ref to zcx_ibmc_service_exception,
    ls_request           type zcl_ibmc_lang_translator_v3=>t_translate_request,
    lv_text              type string,
    ls_trans             type zcl_ibmc_lang_translator_v3=>t_translation_result.

  " get Watson Language Translator service instance
  zcl_ibmc_service_ext=>get_instance(
    exporting
      i_url      = 'https://api.us-south.language-translator.watson.cloud.ibm.com/instances/<uuid>'
      i_apikey   = lv_apikey
      i_version  = '2018-05-01'
    importing
      eo_instance = lo_lang_translator ).

  " store text to be translated into ls_request and set the languages
  lv_text = 'Welcome'.
  append lv_text to ls_request-text.
  ls_request-model_id = 'en-de'.
  ls_request-source = 'EN'.
  ls_request-target = 'DE'.

  " call Watson Language Translator service to translate the text in ls_request
  try.
      lo_lang_translator->translate(
        exporting
          i_request     =   ls_request
          i_contenttype = 'application/json'
          i_accept      = 'application/json'
        importing
          e_response = ls_trans ).

    catch zcx_ibmc_service_exception into lo_service_exception.
      message lo_service_exception type 'E'.
  endtry.

  " retreive translation results from ls_trans

API Reference

GitHub Pages contain the ABAP Client Library for Watson API Reference.

Questions

The ABAP SDK is a Community SDK for IBM Watson, created by the IBM Watson development community and SAP's ABAP development community - written by ABAPers from IBM Cloud, IBM Services and IBM Systems. Therefore as a community release it is not updated with the same schedule as IBM-supported SDKs, and does not include support by IBM. For more information on IBM-supported SDKs and the update policy, please see https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson?topic=watson-using-sdks

If you have questions about the IBM Watson services or are having difficulties using the APIs, please ask a question at IBM Support Forums or Stack Overflow.

License

This library is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Contributors

• Christian Bartels
• Joachim Rese
• Jochen Röhrig
• Aleksandar Debelic
• Stefan Diederichs

Acknowledgements

• Bradley Knapp (Sponsor)
• Devraj Bardhan (Sponsor)
• Sean Freeman (Sponsor)

In addition, we would like to thank the abapGit contributors and the SAP Mentors of this team.