Can BarTender integrate with SAP?
There are several ways through which you can integrate BarTender with SAP. Find below the most common ones:
SAP-AII
The most powerful SAP integration method is the SAP AII (Auto-ID Infrastructure) which is a logistics management tool that allows for automatic label printing with BarTender.
On the SAP side, an XML based SAP-AII document is created that contains the variable information to print and information such as the label format, printer, number of copies, etc.
The XML document is then sent to the BarTender Integration Platform (as a file to a Windows/SAP folder, as a data stream through a TCP/IP port, through an HTTP request, etc.) where it's transformed into BarTender XML (BTXML). The Integration Platform sends the BTXML directly to BarTender which processes the print request.
SAP-AII requires the Automation edition of BarTender.
IDOCS
If you prefer to use IDOCS with BarTender (Intermediate Documents), we also support importing these SAP data types. With this method our Integration Platform detects the IDOC file (containing variable information and variable parameters) being produced by SAP. After this detection has taken place, the Integration Platform prints the BarTender document containing the variable information coming from SAP. In order to automate printing using IDOCS, BarTender Automation edition is required.
CSV Files
If you would prefer to use the SAP database to output plain CSV type data, then the Integration Platform can again be used. This method allows details such as print quantity, printer name, number of copies, etc… to be specified either as part of the data, or as Print Commands placed at the beginning of the data. The Automation edition of BarTender would be required.
Integration Platform
Now please let me explain to you how our Integration Platform works in a little more detail. The Integration Platform is an application run as a Windows service, which is installed as part of the BarTender suite of applications. The Integration Platform is a middleware application, as it works to connect two systems. In this case, these systems are SAP on one side and our BarTender label design & print software on the other side. The Integration Platform waits for a trigger event to happen (either by scanning a certain folder, by waiting for an email to be received, by waiting for a web service request, or by listening to a TCP/IP socket). This event is the data file/email/information coming from SAP. As soon as this event happens, the Integration Platform reads the event and its variable parameters/information and wakes up BarTender. BarTender then prints the labels with the variable information supplied by SAP.
For more information please take a look at the below White Paper: