Invoke SAP Action
Description
Invokes an Action exposed by an SAP OData service.
SAP Actions represent operations that can perform business logic beyond standard CRUD operations. The behavior of an Action, its input parameters, and the result it returns are defined by the SAP OData service.
Use Invoke SAP Action when you need to execute a specific SAP Action and optionally provide the parameters required by that Action.
Common Capabilities
Process Data Support
This activity supports dynamic configuration using variables from the Process Data drawer.
You can bind values from Model Data, Form Data, System Data, Enterprise Variables, and Activity Outputs.
Learn more → Using Process Data
Design-Time Configuration
Display Text
A user-defined name for the activity, displayed on the workflow canvas to help identify its purpose.
Connection Name
The configured SAP connection used to access the SAP system.
The connection determines the SAP system and the OData services available to the activity.
If you have not yet created or configured an SAP connection, see SAP Connection.
Service Name
The SAP OData service containing the Action you want to invoke.
You can provide the service name directly or configure it dynamically using Process Data.
Action
The SAP OData Action to invoke.
The available Actions depend on the specified Service Name.
You can provide the Action directly or configure it dynamically using Process Data.
An Action can be either bound or unbound:
- A bound Action is associated with a specific SAP Business Object or entity instance.
- An unbound Action operates at the service level and is not associated with a specific entity.
When a bound Action is selected, additional properties are required to identify the entity on which the Action should be invoked.
Entity Set
Specifies the SAP Entity Set associated with the bound Action.
This property is required when invoking a bound Action.
The Entity Set identifies the Business Object containing the entity on which the Action should operate.
Key
Specifies the unique key of the entity on which the bound Action should be invoked.
This property is required when invoking a bound Action.
The key identifies the specific record within the configured Entity Set.
For example, when an Action needs to be executed against a specific entity, IB-X constructs the request using the Entity Set and Key before invoking the Action:
[ServiceRoot]/EntitySet(Key)/Namespace.ActionName
A bound Action operates on a specific SAP entity and therefore requires Entity Set and Key.
An unbound Action operates at the service level and does not require an Entity Set or Key.
Parameters
The input parameters required by the selected SAP Action.
Specify the parameters as name-value pairs corresponding to the parameters defined by the Action.
For example:
{
"Param1": "value"
}
Parameter values can be configured dynamically using Process Data.
The parameters required by an Action depend on how the Action is defined in the SAP OData service.
Ensure that all required parameters are provided using the names and data types expected by SAP.
OData Version
Specifies the OData protocol version used to communicate with the selected SAP service.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto | Automatically determines the appropriate OData version based on the configured connection URL. This is the default option. |
| OData V2 | Uses the OData V2 protocol. |
| OData V4 | Uses the OData V4 protocol. |
Use the default Auto option unless you specifically need to force the activity to use OData V2 or OData V4.
Timeout
Specifies the maximum amount of time, in seconds, that the activity waits for the SAP OData request to complete.
If the request does not complete within the configured duration, the activity times out.
Ignore Business Errors
Determines how the activity handles business-level errors returned by SAP within an otherwise successful response.
SAP OData services may return an HTTP 200 OK response even when the requested operation fails because of a business validation error. In such cases, SAP may include the business error details in the RETURN structure of the response payload.
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Disabled (default) | Inspects successful responses for SAP business errors. If a business error is detected in the RETURN structure, the activity throws an exception and the configured error handling strategy is applied. |
| Enabled | Ignores business errors embedded in the successful response and does not throw an exception. The workflow continues, allowing the returned result and messages to be inspected and handled through workflow logic. |
Enable Ignore Business Errors when you want to handle SAP business validation errors within the workflow instead of treating them as activity failures.
Use Has Business Errors, Return Messages, and Result to determine how the workflow should proceed.
This option applies to business errors returned within a successful SAP response. Transport, authentication, connectivity, HTTP, and other runtime errors are still handled as activity errors.
Wait All Incoming
Controls how this activity behaves when multiple incoming execution paths converge.
Determines whether the activity executes when:
- Any incoming path completes, or
- All relevant incoming paths complete before execution
Learn more → Execution Control
On Error
Defines how the workflow behaves if this activity encounters a runtime error.
Supported strategies include:
- Fault
- Continue
- Suspend
- Retry
Output
Result
Contains the result returned by the invoked SAP Action.
The structure and content of Result depend on the Action being executed and the response defined by the corresponding SAP OData service.
The returned result can be used by downstream activities through Activity Outputs.
Has Business Errors
Indicates whether SAP returned one or more business-level errors as part of the Action response.
This output can be used to determine whether the operation completed without SAP business errors and to control subsequent workflow execution.
Return Messages
Contains the messages returned by SAP while executing the Action.
These messages can include information returned through the SAP RETURN structure and can be inspected by downstream activities.
When Has Business Errors indicates that business errors are present, use Return Messages to inspect the corresponding SAP messages.
Error Message
Contains information about any activity-level error encountered while invoking the SAP Action.
This output can be used by downstream activities to inspect or handle errors as part of the workflow.
Remarks
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The selected SAP connection must have access to the specified OData service.
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Service Name identifies the SAP OData service containing the Action.
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The Actions available for invocation depend on the operations exposed by the specified SAP OData service.
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The parameters required by an Action depend on how the Action is defined in SAP.
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Ensure that parameter names, values, and data types match those expected by the selected Action.
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The structure and content of Result depend on the Action being invoked.
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When Ignore Business Errors is disabled, SAP business errors detected in a successful response cause the activity to throw an exception.
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When Ignore Business Errors is enabled, use Has Business Errors and Return Messages to identify and handle SAP business-level errors within the workflow.
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The authenticated SAP user must have permission to invoke the selected Action.
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Use Find SAP Action or Function when the required Action needs to be discovered dynamically at runtime.
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SAP Actions can be either bound or unbound.
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A bound Action operates on a specific SAP entity and requires Entity Set and Key to identify that entity.
-
An unbound Action operates at the service level and does not require Entity Set or Key.
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When invoking a bound Action, ensure that the specified Key uniquely identifies the intended entity within the configured Entity Set.