In my previous blog on Annotation, I explained the process to create Annotation from service builder using Vocabulary. But this annotation is very specific to the service and you can not reuse this annotation for other services.
Standalone annotation feature of SAP Gateway enables you to create an annotation model that will be independent in nature and can be assigned to any number of relevant OData services. The advantage you are getting out of this feature is following
- You will be able to create reusable annotation.
- You can annotate an existing service externally.
Service Builder tool will help you create an annotation model and assign a service to it. In principle, it is possible to assign mutiple services to an annotation model but service builder supports only one service assignment to an Annotation Model.
This blog will explain how you can create annotation model by referring an existing service and assign this Annotation model to the same referenced service using SAP NetWeaver Gateway Service Builder tool.
This feature is available from SAP Gateway IWBEP SP09.
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Step-by-Step Procedure
Following are steps which you need to follow
- Upload Vocabularies into the Vocabulary Repository
- Create a Project
- Import a service for reference
- Import a vocabulary file
- Create Annotation
- Generate Runtime Artifact
- Access Annotation File
Upload Vocabularies into the Vocabulary Repository
Start the Service Builder by using the transaction SEGW.
To upload a vocabulary file into the Vocabulary Repository in the Service Builder, proceed as follows:
- From menu bar choose . The central Vocabulary Repository opens and shows a table for displaying the vocabulary ID, version, namespace, and description. Any previously uploaded vocabulary files are displayed here, otherwise the table is empty.
- Change to edit mode and choose Append Row to add a new row to the table.
- Enter a unique vocabulary ID for the vocabulary file you want to upload. Version 1 is assigned automatically to the first version of
the vocabulary file you upload. - Click the Upload icon in the Upload Vocabulary Content column to navigate to the vocabulary file you want to upload. The namespace of the vocabulary file is entered automatically.
- Enter a description for the newly uploaded vocabulary file.
- Save the changes and choose Enter.
Create a Project
1. Create a New Project by clicking on 
2. Select Service with Annotation Model for Referenced Service in order to create standalone annotation model.
Import a service for reference
The Service Reference option provided in the project type "Annotation Model for Referenced Service" helps you to reference a service registered in local BEP registry, so that the data model can be annotated.
- Right click of Data Model
- Select Import->Service Reference
3. In first screen of wizard, enter technical name and version of the service.
4. On click of 'Next' button, it will show th preview of OData elements this service is having
5. Click 'Finish' to import OData elements in Data Model.
Note: The OData artifacts imported in the project are non-editable because the project is only intended to create annotations.
Import a vocabulary file
- In the edit mode, right click on the Data Model, choose in the resulting menu.
- The Vocabulary Repository window appears.
- Select the required vocabulary(s) and click continue.
- In the Tree view a new folder with the name Vocabularies will be created under the Data Model
and the vocabularies imported into this folder.
Create Annotation
- Select OData element which you want to annotate
- Enter term value.
3. Click on 'Save' button
Generate Runtime Artifact
- Click Generate
button.
It will open a dialog box with prefilled values for Annotation provider class(APC) and Annotation Model. These are editable fields and you can change the name.
- On click of Ok button, APC classes and Annotation Model will get created that you can see in Runtime Artifacts Folder and finally the referenced service will be assigned to the created Annotation Model .
- APC Code: You can check annotation related code in method DEFINE_VOCAB_ANNOTATIONS( ) of generated APC.
- Maintain Annotation Model: You can see Assignment of the Referenced Service to Annotation Model using transaction /iwbep/reg_vocan.
NOTE: You can reference only one service via Service Builder. However, using the transaction /IWBEP/REG_VOCAN multiple services can be assigned to the annotation model, but this causes an inconsistency as the services referenced via the transaction does not reflect in Service Builder.
Access Annotation File
- Register the referenced service with Gateway Hub(If not registered). You can use Service maintenance feature of service builder for registration.
- Load Metadata of the service. For this, click Maintain
that will take you to 'Active and Maintain Services' view of Gateway Hub where you can load metadata by clicking 
. - Finally you can access annotation file through catalog service using below URL. Gateway Client
button of service builder will take you to Gateway Client tool having request URI populated. Execute this URL to get annotation.
<</sap/opu/odata/IWFND/catalogservice;v=2/Annotations(TechnicalName='ZTEST_STANDALONE_ANNOTATION_ANNO',Version='0001')/$value>>
Note: Annotation file contains reference Uri of all the assigned services.
1. Similarly if you want to get the reference Uri of annotation file in metadata of the service, it will only be available if you create the reference in the MPC of the service, e.g.
lo_reference = vocab_anno_model->create_annotation_reference(
iv_annofile_id = 'ZTEST_STANDALONE_ANNOTATION_ANNO'
iv_annofile_version = '0001').
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c Hope this helps you understand and create standalone annotation using service builder. I look forward to your feedback.
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