Document Management in SAP -

KPRO, Archivelink and Content Server.

24 de Nov de 2015 às 09:32 | 919 Views
Greetings SAP experts,
I’m currently evaluating the best approach to store and manage document that would be
used in SAP. During my researches, I found that there is several components that could be
used for more or less the same purpose but I have a hard time to see the overall picture.
I have documented my understanding and I’m looking for clarification or correction of my
understanding.
My understanding of the main components for Document management are the following:
 Archivelink: Use to manage documents that are static in nature (i.e. content doen’t
change over time) by example vendor invoices, picture, SAP generated invoices, etc…
and link it to an SAP Business Object so that it can be easily retrieved from SAP GUI.
As I understand it, it can store the files on an SAP Content Server or on a third party
document management system (e.g. Open text)
 Knowledge Provider (KPRO): Use to manage more complex use cases than simple
archiving. Use to manage complete Document lifecycle from creation, approval and
release. Manage different version of the same document. Allows a many-to-many
assignment between business objects and documents. Can be crawled by search
engine (such as TREX). KPRO can store files on an SAP Content Server or on a third
party document management system (e.g. Open text). KPRO used Document Info
Records (DIR) to identify the document.
 Content Server/Cache Server: SAP solution to store documents more effectively than
basic file management system. My understanding is that it’s not a mandatory
component but that it has several benefits over Basic file management system such as
caching. It can be used to store document for both ArchiveLink and KPRO
How far from the truth am I?
What confuse me the most is that there is diagram on SAP Website that doesn’t align with
the above description. Is shows ArchiveLink as an application that would access the CMS
module of KPRO to access documents. However, all my readings are more align toward
the description above…

Also, I'm still confused on the roles of the Document Management Service (DMS) and
Content Management Service (CMS) inside KPRO. Both seems to be there as an
abstraction layer between the SAP and the physical storage of the documents. I
understand that DMS is used to manage all the attributes, relationships, version etc... If
that's the case then, what does CMS that is not done by DMS?
Finally, we're looking to use a third party Document management system to store most of
the content. Any of the solution above more adapted to third party integration?
I hope someone could shed some light on this topic for me.
Thanks
Samuel
KPRO.gif (9.5 kB)
 PLM Document Management System (DMS)

 Follow
 RSS Feed

Related questions
Is the KPRO CMIS Connector to use SAP Document Services in S/4HANA available?
By Wolfgang Röckelein, Mar 16, 2018
Archiving of GOS PDF Attachments via ArchiveLink
By Johann Venter, Sep 05, 2019
Regarding the Transfer of files from one content server to another content
By Former Member, Feb 06, 2009
1 Resposta
Ordenar
 Votos
|
 Criado
|
 Mais antigo
 Melhor resposta

Kolusu Suresh Kumar

25 de Nov de 2015 às 06:27
3
Hello Samuel,

“What confuse me the most is that there is diagram on SAP Website

that doesn’t align with the above description. Is shows ArchiveLink
as an application that would access the CMS module of KPRO to
access documents. However, all my readings are more align toward
the description above…”
May be from the Kpro perspective it is an application rather than an
infrastruce that uses content Management service.
My reason for this is even though Kpro & Archivelink has their own
TC's/Programs for achieving the same purpose like for example for
document type creation, we OAC2 in case of Archivelink and different TC
in case of Kpro for the same purpose. BUT whichever the case may be
they should use the common application independent infrastruce
TC's/Programs like communication infrastructure "OAC0", monitoring
Queues like "OAM1" which are part of CMS of Kpro but still being used by
Archivelink.
As said may be it is from Kpro prespective it is presented as application,
may be it better way would be represented as one of Document
management infrasture in parallel with KPRO using the CMS of Kpro.
Even the packages in SAP shows the same.
“Also, I'm still confused on the roles of the Document Management
Service (DMS) and Content Management Service (CMS) inside
KPRO. Both seems to be there as an abstraction layer between the
SAP and the physical storage of the documents. I understand that
DMS is used to manage all the attributes, relationships, version etc...
If that's the case then, what does CMS that is not done by DMS?”
I think DMS -> provides the infrasturce for dealing with documents like as
you said attributes, versions...etc...etc as per content models
CMS -> provides the infrasture for dealing with communication like
supporting document area, protocols definition, certificate checks,
queues...etc...etc
“Finally, we're looking to use a third party Document management
system to store most of the content. Any of the solution above more
adapted to third party integration?”
All the 3rd party content managements systems should align to support
both Kpro & Archivelink. What differs is whether is database or content
server based content management system. For example, informatica
provides database based content management systems while OpenText,
EMS & others provides content server based content management
system.
“I’m currently evaluating the best approach to store and manage
document that would be used in SAP. During my researches, I found
that there is several components that could be used for more or less
the same purpose but I have a hard time to see the overall picture.”
It depends on your requirement but if you are looking for a document and
data storage to integrate more with business process of SAP for content
server based CMS, which many prefer otherwise you can evaluate others.
Hope I have not confused you :). Please post if I did, I will try to clarify.

Thanks,
Kolusu

o Partilhar