In the world of enterprise software, efficiency and performance are paramount. When working with SAP Gateway—a powerful framework that enables communication between SAP systems and external clients via OData (Open Data Protocol)—handling multiple operations in a single HTTP request is a key optimization strategy. This is where Batch Requests come into play.
Batch requests allow clients to group multiple operations (such as reads, updates, or deletions) into a single HTTP call, significantly improving performance, reducing network latency, and simplifying error handling.
A Batch Request in SAP Gateway (especially in OData v2 and v4) is a mechanism for bundling multiple service calls into a single HTTP POST request. This is typically submitted to the $batch endpoint of an OData service.
A batch request can contain:
These operations are processed either independently (in the case of multiple reads) or transactionally (in the case of change sets), ensuring consistency in data updates.
Defines the start and end of the batch content in the HTTP request body using a unique boundary string.
Within a batch, change sets group multiple write operations that should be treated as a single unit. Either all operations succeed, or none are applied.
Used for referencing responses from one operation in subsequent operations within the same batch (used in deep entity creation or linked objects).
Let’s assume a client application needs to:
Instead of making three separate calls, the client can send one batch request that includes:
/Customers/Customers('12345')/SalesOrdersSAP Gateway will process the read operation independently and the two write operations inside a change set.
To enable batch processing in your custom OData service:
Implement the DEFINE Method in MPC_EXT
method DEFINE.
super->define( ).
me->define_batch_request( ).
endmethod.
Set has_batch_support = 'X' in the Model Provider Class (MPC)
Implement Operation Logic in the Data Provider Class (DPC_EXT)
Each entity operation (e.g., CREATE_ENTITY, UPDATE_ENTITY) must be properly implemented.
Test Using SAP Gateway Client (Transaction /IWFND/GW_CLIENT)
$batch as the endpoint.Batch requests can be monitored in SAP using:
Batch requests in SAP Gateway offer a powerful means of improving data interaction performance in SAP applications. By combining multiple operations into a single request, developers and architects can reduce network load, enforce transactional integrity, and streamline client-server communication.
Whether you're building Fiori apps, integrating external systems, or optimizing backend processes, mastering batch requests is essential for efficient SAP OData service development.