Installation

If SAP NetWeaver RFC SDK and Python are already installed on your system, you can pip install the pyrfc wheel from the latest release, or clone this repository and build pyrfc from the source code, following Building from source.

Use the Python 3 and the latest pyrfc and SAP NWRFC SDK release (fully backwards compatible).

SAP NWRFC SDK Installation

If SAP NWRFC SDK is already installed on your system, you may verify the installation by running the rfcexec utility, without any parameter.

The error message like below indicates that SAP NWRFC SDK installation is technically correct, expecting more input parameters. Different error message may be caused by missing Windows C++ binary for example, or another installation inconsistency:

$ cd /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/bin
$ ./startrfc -v
NW RFC Library Version: 750 Patch Level 12
Compiler Version:
Version not available.
Startrfc Version: 2018-08-15

Information on where to download the SAP NWRFC SDK you may find here .

The PyRFC connector relies on SAP NWRFC SDK and must be able to find the library files at runtime. Therefore, you might either install the SAP NWRFC SDK in the standard library paths of your system or install it in any location and tell the Python connector where to look.

Here are configuration examples for Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems.

Windows

  1. Create the SAP NWRFC SDK home directory, e.g. c:\nwrfcsdk

  2. Set the SAPNWRFC_HOME env variable: SAPNWRFC_HOME=c:\nwrfcsdk

  3. Unpack the SAP NWRFC SDK archive to it, e.g. c:\nwrfcsdk\lib shall exist.

  4. Include the lib directory to the library search path on Windows, i.e. extend the PATH environment variable.

Add c:\nwrfcsdk\lib to PATH.

Linux

  1. Create the SAP NWRFC SDK home directory, e.g. /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk

  2. Set the SAPNWRFC_HOME env variable: SAPNWRFC_HOME=/usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk

  3. Unpack the SAP NWRFC SDK archive to it, e.g. /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib shall exist.

  4. Include the lib directory in the library search path:

    • As root, create a file /etc/ld.so.conf.d/nwrfcsdk.conf and enter the following values:

      # include nwrfcsdk
      /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib
      
    • As root, run the command ldconfig. To check if libraries are installed:

      $ ldconfig -p | grep sap # should show something like:
        libsapucum.so (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libsapucum.so
        libsapnwrfc.so (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libsapnwrfc.so
        libicuuc.so.50 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libicuuc.so.50
        libicui18n.so.50 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libicui18n.so.50
        libicudecnumber.so (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libicudecnumber.so
        libicudata.so.50 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib/libicudata.so.50
        libgssapi_krb5.so.2 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgssapi_krb5.so.2
        libgssapi.so.3 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgssapi.so.3
      $
      

macOS

  1. Create the SAP NWRFC SDK root directory /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk (this location is fixed, more info below)

  2. Set SAPNWRFC_HOME environment variable to that location: SAPNWRFC_HOME=/usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk

  3. Unpack the SAP NWRFC SDK archive to it, e.g. /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib shall exist.

  4. Set the remote paths in SAP NWRFC SDK by running paths_fix.sh script.

This location is fixed to the default /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib rpath, embedded into node-rfc package published on npm.

After moving SAP NWRFC SDK to another location on your system, the rpaths must be adjusted in SAP NWRFC SDK and in pyrfc.so libraries.

For SAP NWRFC SDK, set the SAPNWRFC_HOME env variable to new SAP NWRFC SDK root directory and re-run the above script.

For pyrfc:

$ unzip unzip pyrfc-2.0.1-cp38-cp38-macosx_10_15_x86_64.whl
$ cd pyrfc
$ install_name_tool -rpath /usr/local/sap/nwrfcsdk/lib <new path> _pyrfc.cpython-38-darwin.so

Python Connector Installation

see README: Download and Installation

Run python and type from pyrfc import *. If this finishes silently, without oputput, the installation was successful.

Using virtual environments you can isolate Python/PyRFC projects, working without administrator privileges.

macOS

The macOS system version of Python is usually the older one. Using wirtual environments, like pyenv for example, is recommended:

pyenv install 3.8.0
pyenv virtualenv 3.8.0 py380

Install the Python connector the same way like for Linux.

Problems

Behind a Proxy

If you are within an internal network that accesses the internet through an HTTP(S) proxy, some of the shell commands will fail with urlopen errors, etc.

Assuming that your HTTP(S) proxy could be accessed via http://proxy:8080, on Windows you can communicate this proxy to your shell via:

SET HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy:8080
SET HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy:8080

or permanently set environment variables.

SAP NW RFC Library Installation

  1. ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

    (Windows) This error indicates that the Python connector was not able to find the C connector on your system. Please check, if the lib directory of the C connector is in your PATH environment variable.

  2. ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

    (Windows) This error occurs when SAP NW RFC Library 64bit version is installed on a system with 32bit version Python.

Environment variables

Windows

The environment variable may be set within a command prompt via the set command, e.g.

  • set PATH=%PATH%;C:\nwrfcsdk\lib (extend PATH with the C connector lib)

  • set HTTPS_PROXY=proxy:8080 (setting an proxy for HTTPS communication)

When the command prompt is closed, the environment variable is reset. To achieve a persistent change of the environment variable, do the following (Windows 7):

  1. Open the Start Menu and type environment into the search box.

  2. A window opens in which the user variables are displayed in the upper part and the system variables in the lower part. You may select and edit the desired variable.

  3. The modified variables are used when a new command prompt is opened.