FileRelayDocumentation
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SAP OData Setup

FileRelay as a consumer of released S/4HANA Cloud OData APIs — pull attachments via supported endpoints, no ABAP.

SAP OData Setup

S/4HANA Cloud exposes released OData APIs for business-object attachments. FileRelay queries the attachment lists, fetches binaries, and routes them.

Use OData when you're on S/4HANA Cloud (Public or Private/RISE), want released, future-proof endpoints, and your document model is attachment-centric (FI invoices, MM POs, HR records). For free-form DMS storage, use CMIS instead. Decision matrix: protocol comparison.

Which OData APIs?

Pick by business object. The most common:

API What it exposes
API_CV_ATTACHMENT_SRV Generic attachments on any business object
I_AttachmentForBusinessObject (CDS) Read-only view of every attachment with its parent object key
API_SUPPLIERINVOICE_PROCESS_SRV Supplier invoice attachments (FI)
API_PURCHASEORDER_PROCESS_SRV Purchase order attachments (MM)
API_OUTBOUND_DELIVERY_SRV Delivery note attachments (SD)

Any released v2 or v4 service that exposes attachments works. Full catalog at api.sap.com.

SAP-side setup

Communication Arrangement

In SAP Fiori → Communication Arrangements, create one using the template matching your target API.

Template Use case
SAP_COM_0204 Generic OData attachment access
SAP_COM_0276 Document Management integration
SAP_COM_0008 Supplier invoice integration
SAP_COM_0053 Purchase order integration

Each arrangement needs a Communication System (logical SAP-side rep of FileRelay), a Communication User (FileRelay's identity, inbound), and an auth method — OAuth 2.0 with X.509 client certificate or OAuth 2.0 with client credentials. Both are supported.

Once saved, the arrangement exposes a Service URL plus OAuth credentials.

Optional — Event Mesh subscription

If your tenant has SAP Event Mesh, subscribe FileRelay to the relevant lifecycle events (sap.s4.beh.supplierinvoice.v1.SupplierInvoice.Created.v1, etc.) to trigger immediate fetches instead of polling. Optional — polling works everywhere.

Configure the source

  1. Repositories → Add Source → OData.
  2. Fill in: name, service URL, OData version (v2 for most S/4HANA APIs), entity set (e.g. AttachmentContentSet), OAuth token URL, client ID/secret, auth method (client-credentials or client-certificate).
  3. Test connection — FileRelay mints a token, fetches $metadata, validates the entity set, returns a sample result.
  4. Save.

For X.509 auth, upload the cert + private key under Certificates; FileRelay attaches them on every token request.

How fetching works

Polling (default, 60 s)

Each poll runs an incremental query:

GET /sap/opu/odata/sap/API_CV_ATTACHMENT_SRV/AttachmentContentSet
    ?$filter=CreationDateTime gt datetime'2026-05-26T10:00:00'
    &$orderby=CreationDateTime asc
    &$top=100
Authorization: Bearer <token>

For each result, FileRelay calls GET <entity>/$value to fetch the binary, then forwards it through your connections. Lower poll intervals are fine — S/4HANA Cloud's rate limits are generous.

Event-driven (Event Mesh)

If subscribed, events arrive at https://<your-deployment-host>/odata/<source-slug>/events and trigger immediate fetches.

Authentication + rotation

OAuth tokens are ~12 h. FileRelay refreshes on demand.

  • Client secret rotation — paste the new secret; next token request uses it.
  • Certificate rotation (X.509) — upload the new cert before the old one expires; overlap is supported, no downtime.
  • Communication User password — not used directly (OAuth, not basic), but the user record must stay active.

Forwarded metadata

OData property Forwarded as
BusinessObjectTypeName parent object type (e.g. BUS2032)
BusinessObjectKey / LinkedSAPObjectKey parent object key (PO number, invoice ID)
FileName filename
MimeType MIME type
CreatedByUser / CreationDateTime provenance
ArchiveDocumentID original SAP archive ID for traceability

Per-connection mapping in Document Routing.

Gotchas

  • Released APIs only on Public Edition — no custom CDS / OData. On Private/RISE you can roll your own, but released APIs survive upgrades; custom ones are yours to maintain forever.
  • Entity set ≠ entity type — FileRelay needs the entity set name (URL-addressable collection). If $metadata lists multiple sets per type, pick the one that returns binary via $value.
  • $value returns raw bytes — that's normal.
  • Per-user rate limits — for many concurrent sources, use a dedicated Communication User per source so one busy stream doesn't starve the others.
  • UTC in filters — timestamps are UTC; format as datetime'YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS' with no zone suffix.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
401 from token URL Communication User isn't bound as inbound, or wrong scope
403 on $value but 200 on the list Principal has list access but not download — fix the Communication Scenario role
404 on the entity set Typo, or the scenario doesn't expose that set (check <service-url>/$metadata)
Polling works, no docs found Filter wrong (timezone, non-indexed field), or genuinely no new docs
Events configured but never fire Wrong event type, or inbound endpoint unreachable from SAP egress

Raw request/response captures: Request Viewer.

Next steps