K2 connect for SAP release notes

Latest release: K2 connect for SAP 5.3

Release date: May 2022

The K2 connect for SAP 5.3 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 5.2 release.

  • This release no longer requires the K2 for Visual Studio component, and can be installed on a clean K2 Five (5.5) system, or upgraded to from K2 connect for SAP 4.7, K2 connect for SAP 5.0, K2 connect for SAP 5.1, or K2 connect for SAP 5.2.
Note: The K2 connect (5.3) (5.0006.1000.2) version of the installer is released in September 2022.

The following fixes have been made in this release:

  • When you install K2 connect for SAP 5.3 on K2 Five (5.6), ensure you download the K2 connect for SAP (5.3) (5.0006.1000.2) version of the installer.

  • Enhancements to the installer were made to allow extra characters for license keys with expiration dates beyond 12/31/2022. If you already installed the K2 connect (5.3) (5.0006.1000.1) version, you can run the K2 connect (5.3) (5.0006.1000.2) version to get the change for the license keys.

The following bug fixes have been made in this release:

  • When you pass a null value, for example using an empty data label, into a SmartObject that updates a SAP field, the value passed to SAP is SCNULL instead of NULL.
  • Destination Settings in the K2 connect database are now encrypted using the SCSSO key standard.
  • Destination Settings are now masked when viewed to secure sensitive information stored in the fields.

Previous releases

The K2 connect for SAP 5.2 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 5.1 release. For more information see K2 connect 5.2 Release Notes

  • This release no longer requires the K2 for Visual Studio component, and can be installed on a clean K2 Five (5.4) system, or upgraded to from K2 connect for SAP 4.7, K2 connect for SAP 5.0, or K2 connect for SAP 5.1.
  • Added support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2019.
  • Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 are no longer supported.
  • Added the usecache flag to the K2 connect service instance. For more information see usecache flag.

The following items were addressed in the .2 version of the installer:

  1. Supports upgrading to K2 Five (5.5)

  2. Added the ability to install K2 Connect Service Object Designer without having the Server component on the environment. In the K2 Setup Manager >Select components>Client Components screen, the option to install K2 Service Object Designer is now available.

The K2 connect for SAP 5.1 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 4.7 release. For more information see K2 connect 5.1 Release Notes.

Take note of the following requirements when installing K2 connect 5.1 in your environment:

  1. Installing K2 connect on an upgraded K2 Five environment: You must upgrade from K2 blackpearl 4.7 with the K2 for Visual Studio component installed and upgraded to K2 Five 5.1 or later, and then upgrade to K2 connect 5.1.
  2. Installing K2 connect on a clean K2 Five environment: You cannot install K2 connect 5.1 in a clean K2 Five environment. You must install K2 blackpearl 4.7 client components ( K2 for Visual Studio) first, and then install K2 connect 5.1. For a clean install of K2 connect install K2 4.7 Client Tools, then install K2 Five 5.1 or later. The K2 Five installer will upgrade the 4.7 Client Tools. Re-run the K2 Setup Manager for K2 Five and select Modify. Select the rest of the K2 Five options for your system and continue with the installation.

The following enhancements and bug fixes have been made in this release:

  • When installing K2 Five when only the K2 4.7 Visual Studio component is present an error stating “required product not found” displayed

  • Installing K2 connect database with a hyphen in the name caused issues

  • Updated ERP Connect files

  • Ability to install K2 connect with SQL Azure

  • When using K2 connect with SSO (Single Sign On), if your credentials do not exist in the SSO store SmartForms will prompt you to sign in. Once the credentials are stored, if the credentials become invalid (because of a password change in SAP) then SmartForms will only provide an error message and no option to re-enter the credentials. The error message states "RfcOpenConnection failed(RFC_LOGON_FAILURE): Name or password is incorrect. Please re-enter".

The K2 5.0 release builds on top of the K2 4.7 release. For more information see K2 connect 5.0 Release Notes.

Take note of the following requirements when installing K2 connect 5.0 in your environment:

  • Installing K2 connect on an upgraded K2 Five environment: You must upgrade from K2 blackpearl 4.7 with the K2 for Visual Studio component installed and upgraded to K2 Five, and then upgrade to K2 connect 5.0.

  • Installing K2 connect on a clean K2 Five environment: You cannot install K2 connect 5.0 in a clean K2 Five environment. You must install K2 blackpearl 4.7 client components ( K2 for Visual Studio) first, and then install K2 connect 5.0.

The following enhancements have been made due to a K2 connect Service error after upgrade and a RFC_COMMUNICATION_FAILURE error due to K2 connect connection loss:

  • Updated support for Sbyte type

  • Added Communication Failure retries

  • Multithreading ERPConnect implemented

Updated the ERPConnect version to ERPConnect 5

Updated K2 connect to use the new long format K2 licensing which is backward compatible with existing short keys.

After upgrading to K2 connect 4.7.1 it was not possible to publish service objects through Visual Studio due to a "Time out has expired" error. K2 has reduced the number of calls to SQL to populate Service Objects which resolves this issue.

When installing K2 connect in a K2 cluster configuration the local server name was used instead of the cluster FQDN

The K2 connect for SAP 4.7.3 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 4.7 release. For more information see K2 connect 4.7.3 Release Notes.

The following enhancements and bug fixes have been made in this release:

  • Installing K2 connect database with a hyphen in the name caused issues.

  • Updated ERP Connect files.

  • Ability to install K2 connect with SQL Azure.

  • When using K2 connect with SSO (Single Sign On), if your credentials do not exist in the SSO store SmartForms will prompt you to sign in. Once the credentials are stored, if the credentials become invalid (because of a password change in SAP) then SmartForms will only provide an error message and no option to re-enter the credentials. The error message states "RfcOpenConnection failed(RFC_LOGON_FAILURE): Name or password is incorrect. Please re-enter".

The K2 connect for SAP 4.7.2 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 4.7 release, for more information see K2 connect for SAP 4.7.2 Release Notes.

The following enhancements have been made due to a K2 connect Service error after upgrade and a RFC_COMMUNICATION_FAILURE error due to K2 connect connection loss:

  • Updated support for Sbyte type

  • Added Communication Failure retries

  • Multithreading ERPConnect implemented

Updated the ERPConnect version to ERPConnect 5

Updated K2 connect to use the new long format K2 licensing which is backward compatible with existing short keys.

After upgrading to K2 connect 4.7.1 it was not possible to publish service objects through Visual Studio due to a "Time out has expired" error. K2 has reduced the number of calls to SQL to populate Service Objects which resolves this issue.

When installing K2 connect in a K2 cluster configuration the local server name was used instead of the cluster FQDN.

The K2 connect for SAP 4.7.1 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 4.7 release. For more information see K2 connect for SAP 4.7.1 Release Notes.

Added logging for destinations - When adding or modifying destinations in K2 connect you can set the LOGENABLED and LOGPATH fields. When enabled, tracing is activated and files are generated in the specified directory. Full RFC traces are generated.

Currency and Decimal Fields are not transferred correctly to and from SAP.

K2 Connect version 4.7 Test Cockpit throws an "Input String was not in a correct format" error.

Error occurred when generating SmartObjects. Service with name "" not found.

SmartObjects did not handle null-termination characters in string types returned from SAP.

The K2 connect for SAP 4.7 release builds on top of the K2 connect for SAP 4.6.11 release. For more information see K2 connect for SAP 4.7 Release Notes.

This release includes the latest version of the ERPConnect assemblies (SAP NetWeaver RFC libraries) which are included and automatically installed by the K2 connect Setup Manager.

Caching of objects - When a service is executed the connection along with the object is cached and used on subsequent executions. The cache is only available during the runtime of K2 Server. The first execution takes the normal amount of time but subsequent executions are faster. If any errors occur or changes are made to the object the cache is invalidated. For steps on setting the caching see KB000881 - How to cache the connection for a K2 connect service instance.

An Error was received stating "K2 blackpearl Server and K2 connect Server names are not the same" when K2 was installed in a Farm environment.

K2 Connect is configured with predefined credentials for SAP destinations in the connection strings. All SAP calls were made using the corresponding users SSO credentials, but after upgrading to K2 connect 4.6.11, SAP calls used the predefined credentials from the connection string.

SAP NetWeaver RFC libraries handle connection strings differently to the previous LIBRFC32.dll resulting in multiple configured destinations to no longer function as previously.

The Connect service took a long time to start/restart when you had a large number of service objects published to the repository.

K2 connect 4.6.11 allows for a clean install or upgrade from a previous version of the product. For more information see K2 connect for SAP 4.6.11 Release Notes.

Minor memory usage enhancements have been made.

Changed from using SAP Classic RFC libraries to SAP Netweaver RFC libraries.

Static credentials are now preserved when publishing service objects.

In this release support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 and Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise) has been added.

  • SAP is ending support for the Classic RFC libraries on the 31 March 2016 after which SAP will only support the SAP NetWeaver RFC libraries. The new dlls are not redistributable from SourceCode Technology Holdings, Inc and must be obtained from services.sap.com. Once downloaded the new NetWeaver RFC libraries must be copied to the respective system folders. The zip files for each architecture (64 and 32 bit) will contain six files. All six files need to be copied.
    The 32bit files go to c:\Windows\SysWOW64
    The 64bit files go to c:\Windows\System32
    Now use the K2 connect 4.6.11 (4.10060.870.0) to upgrade your environment.

  • In K2 connect 4.6.10 or later the installer includes the required ERPConnect dlls. For new installations it will no longer be required to install ERPConnect before installing K2 connect for SAP. For upgrades there is also no need to upgrade the ERPConnect software as the new K2 connect installer will automatically do this for you.

  • The installer will update K2 connect 32-bit and 64-bit installations. One installer is used for new installations as well as upgrades. When performing an upgrade, the current K2 connect installation will be uninstalled and the new version will be installed. The existing settings will be retained such as the K2 connect license key, however it is important to select the correct database during the installation.

K2 connect 4.6.10 allows for a clean install or upgrade from a previous version of the product. For more information see K2 connect for SAP 4.6.10 Release Notes.

The following issues have been resolved in this release.

  • When executing a large number of SmartObject events, the K2 service becomes unresponsive which will affect the response of other K2 components such as Workspace.

  • Publishing a Service Object from Visual Studio in a cluster environment causes the K2 connect Service Instance name to revert back to the local server name.

  • An error occurs stating: "Could not find element '[ELEMENT]'" when executing a BAPI using internal tables, from the K2 connect Test Cockpit.

  • When executing a BAPI a "TABLE_NOT_ACTIVE" error occurs. This is now fixed with the ERPConnect dll being included in the K2 connect installation.

In this release ERPConnect has been included in the installer and it is no longer necessary to run the ERPConnect.exe

  • K2 connect 4.6.10 installer now includes the required ERPConnect dlls. For new installations it will no longer be required to install ERPConnect before installing K2 connect for SAP. For upgrades there is also no need to upgrade the ERPConnect software as the new K2 connect installer will automatically do this for you.

  • The installer will update K2 connect 32-bit and 64-bit installations. One installer is used for new installations as well as upgrades. When performing an upgrade, the current K2 connect installation will be uninstalled and the new version will be installed. The existing settings will be retained such as the K2 connect license key, however it is important to select the correct database during the installation.