1. Chris Twirbutt & Forrest Horner
Address Cleansing
Integration of REST web services
Chris Twirbutt & Forrest Horner
2010 November

2. Melissadata REST & SAP Integration
Background of Sacramento County
Address cleansing choices
Architecture to facilitate REST web services
Example SAP screens

3. Background Sacramento County CA
Sacramento County, California
About 1.3 million citizens
Multiple jurisdictions, Cities, Districts, etc
SAP IS-U/CCS Utility Billing System (aka: “FOCUS”)
Implemented in July 1999 (on v1.1b)…now vECC6
Bill for ~300K customers, ~$300m revenue
Waste Water, Solid Waste, Drainage, Potable Water
…have a SAP tech support staff of: ~8

4. Address Cleansing Choices
#1 – Load Postal CD’s to SAP Regional Structure
…but alas, it doesn’t fix “bad” addresses…only flags address is not good.
#2 – Periodic Batch Cleansing
Is re-active management…and bad addresses percolate through downstream data systems.
#3 – Web Service Address Cleansing
Is pro-active,but must put in a technical architecture.

5. Postal CD Data – Does Not “Fix”
Postal CD comes from the Post Master
The USPS web site
The web site has the postal AIS technical guide in PDF format
and order forms for ordering the postal CD.
Note: RSADRLSM02 is the program that loads the data
Connection Object
Note: SAP function module ADDR_CHECK is what SAP uses for verifying if an BP or CO address is valid against the postal structures
Business Partner

6. Periodic Batch Cleanse (Monthly)
SAP Production
Data
Extract
ADRC table
File dump
Cleansing Service
Address
Corrections
File
Data Upload and update
This fixes after the fact…after bad mail has already gone out…and after other downstream data systems have already consumed the bad address

7. Melissadata – Web Service
Has many different address cleansing products
Meldata provides back a ‘corrected’ address.
SAP Production / SYSID:“PPW”
Web
Service
FOCUS
Dev / Test
Systems
Web Hit
Counter
RFC
Address
Cache
An “architecture” had to be built in SAP. The SAP production system acts as a “service buss”.

8. Overview of MelData Web Services
Mellisadata (Henceforth referred to as “Meldata”) offers numerous
services and Suites of Services.
Sac County procured the “Data Quality Web Services Suite” , which is a
“Multiplatform toolkit to verify, correct and standardize address, phone, and names at point-of-entry.”
This Suite consists of 7 services, 5 of which we have enabled ( )
And two of which we are currently using ( ) :
Address Check
RBDI (Residential/Business Delivery Indicator)
GeoCode
IP Location
Name Check
Phone Check

9. Usage allowance
We subscribed to 600K hits per year for each enabled service.
The following is a screen-print from MelData’s side which tracks our usage:

10. Technical Implementation
SOAP vs. REST
Overall, more companies such as Google and Amazon are using REST-based Web Services.
REST stands for “Representational State Transfer”.
We won’t go into fine detail of SOAP vs. REST but rather, why we chose REST.
A nice robust link on the technical differences between SOAP and REST:
We utilize the REST-based Web Service Interface because:
SOAP required more JAVA skills than were available in-house, for example:
SOAP had many data-type binding issues which had to be worked out by contacting MelData tech support and having them make changes to the WSDL, etc.
REST was 10 times easier to code for in ABAP as it didn’t have to deal with Proxy generation (data binding issues), and other JAVA-related issues.
Developers who simply understand HTTP and XML can start building Web services right away, without needing any toolkits beyond what they normally use for Internet application development.

11. BASIS/Config. Requirement (for SAP to communicate with the Web Service)
Using SSL (https) to access external web site recommended.
- Public web servers have SSL certificates signed by known public Certificate Authority
- Web browsers come with built-in store of known public CA’s to verify certificate server is presenting.
The SAP Web Application Server (Web AS) ships with very few CAs, so it won’t know the CA the remote site had its SSL cert signed by. For example, Melissadata uses “GoDaddy”.
-Navigate to the secure URL using a web browser, not SAP initially.
-While there, click the “lock” icon and download the security certificates in base 64 format.  This incl. both the root and class 2 certificates.
 -There may be multiple cert’s, called a chain. Download cert for each part of chain.
-Load the security certificate into SAP (STRUST)
-Import certificates into SAP anonymous &client standard PSE’s (Personal Security Environment)
-Still In STRUST, export the certificates (to load them into the db).
-Restart ICM.
-Set up a “hosts file” entry, if needed (i.e. DNS is turned off, which it is in PPW) to Melissadata so the SAP server “knows” who Melissadata is.

12. Architecture Overview
Custom(‘Z’) Naming Convention
Begin all Web-Service-related Z-table names with “ZWS_”

13. Architecture Overview (cont’d)
All requests for address scrubs are done thru PPW (Production), regardless of source system. This is done by RFC and ensures that all hits are tracked in one place (Production).
PPW architected with several control & tracking tables:
A master table(ZWS_MELDATA) which stores/caches all detailed request history
A table to configure how many hits allowed per day (ZWS_HITS_MAX)
A table to store actual hits per day counts (ZWS_HITS_DAILY)

14. Architecture (Cont’d)
PPW contains (cont’d):
table (ZWS_MELDATACODES) stores all possible return codes (and descriptions)
Note on Return Codes:
1st Char:
Address Scrub return Codes begin with “A”
and GeoCoding Return Codes begin with “G”.
2nd Char:
“S” (Success – Corrected address returned)
or “E” (Error – Not able to return a fully corrected address)

15. Architecture (Cont’d)
Communication to PPW from all systems:
-An RFC interface was added (By BASIS) to all the systems that "points to" PPW. This interface is named "PPW_SCRUB".
-A user and role was created in PPW to perform the scrub function. The user is "adrscrub", and the role is "z_address_scrub".
Communication to Web Service from SAP/ABAP:
A user-friendly wrapper/RFC/FM was developed called:
ZMELISSADATA_ADDRESS_CLEANSE
This FM/RFC currently performs both Address Check and Geocoding.
This FM uses SAP’s OO methods contained in Class/Interface “IF_HTTP_CLIENT”,
For example:
CALL METHOD http_client=>create_by_url (sets up the URL to be called)
CALL METHOD http_client->send (makes a call to the URL)
CALL METHOD http_client->receive (receives data back from URL)
The result comes back in XML format and is parsed by the FM (could have been done using XLST Transformation, but in our case using custom code to parse the XML result into Z-Table fields (this was prior to our knowledge of XLST Transformations).

16. Example of how to call the RFC
OUT IN
Note: Input has incorrect Street name
(“AVE” vs. “RD”) and incorrect zip (95826
Instead of 95827)
Output has corrected Street Name
And Zip Code (+4).
“Address Key” required for GeoCoding (see next slide)

17. Example of Geo-Coding IN
OUT

18. Table Entry Created (in ZWS_MELDATA)
MANDT
COUNTER ALL TIME
SOURCE SYSTEM PPW
SOURCE USER TWIRBUTTC
CALLING PROGRAM SAPLSEUJ
CALLING TXN SE37
CALLED ON DATE /14/2010
CALLED ON TIME :06:45
CALLED BY ADRSCRUB
URL CALLED
RETURN CODE AS01,AS12
BACKGROUND FLAG
IN HOUSE NUM
IN STREET GOETHE AVE
IN SUITE C
IN CITY SACRAMENTO
IN STATE CA
IN ZIP
OUT PARSED HOUSE
OUT PARSED STR Goethe
OUT PARSED STSUF Rd
OUT PARSED SUIT1 Ste
OUT PARSED SUIT2 C
OUT ADDRESS Goethe Rd
OUT ADDRESS2
OUT SUITE Ste C
OUT CITY Sacramento
OUT STATE CA
OUT ZIP
OUT PLUS
OUT RESULT CODES AS01,AS12
HOUSESTREETMATCH
CITY MATCH X
STATE MATCH X
ZIP MATCH
ADRC NUM
OUT ADDRESSKEY
GEO RESULT CODES GS01
GEO LAT
GEO LONG

19. ZWS_MELDATA: Field Definitions
MANDT
COUNTER_ALL_TIME # of hits made to the Web Service (all-time)
SOURCE_SYSTEM PPW Calling System
SOURCE_USER TWIRBUTTC Self-explanatory
CALLING_PROGRAM SAPLSEUJ “
CALLING_TXN SE “
CALLED_ON_DATE /14/ “
CALLED_ON_TIME :06: “
CALLED_BY ADRSCRUB RFC User id (set up by BASIS)
URL_CALLED
RETURN_CODE AS01,AS MelData Return Codes
BACKGROUND_FLAG Background/Foreground indicator
IN_HOUSE_NUM Input House #
IN_STREET GOETHE AVE Input Street
IN_SUITE C Input Suite (opt’l)
IN_CITY SACRAMENTO Input City
IN_STATE CA Input State
IN_ZIP Input Zip
Note:
Key fields are MANDT & COUNTER_ALL_TIME
Index exists on URL_CALLED since we CACHE based on this one field (each unique URL represents a unique Address-Check).
Continued on next Slide…

20. Field Definitions (cont’d)
OUT PARSED HOUSE Parsed Address fields returned from MelData
OUT PARSED STR Goethe “
OUT PARSED STSUF Rd “
OUT PARSED SUIT1 Ste “
OUT PARSED SUIT2 C “
OUT ADDRESS Goethe Rd “
OUT ADDRESS “
OUT SUITE Ste C “
OUT CITY Sacramento “
OUT STATE CA “
OUT ZIP “
OUT PLUS “
OUT RESULT CODES AS01,AS MelData Return Code(s)
HOUSESTREETMATCH Did INPUT House # and Street match the OUTPUT House # and Street ?
CITY MATCH X Did INPUT City match the OUTPUT City ?
STATE MATCH X Did INPUT State match the OUTPUT State?
ZIP MATCH Did INPUT Zip match the OUTPUT Zip ?
ADRC NUM ADRC Record # scrubbed (if applicable)
OUT ADDRESSKEY Meldata address key returned (needed to GeoCode)
GEO RESULT CODES GS GeoCode Return Code(s)
GEO LAT GeoCode Lat Result
GEO LONG GeoCode Long Result

21. Find Billing Account by Address lookup Via GeoCoding
Step 1 – Meldata address check
-- Cache result in table ZWS_MELDATA
Step 2- Update sap address if necessary and possible (if address scrub was successful)
Step 3 – Using MelData Address key (from Successful scrub only), get lat long
Step 4 – Using haversine formula, get nearest parcel (ZPSD_APN) and VKONT (ZGIS_APN_DATA)
(Using FM “Z_RFC_LAT_LONG_IN_PARCEL_OUT”) IN
OUT
Since Geo-Coding is not always down to the rooftop level, enter As much info of the
Address as possible (in this case House # and 1st letter of Street)

22. Secret Sauce: HAVERSINE Formula
SAP ABAP program code:
Assume that U = North Pole, and V and W are our pair of X,Y coordinates (note the variable names above do not match that of the program code in this presentation)
a,b, and c are the “Great Circle”* distances between U,V and W.
* A great circle of a sphere is a circle that runs along the surface of that sphere so as to cut it into two equal halves. The great circle therefore has both the same circumference and the same center as the sphere. It is the largest circle that can be drawn on a given sphere.
Great circles serve as the analogue of "straight lines" in spherical geometry.

23. Other FOCUS Applications:
This stand alone screen demonstrates the architecture.
Link to Youtube demo of this screen:
Link to SAP Developer Network (SDN):

24. Other FOCUS Applications: E.g. Lifeline Entry (for Non-FOCUS Accts.)
New Button
New Sub-screen
For scrubbed address
Results.

25. Future Integration
Managed update, with clerical review of suggested Address fixes.
Fully Automated update of our Address from Mel-Data.
Business Partner mailing address update
Physical location addresses
To be continued……
A myriad of other opportunities will present themselves:
Finding duplicate customers, locations.
Finding missing locations: address exists, but we aren’t billing.
Geocoding & Work Order proximity based routing.
Regional MADD (Master Address Database)
Effort by Cities, and public safety, police, fire, etc to standardize addresses.
Lessons Learned:
Must have an architecture to facilitate & manage the web service “hits”
Must involve your BASIS team to “open up” the interface
Mass cleansing (thousands at a time) needs “404” error handling
Melissadata tech team were great to collaborate with!...an essential aspect.