SAP ALE/IDoc Tutorial 1 – Basic Concept
In this series of posts, I try to provide a step by step tutorial on SAP ALE/IDoc. SAP provides a comprehensive documents in the help portal but I think it good for reference but not for beginners. It will be easier to have a step by step tutorial with screenshot. In the first post, I will give some explanation some abbreviations related to ALE/IDoc. Most of them come from SAP help portal. Please find the link in the reference section of this post.
ALE
Application Link Enabling (ALE) is a technology to create and run distributed applications. It comprises the controlled exchange of business messages and consistent data management in loosely-linked SAP application systems.
Application Link Enabling has three layers:
· Application services
· Distribution services
· Communication services
EDI
You use EDI if you want to exchange business application documents with an (external) partner system (for example, a customer or vendor). The SAP system sends EDI messages in IDoc format to an EDI subsystem, where they are converted to a universal EDI standard (UN/EDIFACT or ANSI/X12). This enables communication with non-SAP systems.
IDoc
IDoc (Intermediate Document) is a standard SAP document format. IDocs enable the connection of different application systems using a message-based interface. There are three different types of structure that are generated by IDoc interface: control record, data record and status record.
IDoc Type
An IDoc type is defined through its permitted segments. Segments can be dependent on each other (parent and child segments). For example, segment E1EDPT1 (document item text identification) is a child segment of segment E1EDP01 (document item data, general) in IDoc type EXPINV01 (export billing) and a child segment of E1EDP07 (order data shipping notification) in IDoc type DESADV01 (shipping notification). The segment, therefore, is used in several contexts and is the "child" of several "parents".
IDoc Segment
Segments form the basic building blocks of an IDoc type and are used to store the actual data. A segment type is the name of a segment and is independent of the SAP release.
Distribution Model
In the distribution model you can specify the messages to be sent to a given logical system. You can also define the conditions for the content and dispatch of messages in the filters. The distribution model consists of one or more views that you can define. With more complex distribution tasks you can assign business sub-areas or groups of logical systems to separate views.
Partner Profile
Partner profiles are defined separately for inbound and outbound processing. Every partner, however, must be defined in the general partner profiles. For outbound processing under Message Control (MC), you must also configure additional parameters.
Process Code
In the partner profiles, the processing is never addressed directly but rather always using a process code. You can therefore replace an old process with a new one for any number of partners by assigning the existing process code to the new process.
Two types of process code are used in conjunction with the partner profiles:
● Outbound Process Code – if you are using outbound processing under Message Control, the IDoc is generated in the IDoc Interface. The process code names the relevant function module.
● Inbound Process Code – names the function module or workflow which reads the IDoc data and transfers the data to the application document.
Port
Ports are a fundamental requirement for communicating by means of the IDoc Interface. At least one port must exist for each external system. The figure below shows how IDocs are sent to two receiving systems via three ports.
Reference
IDoc Interface/Electronic Data Interchange