What is IDOC?

IDOC is acronym for Intermediate Document, which is a standard data format of SAP to interchange data
between two systems.IDOC enables connection between different applications using a message based
interface.

Features and Advantages of IDOC

 Structured data exchange.
 Automatic posting of data in application documents.
 Error handling.
 Reduction of very complex structures to simple structure.
 Reduce processing time.
 Standard communication.
 Availability of data in electronic form.
 Flexible business process by connecting to multiple systems.
 Real-time data transfer between different applications.

ALE

Application link enabling is a mechanism through which multiple SAP R/3 systems can communicate
each other. Integration of distributed systems is possible with application link enabling.

EDI

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange, which is used to exchange business documents between
different systems with a standard data format over a communication network, the systems can be SAP -
SAP or SAP - Non-SAP.

Types of processes of EDI/ALE EDI/ALE has two kinds of processes

Inbound Process
Outbound Process

What is inbound process and how it works?

Inbound process is the process of transferring data into a SAP system from an SAP R/3 system of Non-
SAP system. The following steps will takes place in inbound IDOC process.

Structure of IDOC
Inbound IDOC process happens in the following steps:
EDI converted to IDOC
IDOC passed to application
Application processes data
Updates status to IDOC
What is outbound IDOC and how it works?

Outbound IDOC is the process of transferring data from an SAP system to another SAP system or to Non-
SAP system.The following steps will takes place in outbound IDOC process.

IDOC Generated
IDOC transferred SAP to EDI layer
IDOC converted to EDI format
Data transferred to partner
New status will be updated

Structure of IDOC

Basically IDOC flows with three types of records

 Control Record
 Data Record
 Status Record

Control Record

Every IDOC has only one control record, it carries only one record with information related to port,
partner of sender and receiver etc.

Data Record

This is the record which carries actual business data in the form of segment's example Material Master
Data, Customer master data etc.

There may be n number of data records for an IDOC.

Status Record

This is the record, which stores the status of IDOC processing stages ex: application document posted,
Document contains errors etc.

There may be n number of status records for an IDOC.

Types of IDOC:
Basic:This idoc is created for the first time
Extension:existing idoc which can be added with more functionalities.

Segment:It represents the data in the form of field type.

Message type:Message type is a message which is transferred in between the business partners.Basic
type is a container of the message
Idoc creation:
 Create a field type se11
 Create a segment and attach the above field type we 31
 Create a idoc and attach the above segment –we30
 Create a message type-we81
 Attach the message type to idoc-we82
 Dispatch the idoc—ALE Process

Enter T-CODE SE11

Select Data type and Enter Name EX:ZDIDOC
Click on Create---select dataelement

Enter Tcode WE31

Enter Segment tye EX”ZJSEG
Click on Create-----Enter description
Enter Field name and dataelement(ex:empno,zdidoc)
Click on save and press enter ok button
Click local object

Enter T-code WE30 to Create IDOC

Enter IDOC Name EX:ZDIDOC1
Click on Create
Select Create New and enter decripton EX:IDOC
Click ok
Select the idoc and click on create Segment
Give the segment type Ex:ZJSEG
Minimum=1
Maximim=5
Click on ok and save—Click local object

Enter T-code WE 81(Creating the Message type)

Click on Change
Click on New Enteries
Enter Message type and Short description(EX:ZNMSG,Message type)
Click on save and create the T.R and Save

Enter T-code WE82

Click on Change----New Entries
Enter Message type,Basic type,Release(Ex:ZNMSG,ZDIDOC1,620)
SAVE