Overview of ALE /

EDI / IDOCs

04/22/08 Overview of ALE/IDOCs 1

EDI
 What is EDI?
 Type of EDI process
• Outbound EDI Process
• Inbound EDI Process

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 What is EDI?
 EDI is electronic exchange of business documents
between the computer systems of business partner using
a standard format over a communication network EDI is
also called a paperless exchange.

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Typical EDI/IDOC Scenario

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Outbound Process
 With Message Control
 Directly -With out Message Control

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Inbound Process
 With Function Module

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EDI Configuration
 How to Set Up an RFC Destination in SAP
 The Port Definitions
 Configure Partner Profile
 Configure Message Control

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Complete EDI/ ALE scenario

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ALE
 What is ALE?
 Components of ALE.
 Anatomy of an IDoc.
 ALE Processing
 Transactions For Monitoring and Processing IDocs.
 Questions

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ALE Terminology
•ALE - Application Linking & Enabling

•IDoc - Intermediate Document

•EDI - Electronic Data Interchange

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ALE Objective

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 ALE!! What is it ??

It is a set of
 Tools,
 programs and

 data definitions

Provides distribution model and technology

that enables SAP Customer to interconnect
programs across various platforms and
systems.
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 Features –ALE / IDocs
◆ Distributed System yet integrated with SAP R/3

◆ Based on ‘Application-to-Application integration using ‘Message

Architecture’

◆ Reliable communication

◆ Data is exchanged using “IDocs”

◆ Support both R/2, R/3 and External system

◆ If network problem, message is buffered

◆ ALE support backward compatibility

◆ ALE ensure that , data is transferred only once

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 ALE Scenario

Document

IDoc
SAP System R/3 SAP System R/3

IDoc IDoc

EDI Subsystem EDI Subsystem

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Topics to cover

 What is ALE ?
 Components of ALE.
 Anatomy of an IDoc.
 ALE Processing
 Transactions For Monitoring and Processing IDocs.
 Trouble Shooting
 Questions

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 Components of ALE

Services:
Application Services
Distribution Services
Communication Services

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Application Services
Services:
Application Services
This is where the SAP
Distribution Services
applications ( SD, FI,
Communication Services
MM etc. ) generate
their data and
documents

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Distribution Services
Services:
Application Services  Recipients
Distribution Services  Formats and
Communication Services
Filters the data
 Creates IDocs

( Intermediate
Documents

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Communication Services
Services:
Application Services
Distribution Services
Communication Services •TCP/IP
•RFC
•tRFC
• etc

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 In a Nut Shell

Application Distribution/ ALE Communication

Layer Layer Layer

Master
Application IDOC Determine Filter/Convert Comm.
Receipients Data, Create IDOC
IDOC

Carrier

Application
Data Application Filter/Convert Comm.
Functions Data IDOC

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Topics to cover
 What is ALE ?
 Components of ALE.
 Anatomy of an IDoc.
 ALE Processing
 Transactions For Monitoring and Processing IDocs.
 Trouble Shooting
 Questions

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IDoc Concept

System 1 System 2

SAP
Document IDoc

 R/3 System  EDI subsystem

 R/3 System
 R/2 System
 3rd party software

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IDoc Structure
Control Record IDoc-ID
Sender-ID
Receiver-ID
IDoc type and logical message
External structure

Data Record IDoc-ID

Sequence/Hierarchy
Segment Format definition for
• header data
• item data

Status Record IDoc-ID

Status information

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 Control record
Data Record
Status Record

IDOC

“Intermediate
Document”

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Control Record The very first record of an IDoc package is always
a control record. The
structure of this control record of the structure
EDIDC and describes the contents of the data
contained in the package. The control record goes to
table EDIDC

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Message Type
Message Type indicates How to Know what the data Means
Data Exchanged by IDOC and EDI is known as Messages
Message of same kind belong to the same message type.
Message types are stored in table EDMSG

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Data Record All records in the IDoc, which come after the
control record, are the IDoc data. They are all
structured alike, with a segment information part
and a data part, which is 1000 character in
length, filling the rest of the line. Data &
Segment info is stored in EDID4 for release 4.x
and EDID3 for release 2.x and 3.x.

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Status Record Information about the IDoc status like:
IDoc identification number
Status number - table verified
IDoc type
Direction
Data and time stamp; Structure: EDIDS

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Status of IDOC
 A two-digit status is assigned to an IDoc to allow the processing to
be monitored.
 The statuses for outbound IDocs are between '01' and '49', while the
statuses for inbound IDocs begin with '50'.

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 Idoc Segments

TCODE:
WE31

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 Idoc Types

TCODE:
WE30

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 How to Attach Segments

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 Message Types

WE81
WE82

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IDOC Type/ Message Type/ Processing Function
Module
Valid combination of Message type and IDOC type are stored in table
EDIMSG
Combination of message type and IDOC type determine the
processing algorithm. This is usually a function module and is set up in
table EDIFCT.

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Topics to cover
 What is ALE ?
 Components of ALE.
 Anatomy of an IDoc.
 ALE Processing.
i.Outbound Processing

ii.Inbound Processing

 Transactions For Monitoring and Processing IDocs.

 Trouble Shooting
 Questions

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 Outbound Processing

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Outbound processing: direct
Application ALE layer Comm. layer
posting

Need to Customer
create IDOC? Distribution Model
asynch. RFC
Create master or
M Receiver determination
IDOC EDI
System call FM
Segment filter ( INBOUND_
IDOC_
Field value conversion PROCESS )
On destination
Application document
posted simultaneously Version change
with IDOCs
Dispatch
Links
C control C
Database

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Dispatch control
Application ALE layer Comm. layer
posting

Need to Customer
create IDOC? Distribution Model
asynch. RFC
Create master or
M Receiver determination
IDOC EDI RFC
asynch.
● Technical comms parameters are
Segment filter defined
or
● EDI or aRFCEDI
(asynch. remote
Field value conversion function call)
● Send immediately or cumulate
Application document and send via batch job
posted simultaneously Version change ● If batch, packet size is
with IDocs determined
Dispatch
Links
C control C
Database

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 Scenario analysis

• How does the IDOC look like ?

• How is data being sent ?

• How is the data being received ?

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 Outbound program development

• Program logic
– “How is the IDOC being created ?”

• Triggering
– “How is the IDOC creation kicked off ?”

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 Program logic
IDOC program
• Select data from application tables
• Fill data into IDOC
• Pass IDOC to ALE layer
(Call function MASTER_IDOC_DISTRIBUTE)
• Commit Work

MASTER_IDOC_DISTRIBUTE
• Receiver determination
• Segment filtering
• Version Control
• Dispatch Control
ALE layer

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 MASTER_IDOC_DISTRIBUTE

Call function ‘MASTER_IDOC_DISTRIBUTE’

 Exporting
 master_idoc_control: IDOC control record
 Tables
 communication_idoc_control: returned information
about the distribution
 master_idoc_data: IDOC data segments

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 Filling an EDIDD structure
Header (55bytes) SDATA (1000bytes)
EDIDD …. SEGNAM ….

Field1 Field2 Field3 Field4

Z1SEG
“10” “ABC”

MOVE “Z1SEG” to EDIDD-SEGNAM

MOVE “10” to Z1SEG-FIELD1
MOVE “ABC” to Z1SEG-FIELD2
MOVE Z1SEG to EDIDD-SDATA

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 General Programming rules
 Design Guidelines for creating IDOC data records:

● Left-justified filing of IDOC Fields

• Replacing SAP codes with ISO codes

 currency keys
 country keys
 unit of measure
 shipping instructions
● Converting Currency Amounts

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 Left-justified Filling
 All fields must be left-justified
 Character fields:
 automatic

 Non-character fields:
 ‘Condense’ statement must be used
 Check IDOC documentation to find out which fields
require a ‘condense’
 All types unequal to ‘char’, ‘cuky’, ‘clnt’, ‘accp’, ‘numc’,
‘dats’, ‘tims’ or ‘unit’ require a condense

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 Code Conversions
 Replacing SAP codes with ISO codes
– Currency keys: ‘currency_code_sap_to_iso’
– Country keys: ‘country_code_sap_to_iso’
– Units of measure: ‘unit_of_measure_sap_to_iso’
– Shipping instructions: sap_iso_package_type_code’

• Conversion of currency amounts

– ‘currency_amount_sap_to_iso’

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 Basic Configuration Elements
 Define RFC Destinations
 Define Ports
 Maintain Customer Model
 Create Partner Profiles

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 Maintaining RFC Destinations

TCODE:
SM59

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 Displaying and Maintaining Ports

TCODE:
WE21

A port is a logical representation of a

communication channel in SAP with
the data communicated being IDocs.
IDocs

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 Partner Profiles

TCODE:
WE20

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 Partner Profiles-Inbound

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 Partner Profiles-Outbound

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ALE For Transactional data ---- Output
Determination

NACE

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Output Determination -- Output Types

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Output Types -- Details

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 Inbound Processing

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Inbound Processing.
Comm. layer ALE layer Application
posting
C
Version change

asynch. RFC Segment filter

or
EDI Field value conversion

Input
control A
A Serialization Process IDOC

Simultaneously update
IDOC's status
Post application
Database document

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Input Control
Comm. layer ALE layer Application
posting
C

● For each message type and sender Version change

one can define
asynch.
● when
RFCto process Segment filter
(immediate/batch)
or
● whether to call application
EDIdirectly or start customer Field value conversion
workflow
● who should get work items in Input
case of error control A
● Incoming IDOC packets are passed to
application A Serialization Process IDOC

Simultaneously update
IDOC's status
Post application
Database document

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Application Input
Comm. layer ALE layer Application
posting
C
Version change

asynch. RFC Segment filter

or
EDI Field value conversion

● Input
Inbound IDOCs are passed to
the application via a control A
standardized function
interface A Serialization Process IDOC

Simultaneously update
IDOC's status
Post application
Database document

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Serialization
Comm. layer ALE layer Application
posting
C
Version change

● When processing the Segment filter

asynch. RFC
inbound IDOC, the
or
application can call an ALE
EDI Field value conversion
API (function module) to
check that the IDOC has not
been overtaken Input
● If change No. 1 arrives control A
after change No. 2, the
IDOC containing it has A Serialization Process IDOC
been overtaken (by the
IDOC containing the Simultaneously update
later change) IDOC's status
Post application
Database document

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 FM Assignment to Message Type and
IDoc type

TCODE:
WE57

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 Process Codes

WE41
WE42

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 Process Codes in Inbound and Outbound

TCODE:
WE64

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 FM For Inbound EDI

TCODE:
BD67

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 Inbound Program Development
ALE configuration
INBOUND_IDOC_PROCESS • Partner Profiles
IDOC • Process Code
• Version change • Function module attribute
• Segment filter • Function module registry
• Field conversion
Call function
IDOC_INPUT_<MSGTYPE>

• Read IDOC data

• Post Application data
Return Variables • Send Success info back to ALE layer

If ERROR, trigger
Workflow Task
ALE layer

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Basic Scenario
 Direct Method
 Call Transaction Method

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Advanced Scenario
 Mass processing
 Serialization
 Advanced Workflow

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Flow Of Program
 Read IDOC-Lock IDOC-Call Inbound Program-
Write Status-Commit Work-Unlock IDOC

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Interface of Inbound FM
 Importing Parameter
-Input Method
-Mass_processing
EXPORT parameter .
-Workflow_result
-Application_variable
-In_Update_task
-Call_transaction_done

Tables parameter :
IDOC_Control
IDOC_DATA
IDOC_STATUS
Return_variable

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Topics to cover
 What is ALE ?
 Components of ALE.
 Anatomy of an IDoc.
 ALE Processing
 Transactions For Monitoring and Processing IDocs.
 Questions

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Monitoring IDocs
• The IDoc interface offers 2 different approaches for tracking of data
load and data flow:
Reports for monitoring
Workflow for notifications
• Both approaches are based on the concept of status transitions, i.e.
an IDoc changes its status from a given value to another value.

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List Of All IDocs Created. (Default, Additional, EDI)-- WE02/
WE05

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Selection Program For Issuing Output --
WE15

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Test Tool For Idoc Processing (WE19)

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Idoc Search For Business Contents
(Database). WE09

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 Questions

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