ALE / IDoc - Functional
Overview
Sundaramoorthi . A
MM / WM Consultant
7/16/2009 1
Target Audience:
Functional Consultants
Objective:
To provide a high level understanding of ALE / IDoc
NOTE: The slides contain the key points to discuss during presentation. Not All the points are elaborated in the slides.
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Agenda
Introduction
ALE Fundamentals
Distribution Model
Intermediate Documents
Master data Distribution
Distributing Transaction Data
Monitoring Data Distribution
Error Handling
Role of a Functional Consultant in an ALE scenario
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Introduction
Globally active enterprises usually structure their business
using multiple clients in an SAP system, often also using
multiple SAP systems.
Integrating the systems with in the organization and
between organizations becomes critical to attain the real
business benefits.
It requires frequent communication and high level of data
exchange.
In order to achieve this, SAP has come up with the concept
ALE – Application Link Enabling.
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Distribution Model
Distribution Model
Core component of ALE
It determines which sender sends which
information to which recipients
Example:
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Logical System name
LS represents R/3 or External system names in the SAP R/3
environment for the distribution of data.
The Logical system name uniquely identifies the client of an
SAP system or a non- SAP system in the system landscape.
Renaming the LS name is a serious intervention.
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Message Type
It indicates the types of data that are to be exchanged.
Examples:
Material Master: MATMAS
Vendor Master: CREMAS
Goods Movement: MBGMCR
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Distribution model and model views
LS name and message type are linked - in the distribution
model - to determine which sender sends which data to
which recipient.
The distribution model bundles,
all the assignments of senders, recipients and data to be
sent.
The model view needs to be distributed to other systems.
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Message types and Basic types
In ALE, message types indicate the data that is to be
exchanged between each of two systems.
Ex: MATMAS –represents material records.
The material master data to be distributed is transported
in an electronic Intermediate document from sender
system to receiver system.
The structure of the document is determined in a basic
type.
Ex: MATMAS05
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RFC Destination and Ports
In ALE scenarios, the systems – exchange data - via
Remote Function Calls.
RFC makes it possible – exchange data – different SAP
systems - SAP & non SAP.
From 1 SAP system – RFC calls – Functional modules in
another SAP system – specially programmed functions in
non SAP systems.
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Ports
To Use ALE Scenarios later on – the RFC must be assigned
to a port.
Sender uses it – to determine the communication channel
to the recipient.
Ports – manually created – or – Sender system creates- if
logical target system & RFC destination have the same
name.
Different Ports – RFC , File
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Partner Profile
ALE scenarios require Partner Profiles for every
combination of recipient system and message type.
It is necessary for processing the IDoc.
Partner profile contains the Outbound and Inbound
parameters.
Process Code is used to find a function module for the
inbound processing of the IDoc.
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Intermediate Documents (IDOCs)
An IDoc is simply a data container that is used to exchange
information between any two processes that can
understand the syntax and semantics of the data.
IDoc is not a process.
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In the SAP system, IDOCs are stored in database tables.
IDOCs are independent of the sending and receiving
systems.
IDOCs are independent of the direction of data exchange.
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Process
The two available process for IDOCs are
Outbound Process
Sending out the data from our system. The
IDOC which is called as Outbound IDOC
Inbound Process
When the data is coming in, the process is
called Inbound Process and the IDoc is known as
Inbound IDoc.
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IDoc Applications
Several SAP applications use the robust IDOC interface. IDocs
serve the basic purpose of transferring data from one
application to another.
Example includes,
EDI Integration
ALE Integration
Legacy System Integration
Third-party Product Integration
Workflow Integration
SAP R/2 Integration
Internet Integration
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IDoc Components
There are basically two types of IDOCs.
Basic IDOCs
Basic IDOC type defines the structure and format of
the business document that is to be exchanged
between two systems.
Extended IDOCs
Extending the functionality by adding more segments
to existing Basic IDOCs
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Runtime Components
There are three types of records
• Control Record
• Data Record
• Status Record
Control Record - contains the key information like
destination, IDoc type, message type, port and sender
information.
Control records are of EDIDC type of structure
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Data Records -
This contains two parts
Administrative Section and Data Section
Administrative Section consists of IDoc number,
Segment Name, Segment number, Version, Segment
Hierarchy etc.
Data Section contains the data of respective segment
Data records are of EDIDD type of structure
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Status Record - whenever a process is taken place,
system will generate status records.
We can identify the process with the number of status
record.
• 01 - 49 for Outbound Process
• 50 - 75 for Inbound Process
when IDoc is processed the messages are:
• 01 - IDoc is created
• 30 - IDoc is ready for dispatch
• 03 - IDoc is processed
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Creation of IDoc type
To Create IDoc we need to follow these steps:
Create Segment ( WE31)
Create IDoc Type ( WE30)
Create Message Type ( WE81)
Assign IDoc Type to Message Type ( WE82)
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Master data Distribution
Change pointers
Activation – General & Message type
Filters
Case study:
Requirement:
At the time of Creating or Updating material
master in SAP 1, the Changes should reflect in
Third party SAP system.
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Conditions:
If the below Conditions are satisfied, the Creation/
Updation will be reflected.
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Process
Conditions:
Using MATMAS05
Material Master WERKS=XXXX IDOC Created
LGORT=0001
Creation / Updation PSTAT=L CHANGE in SAP
POINTERS
in SAP MMSTA=05
IDOC is passed
to XI port
XYZ XML is
passed to XML file is
material master
XYZ generated in XI
is updated
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1.Material is changed for the Plant:XXXX
2.Using Change Pointer MATMAS05 IDOC created
in SAP & passed to XI Port
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Distributing Transaction Data:
Message Control
EX: PO distribution
Transmission medium: ALE / EDI.
Partner Profiles & Model View in Distribution Model .
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Monitoring Data Distribution &
Error Handling
IDoc Status Management
IDoc Re-Processing
IDoc Archiving
ALE Audit ( ALEAUD)
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THANK YOU
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