SAP Project

Company
Intern and

SAP EDUCATION
PARTNER

INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

Introduction to ALE IDOCS and Concepts of ALE IDOC and EDI Technologies in SAP
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

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INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

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.

SA
P
NON SAP

SA
P
Inbound Data
Transfer

Inbound IDOC process happens in the following steps:

1. EDI converted to IDOC
2. IDOC passed to application
3. Application processes data
4. Updates status to IDOC
What is outbound IDOC and hot it works?
Outbound IDOC is the process of transferring data from an SAP system to another SAP system
or to Non-SAP system.
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INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

SA
P

SA
P
Outbound Data
Transfer

NON SAP

The following steps will takes place in outbound IDOC process.

1. IDOC Generated
2. IDOC transferred SAP to EDI layer
3. IDOC converted to EDI format
4. Data transferred to partner
5. New status will be updated
Structure of IDOC
Basically IDOC flows with three types of records
1. Control Record
2. Data Record
3. 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
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INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

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.

SAP-Cross-Applications
Developing and configuring IDOC using ALE to send and receive data from one SAP
system to another SAP system

Steps to be done in 800 Client

Login to 800 client and do following.
1. Create a table (client dependent).
2. Create segments.
3. Create IDOC type.
4. Create message type.

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INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

5. Assign message type to IDOC type.

6. Define logical system.
7. Assign logical system to client.
8. Create RFC destination.
9. Create port.
10.Check partner profiles.
11.Create outbound program.
Steps to be done in 810 (Target System) Client.
1. Create a table (client dependent).
2. Create segments.
3. Create IDOC type.
4. Create message type.
5. Assign message type to IDOC type.
6. Define logical system.
7. Assign logical system to client.
8. Create inbound function module SE37.
9. Register function module characteristics.
10.Assign function module to message and IDOC type.
11.Create process code WE42.
12.Check partner profiles for inbound.

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INTRO ALE IDOC and EDI

Declaration:
This Project is a Live Implementation Cycle Real Time under my
Project Manager (United Kingdom)

2015 Copy Rights Reserved - BEML SOLUTIONS LTD, West Yorkshire

United Kingdom