idocs

Former Member — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:31:48 GMT

hi,

can any body tell me why we use this idocs?

what is the difference between bdc and idocs?

Re: idocs

Former Member — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:42:22 GMT

Hi,

IDOCS:

IDocs are SAP’s file format to exchange data with a foreign system.

IDocs are an ASCII file format to exchange data between computers; the format is chosen arbitrarily .

IDocs are similar to segmented files; they are not a description language like ANSI X.12, EDIFACT or XML.

The IDoc contents are processed by function modules, which can be assigned in customizing.

IDocs are structured ASCII files (or a virtual equivalent). They are the file format used by SAP R/3 to exchange data with foreign systems.

IDocs are simple ASCII data streams. When they are stored to a disk file, the IDocs

are simple flat files with lines of text, where the lines are structured into data fields.

The typical structured file has records, each record starting with a leading string that identifies the record type. Their specification is stored in the data dictionary.

IDocs is the acronym for Interchange Document. This indicates a set of (electronic)

information which builds a logical entity. An IDoc is e.g. all the data of a single

customer in your customer master data file, or the IDoc is all the data of a single

invoice.

IDoc data is usually exchanged between systems and partners that are completely

independent. Therefore, the data should be transmitted in a format that can easily be

corrected by the computer operators. It is therefore mandatory to post the data in a

human readable form.

Nowadays, this means that data is coded in ASCII format, including numbers which

are sent as a string of figures 0 to 9. Such data can easily be read with any text editor on any computer, be it a PC, Macintosh, UNIX System, S/390 or any internet

browser.

The information which is exchanged by IDocs is called a message and the IDoc is

the physical representation of such a message. The name “messages” for the

information sent via IDocs is used in the same ways as other EDI standards. .

Everybody who has ever dealt with interface programming, will find IDocs very

much like the hierarchical data files used in traditional data exchange.

International standards like the ODETTE or VDA formats are designed in the same

way as IDocs are.

Other EDI standards like XML, ANSI X.12 or EDIFACT/UN are based on a data

description language. They differ principally from the IDocs concept, because they

use a programming language syntax (e.g. like Postscript or HTML) to embed the DATA.

The IDoc process is a straight forward communication scenario. A communication is

requested, then data is retrieved, wrapped and sent to the destination in a predefined format and envelope.

An R/3 application creates data and updates the database appropriately. An

application can be a transaction, a stand-alone ABAP Report or any tool that can

update a database within R/3.

If the application thinks that data needs to be distributed to a foreign system, it

triggers the IDoc mechanism, usually by leaving a descriptive message record in the

message table NAST.

The application then either directly calls the IDoc engine or a collector job

eventually picks up all due IDoc messages and determines what to do with them.

If the engine believes that data is ready to be sent to a partner system, then it

determines the function module which can collect and wrap the required IDoc data

into an IDoc.

In IDoc customising, you specify the name of the function module to use. This can

either be one which is predefined by R/3 standard or a user-written one.

When the IDoc is created it is stored in an R/3 table and from there it is sent to the foreign system.

If the foreign system requires a special conversion, e.g. to XML, EDIFACT or X.12

then this job needs to be done by an external converter, like the Seeburger ELKE™

system. These converters are not part of R/3.

If you have to decide on a converter solution, we strongly recommend using a plain

PC based solution. Conversion usually requires a lot of fine tuning which stands

and falls with the quality of the provided tools.

DIFFERENCE B/W IDOC AND BDC:

IDOC's are intermediary documents into which the data will be transferred and then this idoc's gets transferred to sap or non-sap system.

ALE is used to create link between 2 systems. So without the linking the data cannot be uploaded or downloaded.

BAPI, LSMW and BDC are used to transfer data b/w systems.

BDC is used to transfer data b/w only sap systems.

LSMW is used to transfer data b/w sap and non-sap systems.

ale Idoc: Idoc is a part of ALE. it is applicable only if the external system and the sending system have the same format. ALE uses Internationally Standardized formats. Also it is facilitating Asynchronous data communication and safest data communication. If you got errors also you can correct it and send it again.

lsmw: It the legacy data transfer. which is used for bulk data transfers. It uses BAPI, IDoc, BDc internally....

bapi: SAP Provided way of data transfer. if the BAPi suits for our business bettere to go for bapi. it too uses internationally standardized data format Business Objects concept.

Reward if it useful.

Lakshmi.

Re: idocs

abdul_hakim — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:52:36 GMT

Hi,

IDoc(Intermediate Documents) is a container which will carry the data between SAP systems as well as between SAP and Non-SAP Systems.

BDC(Batch Data Communication) is used to upload the data from Legacy system to SAP System or from SAP System to another SAP System.

You can use IDocs across system boundaries where as you cannot use BDC for this!

Regards,

Abdul Hakim

Re: idocs

Former Member — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:49:40 GMT

Hi,

The use of Idocs are exchange of information from Sap to non Sap and also to Sap system. They are intermediate documents. Using Bdc we non Sap to sap but it should be as a file.

Thanks

Sarada

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