IDOC Type and Message Type

[Former Member]

I understand that IDOC Type is a Data Structure provided by SAP. For PO, INOVICE and various other Business Documents SAP has Provided Built-In Data Structure.

Whether Message Type is field in Idoc Type, thats going to tell the Business Activities that we are going to do?

For example the PO IDOC and PO Change IDOC both carries the same data structure, but to distinguish them are we using a Message Type?

Please provide a simple example if possible?

[Former Member]

Hi,

Message type gives the meaning of the IDOC (what kind of data we are sending).

IDOC type specifies the structure of the IDOC (Its collection of segments). Here segment nothing but collection of fields.

Thanks

Eswar

[Former Member]

Thanks Eswar. I am confused with your answer

Message type gives the meaning of the IDOC (what kind of data we are sending).

If I select an INVOICE IDOC, that means I am going to send Invoice data? So why I need a Message Type?

[Former Member]

Like you mentioned in case of the PO, the create and change IDOC use the same IDOC type but the message type changes. So, depending on the message type the processing logoic changes.

A IDOC type can be used by different Message types.

Regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot Ravikumar.

When we are talking about PO and Po change thats true that we are Overloading the Data Structure , thats why we have a message type to distinguish what kind of data we are shipping.

But when it comes to an Invoice (Or my own IDOC type which carries only INVOICE), I am not Overloading that structure. Always I am going to send an Invoice data, then in this case why I need a Message type?

[Former Member]

You cannot have a different design for each of the message / IDOC types, right? So, the entire design of this has to be generic enough so that it can scaled up to any scenario.

Regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

Rohini,

See the link for differnece .

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/message_types.htm

Cheers,

Thomas.

[Former Member]

Hi Rohini,

Different Message Types can use One IDOC Type.

Eg: MATMAS is a Message Type.

For more details on IDOCS, have a look at these good links-

<b>ALE/ IDOC</b>

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/dc/6b835943d711d1893e0000e8323c4f/content.htm

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapgenie/docs/ale_scenario_development_procedure.doc

http://edocs.bea.com/elink/adapter/r3/userhtm/ale.htm#1008419

http://www.netweaverguru.com/EDI/HTML/IDocBook.htm

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/index.htm

http://www.sappoint.com/abap/ale.pdf

http://www.sappoint.com/abap/ale2.pdf

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/idoc_abap.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2005/helpdata/en/0b/2a60bb507d11d18ee90000e8366fc2/frameset.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2005/helpdata/en/78/217da751ce11d189570000e829fbbd/frameset.htm

http://www.allsaplinks.com/idoc_sample.html

http://www.sappoint.com/abap.html

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/dc/6b835943d711d1893e0000e8323c4f/content.htm

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapgenie/docs/ale_scenario_development_procedure.doc

http://edocs.bea.com/elink/adapter/r3/userhtm/ale.htm#1008419

http://www.netweaverguru.com/EDI/HTML/IDocBook.htm

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/index.htm

http://www.allsaplinks.com/idoc_sample.html

<b>ALE/ IDOC/ XML</b>

http://www.sapgenie.com/sapgenie/docs/ale_scenario_development_procedure.doc

http://www.thespot4sap.com/Articles/SAP_XML_Business_Integration.asp

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_srm30/helpdata/en/72/0fe1385bed2815e10000000a114084/content.htm

<b>IDOC Convertion</b>

/people/kevin.wilson2/blog/2005/12/07/changing-fields-in-an-idoc-segment

Mark useful answers.

Regards,

Tanuja.