ISU Printing

[priyadarsana_panda]

Hi All

I have one scenario where the bill printing by the utility company needs to be done outside the customer premise i.e. a 3rd party printing house.I have two queries

1.Should we use RDI file or XSF which one is preferable

2.If we use RDI,how will we chnage the data to the format compatible to printing house requirement,whats the best approach from your experience?

[Former Member]

Hi Panda,

The use of RDI file or XSF would depend on the situation or the requirement. XSF lets you connect SAP Smart Forms to external text management and form printing tools. XSF interface provides all form data from SAP R/3 but does not include layout information such as fonts or page size--these are defined by the external system.The BC-XSF interface is particularly useful for bulk mail processing since external systems can sort document data from the interface and forward the documents for bundling in conventional mail.

Use of RDI with external systems would be particularly useful where you have to manage Layouts,fonts and texts more extensively.For example, if you are using external Document Management System like Streamserve, sending a RDI file is recommended.

Hope that helps you take a decision on the use of RDI or XSF.

Regards

Amitav

[Former Member]

Hi Panda,

My understanding is you want send specific fields/data from RDI file into text / formatted flat file to 3rd party printing software. If this is the scenario I will suggest use RDI file.

Your second query how to format/capture/filter required data:

While creating RDI file SAP updates internal table and then it creates RDI file. You can add routine/code to capture that required data from that internal table and write the same into a different flat file according to your format/requirement.

Gopal

Reward points if it helps to you.

[dutiwari]

Hi,

We are using EA29 to create RDI files in daily batch run. All spools files get stored in SAP Global directory /usr/sap/<SYS-ID>/SYS/global/<CLIENT>SPOOL/.

Then after running EA29 we run Z* program to copy files from Global Spool directory to Unix Directory and then from Unix Dir we FTP to 3rd Party Vendor Server. Then they generate bill for us.

Hope this will help you.

Thanks,

Durgesh.

[priyadarsana_panda]

Hi All

Thanks a lot for the suggestion.Can you please tell me what was your driving factor to develop the design to read the file from Spool and not generate it directly in the application form processing.Some are suggesting to write the text file directly in the Application form processing,some are suggesting to write it to a spool and read from there.....Can I know what will be the key driver to make a decision on the approach.

Regards

Panda

[dutiwari]

Simply we do not wanted to load our ISU servers for bill printing. As huge number of bills get generated daily, generating RDI is much faster rather than using forms and printing online.

Thanks,

Durgesh.

[priyadarsana_panda]

Hi Durgesh

Sorry I think you did not get my query;the query is why you did not use Application Form Exits to create Text file rather adopted the approach to generate RDI file in spool first and then run a program to convert it to Text file.Is it solely because of performance.

Since EA29 anyway is a batch run so I was wondering performance may not be a criteria.Please advice.

Regards

Panda

[Former Member]

Hi Durgesh,

Would you please send me your Z* program which copies the spool files to the unix files and the fpt to the 3rd party invoice printing.

Thanks,

Daniel

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