BAPI, RFC, IDOC

[former_member326595]

HI Gurus,

Can any one please tell me meaning of following terms, I would appreciate if u could give some examples related to its use in SD.

BAPI

RFC

IDOC.

Regards

Ajoy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ajoy,

What is BAPI ?

BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces) are the

standard SAP interfaces. They play an important role in the

technical integration and in the exchange of business data

between SAP components, and between SAP and non-SAP

components. BAPIs enable you to integrate these components

and are therefore an important part of developing

integration scenarios where multiple components are

connected to each other, either on a local network or on

the Internet.

BAPIs allow integration at the business level, not the

technical level. This provides for greater stability of the

linkage and independence from the underlying communication

technology

What is RFC?

A remote function call is a call to a function module running in a system different from the caller's. The remote function can also be called from within the same system (as a remote call), but usually caller and callee will be in different systems.

In the SAP System, the ability to call remote functions is provided by the Remote Function Call interface system (RFC). RFC allows for remote calls between two SAP Systems (R/3 or R/2), or between an SAP System and a non-SAP System.

RFC consists of the following interfaces:

A calling interface for ABAP programs

Any ABAP program can call a remote function using the CALL FUNCTION...DESTINATION statement. The DESTINATION parameter tells the SAP System that the called function runs in a system other than the caller's. RFC communication with the remote system happens as part of the CALL FUNCTION statement.

RFC functions running in an SAP System must be actual function modules, and must be registered in the SAP System as "remote".

When both caller and called program are ABAP programs, the RFC interface provides both partners to the communication. The caller may be any ABAP program, while the called program must be a function module registered as remote.

The topic Calling Remote Function Modules in ABAP provides details on calling function modules registered as remote.

The topic Writing Remote Function Modules in ABAP provides information on writing function modules that you want to call remotely.

Calling interfaces for non-SAP programs

When either the caller or the called partner is a non-ABAP program, it must be programmed to play the other partner in an RFC communication.

To help implement RFC partner programs in non-SAP Systems, SAP provides

External Interfaces

RFC-based and GUI-based interfaces can be used by external programs to call function modules in SAP R/2 or R/3 systems and execute them in these systems. Vice versa, ABAP programs in R/2 or R/3 can use the functions provided by external programs via these interfaces.

If you want to see some scenarios within a programming example, see the corresponding unit in the Tutorial: Communication Interfaces.

What is an IDOC?

-IDoc (for intermediate document) is a standard data structure for electronic data interchange (EDI) between application programs written for the popular SAP business system or between an SAP application and an external program. IDocs serve as the vehicle for data transfer in SAP's Application Link Enabling (ALE) system. IDocs are used for asynchronous transactions: each IDoc generated exists as a self-contained text file that can then be transmitted to the requesting workstation without connecting to the central database. Another SAP mechanism, the Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) is used for synchronous transactions.

A large enterprise's networked computing environment is likely to connect many geographically distributed computers to the main database. These computers are likely to use different hardware and/or operating system platforms. An IDoc encapsulates data so that it can be exchanged between different systems without conversion from one format to another.

IDoc types define different categories of data, such as purchase orders or invoices, which may then be broken down into more specific categories called message types. Greater specificity means that an IDoc type is capable of storing only the data required for a particular transaction, which increases efficiency and decreases resource demands.

An IDoc can be generated at any point in a transaction process. For example, during a shipping transaction process, an IDoc may be generated that includes the data fields required to print a shipping manifest. After a user performs an SAP transaction, one or more IDocs are generated in the sending database and passed to the ALE communication layer. The communication layer performs a Remote Function Call (RFC), using the port definition and RFC destination specified by the customer model. The IDoc is transmitted to the receiver, which may be an R/3, R/2, or some external system.

I hope this will be helpful for you.

Thanks,

Swamy Kunche