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SAP Remote Function Calls (RFCs) and Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) do not require any additional system configuration other than values for the Connection Target parameters. If you do not intend to send IDocs to the SAP system, you may skip this chapter.
Most of the configuration for IDoc processing is performed on the SAP application server, not in the iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP. For sending IDocs, you will configure the same type of connection target as for RFC or BAPI. For receiving IDocs, the event target configuration is the same as for receiving general events.
Task: In this section, you will learn about the components that are required to configure the SAP system to send IDocs from the adapter. Most configuration work for sending or receiving IDocs is done on the SAP system. This section provides an overview of the components and a step by step walk through to enable you to send or receive IDocs immediately.
SAP ECC is a process-oriented system. As a result, all configurations must be performed in sequence, and correctly, or the entire operation you are trying to perform will not be successful.
The process setup for SAP ALE (Application Link Enabling) on an SAP system consists of Partners, Messages, Distribution Models, and Ports, which are described in the following list:
The transmission of IDocs is performed through transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC), which has a mechanism for preventing duplicate transactions in SAP and the iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP. The actual physical transmission is done through a background SAP work process that is designed to send and go. The work process leaves the contents and as soon as it receives an OK from the other end, the process moves on to the next message. IDoc transmission cannot be used to verify content transmission. The IDoc interface is similar to email in this regard, that each message is synchronously processed and transmission errors will immediately be caught and handled, but the content and application processing of the messages is performed in a separate stage.
When sending an IDoc outbound to SAP inbound IDoc processing, the iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP reads an XML input document and creates an SAP standard format IDoc. The adapter can also process documents in standard SAP positional relationship format. Once assembled as an IDoc, the document is sent to SAP for inbound processing. Multiple IDocs can also be assembled into a larger document for efficient processing. For more information, see the SAP ALE documentation.
The IDoc is accepted, that is, saved in the database. If all of the information in the IDoc passes verification, then the IDoc can be passed to an application for further processing.
When sending IDocs from the SAP system to the iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP, the sending system transfers an message through the IDoc interface to the ALE port for the corresponding Logical System. The transmission is done through transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC).
Usually, IDocs are written directly to the database and read by the corresponding application in a workflow (for example, Purchasing for Purchase Orders). This can take time depending on the type of data and the application. The iWay Application Adapter for SAP ERP can post to the database and return or post and wait. This is defined in the Partner Profile on the host system. In either case, you may send a status IDoc message to obtain the status of your IDoc or use appropriate transaction codes in SAP to view the IDocs online.
Perform the following steps to configure sending an IDoc to SAP, on the SAP system:
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