IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > SAP Software > SAP interfaces
The ALE pass-through IDoc interface
The ALE pass-through IDoc interface enables business process integration and asynchronous data communication between two or more SAP systems or between SAP and external systems. The data is exchanged in the form of Intermediate Documents (IDocs).
The adapter supports outbound and inbound processing by enabling the exchange of data in the form of business objects.
- For inbound processing, SAP pushes the data in IDocs to the SAP adapter. The adapter converts the IDocs to business objects and delivers them to the endpoint.
- For outbound processing, the SAP adapter converts the business object to an IDoc and delivers it to SAP.
To use the ALE pass-through IDoc interface for inbound processing, you must make sure that your SAP server is properly configured (for example, you must set up a partner profile and register a program ID to listen for events).
Application systems are loosely coupled in an ALE integrated system, and the data is exchanged asynchronously.
IDocs
IDocs are containers for exchanging data in a predefined (structured ASCII) format across system boundaries. The IDoc type indicates the SAP format that is to be used to transfer the data. An IDoc type can transfer several message types (the logical messages that correspond to different business processes). IDocs are used for outbound and inbound processing. The Adapter supports basic and extension IDoc types.
IDocs are exchanged for inbound and outbound events, and IDocs can be exchanged either as individual documents or in packets. For both outbound and inbound processing, the adapter does no conversion of the IDoc. This is useful when the client wants to perform the IDoc parsing.
Transactional RFC processing
The adapter uses tRFC (transactional RFC) to guarantee delivery and to ensure that each IDoc is exchanged only once with SAP. The tRFC component stores the called RFC function in the database of the SAP system along with a unique transaction identifier (TID).
The most common reason for using transaction ID support is to ensure once and only once delivery of data. To make sure of this feature, select the transaction RAR file (CWYAP_SAPAdapter_Tx.rar) when you configure the adapter.
The SAP transaction ID property is always generated by the external service wizard; however, it is supported only for outbound operations when the CWYAP_SAPAdapter_Tx.rar version of the adapter is used.
The client application must determine how to store the SAP transaction ID and how to relate the SAP transaction ID to the data being sent to the adapter. When the events are successful, the client application should not resubmit the event associated with this TID again to prevent the processing of duplicate events.
- If the client application does not send an SAP transaction ID with the business object, the adapter returns one after executing the transaction.
- If the client application has an SAP transaction ID, it needs to populate the SAP transaction ID property with that value before executing the transaction.
The SAP transaction ID can be used for cross-referencing with a global unique ID that is created for an outbound event. The global unique ID is something you can create for managing integration scenarios.
Queued RFC processing
The adapter uses qRFC (queued transactional RFC) to ensure that IDocs are delivered in sequence to a queue on the SAP server or are received in sequence from the SAP server.
- Outbound processing for the ALE pass-through IDoc interface
The adapter supports outbound processing (from the adapter to the SAP server) for the ALE pass-through IDoc interface. ALE uses IDocs for data exchange, and the adapter uses business objects to represent the IDocs.- Inbound processing for the ALE pass-through IDoc interface
The adapter supports inbound processing (from the SAP server to the adapter) for the ALE pass-through IDoc interface.- ALE pass-through IDoc business object structure
During ALE processing, the adapter exchanges business objects with the SAP application. The business object represents an individual IDoc or an IDoc packet. For inbound operation using pass-through IDocs, you can choose to create a parsed Control Record (Inbound only) along with a HexBinary stream to hold both the Control Record and the Data Record. For the first case, the business object will contain a child Business Object representing the parsed Control Record, and a HexBinary field to hold both the Data Record and Control Record. The same business object format is used for inbound and outbound ALE pass-through IDoc processing. For outbound operations using pass-through IDocs, the business object contains an IDoc stream instead of a child business object.