SAP EDI Process

SAP EDI Process and IDOC Configuration

SAP EDI Process

In any SAP EDI Process a Sub System is required. Basically an EDI Subsystem does the conversion of SAP IDOCs to to EDI Format and Vice Versa. An EDI subsystem is a thirdparty systems and deals with standards that are most current.

Thus as mentioned above the EDI SubSystem acts like a translator. SAP does certify some EDI subsystems and this is based on the version of SAP.

Basically the SAP EDI process is comprised of


OutBound Process
InBound Process

OutBound Process

The OutBound Document is Created. This could be a Sales Order or a Purchase Order or an Invoice. The process of creating the document is no different than the normal way. But prior to this IDOC configuration is made so that on the document is saved an IDOC is generated. The document is saved in the SAP tables in the usual way but in addition to that an IDOC with the same data is also generated and saved.

You can view this IDOC using the appropriate transactions.  Example  WE05 — IDOC List WE02 Display IDOC. Once the IDOC is generated it is transferred to the operating system level for the EDI system to pick it up. Further to this the IDOC is converted to the EDI standards and the IDOC is then transferred to the desired Partner. The status of this transaction is sent back to SAP

Inbound Process
The transaction code is WE16 and menu path is From the Area menu of EDI, choose Test, Inbound procg of.orig.inb.file.We can use this utility to start the inbound process from an inbound file, but first, we have to build an inbound file.Different ways to start in bound process are1.Copy an existing inbound IDoc in the system, and save the IDoc to a file via transaction WE19, by selecting an existing IDoc number and clicking the Create icon. On the next screen, you can change the values.
Then, click the Inbound File button, enter the file name, and deselect the Start IDoc Inbound Processing of File Immediately flag. Click the Continue button, and an IDoc file is created .2.Copy an outbound file and modify it to look like an inbound file. Alternatively, if you have an outbound file, you can set a breakpoint while executing the turnaround utility. Set the breakpoint where it has copied an outbound file, has modified it to look like an inbound file, and is ready to start the inbound process. At that point, you can end the session. Now you have an IDoc file you can use for your inbound process.