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Niranjan Nagle
December 31, 2012 12 minute read

IDoc Basics For Functional Consultants

310569726,098
ABSTRACT
Today IDocs are used in most SAP applications for transfer of
message(information) from SAP system to other systems and
vice versa. Though lot of documentation is available on IDocs it is
difficult for a functional consultant to understand such documents
due to their technical nature.  While a functional  consultant  is
not expected to know the IDoc concepts in its entirety, an effort
has been made to capture the minimum necessary information
that one needs to be aware of in order to handle project/support
issues on IDocs.

OVERVIEW
IDoc is an SAP object that carries data of a business transaction from one
system to another in the form of electronic message. IDoc is an acronym
for Intermediate Document. The purpose of an IDoc is to transfer data or
information from SAP to other systems and vice versa.  The transfer from
SAP to non-SAP system is done via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
subsystems whereas for transfer between two SAP systems, ALE is used.
IDoc can be triggered in SAP system or in EDI subsystem. This depends
on the direction in which IDoc is sent and is called as Inbound IDoc and
Outbound IDoc accordingly. In case of outbound flow, IDoc is triggered in
SAP through document message control which is then sent to EDI
subsystem. EDI converts the data from IDoc into XML or equivalent format
and then sends the data to partner system through Internet.
For inbound flow, EDI converts partner data and IDoc is created in SAP.
After successful processing of this IDoc, Application Document is posted in
SAP.

EDI STANDARDS AND IDOC

“EDI is electronic exchange of business document between the computer
systems of business partners, using a standard format over a
communication network”. EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange.
For transmission of information electronically, two widely used standards
are ANSI ASC X12 and EDIFACT. ANSI ASC X12 is a committee formed
by representatives of major organizations, government bodies and EDI
software companies which defines standards and guidelines for information
interchange over EDI. UN/EDIFACT stands for United Nations EDI for
Administration, commerce and Transport and was formed in 1985 using
ANSI X12 and UNTDI (United Nations Trade Data interchange) as base
standards. ANSI X12 describes business document as transactions and
each transaction is represented by three digit number e.g. 850 – Purchase
Order, 855 – Purchase Order Acknowledgement. EDIFACT describes
business document as messages, represented by standard names e.g.
ORDERS for purchase order.
IDOC TERMINOLOGIES
IDOC (BASIC) TYPE
IDoc Types are based on the EDI standards and mostly on EDIFACT
standards. 
Basic Types (or IDoc Type) defines the structure of an IDoc. Each basic
type describes standard IDoc segments, format of data fields and their size.
Basic Type also defines number of segments and fields in an IDoc. All the
fields that are necessary for transmission of message for a particular
business transaction are mapped in different segments. It also defines the
structure and relationship of IDoc segments along with mandatory and
optional segments.

IDOC EXTENSION
Basic type contains all the standard fields that are necessary for carrying
out a business transaction. However, if any additional values are to be sent
to the partner then we can make use of the IDoc Extension feature. IDoc
extension is extension of basic type and contains additional custom IDoc
segments and fields that are not available in standard basic type.

IDOC SEGMENTS
IDoc segments contain the actual data that is sent to or received from a
partner. These segments contain the actual values that are sent as part of
IDoc transmission.
PARENT AND CHILD SEGMENTS
IDoc segment is termed as Parent segment if it contains its own segments.
The dependent segments are called as child segments.

INBOUND/OUTBOUND IDOCS
IDocs sent outside the system are termed as Outbound IDocs and the ones
that are received into the system, are called as Inbound IDocs.

IDOC DIRECTION
This signifies the direction is which information is sent and is similar to
terminology used in mails. If information is sent outside the system then the
direction is outbox when it is received into the system then direction is
inbox. In SAP Outbox direction is represent by “1” i.e. outbox and Inbox
direction is represented by “2”.

PARTNER
Partner is the Business Partner with which the exchange of information is
to take place using IDoc. It can be a vendor or customer or any other
system. Depending on the direction of information in which the information
is sent it plays a role of either a “sending partner” or a “receiving partner”.

PARTNER TYPE
Partner type/role is used to identify partners within the sap systems.
Partner type is KU for customer, LI for vendor and LS for Logical System.

MESSAGE TYPE
IDoc processing involves transmission or receipt of document in the form of
a message, each of which represents a document in SAP. These
documents can be Order, Shipment Confirmation, Advance Shipping
Notification, Goods Receipt, or Invoice.  Message type is associated with
Basic IDoc Type (Basic Type) and defines the kind of data or document
that is exchanged with the partner.
PROCESS CODE
The process code contains the details of the Function Module that are used
for IDoc processing. Message Type can be linked to the Process code.

PORT
IDoc Port contains the information about the way data is sent between the
source or target system. The type of port defines the information contained
within the port. For port type “Internet” Port will contain IP address of the
target system. For port type “file”, directory or file name information is
maintained. “tRFC” port contains information about the RFC destination of
the target system. For IDoc transmission using ALE “tRFC” ports are used.
PARTNER PROFILE MAINTENANCE
PARTNER PROFILE (WE20)
Partner profile must be maintained for all the business partners to whom
we want to send or receive the IDocs. The TCODE for maintaining the
partner profile is WE20.

Double clicking on the Partner will show the following screen:

Partner profile contains parameters for Inbound and Outbound processing
of IDocs. For each message type we can maintain, inbound/outbound
options, message control, post processing options and contact information
within Inbound and outbound parameters.
OUTBOUND OPTIONS (OUTBOUND PARAMETERS)
This involves sender/receiver port, Output mode and relation to IDoc type
i.e. Basic Type and extension.
MESSAGE CONTROL (OUTBOUND PARAMETERS)
This contains application for which IDoc will be created e.g. EF for
Purchase order, the message type of the application that will trigger the
IDoc and Process Code that will convert SAP document to an IDoc. For
example, if PO is to be sent to the Vendor AXXXXZ, then in the outbound
option of the partner AXXXXZ we need to maintain the message type ZXX1
and link it to the Process Code ME10. So when message type ZXX1 is
triggered in the PO then an IDoc will be created for the partner vendor
AXXXXZ.
Process Code is linked to the Function Module in SAP that converts
application data into an IDoc. Standard function modules are provided by
SAP for this conversion however these can also be customized as per
business needs.
Change Message Indicator indicates whether the IDoc is sentas a
notification of change. For example, Purchase Order change messages are
sent to vendor using EDI standard message type 860. 

Separate message type should be triggered in the purchase order for PO

change. Additional line with change message type must be added in the
Message control tab with change message indicator on.
INBOUND OPTIONS (INBOUND PARAMETERS)
For inbound options process code is maintained in the Inbound screen
only. IDoc processing can be triggered by background program and
triggered immediately.

POST PROCESSING (INBOUND/OUTBOUND PARAMETERS)

In the post processing option we can maintain the workflow details of the
users or positions to which an error notification will be sent if an IDoc
processing fails.

TELEPHONY (INBOUND/OUTBOUND PARAMETERS)

We can also maintain the contact details in the telephony option.

EDI STANDARD (OUTBOUND PARAMETERS)

EDI standard screen contains the details of the Standard EDI terminology
used for the IDoc transmission.

For example, Message Type 850 is an EDI standard for Purchase Order

IDoc and is linked to IDoc Message Type Orders.

IDOC STRUCTURE AND RECORDS

STRUCTURE
IDoc structure is divided into Control Record, Data Records and Status
records.
These records are stored in the transparent tables in SAP. These are
EDIDC, EDID4 and EDIDS.
CONTROL RECORD (EDIDC)
It contains information such as IDoc number, direction, IDoc Status, Basic
Type, Message Type, Partner (Sender/Receiver), date and time of
creation/update, Interchange File or ISA number,etc.
DATA RECORD (EDID4)
It contains the details of the IDoc segments.
IDoc segment has fields that contain the data necessary for posting the
documents.
STATUS RECORDS (EDIDS)
IDoc Status defines the processing status of the IDoc. IDoc statuses are
used to track the IDoc and its various processing states. Status Numbers
represents IDoc status. Current status of the IDoc is present in Control
record.
Initial Status numbers are 64 for inbound and 03 for outbound. Successful
status is 53 for inbound and 16 for outbound IDocs.
SENDING AND RECEIVING IDOCS
TRIGGERING AN OUTBOUND IDOC
Outbound IDocs can be triggered from the output message types of
Purchase Orders, deliveries, Material Documents, invoices, etc. The
following figure shows that once the output ZXX1 of PO XXXXXXX1 is
processed an IDoc “000000XXXXXXXXX1” is added/created.

The relationship between the IDoc and the application document can be
found in two ways:
1. Relationship tab of IDoc
2. Relationship tab of Application Document, e.g. PO, SO, Material
Document, etc.

The initial status of this IDoc will be 30, which after successful processing
will convert into status 16.

A successful outbound IDoc will pass through all the above statuses in
reverse order (01-03-18-06-12-16). Each status represents an IDoc
validation step. If an IDoc passes all the validations it would reach status
16. These different validation steps for outbound IDocs are explained
below:
01: IDoc generation successful
30: IDoc is ready to be processed by IDoc Processing job
03: IDoc data is passed to the Port
18: IDoc successfully triggered EDI subsystem
06: IDoc data translated to EDI format
12: IDoc is dispatched successfully to the partner
16: Partner has received the IDoc successfully
IDoc can possibly fail at any of the above steps during validation.
RECEIVING AN INBOUND IDOC
The initial status of an inbound IDoc is 64 and successful status is 53.
Different validation steps for inbound IDocs are explained below:
50: IDoc received successfully in the system
64: IDoc is ready to be processed by IDoc processing job
53: Application document created and saved successfully. The document
number can be found by expanding the status node 53

An inbound IDoc goes through all the above statuses in reverse order (50-
64-53).
IDOC PROCESSING
AUTOMATIC/IMMEDIATE PROCESSING
In this case, IDoc are processed immediately as they generated or added
in the system. The check “Transfer IDoc immediately” is selected in
Outbound Options and “Trigger Immediately” is selected in Inbound Option.
These checks are generally used when the real time information exchange
is necessary between two systems.
MANUAL PROCESSING
IDocs can also be manually processed using the TCODE BD87 in SAP.
PROCESSING VIA BACKGROUND JOB
IDoc processing by background is the most preferred way of processing the
IDocs. Following Programs are used from processing the IDocs using
background job:
RBDAPP01 – Inbound IDocs
RSEOUT00 – Outbound IDocs
REPROCESSING IDOCS
On the basis of IDoc statuses different programs can be used for
reprocessing of failed IDocs. These are given below:
SEARCHING IDOCS IN SAP
TCODE WE02/WE05: GENERAL SEARCH
IDocs can be displayed in system via TCODE WE02 and WE05. If IDoc
number is not known then  search can be made on the basis of IDoc Date,
Direction, BASIC TYPE, MESSAGE TYPE, and PARTNER
NUMBER. Partner number can  be found in the Output Messages of the
documents.
IDoc search can also be made on the basis of ISA or Transfer file
Reference.
TCODE WE09: SEARCHING DATA IN IDOC SEGMENTS
If we are looking for specific information within the IDocs Segments then
this can be found using TCODE WE09. This is useful if you are searching
for a particular information in similar kind of IDoc within IDoc segments. For
example, if you want to search a particular Purchase Order number e.g.
100000001 in multiple IDocs which lies in Segment E1EDK01 of an IDoc
under field BELNR. Then the search can be executed in the following
manner.

IDOC VALIDATIONS, COMMON IDOC ERRORS AND

SOLUTION
Though, the IDoc failure may not be related to any of the above mentioned
reasons, the best way to find the IDoc error is to compare the existing IDoc
with the good example. Good example IDoc can be easily searched with
any of the IDoc search methods as described above.

DOCUMENTATION FOR IDOC TYPES

IDoc documentation can be found using TCODE WE60 and can be helpful
to obtain information of the IDoc Type or its particular segment. It also
provides information such as  mandatory and optional segments, minimum
and maximum number of segments, etc.

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR COMMON IDOC MESSAGE

TYPES
The following list gives the Basic Type and Message Type combination for
common idocs
ARCHIVING/DELETION OF IDOCS FROM DATABASE
As IDocs grow older they are archived and deleted from the database.
Archived IDocs can be viewed using TCODE SARI in Achieve Explorer
using archiving object as IDoc. Following are the few programs that are
used for archiving and deletion of IDocs from database.