EDI / IDoc Overview

Document Number: EDIOVERVIEW

Authored by: Kevin Wilson
(kevin@erpgenie.com)

Revision: 01

Training requirements
EDI Coordinator:
 EDI Technology
 SAP EDI \ IDoc configuration, Partner profiles
 SAP ABAP IDoc development, Data dictionary, Function Modules, ABAP workbench, SAP,
Inbound Process Codes

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE

IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 2 of 25
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PURPOSE.........................................................................................................................................................4
AUDIENCE.....................................................................................................................................................4
SCOPE.............................................................................................................................................................4
IDOC STRUCTURE......................................................................................................................................5
WEDI – IDOC AND EDI BASIS..................................................................................................................7
VIEWING / SEARCHING IDOCS..............................................................................................................7
WE05 – IDOC LIST VIEWER........................................................................................................................7
WE02 – IDOC VIEWER.................................................................................................................................8
WE09 – FIND IDOC BASED ON DATA...........................................................................................................8
EDI / IDOC CONFIGURATION..................................................................................................................9
WE20 – DEFINE PARTNER PROFILE.............................................................................................................9
PROCESS CODES.........................................................................................................................................12
WE41 - Outbound process code...........................................................................................................12
WE42 – Inbound process code.............................................................................................................12
WE47 – MAINTAIN STATUS VALUES..........................................................................................................12
WE46 – IDOC ADMINISTRATION................................................................................................................13
BD55 LINK CONVERSION RULES TO IDOC TYPE \ MESSAGE TYPE.............................................................13
BASIS / SUPPORT / OPS TRANSACTIONS...........................................................................................14
SM59 – RFC DESTINATION DEFINITION....................................................................................................14
SM58 – TRANSACTIONAL RFC..................................................................................................................15
WE21 – PORT DEFINITION.........................................................................................................................16
BD87 – IDOC STATUS MONITOR AND REPROCESSING...............................................................................16
IDOC DOCUMENTATION........................................................................................................................17
WE60 – IDOC TYPE DOCUMENTATION......................................................................................................17
WE62 – SEGMENT DOCUMENTATION........................................................................................................17
WE61 – IDOC RECORD TYPES....................................................................................................................18
WE63 – IDOC PARSER...............................................................................................................................18
WE64 – PROCESS CODES...........................................................................................................................19
IDOC TEST TOOLS....................................................................................................................................20
WE19 – IDOC TEST TOOL..........................................................................................................................20
IDOC DEVELOPMENT.............................................................................................................................21
WE31 – IDOC SEGMENTS...........................................................................................................................21
WE30 – IDOC TYPES..................................................................................................................................22
WE81 – MESSAGE TYPES..........................................................................................................................22
WE82 – IDOC \ MESSAGE TYPE LINKING..................................................................................................23
BD51 – INBOUND FM ATTRIBUTES...........................................................................................................23
WE57 – IDOC \ APPLICATION OBJECT LINKING.........................................................................................23
OTHER USEFUL IDOC TRANSACTIONS / FUNCTIONALITY........................................................24
FILTERING – BALD -> IDOCS -> DATA FILTERING...................................................................................24
REDUCTION OF IDOCS – BALD -> IDOCS -> REDUCTION........................................................................24
CHANGE POINTERS – BALD -> IDOCS - ECM..........................................................................................24
ALE \ IDOC CONFIGURATION – SALE......................................................................................................24
OTHER USEFUL TRANSACTIONS IN SAP..........................................................................................24
EDI SPECIFIC TRANSACTIONS....................................................................................................................24
MESSAGE CONTROL...................................................................................................................................24
Delivery................................................................................................................................................24
Invoice..................................................................................................................................................24
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 3 of 25
Order response.....................................................................................................................................25
REQUIREMENTS CODING.............................................................................................................................25
GENERAL....................................................................................................................................................25
Useful Tables.................................................................................................................................................25
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 4 of 25

Purpose
This document attempts to describe the EDI / IDoc interface as provided for by SAP. It
gives a broad overview of the capabilities of the IDoc technology together with an idea as
to where to find them in SAP in order to take advantage of them.

Audience
The primary audience of this document is intended to be the EDI support staff, but the
intention is that the explanations provided in this document will be explicit enough that
anyone should be able to come away with an understanding of the EDI / IDoc
technology.

Scope
This document covers the following:
 SAP IDoc / EDI Configuration
 SAP IDoc Development
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 5 of 25

IDoc Structure

Using SE16 you can view the IDoc in the SAP tables
EDIDC

EDID4
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 6 of 25
The last field is actually a field called SDATA. It is too large to display in SE16. It is of
the same structure as the segment name. E.g. E1EDK01 is the segment and sdata has the
structure e1edk01 as follows (use SE11 and E1EDK01 as data type to view):

EDIDS
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 7 of 25

WEDI – IDoc and EDI Basis

Viewing / Searching IDocs
WE05 – IDoc List Viewer
Displays a list of the inbound and outbound IDocs. Double clicking on the rows in the
left column will limit the IDoc list in the right window.

Double clicking on a row in the right hand box will bring up a list of IDoc for a particular
type in a particular status.

Double click the IDoc to view the IDoc

IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 8 of 25

WE02 – IDoc viewer

This transaction is similar to WE05 except you are able to specify an IDoc number to
view

WE09 – Find IDoc based on data

If you are searching for an IDoc based on content within a segment of an IDoc then this is
the transaction to use but you must know the IDoc type, segment name and field name to
search to make use of it.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 9 of 25

EDI / IDoc Configuration

WE20 – Define Partner profile
The partner profile links the partner (customer / vendor) to the messages that flow in and
out to and from that particular partner. For each of these messages we define exactly the
structure that is required and where it will flow.

Inbound

The process code is linked to a specific function module that is used to read in the IDoc
data and process it in to SAP.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 10 of 25

Outbound

The Port links this message to the applicable RFC destination which refers it to the
applicable EDI translator service. The basic IDoc type tells us what structure we are
expecting to send.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 11 of 25

The message control tab holds the “triggering” information for this message. The SAP
application document uses condition records and output types to decide when to create an
IDoc and of what type. This is the section that links the application to the partner profile
message.

The EDI tab stores data that could be used by the translator to automatically determine
exactly which map to choose to translate an IDoc produced through this partner profile.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 12 of 25

Process Codes
WE41 - Outbound process code
This transaction tells us which message types are applicable for an outbound process
code. Message Function and Message Code are also part of the key and can be used to
process the same IDoc type differently depending on these values.

WE42 – Inbound process code

Same as transaction WE41 for the outbound process code.

WE47 – Maintain status values

This transaction lists the possible statuses that an IDoc can be in. For each status you can
go in and mark it as achievable. Only statuses with this check on can be archived and
ultimately deleted off the system. (Use transaction SARA with object IDOC, together
transaction FILE to archive IDocs off the system)

WE46 – IDoc administration

This transaction sets some global settings for the IDoc environment. Should not need
maintenance.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 13 of 25

BD55 Link conversion rules to IDoc type \ message type

Conversion rules are used to change field values in a particular segment based on other
fields in that same segment.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 14 of 25

Basis / Support / Ops Transactions

SM59 – RFC Destination definition
This transaction defines the parameters of a remote function call for a specific system.

Click RFC destination to see the detail. This is where we will make the connection to the
EDI server using the ALE method.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 15 of 25

The program ID is a registered service on the DORADO server. This will equate to the
service created using the SAP Adaptor for TLE.

SM58 – Transactional RFC

This transaction lists the RFC communications that error’d out during a call. You can
reprocess them here or schedule a report to reprocess them.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 16 of 25

WE21 – Port definition

File ports are used for traditional EDI file interfacing. This method creates the IDocs in a
specified directory on the application server that can then be moved to the EDI server for
processing.
The TLE SAP Adaptor allows us to use ALE to transfer IDocs to and from TLE using the
RFC interface. Hence, we will use a tRFC port linked to an RFC Destination.

BD87 – IDoc status monitor and reprocessing

This transaction is used to reprocess IDocs that are in error, both inbound and outbound.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 17 of 25

IDoc Documentation
WE60 – IDoc type documentation
This is the transaction to use when you need to find out what values are available in the
IDoc itself. You need to know the IDoc segments and then you can see what fields are
available in them to understand what you are looking at when going through an IDoc.

WE62 – Segment documentation

Similar to WE60 except it takes a single segment name as input.

WE61 – IDoc record types

This transaction shows the documentation around the technical components of the IDoc.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 18 of 25

The EDI_DC40 segment is stored in table EDIDC and is the control record for the IDoc
The EDI_DD40 segment is stored in table EDID4 and is the data record for the IDoc. It
has a field called SDATA that contains the data of all the fields in that segment. The
segment name is used to define the structure (structure has the same name as SEGNAM)
of this data.
EDI_DS40 is stored in table EDIDS and contains all the status records for the IDoc. The
latest status number is stored in EDIDC as well for quick searching.

WE63 – IDoc parser

The IDoc parser creates a file that is often used as input by EDI translators in order to
load the IDoc definition in to their respective proprietary format. It takes the IDoc type as
its input.

WE64 – Process codes

This transaction shows you which function modules are called by the respective process
code that either creates or processes an IDoc depending on the IDoc direction.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 19 of 25
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 20 of 25

IDoc Test Tools

Use the following to test inbound IDocs. I usually find an existing IDoc and modify it to
reflect the data I require to test my program.

WE19 – IDoc test tool

Click Inbound function module to specify your own function module for debugging
purposes. Use Standard Inbound if you wish to let the IDoc run through the partner
profile configuration.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 21 of 25

IDoc development
WE31 – IDoc segments
Use this transaction to create a new segment that you will then incorporate in to you IDoc
type. A segment consists of 1 – many fields and needs to be released before it can be
used.

The segment can have multiple versions. Make sure the version you create is released.

For each segment you define the fields together with the data element that describes their
format.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 22 of 25

WE30 – IDoc types

This is the tool that you will use to bring your newly created IDoc segments together in to
an IDoc type. The IDoc type also has to be released before it can be used.

There is a test function in this transaction that ensures that your IDoc type has been
correctly configured. Run it to check before using it.

WE81 – Message Types

This transaction creates the message type which is part of the key in the partner profile.

WE82 – IDoc \ Message Type linking

The IDoc type and the message type need to be linked together for a particular SAP
version.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 23 of 25

BD51 – Inbound FM attributes

Per function module you need to specify the direction of the IDoc. I.e. Inbound or
outbound.

WE57 – IDoc \ Application object linking

This is the area where we link Message type to IDoc type to application object to
processing function module.
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 24 of 25

Other useful IDoc transactions / functionality

Filtering – BALD -> IDocs -> Data filtering
You can filter out IDocs based on an object value. I.e. Do not send any materials from
this particular material group

Reduction of IDocs – BALD -> IDocs -> Reduction

IDocs can have certain segments removed before sending or processing them.

Change Pointers – BALD -> IDocs - ECM

IDocs can be set to trigger when a specific field in a specific table changes.

ALE \ IDoc Configuration – SALE

This transaction takes you to the area in the IMG where you configure various other
aspects of the ALE \ IDoc interface. E.g. You have to define a logical system for the
client you are in and then link it to the client you are in.

Other Useful Transactions in SAP

EDI Specific Transactions
VOE1 Translation between EDI categories and SD item categories
VOE2 Table EDSC view. Customer link to sales area detail.
VOE3 Table view EDPVW. Add partner types that will be transferred to the IDoc.
VOE4 Table view EDPAR. Link external partner number with our internal number. Eg.
Ship and bill to customer codes

Message Control
NACE Links to all the message control transactions via the application area

Delivery
V/36 Maintain output determination for deliveries (Output determination procedures)
V10000 (Header output) has condition type LAVA (usually with requirement 1
NB: Use V/84 – V7ALLE – SHAD for grouped ASNs. I.e. Group deliveries into
shipments
VV21 Create output condition records for shipping.
LAVA – WE (Partner function) - We must add each new partner with VV21
VL71 Reissue output for deliveries

Invoice
V/54 Maintain access sequence for billing documents
VV31 Create condition records for billing documents. (RD00 – RE Billing party)
VF31 Reissue output for billing documents
IT Document, Work Instructions, Designs Document number: EDIOVERVIEW
Document deemed to be current on date printed: 08/20/20 Rev:
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DUPLICATE Page 25 of 25
Order response
V/30 Sales document output types (BA00)
V/48, V/32, Maintain access sequence for sales documents
V/43
VV11 Create condition records for sales documents. (BA00 – SP Sold to
party)

Requirements coding
V/27 Create code to check requirements for output control. Used to check ZBA0 against
BA00 output.

General
The following section provides detail on other useful SAP areas.
SE38 / SE80 ABAP Editor. Used to modify ABAP programs.
SM01 Transaction list. Lock transactions in the system. Also a good tool to see what
transactions are available.
SHDB Transaction recorder (BDC).
CMOD User exit \ project tool. Coordinates your changes into projects for the purpose of
activating all user exits for a particular project. A user exit needs to be modified
before it will work.
SE16 Table contents display
search_sap_menu Displays path to a transaction

Useful Tables
S a le s O r d e r D e liv e r y In v o ic e
VBAK L IK P VBRK
H eader H eader
VBELN - SO
H eader
V B E L N - D e liv e r y V B E L N - I n v o ic e

VBAP
L in e ite m
VBELN - SO
L IP S VBRP
P S O N R - L in e L in e ite m L in e it e m
V B E L N - D e liv e r y V B E L N - I n v o ic e
P S O N R - L in e P O S N R - L in e
VBEP A U B E L /A U P O S - S O /lin e
V G B E L /V G B E L - D e liv e r y /lin e
S c h e d u le lin e s

M _VM VAA
P O - > S O V ie w ta b le

V B F A ( D o c F lo w ) , V B U K ( H d r s t a t u s ) , V B U P ( L in e s t a t u s )
B K P F ( A c c o u n tin g d o c )

See http://www.erpgenie.com/sap/abap/tables.htm for a pictorial view of other relevant

tables.