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IDOC Integration Objects

IDOC integration objects represent the structure of an SAP IDOC. An IDOC received from SAP has a very simple structure. It consists of a single control record followed by multiple data records. The control record contains fields that specify the IDOC type, message type, extension type, sender logical system, receiver logical system, IDOC number, and so on. The data record contains the physical data being transported in the IDOC, as well as some information about the data record, for example, the name of the IDOC segment contained in the data record.

An IDOC integration object in the Siebel application corresponds very closely to this structure. The integration object contains components for the control record and for each data record. Table 27 shows part of the DEBMAS02 IDOC Type and how this would be represented by a Siebel IDOC integration object.

The IdocSegments component contains the control record fields. These fields are named with a prefix of "CONTROL-". How these fields are used depends upon whether the IDOC is being sent to SAP or received from SAP. When an IDOC is sent from the Siebel Connector for SAP R/3 to SAP, you may set some control fields in a business service data map. Other fields are populated by the IDOC adapter business service or are populated by SAP. When an IDOC is received from SAP by the Siebel Connector for SAP R/3, you can access the information in the fields from a business service data map.

The fields in the control record may differ depending upon which version of SAP ALE is being used. If you are using SAP R/3 version 3.1, you are using ALE version 3X. If you are using SAP R/3 version 4.0 you should use ALE version 4X, but you can still use 3X if other constraints on your implementation dictate that it must be used. The IDOC Integration Object has a property ALEVersion that can be set to either 3X or 4X. If it is not defined, it is assumed that it is a 3X version. Its initial value is set by the IDOC wizard. Its default value is 3X for SAP R/3 3.1 and is 4X for SAP R/3 4.0 and newer. The default value for this property can be changed by setting the ALEVersion property on the EAI SAP IDOC Adapter Wizard. If you need to convert an existing IDOC Integration Object from 3X to 4X or the reverse, the ALEVersion property must be changed accordingly and the external name for the IDOC Integration Object must be consistent with the 3X or 4X usage as described later in this section.

Table 28 lists the control record fields and indicates if they are used in a 3X or 4X control record. The User Can Populate? column indicates whether you can set the value of the field from a Business Service Data Map for input to SAP. The Mandatory column indicates when the field must be filled in for SAP to process the IDOC. The IDOC Adapter Action column indicates what the IDOC Adapter does to the field prior to sending the IDOC to SAP.