IDoc Interface/ALE

ALE – Application Link Enabling – is an integration service in SAP, which is used to organize data exchange in business processes with one or more systems within a given organization.

IDOC – Itermediate Document – is used for data exchange between the SAP system and external systems. It describes the document created in the course of the business process (e.g. invoice or sales order), basic data necessary to carry out a given process (e.g. basic data of the goods / material, contractor data), etc.

The SAP system supports both input (to the system) and output (from the system) interfaces.

The basic data carrier in ALE / EDI is IDOC.

The most common ALE / EDI scenarios – include:

• sending transaction data,
• transfer of master data based on change markers,
• transfer of basic data on request,
• sending any data – as part of custom solutions.