SAP Spool-->XI-->PDF Scenario - Is there a way?

[Former Member]

Hi! Looking for any smart ideas that you all as the experts might have to help solve a business problem. We need to print a pro forma invoice at a business partner. We have developed the layout set etc... on our SAP system and would like to be able to send the document as printed - using XI - to the external party as a PDF.

In essence, picking up the spool from SAP, bringing it into XI to send out as a PDF.

I might be over reaching here as to what is possible. I have not been able to find any supporting documents that say this is possible. If anyone has any bright ideas then they would be much appreciated.

Thx, Duncan

[Former Member]

Hi Ravi, Anirban

Thanks for quick replies. Let me give you some more background behin my question. This will help frame up why I want to do this via XI.

We are establishing a decentralized warehouse management solution whereby we instruct a warehouse to e.g. receive by sending them an ASN generated from SAP via the DELVRY02 IDOC and mapped to XML using XI. XI then sends the XML message out via HTTP. We get response from the external warehouse again via XML mapped in XI to IDOC for SAP. We have multiple messages in both directions. XI thus provides a single 'pipe' to send the data back and forward.

I want to send the invoice via the same approach. I can do this easily with the invoice IDOC etc... However, we have already developed acceptable formats for the invoice in our SAP system. To be able to send the pre-formatted spool output to them will save $$$s as they do not also have to develop / maintain a solution to reformat the IDOC into the same layout on their side. That drives the need to pick up and send the spool.

Secondly, as you guys mention I can drive this from SAP and send the PDF via e-mail. However, that places a reliance on someone at the receiving side to pick up and manually touch the mail. Thus, pushing everything across the 'no touch' XI link is more optimal.

So, some more background. I played a little today to have a FM I can call via RFC to extract the spool but no real idea how to use that with XI as it will have to pull the result into an XML message.

Could well be no solution for this. Any more ideas you have are much appreciated. Will sort out points of course 😃

Thx

Duncan

[Former Member]

Duncan,

What kind of application is on recieving side?

Have you looked at the possibility of that application converting the XML into a PDF format?

SAP has tied up with a company called ITEMFIELD where in you can have the data in the form of Word / Excel / PDF send via XI using mapping. So, XI can accept these files as inputs. However, what I am not sure, is whether it is capable of doing the same on the recieving side. These patches are available as of SP15.

regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

Hi Duncan,

Creating a PDF file on the receiver system is possible by developing a module to create a PDF Document.

There are many APIs available for PDF Documents. iText API is one among the best. Here is the link for iText tutorial and examples...

http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/

Regards,

Uma

[Former Member]

Duncan,

Couple of points before we actually talk a solution via XI.

I am not sure why are you looking at XI to convert a spool output into PDF. You can do that using the function module CONVERT_ABAPSPOOLJOB_2_PDF . Once converted into a PDF you can save it or even send it as an e-mail. Is there a specific reason why you are looking at XI to do this.

Coming to XI, it can either write a flat file or a XML file. So, you need to have an application which will pick up that and convert that into a PDF format.

I would rather depend on the SAP to do all this for me, unless you are looking at something else which SAP cannot do.

Do let us know, if there is an additional requirement.

Regards,

Ravi

Note : Please reward the helpful posts.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Just adding you may also consider these two blogs at module level for generating pdf. Not directly related but thought of sharing with you,

/people/sap.user72/blog/2005/07/27/xi-generate-pdf-file-out-of-file-adapter

/people/sap.user72/blog/2005/07/31/xi-read-data-from-pdf-file-in-sender-adapter

All the best,

Anirban.