SAP Interface

[Former Member]

Hi all,

i need to know something about XI and ALE and how they interact. In details, What are the differences between XI and ALE? and the similitudes?

Can they be used alternatively?

Thanks,

Fed

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

ALE has been the SAP technology from a long time. It has been used by SAP for communication in both inbound and outbound.

Here is the book definition of ALE:

The integration technology Application Link Enabling (ALE) is an important middleware tool in SAP's Business Framework Architecture (BFA). BFA is a component-based architecture enabling software components from SAP and from other software vendors to communicate and be integrated with each other.

ALE can integrate business processes between R/3 Systems and non-R/3 systems as well as between R/3 Systems.

Data is exchanged between applications and remains consistent in all applications.

Now lets talk about XI..

Well to start with XI and ALE are 2 different technologies and cant be used alternatively..

XI is middleware which can be used for communication between different systems. It has many adapters provided to communicate with different type of systems..

Now the book definition:

SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) enables you to implement cross-system processes. It enables you to connect systems from different vendors (non-SAP and SAP) in different versions and implemented in different programming languages (Java, ABAP, and so on) to each other. SAP Exchange Infrastructure is based on an open architecture, uses open standards (in particular those from the XML and Java environments) and offers those services that are essential in a heterogeneous and complex system landscape:

● Modeling and design of messages, transformations, and cross-component integration processes

● Configuration options for managing collaborative processes and message flow

● Runtime for message and process management

● Adapter Engine for integrating heterogeneous system components

● Central monitoring for monitoring message flow and processes

Consider the scenario..

I want to exchange info between my legacy system and SAP R/3.

For more info,

refer

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/0f/80243b4a66ae0ce10000000a11402f/content.htm

I send out my info to XI in form of XML file..XI converts it to IDOC and sends it to R/3.

This way communication between different systems is possible..

Hope that answers your question!

Regards,

Tanveer.

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[Former Member]

Hi Fed,

XI is basically used to generate the XML format file which you can syndicate and recieve with other systems.In R3 xml is converted to idoc whereas ALE is a method of communication between various systems(SAP to SAP/Non SAP).It generates an IDOC(data container)and sends data in EDI format to non SAP System.