IDoc XML versus IDoc flat file...

[Former Member]

XIers,

Can someone please clarify the difference between the two? Is IDoc flat file not XML? Are all the schema definitions at ifr.sap.com (the contents at this site are being obsoleted) obsolete? Is XI the definitive answer for the schemas for IDoc XML?

Thank you in advance for enlightening me.

Pradeep

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

No as standard IDOC are send as flat files with a record structure.

The XI adapter can convert between the flat files and XML, based on the metadata the IDOC has.

You will still need the IDOC flat files, if you are going to send IDOCs between R3 systems.

[Former Member]

Hi Pradeep,

<i>>>>Is IDoc flat file not XML?</i>

The flat file format used when IDOCs are exchanged between two R/3 systems (ALE transfer), it is sequential segment based structure. Each segment is 1024 bytes.

It looks flat stream of bytes.

XI IDOC adapter converts the IDOC to this XML structure and sends it to XI. The schema is created when XI is used to download the IDOC definition (meta data) from the R/3 system. It generates a XSD for the same.

If you need XI to convert IDOC XML format to IDOC Flat format, refer to:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/library/xi/xi-how-to-guide... to convert between idoc and xml in xi 3.0.pdf

regards,

Pops V