The following errors can occur in the ALE service layer:

Syntax error in the IDoc

Missing partner profile

IDoc not transferred to the transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC) at transmission

IDoc not transferred to the application at receipt

On transmitting or receiving IDocs, the syntax of the individual IDoc is checked. When the IDoc is defined, the syntax, which includes the following, is determined:

The individual IDoc category segments

How many segments can be transmitted in one IDoc or how often an individual segment may occur in one IDoc

An IDoc syntax check can be activated in the partner profile for an IDoc category and a certain partner. We recommend that you activate this check, particularly for any IDocs that you have created yourself. Otherwise, this error normally only occurs in the test run. The incorrect IDocs cannot be repaired so they have to be transmitted again once the IDoc structure has been corrected in the SAP system.

To transmit an IDoc from SAP to the subsystem, you must define the partner profile’s outbound processing for the IDoc category (message type) and all relevant partners. You will find a more detailed description of partner profiles in the online documentation for the Implementation Guidelines (IMG). If the partner (subsystem) for the IDoc to be transmitted can not be determined, you must proceed as follows:

Maintain the partner profile

All IDocs for transmission have to be set for retransmission. Since this error triggered a work item for the standard task ALE/EDI: error processing (outbound) and sent it to the relevant user’s inbox, the incorrect IDoc also has to be set for subsequent transmission from the inbox. On subsequent transmission, the incorrect IDoc is flagged with status 31 and copied to a new one which is enhanced with data from the partner profile and transferred to the asynchronous Remote Function Call (aRFC).

Errors in partner profiles normally only occur in the test run.

Although the partner profile has been maintained the IDoc is not transferred to the aRFC. In other words, the IDoc is structured but not sent. The corresponding subsystem does not have any open entries in the RFC transaction evaluation (SM58). The IDoc is ready for transmission, but you must initiate the transmission explicitly.

As in outbound processing, an IDoc syntax check can be activated in the partner profile for an IDoc category and a certain partner. We recommend that you activate this check. Otherwise, this error normally only occurs in the test run. The incorrect IDocs cannot be repaired so they have to be transmitted again once the IDoc structure has been corrected in the sending system.

On receipt of an IDoc in SAP, the partner profile inbound processing for IDoc category (message type) and the transmitting partner must be defined. You will find a more detailed description of partner profiles in the online documentation for the Implementation Guidelines (IMG). If the partner profile and therefore the inbound method for the recipient IDoc cannot be found, then the application cannot be activated and the IDoc remains in the system with open status. For this type of error, proceed as follows:

Errors in partner profiles normally only occur in the test run.

Although the partner profile has been maintained, the received IDoc was not processed and flagged as incorrect, which means that the application is not controlled for processing this IDoc. Although the IDoc is ready for transmission to the application, you need to explicitly set the application for processing the IDoc.

The errors described below, which occur in the application, are related to an inbound IDoc in SAP. The IDoc that is to be transferred is structured in the application in such a way that the system will immediately notice any missing or incorrect Customizing settings in SAP processing (while creating planning requests, for example).

During inbound processing of an IDoc in the SAP System, the following errors may occur in the application:

The incorrect IDoc is flagged with status 51.

If the data in the received IDoc is incomplete, you must decide whether the incorrect IDoc should be transmitted again or whether it is possible or appropriate to carry out corrections in the SAP system. You can also make corrections directly in the IDoc. It is possible to do this using the IDoc Editor but this should only be used for exceptional cases.

Like errors in Customizing settings, the incorrect IDoc can also be posted from the inbox of the user responsible or via report RBDMANIN.

There are often problems in SAP processing with blocking individual objects. Multiple attempts (by different users) to access the same SAP object, processing will be terminated, with an error note for the blocked object. This error is treated like all other errors in IDoc processing. No action is required by the user here to recover the error. Repeating the processing at a later point will automatically solve the problem. This means that using background processing (periodic job) in the RBDMANIN report can be used for reposting the IDoc. The error status parameter in this report uses the error message ID to limit posting for certain errors; in this case only for each error message related to a blocking error.

For each error described, a work item is created and put in the inbox of the user responsible. Work items are used for certain important error notes that are either transmitted directly from the subsystem or structured in IDoc processing internally in the application. These work items do not serve the purpose of starting Idoc processing again from the inbox. They are used to inform the user of a conflict situation or to pass on an important message from the subsystem to the SAP System. The message is transferred to SAP by IDoc SYSTAT01.

Unlike errors, work items for notes must be completed rather than processed from the inbox.