This section shows how to use workflows to process inbound IDocs instead of using direct input via function calls.

We recommend using direct input rather than workflows for inbound processing because of the performance overhead of invoking a workflow for each IDoc.

Using workflows is beneficial when each IDoc of a given message type or sender, or the application object subsequently created from an IDoc need to be manually processed. Example: For message type ORDCHG (order change) an enterprise decides that when a customer (sender) changes an order, these changes must be checked by the responsible employee before the order is updated.

The two subsections deal with the two different ways of processing inbound IDocs using the workflow approach: work items and work flows.