Documentation Tools
Use
The IDoc interface is an open interface, which means that the structure and use of the IDoc types is transparent. To allow for this, the IDoc Interface provides tools which display the documentation in various formats. You can choose between the technical view (such as field lengths or release information) and the application view (such as the meaning of the actual application data in the segment).
Another advantage of the documentation tools is that they can also format information for automatic processing. In this way, an EDI subsystem, for example, can be supplied with information about a new IDoc type so that the IDoc type can be processed correctly in future.
Features
The following table provides an overview of what can be documented with each tool and in which format. The tools can be found under SAP Menu → Tools → IDoc Interface/ALE → Administration → Services → Documentation.
The parser format is a simple SAP list of fields to be documented which can be read by a parser in an external system. Associated units (segments, record types, and so on) are encapsulated by BEGIN...END commands. The list can be sent to a PC (formats: rich text, ASCII, spreadsheet) transferred or printed.
The HTML format is used for output to the screen.
The format
DTD is the Document Type Definition for the
Output of IDocs in XML
files. It contains the XML elements which can or must appear in the IDocs
of the type used.
All formats can be found under SAP Menu → Tools → ALE and EDI → Development → General ALE Interface → IDoc Types (WE30).
Further Information
For more information about the documentation tools, see
Displaying an IDoc Using an XSL Stylesheet