ALE/EDI

[Former Member]

Difference between ALE and EDI? common transactions used in EDI & ALE?

[Former Member]

Hi,

ALE

Connects SAP-SAP System,

It can also connect to SAP to Non-SAP,

Basically we use ALE for distributing of master data.

ALE does not have sub-system.

EDI

Connects SAP-Non-SAP System

EDI has sub system

If find suitable , plese reward points.

Regards,

Irfan

[Former Member]

ALE is basically the scheduling

mechanism that defines when and between which partners and what kind of

data will be exchanged on a regular or event triggered basis. Such a

set-up is called an ALE-scenario.

Check this link

http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseAnswer/0,295199,sid63_gci983331,00.html

Application Link Enabling (ALE)

You distribute data using ALE if you want to communicate from one system to one or more other (mostly internal) systems. ALE transfers data in IDoc format and uses the methods of tRFC for data transfer.

· ALE enables the integration of business processes across several SAP or non-SAP systems.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

You use EDI if you want to exchange business application documents with an (external) partner system (for example, a customer or vendor). The SAP system sends EDI messages in IDoc format to an EDI subsystem, where they are converted to a universal EDI standard (UN/EDIFACT or ANSI/X12). This enables communication with non-SAP systems.

· By definition, two partners are involved in the process in an EDI application scenario: The sender and the recipient of an EDI message.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/6f/1bd5bea85b11d6b28500508b5d5211/frameset.htm

Hope this Helps,

Regards

Amit

[Former Member]

Hi Aruna,

Please don't get confused with the terminology. EDI is a industry standard that allows partners to exchange data electronically using a standard format or message. It is not a SAP term. There are two major EDI standards, EDIFACT and ANSI X12. There is a non-profit organization that keeps coming up with new message formats based on industry needs. There are some industry specific EDI standards in place.

Since EDI is a constantly changing one and the focus of EDI is exchange of data between the systems of partners, SAP did not try to implement EDI compatability in SAP. Instead, SAP came up with its own IDOC technology. So if EDI has a EDI 850 stabdard for order acknowledgement, SAP has an IDOC for the data format and a message for identifying its meaning. So IDOC is SAP's proprietery answer for EDI. But since partners still need to exchange data using EDI standards and the data they want to exchange is in SAP, some third party tools have come into existence. Gentran is one such tool (collectively called as EDI subsystems) that maps a SAP IDOC to a EDI message and vice-versa.

ALE uses IDOCs to exchange data, but it is primarily the technology to transfer data from one SAP system to another.

Hope this clarifies, and if so, please close the post. If you have more questions, please revert back to the forum.

As far as transactions are concerned, please use WEDI area menu transaction. This will give you almost all IDOC related transactions. Also look at BD* transactions.

Regards,

Srinivas

Message was edited by: Srinivas Adavi