Synopsis:
It's finally here: the ultimate users' guide to the hottest business-linking software in the world, blazingly fast ALE (Application Link Enabling) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) from SAP, creator of the Fortune 500's favorite Enterprise Resource Planning solution. With ALE and EDI, your company can build needed interfaces and begin squeezing every ounce of high-IT-value power from SAP R/3, all in a matter of days.
Written by expert consultant Rajeev Kasturi, who implements and teaches these technologies at various client sites, this ready-for-action guide shows you how ALE and EDI can: Efficiently link two or more SAP systems; Quickly forge vital connections between SAP and legacy systems; Pave the way for high-speed connections between SAP R/3 to other third-party, external systems; Greatly improve business connectivity with trading partners such as customers, banks and vendors; Maximize benefits with custom-tailored messaging, information retrieval, and automatic updating; Allow easy creation of new functionality; Handle both in bound and outbound interfaces smoothly.
Not only does this book/CD-ROM give you the big picture on how ALE and EDI can benefit your company, but it also delivers the up-close details and simple, learn-as-you-go format that will help you implement these solutions, right now. Featuring tip- and shortcut-filled highlighted Notes, and loaded with fully tested source code for a multitude of frequently used transactions, this leading-edge ALE and EDI guide is all you need to propel your enterprise to the front of the pack. This book progresses from fundamental concepts to building ALE interfaces from scratch, and other advanced topics such as IDOC archiving and ALE optimization.
Review:
Targeted at the SAP R/3 developer, SAP R/3 ALE and EDI Technologies provides working examples of using and customizing this industrial-strength, enterprise-level package.
The book begins with a quick introduction to Application Linking Enabling (ALE) and the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the SAP R/3 package. By using SAP tools, ALE/EDI developers can query data, move it around within distributed systems, and even create reports with third-party tools. The powerful SAP R/3 package contains data fields that can automate virtually any manufacturing or business scenario. The author introduces Intermediate DOCuments (IDOCs), which provide message-based delivery of data.
Further sections investigate master data distribution (which involves requesting IDOC for particular fields). Throughout the book, the author enumerates the steps required within SAP R/3 to generate data (including screen shots of the R/3 tool at work). He also covers both outbound and inbound processing and how to customize IDOC messages. (This can be done to improve performance, for instance.)
Later the book turns to EDI and explains how to generate electronic reports (such as invoices), as well as how to submit data into R/3 via EDI. The book offers tips and techniques for optimizing data processing within distributed systems and features an appendix listing R/3 message codes and IDOC types (which all go by short mnemonic codes).
Written for the reader who already understands the basics of SAP R/3 but wants to learn more, this book can fill a useful niche for the enterprise developer who wants to see this powerful package at work. --Richard Dragan
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