Creating IDoc OTDs

You create IDoc OTDs with the SAP IDoc wizard in the Netbeans IDE. You can choose to have the wizard connect to the SAP system and retrieve the IDoc message format automatically, or you can have the wizard use an IDoc definition file from a specified location. The IDoc definition file would be saved or downloaded from the SAP system as described in Exporting the IDOC File from SAP.

To Create IDoc OTDs Directly From SAP

1. In the Explorer tab of the Netbeans IDE, right click a Project, then click New > Object Type Definition. The New Object Type Definition Wizard appears.
2. Click SAP IDoc and click Next. The Select metadata page appears.
3. To retrieve the IDocs message format directly from the connected SAP system, select the From SAP Directly, then click Next.

   Note - Refer to SAP JCo and SAP IDoc Class Library Installation for a list of required files that must be installed in order to connect to SAP directly.

4. Click Next. The System Parameters page appears.
5. Enter the information for the SAP system for the IDoc wizard to connect to:

   For This Option Enter System ID System ID of the SAP system. Application server Name of the SAP Application Server. System number System number of the SAP system. SAP Routing String Router string of hostnames/IP addresses of all SAP routers between your Application Server and the SAP gateway host (optional). Language Language used for SAP access. Available Languages include: EN - English DE - German JA - Japanese KO - Korean RFC Trace NO to disable RFC tracing (default); YES to enable RFC tracing, which creates trace files in \edesigner\bin\.

6. Click Next. The Login Parameters page appears.
7. Enter the information to log into the SAP system:

   For This Option Enter Client Number Client number of the SAP system. User name User name. Password Login password.

8. Click Next. The IDoc Metadata Parameters page appears.
9. Enter the following information about the IDoc:

   For This Option Enter System Release The SAP System release for this IDoc. All IDocs up to this release number are displayed in the list of available IDocs. IDoc type IDoc type, for example, CREMAS03. You cannot use a wild card. IDoc type extension Extension for this IDoc type (optional). Record Type Version Select the version of the IDoc record type. The default value is 3. Message format Blank padded for ALE format or CR-LF for EDI format.

   For IDoc type, click the List IDocs button to display a list of available IDocs supported by SAP, as seen in the figure below.

   Figure 1 IDoc Type List

   
10. Select your needed IDoc type and click OK.
11. Click Next. The Review Selection page appears.
12. Review your selections and click Finish. The OTD Editor window appears, displaying the OTD.

    Figure 2 CREMAS IDOC OTD

    

    The figure above shows a CREMAS IDoc OTD in the OTD editor. The OTD has various methods which you can use in Java Collaborations for processing IDoc data.

    The CREMAS IDoc OTD also has marshal and unmarshal Web Service operations as seen in the Project tree. You can use these operations when using the OTD in eInsight business processes.

    The figure below shows the unmarshal operation in the eInsight Business Process editor. You can unmarshal byte or string data onto the IDoc OTDs bytes and contents nodes respectively. The bytes node takes in only UTF-8 encoded data. That is, if you want to perform an unmarshal operation using bytes as the input source, then you must ensure that the data is in UTF-8 before utilizing this node.

    In this example we are unmarshaling byte data which is not UTF-8 encoded; therefore, you must perform a bytes to text conversion in editor, and then unmarshal string data to the contents node.

    Figure 3 CREMAS unmarshal

    

    If required, you can also use the Relaunch option of the OTD to relaunch the IDoc OTD wizard and rebuild the IDoc OTD for the same IDoc Type built with a particular system release.

    On relaunch, the OTD is rebuilt again with the changed meta data. Any Java Collaborations and Business Processes using this IDoc OTD are also synchronized with the new changes.

    If your Java Collaborations or business Processes are using OTD nodes that are now absent in the relaunched OTD, you will be prompted to correct the business rules by validation errors.

To Create IDOC OTDs From a Description File

1. In the Explorer tab of the Netbeans IDE, right click the Project, click New, and click Object Type Definition.

   The New Object Type Definition dialog box appears.

2. Click SAP IDoc and click Next. The Select metadata source page appears.

   Figure 4 IDoc Wizard—Metadata Selection

   
3. To retrieve the IDocs from a description file, select the From Description File.
4. Click Next.

   The Definition File Parameters page appears.

   Figure 5 IDoc Wizard—Definition File Parameters

   
5. Enter the following information about the IDoc definition file:

   For This Option Enter IDoc File Name The path and filename for the IDoc description file to be used. Released In SAP IDoc release for this IDoc, for example, 4.6C. Message format Blank padded for ALE format or CR-LF for EDI format.

6. Click Next. The Review Selection page appears.
7. Review your selections and click Finish. The OTD Editor window appears, displaying the OTD.