Routing IDocs, RFCs, and BAPIs
Adapter for SAP provides rich routing capabilities for synchronous RFCs, asynchronous IDocs, and BAPIs, giving you better control of your trading relationships. Within minutes, you can configure Adapter for SAP to send an IDoc to another SAP system or to a remote URL in an XML format.
BAPIs provide a simple way to access SAP solutions. They can handle both synchronous and asynchronous calls to an SAP system using the same XML message format. Asynchronous BAPI calls are provided by using the ALE services inside the SAP system; you can leverage ALE mechanisms without having to deal with the sometimes complex IDoc format. This works for all IDocs that are generated from BAPIs.
Inside the SAP system, administrators can use the full bandwidth of services provided by ALE, including:
Performance benefits through asynchronous processing
Monitoring services
Distribution services
BAPI interfaces are developed according to strict development guidelines, so they are well-defined, stable, implementation-independent, and well-documented.
The SAP Interface Repository provides public web-based access to the collection of BAPI interfaces provided by SAP and to the corresponding documentation.
In short, the use of BAPIs leads to the following advantages:
SAP solutions are accessed on a standardized, implementation-independent level. Implementation on the SAP system can therefore be exchanged without invalidating the (BAPI) interface used by clients.
A business management function which is implemented as a BAPI can be called both synchronously and asynchronously by using the same XML message.