Converting IDoc Formats
6 Adapter for SAP R/3
The format conversion tool that ships with Adapter for SAP R/3 is a valuable
resource for you to more easily migrate IDoc formats. Formats are dependent
on the field mapping that you have done so you must also migrate those
mappings. The purpose of the conversion tool is to preserve the field mappings
used for output formats and transfer those current field mapping to the newly
loaded format. The tool does this using two format export files as input to
produce a new format export file; the new format export file combines the
information from the two formats. This is intended to save you time because,
after you use the tool to transfer you old field mappings, you need map only the
new fields. Formats can be converted without doing rules at the same time, but
rules cannot be converted without also converting the associated formats.
To use the IDoc conversion tool, export your old IDoc output format and the
new unmapped output format loaded using the version 3.9 adapter. Then edit
the conversion tool configuration file to specify the names of the format export
files and run the tool. IDoc formats required by version 3.9 into the IDoc
conversion tool. The tool then creates one usable format based on the mapping
of the two formats.
After you have transferred the field mapping, you may validate the converted
format by reformatting previously us ed messages and confirming that the
output message fields contain the expected data. The New Era of Networks
utility programs msgtest.exe and ruletest.exe can be used to validate your
converted messages and rules.
The IDoc conversion tool for Adapter for SAP R/3 provides the tools to do the
following:
• Migrate IDoc formats from a 4.x Formatter database (database used by
Adapter for SAP R/3 version 3.0.3) to a 5.4 Formatter database (database
used by Adapter for SAP R/3 version 3.8).
• Update an extended IDoc format to a 5.6 Formatter database.
• Update a currently used IDoc format in a 5.x Formatter database to a
newer version.
If you are currently using map objects with formats for either of the last
two scenarios, the conversion tool is not necessary because map objects
preserve the field mapping from the original format. Map objects are
available only with New Era of Networks formatters.
Note The following procedures must be applied individually to each IDoc
format that is being migrated. The conversion tool is able to handle only one
IDoc type at a time.