SAP R/3 : Tracing Outbound IDOC

Troubleshooting outbound IDOCS can be very exciting and interesting activity. You get to see the wonders of sending data out of SAP to some other 3rd party systems. If you are unaware of some technicalities and behavorial of outbound IDOCS then testing it can be quite a challenge. Recently, I had this problem of trying to trace an outbound IDOC.

Previously, I could trace the outbound IDOC with minimal difficulty in WE19. If you put a break-point in your outbound process code or function module, the WE19 will stop at that point. But, what if WE19 fails to stop at that point? You will be scratching your head until you reach to a certain point you want to write an extra program just to trace the outbound IDOC. That is just what i did. Read my statement, I wrote an extra program to do that.

Though its a bit consuming but if you know which table and which fields to use then the concept will work just like the my now ever loving standard output type program RSNAST00. I shall have to thanks one person who let me know this existing program. But first, I would like to let you know what I'd gone through the latter method.

To developed an extra program to trace outbound programs is not as difficult as it seems. All you need is declare three tables i.e. NAST, EDIDC and EDID4. NAST is the output type control table that stores all of your 6 output types from printout to telefax. EDIDC is the IDOC control table. EDID4 is the IDOC data table. Therefore, you need to access the first table, NAST, in order to get the output type that you are supposed to execute. After you had obtain the necessary data from NAST, you will need to approach the EDIDC to get the DOCNUM and subsequently the EDID4 for its data. Then you pass all these three data selected data to your outbound's function module. Therefore, you can primitively test your outbound data. However, you will still need to set your output type to be scheduled run at other time.

Now, let us move on to life saving method to test your outbound IDOC or output types. In any of your standard programs that can send out IDOC, Telefax, Print out, set it to 1 (scheduled run at other time) in the FURTHER DATA section. Then you turn to RSNAST00 program where you put in your APPLICATION, OBJECT KEY, MEDIUM and OUTPUT TYPE. Before executing, put a break-point at your function module. Then you are ready to trace your outbound IDOC.

A note, the RSNAST00 does not only let you trace your outbound IDOC it is in fact a standard program that let you execute output types that you have schedule for later run. Hence, a very great thanks to Vincent Teoh from the SD (Sales and Distribution) module team. The RSNAST00 had definitely helped me a lot. Though I am still keeping my old program for reference. Concept still work very the same like RSNAST00.

is sky the limit... RSNAST00 and NAST, EDIDC, EDID4