SAP Connector Guide > Part VI: Data Integration Using IDocs > Mapping and Mapping Configuration Tasks Using IDocs > Mapping and Mapping Configuration Tasks Using IDocs Overview
  

Mapping and Mapping Configuration Tasks Using IDocs Overview

To send and read IDocs, Informatica Cloud integrates with SAP applications using Application Link Enabling (ALE).
ALE is an SAP proprietary technology that enables data communication between SAP systems. ALE also enables data communication between SAP and external systems.
You can configure outbound mappings to read IDocs from SAP and inbound mappings to write IDocs to SAP.
To configure an outbound mapping to read IDocs from SAP, perform the following tasks:
  1. 1. Import the IDoc metadata from SAP and generate a mapplet using the SAP Metadata utility. Verify that you selected the segments and groups you want to include in the IDoc. In addition, select the Interpreter transformation.
  2. 2. Import the IDoc mapplet to Informatica Cloud.
  3. 3. Configure an outbound mapping using the generated IDoc mapplet. Add a Source transformation to read data from the SAP system, configure the IDoc mapplet, and add a Target transformation to write the IDoc in the target object.
To configure an inbound mapping to write IDocs to SAP, perform the following tasks:
  1. 1. Import the IDoc metadata from SAP and generate a mapplet using the SAP Metadata utility. Verify that you selected the segments and groups you want to include in the IDoc. In addition, select the Prepare transformation.
  2. 2. Import the IDoc mapplet to Informatica Cloud.
  3. 3. Configure an inbound mapping using the generated IDoc mapplet. Add a Source transformation to read data from the source system, configure the IDoc mapplet, and add a Target transformation to write the IDoc to the SAP system.
For information about mappings and Mapping Configuration task, see Deploy.