Michal's tips: Application Interface Framework (AIF) 2.0 - monitoring existing IDOCs

[MichalKrawczyk]

SAP Application Interface Framework (AIF) is a new tool for monitoring and error handling of all interface in one place. You can use it to monitor your IDOC and ABAP proxy scenarios in one place which was not possible in the past. For more features on AIF please have a look at AIF introduction on help.sap.com


In this article I'd like to show a simple example of AIF on how to monitor existing IDOC scenarios, that is without changing any of your IDOC configuration. We will be doing configuration of the AIF to be able to monitor one inbound IDOC - SYSTAT01 in order to be able to see it in the AIF's Monitoring and Error Handling application.

Step 1

At first we need to create a new namespace in which we will be doing the configuration (it's just a way of grouping for customizing objects). We can create it from transaction /AIF/CUST_IF - Interface Development - Define Namespace. Add a new namespace and save it as show in the Figure below.



Step 2

Then need to generate a new IDOC structure which will be used in AIF. We can do this in transaction - /AIF/IDOC_GEN.

Insert the following:

 

- the basic type of the IDOC which you want to monitor

- a prefix structure (any custom name - you can use name but I stick to Y/Z objects)

- a prefix interface definition (any custom name - use Y/Z objects)

- a namespace (created in step 1 of this article)

- an interface version - 1

- a variant ID = 01



Once you're in the generation screen (after pressing F8 - Execute) you can  generate it. If the generation was successful you can copy the Raw Data Structure's name as we will be using that in the next steps.



Step 3

In the next step you need to define an interface which will be used in monitoring. Transaction - /AIF/CUST_IF - Interface Development - Define Interfaces.

- Insert the interface name

- Insert the interface version

- SAP data Structure = RAW data structure (from the IDOC generation step)

- make sure "move corresponding structures" check if selected



Step 4

As a next step you need to define which engine will be used to handle the interface. Transaction - /AIF/CUST_IF - Interface Development - Additional Interface Properties - Specify Interface Engines. The engine should also be defined by the variant ID selected in /AIF/IDOC_GEN.

Insert the following:

- Application Engine = IDOC

- Persistence Engine = IDOC

- Selection Engine  = IDOC control record

- Logging Engine = IDOC status record



Step 5

As a last configuration step we need to assign the IDOC type to the newly created interface from Step 3. Transaction - /AIF/CUST_IF - Interface Development - Additional Interface Properties - Assign IDOC type. Select your interface from Step 3 and insert IDOC's Message Type and IDOC's Basic Type.




Testing

Now you can run your standard IDOC scenario one more time and this time apart from standard IDOC monitoring transactions (WE02/WE05) you will be able to see it the AIF's Monitoring and Error Handling application. Transaction -  /AIF/ERR



You can also display the message payload and edit it.




Note

This is just the first view of AIF - in the next articles I will try to show all AIF options for monitoring of IDOCs and ABAP Proxies, index tables, doing validations and mappings so please stay tuned.