You can configure PowerExchange for SAP NetWeaver to receive outbound SAP IDocs in real time as they are generated by mySAP applications. To receive outbound IDocs, PowerExchange for SAP NetWeaver integrates with mySAP 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 capture changes to the master data or transactional data in the SAP application database in real time. When data in the application database changes, the SAP system creates IDocs to capture the changes and sends the IDocs to the PowerCenter Integration Service.

The PowerCenter Integration Service and SAP use transactional RFC (tRFC) communication to send and receive IDocs. tRFC is an SAP method that guarantees the RFCs are executed only once. As a result, the PowerCenter Integration Service receives each IDoc only once.

If the PowerCenter session is not running when the SAP system sends outbound IDocs, the PowerCenter Integration Service does not receive the IDocs. However, the SAP system stores the outbound IDocs in EDI tables, which are a staging area for guaranteed message delivery.

You can configure the SAP system to resend the IDocs by configuring the tRFC port used to communicate with the PowerCenter Integration Service. When you configure the port, you can enable background processes in SAP that try to resend the IDocs to the PowerCenter Integration Service a set number of times.