IDocs are basically a small number of records in ASCII format, building a logical entity. It makes sense to see an IDoc as a plain and simple ASCII text file.
IDocs is the acronym for Interchange Document. This indicates a set of (electronic) information which builds a logical entity.
Any IDoc consists of two sections:
Control record:
- The control record carries all the administrative information of the IDoc, such as its origin, its destination and a categorical description of the contents and context of the attached IDoc data.
- The control record has a fixed pre-defined structure, which is defined in the data dictionary as EDIDC.
Data record:
- Which contains the application dependent data, as in our example below the material master data.
- All IDoc data records are exchanged in a fixed format, regardless of the segment type. The segment's true structure is stored in R/3's repository as a DDic structure of the same name
