Sending a binary attachment via email, looking for a more clean way

Question

Hi experts.
I finally managed to send a binary attachment via email. Why "finally"? Never done before!
Also I got to manage the "not standard" .SAP file extension, because the attachment is a transaction link.
So let me explain how i did it:
take SO_NEW_DOCUMENT_ATT_SEND_API1, filling following input data:
  CALL FUNCTION 'SO_NEW_DOCUMENT_ATT_SEND_API1'
    EXPORTING
      document_data              = st_docdata
      commit_work                = 'X'
    TABLES
      packing_list               = lt_packlist
      contents_hex               = lt_hex
      contents_txt               = lt_content
      receivers                  = lt_recv
    EXCEPTIONS
      too_many_receivers         = 1
      document_not_sent          = 2
      document_type_not_exist    = 3
      operation_no_authorization = 4
      parameter_error            = 5
      x_error                    = 6
      enqueue_error              = 7
      OTHERS                     = 8.
But how to fill lt_hex? Well I did not found a way to transfer text data into raw data structure (lt_hex is type SOLIX).
So, here is the trick:
fill another table, lt_bin type SOLISTI1, with attachment content (text data);
dump lt_bin content to a file on application server, having care to specify TEXT MODE and UTF-8 encoding;
now reopen the same file in BINARY MODE and transfer content to lt_hex.
Why I did not use parameter
content_bin
? Because SAP ECC 6 is unicode enabled (I think UTF-16) and file has got to be UTF-8 or ASCII. Also, packing_list for attachment must specify binary tranfer mode. And doing so each UTF-16 character (2 bytes) is split into 2 characters (1 char + 1 NUL byte). Attachment is now unusable.
What is the question? Here it is: how to fill lt_hex data directly from text (UTF-16) data, avoiding conversion errors?
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi Chhayank,
the problem is not the exported xls. If you have a look inside with Notepad or something like that, you will see that your leading zeros are exported correct.Excel-settings occurs this problem, it is all about how to open the document. If you use the import-assistant you will have no problems because there are options available how to handle the different columns.
Another solution might be to get familiar with ABAP2XLS-Project. I got in my mind, that there is a method implemented, that will help you solving this problem. But that is not a five minute job
~Florian