Abap knowledge for SD consultant

Question

Dear Friends,
                   Iam a SD consultant, I want to know upto what extent Abap knowledge is required by a SD consultant. Please tell me on what topics we need have knowledge to be compitetive in market. I believe companies are looking for candidates with knowledge on tables, debugging . ALE, Idoc's etc. Also can some body send me some useful material on solution manager & ALE, Idoc's. My email Id is [email protected]
Thanks,
Jay

Answer 1

Dear Jay,
You would need to have knowledge about tables, Tcodes, Reports (Selection Screen, Report Layout, Logic, Authorization etc), Knowledge in Debugging, IDOC's, ALE and EDI.
Solution Manager:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_sm32/helpdata/en/a0/c3266e44c54d5e8300b5ffe54f756b/frameset.htm
ALE and IDOC:
ALE stands for Application Link Enabling and is used for distribution of data. IDOC is an Intermediate Document. It carries the application data from one server to another server.It uses the RFC(Remote Function call) .
IDocs are text encoded documents with a rigid structure that are used to exchange data between R/3 and a foreign system. Instead of calling a program in the destination system directly, the data is first packed into an IDoc and then sent to the receiving system, where it is analyzed and properly processed. Therefore an IDoc data exchange is always an asynchronous process. The significant difference between simple RFC-calls and IDoc data exchange is the fact, that every action performed on IDocs are protocolled by R/3 and IDocs can be reprocessed if an error occurred in one of the message steps.
While IDocs have to be understood as a data exchange protocol, EDI and ALE are typical use cases for IDocs. R/3 uses IDocs for both EDI and ALE to deliver data to the receiving system. ALE is basically the scheduling mechanism that defines when and between which partners and what kind of data will be exchanged on a regular or event triggered basis. Such a set-up is called an ALE-scenario.
It is the the combination of Segements.
Segment : All the required fields will get assigned in relavant segement.Like that we will have lot of segments.We will assign all the segments to IDOC type.In the required level(Parent & child level .Like tree nodes).
Idocs Type is a Structure by lot of segments.
IDOC is generared at the time of run time .
It will have the data.
There are basically two types of IDOCs.
Basic IDOCs : Basic IDOC type defines the structure and format of the business document that is to be exchanged between two systems.
Extended IDOCs : Extending the functionality by adding more segments to existing Basic IDOCs.
http://www.allsaplinks.com/idoc_sample.html
http://www.allsaplinks.com/
http://www.sap-img.com/
http://www.sappoint.com/abap.html
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/BCMIDALEIO/BCMIDALEIO.pdf
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/BCMIDALEPRO/BCMIDALEPRO.pdf
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/CABFAALEQS/CABFAALEQS.pdf
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/BCSRVEDISC/CAEDISCAP_STC.pdf
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/BCSRVEDI/CAEDI.pdf
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2004/helpdata/en/dc/6b835943d711d1893e0000e8323c4f/content.htm
http://www.sapgenie.com/sapgenie/docs/ale_scenario_development_procedure.doc
http://edocs.bea.com/elink/adapter/r3/userhtm/ale.htm#1008419
http://www.netweaverguru.com/EDI/HTML/IDocBook.htm
http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/index.htm
http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseCategory/0,295197,sid63_tax296858_idx0_off50,00.html
http://sap.ittoolbox.com/documents/popular-q-and-a/extending-a-basic-idoc-type-2358
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/dc/6b7eee43d711d1893e0000e8323c4f/frameset.htm
Need info on automatic determination of tax code at PO
Hope this will help.
Regards,
Naveen.