Prcessing erros from BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST

Question

hello,
I have a request to write a program to create journal entries. In the past I would use RFBIBL00 and RSBDCSUB and have the user view and process the errors using SM35.
I have been told that BDC processing is not the way to go anymore and that I should start using the BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST and BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT processes to create and save the entries.
this is going to be an automated process where a file will be placed onto a server and a FTP process will pick up the file and send it to SAP for procesing.
I am not sure how to handle the errors that come from the BAPI processes. I am thinking that I need to write error messages to a log which can be viewed by SLG1 and also create a eror file that could be reprocessed again.
has anyone done this before and if so, could you let me know how you handled the processing of the errors that come from the BAPIs.
thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hello,
That approach is so last century :-). We all have to move away from BDC sessions because soon they simply won't work anymore.
Our approach is the following:
- a nightly posting program picks up any new/unposted data & massages it into BAPI format
- if the posting is successful, mark the data as 'posted' (eg by writing an entry to a custom table, or by moving a file to a 'processed' directory)
- if the posting is unsuccessful, write a message to the user in the job log.
The next morning the user examines any errors in the log. Unlike BDC, errors in BAPI accounting doc postings are quite rare, and the error messages are usually informative (typically, a posting period is not open).
The user then must take action (eg to open the period) and rerun the posting program. This will pick up all unposted data & try the BAPI again.
Alternatively, the next night the posting program simply retries any unposted data.
We've been using this approach for the last 6 years with great success. No BDC sessions have been required to get the data posted.
hope this helps
Paul Bakker