Using BAPI's in ABAP code

Question

Hi bapi Guru's,
I am asked to use bapi's(Instead of BDC's) for data upload .I am not getting good documentation on 'USING BAPI's IN ABAP',Like Defining structures, and what are the FM's to be called like bapi_commit.
Any Info is Appriciated.
Regards
satish

Answer 1

Sorry Satish,
Maybe this is going off topic a little, bit perhaps also its relevant as you have been asked to move from BDC's to BAPIs.
Juan,
When I talk about debugging, there are two levels to this:
<b>1. Debugging by the programmer</b>
In this case, how can it be easier to debug an error from a BAPI than from the screen?  For a sales order, for example, when you enter a delivery date of 01.01.2000 for an item, via BDC you will get an error message as the item is entered (something along the lines of delivery date is in the past), and you will see exactly the date you have entered, and if you don't understand the error, you can click on F1 and it will give you the long description of the error.  Via a BAPI, you would get the error message, and you MIGHT get the item number and the date in question.  But if you don't understand the error what do you do then?  Debug the BAPI itself?  You could, but isn't this a rather lengthy way to get to the root of the problem?  In general, any errors you get calling BAPIs/BDCs are errors with your master data, or breaking business rules, you shouldn't have to debug standard code to tell you whats going wrong, the application can tell you.
<b>2. Debugging by the end user</b>
When you implement a BAPI/BDC this will be related to an interface/automated transaction etc.  When its in production you will occassionally get errors (due to bad master data, not fully capturing all the business logic in your custom coding [it happens], technical issues etc.)  What do you do then?  In the case of BDC you can do nothing.  The error is recorded, and you can get end users to process the errors by stepping through the screens (which they already know how to use) and make corrections as required.  In the case of BAPIs, you have to record the error in a table or a file, then develop some kind of interface to display the errors, then develop some kind of process for re-processing the errors.  If the data used to call the BAPI is not correct then you also need to provide a facility for changing the data before reprocessing.  Normally you do none of this because its too much work and you end up having all errors coming back to the SAP team who have to debug and change table entries etc. to get it all to work.  I would not say that this makes BAPIs easier to debug.
Oops, just realised my pasta is burning!!!
Anyway, think I got my point across.  Not personal but feel quite strongly about this topic.  To me BDC's are still a relevant tool despite the push for Idocs/BAPIs.
Cheers,
Brad