Resolution:
Large enterprise environments, such as those designed by SAP, may consist of many different computers running different operating systems, all networked together from different corners of the world. However, there will always be one or more central servers running the main system database. This central database can contain thousands of data tables consuming gigabytes of storage information on customers, vendors, employees, manufacturing status, inventory, shipping, etc. Accordingly, if (for example) a shipping facility only needs to read a limited amount of customer and inventory information in order to print labels for that day's shipments, it might not be desirable to design and perform the complex remote queries necessary to tap directly into and search the central database.   SAP designed IDOCs ("Intermediate Documents") for exactly this purpose -- for encapsulating, moving around, and processing just the sections of data needed for specific purposes.

The Generation of IDOCs is a Standard, Routine SAP Function.

At any point in SAP's standard transaction processes (for shipping, receiving, work flow, etc), an IDOC can easily be generated containing only the data fields and records needed for a specific process (such as printing a shipping manifest or that day's shipping container labels). These self-contained files are obviously much smaller than the central database and more easily handled by peripheral software. IDOCs employ a text-based format, so the workstations need not be equipped to access SAP's central data-processing engine. In fact, because IDOCs are individual, self-contained files, they can easily be transferred using a variety of relatively "low tech" methods, including e-mail.  Accordingly, a facility printing labels from IDOCs data need not necessarily even be connected to the central server.

The SAP Adapter can handle both IDOCs and BAPIs. Now, how do IDOCs simplify Enterprise Data Processing in SAP?