Many enterprises operate multiple SAP systems within a heterogeneous landscape. For example, an engineering system may be separated from a production system. In such scenarios, Application Link Enabling (ALE) can be used to distribute data between the systems.
The following video introduces the basic features of ALE.
Cross-System Access I
When distributing document info records, it is important to include the original storage location. An identical storage location must be accessible in both systems. To ensure this, the same storage locations must be configured in Customizing in both the source and target systems.
During distribution, the document info record is copied from the source system to the target system. However, the originals remain in the secure storage area. Only the information about the storage location is distributed.
Note
In Customizing for Document Management, you can define which originals are distributed from which storage location and with which application.
Cross-System Access II
Originals can be stored and managed centrally on one or more content servers, provided that these servers are interconnected.
Distribution of Storage Locations
Content repositories (HTTP content servers) can be located close to end users. Storage locations are assigned to users’ workplaces and their geographic locations. To speed up the check-in process, the system automatically determines an appropriate storage category for a document based on the user’s location. These settings are configured in the SAP system. Potential performance disadvantages when reading data from geographically distributed storage locations can be mitigated through caching.
Caching
Depending on the user’s workplace location, read access is routed through a nearby cache server. If the requested document is not already available in the cache, the cache server retrieves it from the SAP content server. Like the SAP content server, the cache server is based on a database repository and is accessed via URLs. As a result, documents need to cross the wide area network (WAN) only once.
Reasons for Caching:
- Provides fast access to documents without negatively impacting network performance
- Caching is not replication; the original document always remains on the content server
- Cache content can be refreshed from the content server at any time, copying only the required documents