difference between BDC and BAPI shiva kumar May 22, 2008 8:00 AM (in response to swamy katta)

Hi, A BAPI is a method of a SAP Business Object. BAPI enables SAP and third party applications to interact and integrate with each other at the Business Object / Process level. Check this link to know more about BAPI. http://www.sapgenie.com/abap/bapi/example.htm http://sappoint.com/abap/ Batch Data Communication (BDC) is the oldest batch interfacing technique that SAP provided since the early versions of R/3. BDC is not a Typical integration tool, in the sense that, it can be only be used for uploading data into R/3 and so it is not bi-directional. BDC works on the principle of simulating user input for transactional screen, via an ABAP program. Typically the input comes in the form of a flat file. The ABAP program reads this file and formats the input data screen by screen into an internal table (BDCDATA). The transaction is then started using this internal table as the input and executed in the background. In Call Transaction, the transactions are triggered at the time of processing itself and so the ABAP program must do the error handling. It can also be used for real-time interfaces and custom error handling & logging features. . To know more about BDC, check the link. http://sappoint.com/abap/ Main differences are... In case of bdc data transfer takes place from flat file into sap system ie the file existing in sap system to sap system where is bapi's r remotly enabled function modules which are assigned to some business objects n used to transfer the data between different business partners who are using different systems other than sap.

not only that... when you plan to upgrade your system version then bdc willnot support those upgradations where as bapi's will support. Reward points for useful Answers Regards Shiva Kumar
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Re: difference between BDC and BAPI BDC: Through BDC you are going to update screens. BAPI stands for Business Application Programming Interface. Bapi : Through bapi you are going to update Data Base Tables directly. When ever screen of a particular transaction changes, you need to redo the work in case of BDC. Where as incase of BAPI SAP will take care as it will update the Database Tables Durectly. BApi is more flexible And provides Great performance compared to A program written By BDC. BAPI is used only when it is available for the particular transaction like Delivery Sales order. but BDC can be used for any transaction which have screen and fields. BAPI is directly updated the database instead BDC run through the screen flow. So BAPI can't handle all the flow logic checking and enhancement put by programmer to faciliate the user requirement. BAPI is a higher end usage for tranfering the data from SAP to non-SAP and viceversa. for ex: if we are using VB application,where in that we want to connect to SAP and retireve the data,and then change and update the data in SAP for that purpose we can use that.

Apart from that, we can also use it for Uploading/Downloading the data from SAP to Non-SAP like BDC, provided we have an existing BAPI for that. BAPI function modules will also do all the checks required for data integrity like Transactions for BDC. There is one more advantage using BAPI instead of BDC. When we go for upgradation, there might be pozzibility to change the screen elements for transactions depending on the requirement. In that case,our BDC pgm may or may not work (depending on the screen changes they have made). Unless and until we prepare new BDC we cant use the old BDC pgm. But in BAPI, SAP promises that they are going to keep the old BAPI and for new functionality they will provide an upgraded BAPI. Until we write a new BAPI pgm, we can use the exisitng BAPI pgm.

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Re: difference between BDC and BAPI

Bikas Tarway May 22, 2008 8:08 AM (in response to swamy katta) In BDC data is updated through transaction screens where as in case of BAPI it update the data base directly. If you are in a situation which one to choose keep in mind. In BAPI you have very less control over data where as in BDC you have much control like converting validating based on your requirement. More over you can use BAPI if it exists for that particular Transaction Regards Bikas
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Re: difference between BDC and BAPI

Amit Gujargoud May 22, 2008 8:19 AM (in response to swamy katta) Hi Swamy, Please try to search with BDC and BAPI throwing the thread in SDN.Am sure you will got plenty of notes on that.Because we all are here to solve real time face issues not such type of theory.if you want to learn please try to explore your self in SDN istead if throwing threads.please support us in same. Please close this thread. Amit. What the difference between BDC and BAPI? What the exact situation where we can use BDC and BAPI? BDC is the good old method of moving legacy data to SAP. BAPI is the new enhanced Application Interface through which data can be uploaded into SAP System. BDC is transaction oriented. Meaning, the data is uploaded into SAP through standard transactions. All checks , Validations , exits that are applicable to the transaction are active while loading data into SAP. Simply saying, BDC is continuous running of transaction repeatedly without human intervention, data being picked from text file for each run. It is just a bundling of multiple executions of the same transaction and execute at once like a macro. Whereas BAPI is an interfacing method, through which SAP data can be processed from within SAP or from other non-SAP applications. BAPI can be termed as SAP transaction without dialog. All the screens of particular transaction is converted in the form of a Code Module. We can establish on-line interface with SAP data from nonSAP applications through BAPI's if they are enabled for Remote Access.

Generally BDC is preferred if the data from the legacy system(LSMW) is moved to SAP single time. For example, at the time of Go-Live the data required for SAP is either downloaded from other software or manually prepared in excel sheets and uploaded into SAP at once. After that data or SAP has nothing to do with other software. BAPI's are preferred, if data exchange is online or continuous between SAP transactions or SAP and non-SAP applications. BAPI's are preferred in view of performance also. Data loading through BAPI's are more robust and faster comparatively, if they are called correctly.