The ALE concept involves using external converters to connect non-SAP systems to the R/3 System. External converters are generic format conversion programs. The following converter functions are covered by SAP CA-ALE certification <ALE Converters>
They have the following properties:
–the transfer of R/3 intermediate document (IDoc) formats straight into their own repository so that these data descriptions can be used as source or target structures when assigning data fields.
–adoption and conversion of intermediate documents from R/3 Systems via the ALE interface – a remote function call that can be called up using a normal transaction.
–conversion of any data format into intermediate document structures and import into the R/3 System via a remote function call (RFC) in the ALE interface.
ALE converters enhance the concept of EDI subsystem interfaces by:
–using direct program-to-program communication instead of a file interface to transfer IDocs
–recognizing the format of any interface structure of a non-SAP system and not just standard EDIFACT or ANSI-X12 formats.
Other Useful Link :
What is ALE?
How ALE Works?
ALE Message Handler