ALE is SAP proprietary technology that enables data communications between two or more SAP R/3 systems and/or R/3 and external systems. When a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution such as R/3 is implemented, companies have to interface the ERP system with legacy systems or other ERP systems. ALE provides intelligent mechanisms whereby clients can achieve integration as well as distribution of applications and data. ALE technology facilitates rapid application prototyping and application interface development, thus reducing implementation time. The ALE components are inherently integrated with SAP applications and are robust, leading to a highly reliable system. ALE comes with application distribution/integration scenarios as well as a set of tools, programs, data definitions, and methodologies that you can easily configure to get an interface up and running.
The message-based architecture of ALE comprises three layers:
Application layer. This layer provides ALE with an interface to R/3 to originate or receive messages containing data to or from external (or other R/3) systems.
Distribution layer. The distribution layer filters and converts messages containing data based on predefined or custom-defined rule sets. These conversions may occur to ensure compatibility between different releases of R/3 and R/2. (Read More…)





