Rating: 
Summary: Fairly exhaustive
Review: Appears to be one of the better books on the SAP system. I needed the book for a a few select chapters especially the IDocs. Well written with good examples.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the perfect book for the correct ALE/ EDI audience
Review: Arvind's book is the perfect reference for someone who has done actual SAP implementations involving EDI, ALE, and associated Workflow, including status management, change management, message control, IDOC creation, reduction, extension, etc. If a person purchases this book in the hopes of learning SAP, ABAP, and ALE in some sort of "welcome to SAP - get rich quick" scenario; then this is not the book for you. Nor is any other book for that matter. Nothing replaces hands on experience; but this book is absolutely the perfect companion to anyone sitting in front of an SAP terminal with any kind of technical or functional responsibilities with regard to ALE and/or EDI. This book will help you to further understand the tools and systems SAP put in place. This is not a coffee table book, but rather a reference for those of you working with this subject matter on daily basis.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book with real time examples
Review: Excellent book with real time example
Rating:
Summary: An "excellent" and "must have" book on ALE/EDI/IDocs!!
Review: Fantastic book...that's what came to my mind when I finished reading this book. It's one of those rare books where each line makes so much of sense to an expert yet crystal clear to even new comers. This books covers almost everything that an ALE/EDI consultant should know. It starts with the basic concepts of EDI, ALE, IDocs and Workflow while explaining the typical business processes involved. This should help people aspiring to get into this field. Then it dwells more deeply on the concepts of ALE/EDI configuration (Customer Distribution Model, RFC destinations, ports & partner profile), Message Control, Workflow configuration, Idoc programming/reduction/extension and so on. Even a seasoned ALE/EDI/IDoc expert would find a few techniques/tips/work-arounds that are really helpful in practicality.The presentation is really cool and is enhanced greatly by neat diagrams (nowhere else did I find such explanatory diagrams, certainly neither in SAP documentation nor in their training material...perhaps it came from the author's years of practice and teaching!). Finally, I have been working in ALE/EDI/IDocs for the past 1.5 years and I feel that whatever I learnt so far has been, more or less, consolidated into this ALE/EDI/IDocs bible!!! -Venkat
Rating:
Summary: Finally Good information about idoc,edi and ale
Review: Great book. Helped out a lot with my current project. Saved me the heart ache of trying to look for documentation on SAP. Author has a good understanding of the subject and obviously is a teacher, by the way he draws similarity solutions to explain the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: No help at all..only theoretical nonsense & impractical e.g.
Review: How can you write a book about ALE, EDI and IDOC and not explain the fundamental concepts of IDOCs properly? The IDOC section has been relegated to the last few pages with no clear explanation. The ALE is sketchy at best, and the EDI is more than half of the book with mostly useless info. The cover claims to cover 4.X but there is no coverage at all - the info is still 3.0 - no mention of the expanded EDIDD record structure of 4.X at all! You have to go from page to page to find anything - no clearly defined structure of the info. Unmethodical and illogical sequence.
Rating: 
Summary: Collection of info, but disorganized
Review: I had ordered this title a while ago in great anticipation of a fine book, but was disappointed. It has a lot of info on ALE/EDI/IDOC but is terribly disorganized. To successfully understand a concept, you have to thumb through hundreds of pages to get to the point. This book does not cover important issues like workflow (for error handling) and IDOC archiving very well.
Rating:
Summary: The best EDI & Idoc reference available!
Review: I have been programming in the EDI & Idoc interface for two years and every time I pick up this book I learn more. This is the most comprehensive and complete reference that is available on this subject. Arvind Nagpal has a very readable writing style that keeps your interest. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A wealth of good and useful information!
Review: I have seen your informative postings on the EDI listserver regularly and this book reflects the same. I am very impressed with your book. As a matter of fact I have used the scenario for creating the remittance advice from your book and it saved me a lot of headache. I feel that someone who has truly worked in this industry will appreciate your book....hope to see some more books from you. Great job Arvind!
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book on EDI with concepts explained clearly
Review: I have worked on a project in 1997 where I had to use EDI for sending messages. I had to spend a lot of time reading through SAP On-line help and it tool quiet some time to understand how to implement EDI using SAP IDocs. ARVIND NAGPAL has done a wonderful job by writing this book which will save consultants a lot of time.
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