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.

See also ALE Message Handlers.