An IDoc message body can be serialized into an XML string format, with the help of a built-in type converter.

Each serialized IDoc is associated with an XML namespace, which has the following general format:

http://sap.fusesource.org/idoc/repositoryName/idocType/idocTypeExtension/systemRelease/applicationRelease

Both the repositoryName (name of the remote SAP meta-data repository) and the idocType (IDoc document type) are mandatory, but the other components of the namespace can be left blank. For example, you could have an XML namespace like the following:

http://sap.fusesource.org/idoc/MY_REPO/FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA01///

The Camel SAP component has a built-in type converter, which is capable of converting a Document object or a DocumentList object to and from a String type.

For example, to serialize a Document object to an XML string, you can simply add the following line to a route in XML DSL:

<convertBodyTo type="java.lang.String"/>

You can also use this approach to a serialized XML message into a Document object. For example, given that the current message body is a serialized XML string, you can convert it back into a Document object by adding the following line to a route in XML DSL:

<convertBodyTo type="org.fusesource.camel.component.sap.model.idoc.Document"/>

When you convert an IDoc message to a String, it is serialized into an XML document, where the root element is either idoc:Document (for a single document) or idoc:DocumentList (for a list of documents). Example 12, “IDoc Message Body in XML” shows a single IDoc document that has been serialized to an idoc:Document element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ASCII"?>
<idoc:Document
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA01---="http://sap.fusesource.org/idoc/XXX/FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA01///"
    xmlns:idoc="http://sap.fusesource.org/idoc"
    creationDate="2015-01-28T12:39:13.980-0500"
    creationTime="2015-01-28T12:39:13.980-0500"
    iDocType="FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA01"
    iDocTypeExtension=""
    messageType="FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA"
    recipientPartnerNumber="QUICKCLNT"
    recipientPartnerType="LS"
    senderPartnerNumber="QUICKSTART"
    senderPartnerType="LS">
  <rootSegment xsi:type="FLCUSTOMER_CREATEFROMDATA01---:ROOT" document="/">
    <segmentChildren parent="//@rootSegment">
      <E1SCU_CRE parent="//@rootSegment" document="/">
        <segmentChildren parent="//@rootSegment/@segmentChildren/@E1SCU_CRE.0">
          <E1BPSCUNEW parent="//@rootSegment/@segmentChildren/@E1SCU_CRE.0"
              document="/"
              CUSTNAME="Fred Flintstone" FORM="Mr."
              STREET="123 Rubble Lane"
              POSTCODE="01234"
              CITY="Bedrock"
              COUNTR="US"
              PHONE="800-555-1212"
              EMAIL="fred@bedrock.com"
              CUSTTYPE="P"
              DISCOUNT="005"
              LANGU="E"/>
        </segmentChildren>
      </E1SCU_CRE>
    </segmentChildren>
  </rootSegment>
</idoc:Document>