Lecture01 abap on line

Editor's Notes

• #4: SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products. SAP AG, the parent company, was founded in 1972. Based in Walldorf, Germany. SAP is the biggest client/server software company and 4 th largest independent software company in the world. SAP employs over 21,000 people worldwide, 11,000 customers (companies using SAP – over 400 in Australia) and 1.7 million users. SAP’s software product is called SAP R/3. It is an example of ERP software – Enterprise Resource Planning software. ERP software is designed to provide a single software solution for all the business processes of a business. ERP software replaces the large number of interdependent systems that have been developed and implemented in organizations with one single modular system. The SAP system contains over 8000 DB table definitions. Successful implementation requires business process reengineering and a client/server environment. All applications modules are written in a 4GL called ABAP.
• #6: Integration : Integrated processes and data - Operational, financial & managerial principles are satisfied simultaneously. Common database . Application integration - One point of data entry. Consistency across applications. Technical integration - Online, interactive update. Designed for all businesses : Provides a complete business solution across all business functions. Specialized industry solutions. Worldwide usage : Supports multi-currency, multi language, customized reporting. Interactive processing : Multi-user input. Open System : SAP can run with different operating systems, databases and networks. It supports industry standards such as TCP/IP, EDI, OLE.
• #7: SAP Basis manages the integration of modules and enables system to run on different platforms. The modules within SAP are described in systems documents as being organized in a variety of ways. One way is to consider four elements : Financial Accounting Human Resources Manufacturing , Sales and Distribution Industry Solutions
• #8: mySAP ERP and SAP R/3 Enterprise SAP R/3 Enterprise is the latest version of R/3. It incorporates new developments in ERP such as: SRM – Supply Relationship Management CRM – Customer Relationship Management BI – Business Intelligence (Data Warehousing & Strategic Enterprise Management) SCM – Supply Chain Management PLM – Product Lifecycle Management (Design, procure, manufacture, store, deliver) FIN – Financials (FI combined with CO) mySAP ERP combines Enterprise with Netweaver. NW is a set of technologies designed to assist enterprise application integration. That is, linking the ERP System (Enterprise) to other systems within the organization was well as other systems outside the organization.
• #9: SAP NetWeaver is SAP’s integrated technology platform and is the technical foundation for all future SAP applications SAP NetWeaver is marketed as a service-oriented application and integration platform. ( Service-Oriented Architecture ( SOA ) is a software architecture where functionality is grouped around business processes and packaged as services. SOA also describes IT infrastructure which allows different applications to exchange data with one another as they participate in business processes.) SAP NetWeaver provides the development and runtime environment for SAP applications and can be used for custom development and integration with other applications and systems. SAP NetWeaver is built using open standards and industry de facto standards and can be extended with, and interoperate with, technologies such as MS .NET, Sun Java EE and IBM WebSphere. SAP NetWeaver's release is considered as a strategic move by SAP for driving enterprises to run their business on a single, integrated platform that includes both applications and technology. It is widely held that this approach is driven by industry's need to lower IT costs through an enterprise architecture that is more flexible; better integrated with applications; built on open standards to ensure future interoperability and broad integration; and, provided by a vendor that is financially viable for the long term
• #10: The R/3 Basis system enables the applications to run on different platforms with high performance, and to be adjusted to the individual requirements of users. The Basis software (also called middleware) : Provides the runtime environment for the applications. Allows optimum integration of the applications. Contains the administration tools such as setting up accounts/applying security. Enables the distribution of resources and system components. Provides interfaces to non-SAP products.
• #11: The R/3 System has a modular software architecture that follows software- oriented client/server principles. The R/3 System typically allocates presentation, applications, and data storage to different computers. This serves as the basis for the scalability of the R/3 system. The lowest level is the database level . Here data is managed with the help of a relational database management system (RDBMS). In addition to master data and transaction data, programs and the metadata that describe the R/3 System are stored and managed here. ABAP programs run at the application level , both the applications provided by SAP and the ones you develop yourself. ABAP programs work with data called up from the database level and store new data there as well. The third level is the presentation level (SAPGUI). This level contains the user interface, in which an end user can access an application, enter new data and receive the results of a work process. The technical distribution of software is independent of its physical location on the hardware. Vertically, all levels can be installed on top of each other on one computer or each level on a separate computer. Horizontally, application and presentation level components can be divided among any number of computers. The horizontal distribution of database components, however, depends on the type of database installed.
• #12: The focus of this course will be the on writing ABAP programs. From this perspective: ABAP programs are processed on the application server. They may read and/or write data to the Presentation Server. They may read and/or write data to the database server. Therefore the design of user dialogs and database accesses is of particular importance when ABAP programs.
• #13: Once the user performs a user action ( choosing Enter, a function key, a menu function, or a pushbutton, for example ), control is passed from the presentation server to the application server. Only certain parts of the ABAP program are processed. If a further user dialog is triggered from within the ABAP program, the system transmits the screen, and control is once again passed to the presentation server.
• #14: The database contains, along with the Repository, application and customizing tables that are usually client-specific. The Repository contains all development objects, for example, programs, definitions of database tables and global types. Development objects are therefore also known as Repository objects. Repository objects are not client-specific. They can therefore be viewed and used in all clients. Explain the concept of an SAP client. All data held in one db/table but access is client dependent. Example: production client vs development client ::: BHP >> one subsidiary is a client, another subsidiary is another)
• #15: The ABAP Development Workbench contains different tools for editing Repository objects. These tools provide you with a wide range of assistance that covers the entire software development cycle. The most important tools for creating and editing Repository objects are: ABAP Editor for writing and editing program code ABAP Dictionary for editing database table definitions and defining/editing retrieving global data types. Menu Painter for designing the user interface (menu bar, standard toolbar, application toolbar) Screen Painter for designing screens ( dynamic or screen programs ) for user dialogs Function Builder for displaying and processing function modules (subroutines with defined interfaces that are available throughout the system) Class Builder for displaying and processing central classes (OO objects) There are two different ways to go about using these tools: Call from the SAP Easy Access Menu Or Work with them inside the Object Navigator. The Obj Nav provides you with a tree-like overview of all objects within a development class or program.
• #17: ABAP stands for Advanced Business Application Programming. ABAP Objects is the object-oriented enhancement of the ABAP programming language. Standardized access to databases using SQL or direct database access using Native SQL. Using translatable text elements, you can develop multi-language applications. The ABAP runtime system is a component of the SAP Basis System thus, the ABAP syntax is platform-independent. Therefore, it is designed for dialog-based, business applications.
• #18: ABAP programs are made up of individual statements. Each statement must end with a period. The first word in a statement is called a keyword. Words must always be separated by at least one space. Statements can be indented. Statements can take up more than one line. The ABAP runtime system does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters for keywords, additions, and operands.
• #19: You introduce comment lines with an asterisk *. The respective comment line is then ignored by the ABAP runtime system. If you wish to have the rest of a line set as a comment, you must use double quotation marks ("). You can combine consecutive statements with an identical beginning into a chained statement : . In chained statements, close the identical beginning part with a colon. . Separate the individual chained elements that come after the colon by commas. . Be aware that the ABAP runtime system still considers the individual parts of a chained statement to be single statements.
• #20: Reports : A report is a program that reads and analyzes data in database tables without changing the database. The results can be displayed on screen as a list or printed. In an SAP system, custom program names start with ‘Y’ or ‘Z’.
• #21: In the SAP environment programming projects are always developed in a development system and then transported to a production system.
• #22: SAP Query allows 3 Types : Basic List : Non summarised data with sorting, subtotals etc. Statistics : Summarised data. Ranking : Special statistics and summaries. SAP Query accesses database tables using functional areas. Query produces an ABAP report Similar to MS wizard