Abap programcısının gelişen SAP dünyasında yerini muhafaza etmesi için Netweaver öğrenmesine ihtiyaç var. Bu bilgiyi öğrendiğim 2005 SAP Forum dan beri bu konu da çalışmış olsaydım eminim çok iyi bir durumda olabilirdim. Maalesef şirketin bu konuda destek çıkmaması. Küçük çaplı çalışmalarımın ehemminetini ortadan kaldırdı.

Bu konuda haftasonu rahat rahat web de gezerken (şirkette IT elemanı olsanız bile eskiden 60 şu an 90 dk.lık web kısıtlaması var) bu konuda bir makaleye rastladım. Sizlerle paylaşmak isterim…

Kaynak :

Summary

Once upon a time there was an ABAP programmer who decided she needed to be an object-oriented programmer to keep her cushy job. How do I become one of those and what are they really, seemed to be the big questions.

How Should I Proceed?

That’s unfortunately how I feel in this new world of SAP. I have done ABAP programming for over seven years, with seven years of RPG programming and before that, six years of COBOL programming. It is time to move on to Java and ABAP objects, but I am not sure how to get there or even what ‘there’ means.

For many years I have done procedural language programming, and when I moved to SAP it was fairly easy as far as the language was concerned. I have always felt that getting familiar with the SAP environment and learning where to put your code was the biggest challenge. With SAP, I had to concern myself with procedures and code produced by others rather than dealing with a system I had designed. I am hoping that all the knowledge I have gathered about user exits, interfaces, and ‘how to get around the software’ can be leveraged in the new world.

In the last seven years I have worked on 11 SAP projects. For two of the projects I worked on the customer side, four with a small consulting firm, and five as a consultant for SAP. I started out on release 2.2 for three months before going to 3.0. The other end of the spectrum is that I’m just starting on a 4.7 release with a customer that has 4.0 installed. In between I worked on most of the releases, including 4.6C. Each release is a challenge not so much in learning how to use the new capabilities, but in finding out what the new capabilities are.

As a consultant, I spend the days fighting fires and rarely have the energy to explore new things at night. I always said if there was a clear, concise way to learn the new skills, I might be able to keep up. Unfortunately, I usually have to wade through the documentation, trying to unearth the new features from all the other documentation. Once in looking for a convenient user exit, I found Business Transaction Events and then went to the documentation to discover how they worked. If only I could depend on tripping over all the new features that way.

As far as areas of SAP that I’ve worked with, I have been lucky and able to work in many areas of SAP, including:

Standard conversions and interfaces using BDCs, BAPIs, and IDOCs
Lots of work in the user exits and enhancement area, trying to avoid ever doing a ‘core mod’
A little bit of dialog module programming with some tab strip control
Report programming, some of them using the ALV grid
In a moment of wildness, I took BW training but have only done the extraction enhancements, some start routines, and some virtual characteristics
HR programming on three projects, primarily using the pre-configured conversion tool
Self-taught in workflow using the published book and the SAP tutorials to do exercises
Attended the BC404 ABAP Objects courses three years ago, but I have not had occasion to actually use the material
Took a computer-based tutorial course on Java to see if I could learn it. Bottom line – I understand the syntax of Java but I don’t have any idea of how it works in an actual environment .
Having just gotten back from SAP TechEd in Las Vegas, I am panicking about what I have to learn, how fast can I learn it, how do I use it, and where is the information that I need to acquire the skill. I work in the SAP NetWeaver™ group of SAP and probably have a better idea of what that is compared to most people.

I know that SAP NetWeaver is the combination of SAP® Web Application Server (Web AS – the old Basis component to you and I), SAP® Enterprise Portal (EP), SAP® Exchange Infrastructure (XI), SAP® Business Intelligence (BI – the old BW – Business Warehouse), SAP® Master Data Management (MDM), SAP® Knowledge Management (KM – I haven’t even seen this yet except for sales presentations), SAP® Collaboration Room (your guess is as good as mine), SAP® Mobile Infrastructure (MI), and Composite Application Framework (CAF – this is the platform under the new SAP XApps™). You can look up these products in detail here.

My personal learning list, based on what I think I need to know, will start with ABAP objects and understanding how I can use them to implement enhancements to SAP code. I will then move on to using the objects for an ALV grid for reports, including any bells and whistles that I can think of. The next hot question will be, “Is it possible to use Java to code the enhancements in user exits in SAP and is there any advantage to using it versus ABAP objects/plain ABAP? “

On the same level of importance is the ability to modify screens without doing core mods in R/3. I will look at GUIXT, iViews, and GUI Machine, and try to find out the capabilities of each one. As you can see, I’m hoping to build on my strengths of R/3 and then try to incorporate the new products. I think that the future for custom development will be with all the add-on products, but I think I can learn the new coding tools easier in R/3.

Just to let all of you in on my confusion, here is what I see my role as an ABAPer is in each of these areas. Web AS has the Web Dynpros in it, so I assume I will need to know how to do those. It also has the new ABAP workbench and the Java Developer Workbench in it, so it is the place where I will do most of my work. The portals would seem to have the iViews, Business Server Pages (BSP), and the Java Server Pages (JSP) in them. I don’t know if portals display them or if you develop them in there or in Web AS. Of course there is a new thing called a GUI Machine that will create iViews, but I haven’t heard a lot of where it belongs and how to find out more about it.

SAP XI seems like an interesting product and I can’t wait to learn about it. It sounds like I will need to know some XML and maybe HTML, but I’m not sure. I have worked with the BI product in doing ABAP for extraction enhancement, start routines, and virtual characteristic and I haven’t heard that there is more work for the developer in this area. As far as MDM goes, I haven’t heard of any concrete information about the product and at this time I am ignoring it until I can find out more. The same can be said for the KM, Collaboration, ME, and CAF. Until I hear that these products need development work, I will ignore them until I feel more comfortable about the areas where I can learn and apply the new skills.

My primary aim in learning new skills is being able to give customers the custom code that they want without jeopardizing their ability to upgrade to new releases of SAP. If I had to prioritize the new skills I think I will need in the next two to three years, the list would look like this:

ABAP objects and how to use them to make enhancements to the SAP delivered using ABAP objects
iViews
BSP, or Business Server Pages
JSP, or Java Server Pages
XML
HTML
Workflow between and within the SAP components, and to outside sources
J2EE
Java
Eclipse – I think this is the development workbench for Java
XI
Last but not least, MDM
OK, here is where the rubber meets the road. On the personal side, I will investigate the capabilities of ABAP objects and see if they can be used for enhancements in SAP R/3. I also have a request at work to find out whether Java can be used in SAP R/3 user exits, and if so, why would it be used? In order to find out information, I will be looking at http://www.sap.com first to see what information is readily available. Also, I will be using the documentation from SAP R/3 and Web Application Server to see if I can find the answers.

Because I am an SAP employee, I have access to other sources but will not be using them unless I can’t find the answers elsewhere. While some of these sources cannot be shared, I will let you know when I have found the SAP training courses and SAP presentations valuable, and will let you know when they will be offered to the public.