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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:01PM
#21
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Thanks for holding this forum today, Thorsten! Do you have any information about how the ABAP platform is adapting to new technologies, like cloud computing and HANA?
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:06PM
#22
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1. Is there a technology road map for all SAP applications, not just the information on technologies as it gives a more insight where SAP is heading or addressing the constantly eveloging business world ?
SAP would have to answer that one. I can only give my personal experience, in which the road ahead, technologically, is quite clear in some areas and quite unclear in other areas. For example, it's not always easy to find out which Industry Solutions are going to move away from ABAP Dynpro and adopt Web Dynpro ABAP, and when. My advice is to search SCN and, if that isn't conclusive, contact the respective product management team. Cheers, Thorsten
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:12PM
#23
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3. Is HANA going to be also coming to ECC, SRM etc., if not fully, howt can it be utilized in parts and what would be it's impact on ABAP ?
Vishal Sikka (CTO of SAP) announced that in Q4 of 2012, HANA would come to the ERP system - probably as a ramp-up. That's very ambitious. In order to really speed up the ERP system, it is not enough to move HANA under the ERP system as a database but also to optimize the applications, meaning that some of the performance-critical functionalities where the greatest gains can be expected must be reimplemented with native database means, i.e. they'll probably have to do some new programming. In order to do that new programming in the most effective way, they'll need some of the tooling that is currently only available (or being built) for the AS ABAP for HANA, also known (but less frequently now) as NGAP. See the SAP TechEd Online materials from TechEd 2011 on the "Trailblazer" initiative to learn more about AS ABAP for HANA and optimizing ABAP applications for HANA. Cheers, Thorsten
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:12PM
#24
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Thanks for joining us today. Please don't forget to refresh your browser to see the latest posts.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:19PM
#25
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4. Regarding Mobility, SAP has new Gateway services, how is it changing the programming model of SAP applicaitons ?
Remember over ten years ago, the BAPI initiative, when developers were first told to separate user interface code from business logic? Those who took this advice back then could and still cann adapt their applications to new upcoming channels comfortably:
- ALE, IDocs, BAPIs
- CRM Middleware
- SOAP Web Services/Enterprise Services
- Web Dynpro ABAP
- Webclient UI Framework (BOL/GenIL)
and currently: NetWeaver Gateway. Just have a nice, easy-to-wrap application API on top of your business logic and it will be relatively easy to write the required wrappers for any of the above technologies. One think that needs to be considered is transaction handling. After a BAPI call, the transaction is usually kept pending, i.e. no explicit COMMIT WORK in the BAPI, but REST services such as in Gateway are stateless, so any transaction must be finished after the call. Cheers, Thorsten
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:22PM
#26
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Thank you all again for participating in today’s Forum. We have time for 1-2 more questions before the forum ends.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:27PM
#27
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5. WE know SAP is investing hugely on UI technologies, how is HTML5 impact the programming paradigm ?
SAP has just released their new UI library "UI5" (short for something much longer that nobody can remember) to public beta - you can download it on SCN, along with two very basic tutorials, and give it a try. As far as I know, UI5 is not replacing Web Dynpro ABAP, but the two will co-exist - Web Dynpro ABAP for applications in and closely around the Business Suite, and UI5 for entirely new and different things. We'll see how that works out. From the programming paradigm perspective, from what I've seen the UI5 programming model is more client-heavy, i.e. you program that which happens on the client, and communicate with the server by consuming (primarily) OData-type REST services via HTTP. So unlike with Web Dynpro ABAP, we'll see more real JavaScript and web programming. Cheers, Thorsten
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:32PM
#28
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The programming languages of HANA are mentioned to be SQL Script, Language R and BFL. We have ABAP so far...Down the lane into the Future ...say after 2 to 3 years which one would most likely be used among these like the way we use ABAP for basic SAP coding?
Hi, It's hard to make good predictions but juding by what SAP has currently in mind, the biggest parts of many applications will still be written in ABAP Objects, will some business logic delegated to the database as SQL and SQLScript, and much frontend logic written in JavaScript using frameworks like UI5 (which is based on jQuery). Also, despite certain bloggers, Java is not dead, and who knows what's going to happen with scripting languages that run on the Java Virtual Machine? Cheers, Thorsten
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:35PM
#29
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We are at the close of the Forum and are wrapping up questions now. Thorsten is answering the last questions now. Thanks to all who posted questions and followed the discussion! A full summary of all the questions will be available here in the SAP IT Forum, and in Insider Learning Network’s IT Group. If you have registered for this Q&A, you will receive an email alerting you when the transcript is posted. For more details about Thorsten’s book, Discover ABAP, visit the SAP PRESS Bookstore here.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 15, 2012 - 1:37PM
#30
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In hindsight, all the handwringing about the demise of ABAP a few years back with the rise of Java looks unfounded. So What is the relationship between Java and ABAP right now?
Ha! Good question. ABAP has clearly won as a platform for big enterprise applications. If a look at SAP's own products, I can't name a single ERP-style business application that is written in Java. On the other hand, SAP is investing in development in Java: SAP River, NetWeaver on Demand, Process Infrastructure, Composition Environment, Enterprise Portal are not stagnating, but seem alive and well enough. I guess you could say that the ABAP application server is experiencing a huge renaissance as a platform for business applications, and SAP's Java platform is currently not experiencing the same degree of maturation for this usage. But SAP's Java platform is maturing for more technical and integration usages, and lightweight development. Cheers, Thorsten
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