What is SAP ABAP Technology?

Hi

ABAP stands for Advanced Business Application Programming language. It is an interpreted programming language that runs in the SAP ABAP runtime environment. ABAP is the language for programming the SAP Application Server, part of its NetWeaver platform. for building business applications. It has evolved over the years to include Object Oriented language extensions as well.

ABAP runtime environment

All ABAP programs reside inside the SAP database. They are not stored in separate external files like Java or C++ programs.

In the database all ABAP code exists in two forms: source code, which can be viewed and edited with the ABAP Workbench tools; and generated code, a binary representation somewhat comparable with JAVA bytecode.

ABAP programs execute under the control of the runtime system, which is part of the SAP kernel.

The runtime system is responsible for processing ABAP statements, controlling the flow logic of screens and responding to events (such as a user clicking on a screen button); in this respect, it can be seen as a Virtual Machine comparable with the Java VM. A key component of the ABAP runtime system is the Database Interface, which turns database-independent ABAP statements (“Open SQL”) into statements understood by the underlying DBMS (“Native SQL”). The database interface handles all the communication with the relational database on behalf of ABAP programs; it also contains extra features such as buffering of tables and frequently accessed data in the local memory of the application server.

SAP ABAP( Advanced Business Application Programming) is a High Level Programming Language. SAP company created this Language in 1983. It is a Procedural/imperative Programming Language. As an extension to this, ABAP OO ( Object Oriented Language ) was developed around 1999. So now ABAP is both Imperative and OO Language.

Like Java, it is a Server Side Programming Language used to Program Business Applications on SAP Application Servers ( SAP Netweaver Application Server).

To develop applications in ABAP, first you need access to SAP Netweaver Server. The Server Embeds the Develpment tools ( Editor, compiler, source code management, version management, runtime) for application development.

ABAP distinguishes two types of executable programs:

• Reports
• Module pools

Reports follow a relatively simple programming model whereby a user optionally enters a set of parameters (e.g., a selection over a subSET of data) and the program then uses the input parameters to produce a report in the form of an interactive list. The term “report” can be somewhat misleading in that reports can also be designed to modify data; the reason why these programs are called reports is the “list-oriented” nature of the output they produce.

Module pools define more complex patterns of user interaction using a collection of screens. The term “screen” refers to the actual, physical image that the user sees. Each screen also has a “flow logic”, which refers to the ABAP code implicitly invoked by the screens, which is divided into a “PBO” (Process Before Output) and “PAI” (Process After Input) section. In SAP documentation the term “dynpro” (dynamic program) refers to the combination of the screen and its flow logic.

The non-executable program types are:

• INCLUDE modules
• Subroutine pools
• Function groups
• Object classes
• Interfaces
• Type pools

An INCLUDE module gets included at generation time into the calling unit; it is often used to subdivide large programs.

Subroutine pools contain ABAP subroutines (blocks of code enclosed by FORM/ENDFORM statements and invoked with PERFORM).

Function groups are libraries of self-contained function modules (enclosed by FUNCTION/ENDFUNCTION and invoked with CALL FUNCTION).

Object classes and interfaces are similar to Java classes and interfaces; the first define a set of methods and attributes, the second contain “empty” method definitions, for which any class implementing the interface must provide explicit code.

Type pools define collections of data types and constants.

ABAP programs are composed of individual sentences (statements). The first word in a statement is called an ABAP keyword. Each statement ends with a period. Words must always be separated by at least one space. Statements can be indented as you wish. With keywords, additions and operands, the ABAP runtime system does not differentiate between upper and lowercase.

ABAP is Advanced Business Application Programming language. This is a proprietary, object oriented programming language, from SAP to develop their platform. This is not available outside of SAP. SAP licence has to be bought to get access and then develop it on SAP platform.

SAP comes with prepackaged functionality developed using ABAP.