Modern ABAP Curriculum

This repository contains the documentation and source code for an ABAP curriculum developed as part of the WiLMo project, with a focus on modern ABAP programming in the context of SAP S/4HANA and the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

Overview

ABAP is the proprietary programming language developed by SAP SE and is the basis of the ERP-Software offered by SAP. Initially introduced in 1976, ABAP has evolved over the years. This blog post by Karl Kessler gives a nice summary of the history of the ABAP programming language. The aim of this curriculum is to provide an introduction to modern ABAP programming techniques and frameworks.

Learning Objectives

The curriculum aims to achieve the following learning objectives:

1. Enable students to compare the advantages and disadvantages of different extension technologies for a given requirement based on a thorough understanding of the SAP S/4HANA architecture.
2. Enable students to implement extensions to an SAP S/4HANA system using state-of-the-art ABAP to automate business processes not implemented in the SAP S/4HANA standard.
3. Enable students to implement extensions using the ABAP RAP framework and SAP Fiori Elements to enhance SAP S/4HANA using the SAP best practices.

Prerequisites

ABAP Development Environment

For students and lecturers at universities, different options exist for getting access to an ABAP development environment. The SAP University Competence Centers offer ABAP development system to universities (cf. the product list of the SAP UCC Magdeburg). Another option is to use the trial or free tier offerings of the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). Finally, it is also possible to self-host the ABAP Developer Trial.

ABAP Programming Language

This curriculum assumes a basic knowledge of the ABAP programming language. There are various resources available online for learning ABAP, such as books, lectures, video tutorials, and online courses. The following list contains just a few examples:

• Books

  • Franz, T., & Kühnhauser, K.-H. (2019). Einstieg in ABAP (5., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage). Rheinwerk.
  • Hardy, P. (2022). ABAP to the future (4th edition). Rheinwerk Publishing, Inc.

• Learning Journey

  • Get Started with ABAP Development
  • Acquire Core ABAP Skills

• Other

  • ABAP track on exercism

Other Technologies and Concepts

In addition to basic knowledge of the ABAP programming language, a basic understanding of the following technologies and concepts is required to follow the curriculum:

• Git
• HTML5
• OData
• ReST and APIs.

Curriculum

The curriculum consists of the following units:

1. Hello World
2. The ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model
3. Scenario Description
4. Creating the Data Model
5. Creating a Read-Only List Report
6. Creating a Transactional App
7. Adding Behaviour to the App
8. Next Steps

References

• Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP-based extensions
• Building extensions for SAP S/4HANA Cloud using APIs and Events
  • Blog post
  • YouTube Playlist
• SAP ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model
  • Build an SAP Fiori App Using the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP100)
  • Build Apps with the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model
  • ABAP Cloud FAQs
  • Modern ABAP Development with the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP)
  • ABAP for RAP: Entity Manipulation Language (ABAP EML)

Acknowledgements

The work on this curriculum has been supported by WiLMo project.

Additionally, I want to thank Sören Schlegel for patiently answering all my questions around RAP!