Introduction to ABAP and SAP Structure

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What is the UOW? SAP operates around the concept of a

Unit of Work (UOW) Every transaction code you execute

completes a unit of work It’s atomic (cannot be divided). That is, a

transaction completes entirely or it does not!

A unit of work (transaction code) corresponds to a program (term used loosely)

What’s a Transaction? There is a 1-1 relationship between

transaction code and a UOW program A transaction

Has a corresponding program Belongs to a package Has an initial screen and possibly many

others

Organization of the SAP System (1) It’s big Use the Object Navigator to look at all

of the SAP objects (SE80) All sorts of tools to look up and edit

applications Typical ‘drill-down’ interface

My example will look at transaction code VA01 – create sales order

Organization of the SAP System (2) You have all of the source code and can

see / change / enhance how the system works

All code is written in a language called ABAP or more recently some is written in Java

Program Attributes(Package) SAP packages, in the simplest case, allow you

group programs, database tables, (and other things) together

SAP itself is organized into thousands of hierarchical packages

A program belongs to a package and has an owner The package is defined when the program is

saved for the first time Use package $TMP for our “local” packages

ABAP Program Attributes (Package) Use Local Package $TMP for our work

The Object Navigator It’s a navigator to all SAP ‘objects’ (SE80) The ‘Application Hierarchy’ is at the top and

contains packages

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 1) Sales and Distribution (SD) / SALES is an

Application Component

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 2) Which contains the program SAPMV45A

(Sales Order Processing)

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 3) And the transaction code VA01 is bound

to this program SAPMV45A SE93 is used to look up a program

based on the transaction code

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 4) Transaction code VA01 belongs to the

package SAPMV45A Having a default screen number of 101

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 4) Screen 101 from the Object Navigator is

the first screen to create a sales order

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 5) Which when run gives us a screen

simulation

Object Navigator (Lookup Example 6) Which looks is our first screen to create

a sales order (VA01)

How do we Customize? We modify SAP programs via

‘enhancement sections’ and other means

We create custom programs We copy entire transaction codes and

‘make our own

Enhancement Sections They are entry points into SAP programs

that allow us to add our own code before or after some SAP task executes

Creating a Custom Program It’s a unified interface for creating,

debugging, modifying, deploying, … ABAP programs

Use transaction code SE38

Review (A First ABAP Program -1) Create a program

Review (A First ABAP Program -2) Edit the program statements

Review (A First ABAP Program -3) Activate the application (Program /

Activate)

Review (A First ABAP Program -4) Run it (F8) or (Program / Test / Direct

Processing A first report is displayed

APAP Program Attributes (Introduction) Every program that you create has

metadata

APAP Program Attributes (Program Type) ABAP has it’s own program types Executable programs can be run

independently of a transaction code Module Pools are made up of

processing steps and are executed from a transaction code

And other types of programs

APAP Program Attributes (Program Status / Application) Program status controls whether the

program is a test (local) program deployed to production systems

Application controls where in the SAP hierarchy the program “lives”

The ABAP Editor It’s Visual Studio for SAP

A code editor The clipboard works as we would expect We can run and test programs inside of

the ABAP editor

ABAP Program Names SAP has naming conventions for

programs Local programs should ALWAYS begin

with the letters Y or Z (for customer)

ABAP Syntax (Introduction) Like most programming languages, we

have variables, statements (sequence, decision, loops) The language looks like the old COBOL

language

Introduction to ABAP and SAP Structure

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