Script: The Challenge for ABAP Cloud [001]
ABAP Cloud is the goal of modern ABAP development. However, there are numerous challenges and technologies to overcome before we get there. What technologies are these, and what should you look at in more detail?
Table of contents
In this video, we'll explore the question: Where exactly do we face challenges in ABAP development? To do this, we'll navigate to the Learning Roadmap on our website and take a look at the various topics.
The Learning Roadmap provides a starting point—traditional development—and a goal—ABAP Cloud. And here we're already in the middle of the challenge. ABAP Cloud compliance won't be the goal of every company, but along the way, there are many topics that affect us as ABAP developers, and each step improves our development skills.
The various topics of the roadmap are described in more detail on this page so you can get a better understanding of them, especially if you're not familiar with a topic yet. The topics in the outer areas are optional in most cases. The legend provides further information on the meaning of the various topics. In the video description, you'll find the link to the overview page if you'd like to see more details.
Basics
You can learn the basics today and you don't even need a modern S/4HANA system.
The first step is to think about modernizing your IDE; the ABAP Development Tools in ABAP are the goal. All new features from development will be added here. However, even with Release 7.40, which would be Solution Manager, or Release 7.50, which would be the current R/3, working with the ABAP Development Tools is worthwhile.
In addition to the IDE, you can also start by bringing your ABAP skills up to date. Modern ABAP replaces many of the old statements with new functions and makes statements nestable. Classes form your backbone in development; the majority of the business logic should be contained within them, and other objects such as reports, function modules, or gateway components are merely wrappers for calling your objects. Together with interfaces and various patterns, they form the basis for decoupling and testability of your source code. Unit tests offer you a safety net in development, enabling rapid further developments and reducing manual testing effort. In the future, a production error could be automatically tested with every adjustment to prevent it from occurring again.
Web technology
The next step involves web technologies. More and more applications can be accessed via the browser, are optimized for mobile devices, and require no additional installation on the end device. The basis for this is OData, which is made available in older releases via the SAP Gateway. In addition to OData and the REST foundation, you should also look at web communication and how data is delivered to the browser. The better you understand the basics of the web, the easier development in this environment will be for you. You don't have to become a freestyle development pro right away, but you should understand the Fiori and UI5 concepts so that Fiori Elements will be easier for you later.
Quality
Before we delve into modern development, you should work on your code quality. Various resources and tools are available to help you achieve this. The basics are described in the Clean ABAP Style Guide; it's worth reading the document when you have a quiet moment to get a better idea of good source code. CodePal and the ABAP Test Cockpit can help you automatically test all your development objects. With the ABAP Cleaner, you get a tool in ADT that will save you a lot of time with formatting and thus ensure consistent source code within your team. Yet another reason to switch to ADT today.
Programming Model
The most important and biggest change in development concerns the programming model. You now build your applications with the new ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model, or RAP for short. This affects the UI, but also topics such as APIs within the system and externally. To understand and use RAP, you also need to understand Core Data Services. They are the basis of the new data model in the system, but also the basis of RAP, since they are used to model entities. Related to this is the topic of code pushdown, where you do less with the data in the actual program and instead leave the tasks to the HANA database. These two points alone require a lot of time for familiarization and learning.
Extensibility
In the area of extensibility, the Clean Core plays a central role. New concepts such as developer extensibility, key user extensibility, and side-by-side should be considered. ABAP Cloud already plays a central role here, as it can be used on-stack and side-by-side.
Where do you actually start with extending the system? You should ask yourself this question anew with every extension. There are various criteria for whether an extension should be built coupled or decoupled. Depending on your company's strategy, you can then decide where to implement the extension.
User Interface
You've already looked at the Fiori concepts; in this step, you should be familiar with the new tools like the Business Application Studio and Fiori Elements. These allow simple UIs to be developed very quickly and expanded using the Flexible Programming Model. The SAP GUI is no longer a central component of SAP's UI strategy.
APIs
The most extensive topic, however, will be the APIs in the SAP system. Especially when accessing the core, we need approved and stable APIs from SAP. The XCO libraries already make a good start here, but are very difficult to learn. However, depending on the business modules, you'll search in vain for BAPI and released Core Data Services.
Summary
So you can see that the topics cover the full spectrum of development, and many of the old technologies are no longer needed today. So you should ask yourself where you are on your journey to ABAP Cloud. Depending on what you've already learned, you're either at the very beginning of traditional development, on the journey toward the cloud, or have already reached your goal.
In our opinion, the biggest challenge in the coming years will be learning the new topics, since every developer has different prerequisites. For many years, there were hardly any new innovations from SAP, and we as developers had different levels of knowledge, including how we learned it or what we learned from our trainers. It's therefore time for a comprehensive modernization of ABAP development and an increase in source code quality.
For some developers, the journey will not be easy, but we will support you on this channel and on our blog.
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