Guidelines for ABAP Development

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SAP invented and continues to update and improve the Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) platform. ABAP is a powerful application platform that includes the ABAP programming language, the ABAP development environment, and the ABAP application server. As a platform, ABAP offers:

A multilayered architecture Scalability A proven runtime environment The ABAP platform offers features that support the entire application life-cycle. It has numerous features and functions that support workflow, organizational management, and metadata constructs such as business objects. Programming business applications in ABAP is particularly easy because you have all these features. ABAP developers benefit from the infrastructure that SAP created for itself and shares with its customers and partners to help streamline their development as well. As a language, ABAP is a fourth-generation programming language that supports both procedural and object-oriented development and incorporates special support for business programming:

Built-in vendor-independent database access with Embedded OpenSQL Internal tables, which store and represent the business data of the database tables in the application layer and UI layer in the same table structure Internationalization support Powerful transaction management at the server level Effective cooperative logical locking: as much as necessary, as little as possible Infrastructure such as organizational management As a development environment, ABAP offers an efficient toolset supporting the full development life-cycle. As an application server, ABAP is an enterprise-ready runtime machine including:

Highly scalable, high performance synchronous and asynchronous user request processing Batch processing Output (print) management Sophisticated technical and business activity monitoring Administration tools Developers who learned ABAP in earlier releases should ensure that they are fluent in modern ABAP.

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SAP recommends using the version of ABAP released in SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and beyond. SAP has invested significantly to update the ABAP platform over many years. SAP uses ABAP for much of its own application development (see Figure 2-2). The ABAP language continues to evolve, and now incorporates such modern concepts as ABAP Objects, a fully object-oriented version of the ABAP language.

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SAP recommends using ABAP Objects for new programming initiatives and for significant refactoring of older programs. Exceptions can be made when maintaining or adding small amounts of functionality to older, procedural programs, since refactoring the entire program in ABAP Objects then may not make economic sense.

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ABAP Objects .

ABAP Programming Guidelines

ABAP programming guidelines are helpful to all ABAP programmers, whether at partners, at customers, or SAPs own internal developers who program in ABAP. Although there have been many books about ABAP programming, until recently there was no statement from SAP about how to program most effectively in ABAP. In 2009, Horst Keller, along with Wolf Hagen Thmmel, published a book called Official ABAP Programming Guidelines (SAP Press). The guidelines in this book consist of 120 rules in four areas:

Readable Programs ABAP Specifics Programming Model Correct and Robust Programming For each rule, youll find:

Background information The rule itself Detailed information A bad code example A good code example Some of the information contained in this book was drawn from the ABAP Keyword Documentation.

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SAP recommends the SAP Press book, Official ABAP Programming Guidelines, to learn more about effective ABAP programming.

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ABAP

ABAP Testing Tools

The ABAP environment provides a rich suite of testing tools so that you can verify the formal and functional correctness of your programs. Sophisticated static program checks should be part of each ABAP development process (use the Extended Program Check option in the ABAP Workbench or call it directly using transaction SLIN). The ABAP Unit testing tool supports you in writing, running, and organizing unit tests in ABAP. Together with the ABAP Coverage Analyzer, ABAP Unit

provides you with the tools you need to develop according to a test-driven paradigm. You can test even more intensively with the Code Inspector. This tool also lets you automate mass testing. Extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) is used to create and execute function and integration tests. Its primary aim is the automatic testing of SAP business processes. The ABAP Workbench offers a variety of useful tools to develop ABAP based add-ons and enhancements to existing development units.

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