Extend SAP S/4HANA PDF
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Kasetsart University
2024
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Summary
This document provides guidelines for extending SAP S/4HANA in cloud and on-premise environments using ABAP-based extensions, focusing on project managers, key users, and developers. It includes sections on the ABAP Cloud development model, analytics, and other relevant aspects for cloud-based extensibility.
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PUBLIC Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP based extensions Guidelines for extension project managers, key users, and ABAP developers VERSION 2.2 / APRIL 2024 PUBLIC Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP based extensions Guidelines for extension project...
PUBLIC Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP based extensions Guidelines for extension project managers, key users, and ABAP developers VERSION 2.2 / APRIL 2024 PUBLIC Extend SAP S/4HANA in the cloud and on premise with ABAP based extensions Guidelines for extension project managers, key users, and ABAP developers VERSION 2.2 / APRIL 2024 Activity log Version 2.2, April 2024 Repaired broken links in chapter 4.1 Version 2.1, April 2024 Minor changes in text for clarification and better understanding. Version 2.0, April 2023 CHAPTER NOTE Document Activity log added. 4.2 Added chapter about analytics in ABAP Cloud. Updated recommendations for BC apps for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, and 4.6 SAP S/4HANA on-premise. 5.1 Updated recommendations for the setup of the 3-tier model. 5.2 Update on recommendations for wrappers. 1 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1 MOTIVATION FOR A NEW EXTENSIBILITY MODEL.............................................................................................................. 4 2 THE SAP S/4HANA CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY MODEL........................................................................................... 7 2.1 OVERVIEW OF THE EXTENSIBILITY OPTIONS FOR SAP S/4HANA CLOUD.............................................................................. 7 2.2 KEY USER EXTENSIBILITY.............................................................................................................................................. 8 2.3 ON-STACK DEVELOPER EXTENSIBILITY WITH SAP S/4HANA CLOUD ABAP ENVIRONMENT................................................... 10 2.4 SIDE-BY-SIDE EXTENSIBILITY USING THE SAP BTP ABAP ENVIRONMENT........................................................................... 12 2.5 SUMMARY OF THE EXTENSIBILITY OPTIONS FOR SAP S/4HANA CLOUD............................................................................ 13 3 WHEN TO USE WHICH CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY OPTION....................................................................................14 3.1 ADDITIONAL ASPECTS TO CONSIDER............................................................................................................................ 15 3.2 EXAMPLES.............................................................................................................................................................. 16 3.2.1 Key user extensibility.................................................................................................................................. 16 3.2.2 On-stack developer extensibility................................................................................................................ 16 3.2.3 Side-by-side extensibility............................................................................................................................ 16 4 THE ABAP CLOUD DEVELOPMENT MODEL.....................................................................................................17 4.1 THE ABAP RESTFUL APPLICATION PROGRAMMING MODEL............................................................................................ 18 4.1.1 The big picture............................................................................................................................................ 18 4.1.2 Extensibility of RAP business objects (RAP BO).......................................................................................... 19 4.2 ANALYTICS IN ABAP CLOUD...................................................................................................................................... 21 4.2.1 The big picture of embedded analytics in ABAP Cloud............................................................................... 22 4.2.2 Extensibility for analytical data models..................................................................................................... 23 4.3 CLOUD-OPTIMIZED ABAP LANGUAGE......................................................................................................................... 25 4.4 ABAP PLATFORM REUSE SERVICES............................................................................................................................. 25 4.4.1 Released local APIs..................................................................................................................................... 25 4.4.2 Technical reuse services............................................................................................................................. 26 4.4.3 Identity and Access Management.............................................................................................................. 27 4.4.4 Connectivity................................................................................................................................................ 28 4.5 SAP S/4HANA BUSINESS APIS, EXTENSION POINTS AND EVENTS.................................................................................... 28 4.6 BUSINESS CONFIGURATION (BC)................................................................................................................................ 29 5 EXTENDING A NEW SAP S/4HANA CLOUD PRIVATE EDITION OR SAP S/4HANA ON-PREMISE SYSTEM..............31 5.1 SETTING UP THE THREE TIER MODEL............................................................................................................................ 32 5.1.1 General Setup............................................................................................................................................. 32 5.1.2 ATC Setup................................................................................................................................................... 33 5.1.3 Setup Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 35 5.1.4 Transformation Towards ABAP Cloud........................................................................................................ 35 5.1.5 Custom Code Use Cases and Their Related Tier......................................................................................... 36 5.2 TIER 2: WHEN AND HOW TO USE CLASSICAL ABAP CODE TO MITIGATE MISSING APIS.......................................................... 37 5.3 TIER 3: CLASSIC EXTENSIONS..................................................................................................................................... 39 5.3.1 Using classic structure extensions.............................................................................................................. 39 5.3.2 Using classical business logic extension techniques................................................................................... 40 5.3.3 Modifications.............................................................................................................................................. 40 6 MANAGING AND TRANSFORMING EXISTING CODE IN SAP S/4HANA CLOUD PRIVATE EDITION AND SAP S/4HANA ON-PREMISE..................................................................................................................................41 6.1 HOW TO HANDLE EXISTING CLASSIC ABAP CUSTOM CODE IN PARALLEL WITH THE NEW CLOUD READY EXTENSIONS.................... 41 6.2 HOW TO HANDLE EXISTING CUSTOM CODE IN A RAP COMPLIANT FASHION......................................................................... 43 7 MORE INFORMATION...................................................................................................................................44 LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................................................................45 2 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................................................................45 LIST OF SOURCE CODE EXAMPLES.........................................................................................................................45 GLOSSARY...........................................................................................................................................................46 3 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 1 INTRODUCTION Extensibility is a key capability of every Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. It enables customers to create a competitive advantage by customizing their business processes and allows partners to enrich ERP with tailor-made solutions. The importance of extensibility has been confirmed for SAP’s on-premise ERP and will remain valid for the more standardized cloud ERP. SAP S/4HANA is SAP’s flagship product providing the intelligent ERP in the cloud and on-premise. This document helps SAP S/4HANA customers and partners to choose, implement and use the extensibility options correctly, and takes into account the various customer environments (public cloud, private cloud or on-premise). The goal is to move from classic custom ABAP extensions to an SAP S/4HANA extensibility model that allows customers to consume SAP innovations smoothly, leading to future-proof extensions that are ready for the next cloud transformation steps. 1.1 Motivation for a new extensibility model During the last decades SAP’s on-premise customers and partners have mainly used classic ABAP extensibility to extend their ERP solution. Classic extensibility allows ABAP developers to use and even to modify all SAP objects. This is very powerful and flexible. But the missing clear interface between SAP code and the extensions adds a lot of customer specific test and adaptation effort during SAP upgrades. In the public cloud there are no customer-specific SAP upgrade projects. Instead automated software updates run for all customers in parallel. Therefore, classic extensibility, based on classical custom ABAP code, can no longer be used. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition provides a new upgrade-stable cloud extensibility model that clearly separates SAP code and extensions via mandatory public SAP APIs and SAP extension points. It supports the following standard extensibility scenarios: On-stack extensions that depend on proximity to or tight coupling with SAP S/4HANA Cloud data, transactions or apps and therefore run on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud stack. Side-by-side extensions running on the separated SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) for all other loosely-coupled extension scenarios integrating with SAP S/4HANA. The different personas working on extensibility use cases are supported via: Low-code/no-code tools for key users/business experts. A development environment (IDE) for professional developers. SAP S/4HANA Cloud covers these dimensions with the following extensibility options: SAP S/4HANA CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY OPTIONS 6 Tightly coupled extension on o Loosely-coupled extension on the side-by-side Platform PERSONAS SAP S/4HANA SAP BTP (on-stack extensions) O (side-by-side extensions) SAP S/4HANA Cloud Low-code/no-code solutions (SAP BUSINESS EXPERT, key user extensibility Build apps, SAP Business KEY USER, application studio, SAP Build CITIZEN DEVELOPER Process automation and others) 4 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. SAP S/4HANA CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY OPTIONS Loosely-coupled extension on Tightly coupled extension on the side-by-side Platform PERSONAS SAP S/4HANA SAP BTP (on-stack extensions) (side-by-side extensions) -- 8 Developer extensibility using the Java, Node.js SAP BTP SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP environments DEVELOPER Environment SAP BTP ABAP Environment (a.k.a. Embedded Steampunk 1) (a.k.a. Steampunk 1) -- Table 1.1 - SAP S/4HANA Cloud extensibility options E All these extensibility options use only SAP APIs and SAP extension points that have been released and are stable. - G This new SAP S/4HANA Cloud extensibility model, first introduced in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, is now available in all SAP S/4HANA editions, to achieve smoother upgrades everywhere and to pave the way to the cloud. Table 1.2 below lists the different SAP S/4HANA editions and why a customer should adopt the new cloud extensibility model in the respective environment. The right column in the table lists which topics are covered in this guide. WHY CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY? WHAT WILL BE EXPLAINED The SAP S/4HANA cloud Mandatory extensibility model SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public When to use which cloud Edition - Classical ABAP extensibility is not extensibility option supported The ABAP Cloud development model Technical setup to use the new Start with the superior cloud cloud extensibility model extensibility model When to use the cloud extensibility SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private model and when classic extensibility Edition and on-premise Smoother SAP software updates still has to be used Greenfield installation Future-safe extensions for the next Guidance on how to handle classic cloud transformation steps extensibility in parallel with the new cloud extensions Get the benefits described above SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private for new and existing extensions Best practices on how to manage, Edition and on-premise Developers learn the new extensibility eliminate or transform existing Installation with converted model and can transform classic classic extensions classic extensions extensions step-by-step to cloud- ready extensions Table 1.2 - Overview about the positioning of the new cloud extensibility model in the different SAP S/4HANA editions 1 Steampunk and Embedded Steampunk are the SAP internal project names to deliver the ABAP environment on SAP BTP and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. These project names are often used in development-related blogs and articles. 5 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. The list below gives some recommendations on how to read this guide: Chapters 1-3 are recommended for all readers to get an overview of the ABAP-related aspects of the new cloud extensibility model and to understand when to use which extensibility option. Chapter 4 introduces the new ABAP Cloud development model. Chapters 5 and 6 provide initial guidance on how to apply the cloud extensibility model in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition or on-premise. Here we differentiate between greenfield SAP S/4HANA systems and converted SAP S/4HANA systems containing existing custom ABAP code. This guide concentrates on the ABAP-based extensibility options (key user and developer extensibility on SAP S/4HANA and the SAP BTP ABAP Environment). For low-code/no-code tools on SAP BTP please refer to Low-Code/No-Code Development Tools in SAP community. More information on Node.js and Java development on SAP Business Technology Platform as well as the SAP Cloud Application Programing Model (CAP) is referenced on the More Information page at the end of this document. 6 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 2 THE SAP S/4HANA CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY MODEL SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition allows customers and partners to take full advantage of all the innovations delivered by SAP without the need to take responsibility for the cloud infrastructure and operations. SAP manages all operation and lifecycle management tasks such as continuous feature delivery or providing hotfixes and regular upgrades to new software versions. Consequently, the new cloud extensibility model as explained in chapter 1 is mandatory to ensure that customer and partner extensions continue to run without any change or adaptation effort independent of changes made by SAP. Therefore, all extensions must adhere to the following rules to ensure cloud-readiness: Rule 1 - Extensions can only use released remote or local SAP APIs. SAP keeps these APIs stable. Rule 2 - SAP objects can only be extended via predefined extension points. SAP keeps these extension points stable. Modifications of SAP objects as in on-premise systems are no longer supported. Rule 3 - Extensions can only use cloud-enabled and released technologies. Many benefits of the classic extensibility model known from the on-premise world have been preserved: Extensions are built using the exact same programming model that SAP uses to develop the standard applications. The ABAP code of the SAP applications can be analyzed and inspected by customers and partners. This allows seamless end-to-end debugging of the extensions and provides a quick learning path for extension projects. 2.1 Overview of the extensibility options for SAP S/4HANA Cloud In this chapter we will introduce the three ABAP-based extensibility options for SAP S/4HANA Cloud editions that follow the rules of the cloud extensibility model ( Figure 2.1). Type 1 and 2 extensions run directly on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud stack. They are implemented based on the technology stack of the core solution (ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA): k( Key user extensibility (1) for low-code/no-code extensions created by key users, such as adapting the user interface or adding custom fields. On-stack developer extensibility (2) using the SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment for developer Det extensions that are implemented in ABAP directly on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud technology stack. Type 3 extensions run side-by-side to the core on SAP BTP: BTP Side-by-side extensibility (3) for developer extensions using the development and runtime environments offered by SAP BTP. For ABAP this is the SAP BTP ABAP Environment. i perest. All three extensibility options are based on the usage of public SAP interfaces providing access to public bot SAP APIs and SAP extension points. - Key user extensions and on-stack developer extensions have access to local public APIs released by the underlying ABAP Platform or the SAP S/4HANA Cloud applications. These APIs can be released for key user extensibility, for on-stack developer extensibility or for both options. Side-by-side extensions can access SAP S/4HANA Cloud business objects through remote SAP APIs (e.g., OData services). In addition, these side-by-side extensions on SAP BTP ABAP Environment have access to isTO the exposed local public interfaces of the underlying ABAP Platform stack. Ad Both SAP BTP ABAP Environment and SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment are based on the same dema ABAP Platform stack and use the same local ABAP Platform interfaces. 7 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Figure 2.1 - Overview of extensibility options The three extensibility options are not isolated from each other. In many scenarios they are combined, for example developing a side-by-side application in conjunction with a thin on-stack extensibility layer that offers more suitable remote APIs to access the SAP S/4HANA Cloud functionality. 2.2 Key user extensibility SCENARIO Low-code/no-code adaptations and extensions of SAP S/4HANA applications USE CASES Adapting UIs, adding custom fields, adding custom business objects and more. PERSONA Business expert, implementation consultant, citizen developer, key user. Key user extensibility (formerly also known as in-app extensibility) empowers business experts to add extensions to SAP S/4HANA Cloud solutions without the need to dive deeply into the implementation details of the underlying SAP applications. Key users typically have a deep knowledge of the SAP S/4HANA processes and business configuration. The focus is on so-called last mile extensions extending SAP S/4HANA user interfaces, processes, or forms using low-code/no-code tools. Key users typicallyus have no or only limited coding skills and therefore do not need a fully integrated development environment, with capabilities such as versioning, dependency handling, refactoring, or debugging. The main argument for using key user extensibility is that simple extensions can be realized quicker than with developer extensibility, because the communication overhead between the business expert (responsible for specification of the extension, and later for testing and approval) and the developer (responsible for development and developer test) is avoided. 8 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Figure 2.2 - Key user extensibility With the provided key user tools the key user can achieve the following: Adapt the screen layout such as moving fields and field groups, hiding fields, changing labels etc. Add custom fields to business objects. The custom field is then available in the entire application stack (from the UI to the database tables or for developer extensibility). Add custom business objects to handle custom data with very little coding efforts. m Add custom logic to validate the custom fields using cloud BAdIs. Add custom fields to a process group (e.g., from sales quotation and sales order to delivery and invoice) to provide a consistent end-to-end extensibility. Add custom Core Data Service (CDS) views and create new analytical applications (reports, KPIs,...). Copy and adapt print and email form templates. The adaptations made by a key user are registered in transport requests which can be propagated from a development environment to quality assurance and production. The following screenshots illustrate typical key user tasks such as adding custom fields ( Figure 2.3) or user interface adaptation for SAP Fiori apps ( Figure 2.4). Figure 2.3 – Adding a custom field with key user extensibility 9 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Figure 2.4 – Key user adaptation The following white paper, blog posts and documentation provide more details on key user extensibility: Custom Extensions in SAP S/4HANA Implementations - A Practical Guide for Senior IT Leadership. The Key User Extensibility Tools of SAP S/4HANA. SAP S/4HANA Extensibility: A Learning Journey. SAP Help Portal - Extending an SAP Fiori Application. Extending SAP-delivered SAP Fiori elements apps using adaptation projects to create SAP S/4HANA app variants. 2.3 On-stack developer extensibility with SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment SCENARIO Custom ABAP development projects that need proximity or coupling to SAP S/4HANA data, transactions, or apps USE CASES Custom applications with frequent or complex SQL access to SAP S/4HANA data. Custom extensions running in the same logical unit of work2 (LUW) as SAP applications. Tailored custom remote APIs or services which serve side-by-side SAP BTP apps. PERSONA ABAP developer. On-stack developer extensibility3 is intended for development projects requiring proximity to or coupling with SAP S/4HANA data, transactions, or apps. The requirements of the extension project go beyond the scope of key user extensions and therefore require full access to development capabilities like debugging, refactoring support, version control etc. In contrast to side-by-side extensions, on-stack extensions are developed and run on the same software stack as the underlying SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. This allows extensions to access SAP S/4HANA logic and data via SAP extension points, local SAP APIs or via SQL queries. Typical on-stack scenarios are extensions with frequent or complex SQL access to SAP data (e.g., SQL ① queries that join customer and SAP data), which cannot be realized easily by remote data access or data ② typical on-stack pattern are extensions that store custom data in the same logical unit of replication. Another work3 as the extended SAP S/4HANA app. 2 A sequence of programming steps and data updates distributed across multiple work processes, whose database changes are updated within a single database commit. 3 On-stack developer extensibility uses the SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment. 10 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Dev ESAPSqHANA clodsystem New ABAP cloud dev model On-stack developer extensibility allows ABAP developers to connect to an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system using the ABAP Development Tools ( Figure 2.5). This feels almost like developing custom ABAP code on an SAP S/4HANA on-premise system. On-stack developer extensibility offers the standard ADT tool support like ABAP Unit, ABAP Test Cockpit, ABAP profiler, ABAP debugger and the well-known SAP lifecycle management (change and transport system). However, with SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment, extensions are developed using the new ABAP Cloud development model ( Chapter 4). The ABAP Cloud development model ensures that no SAP object is modified and that only - local public SAP APIs and public SAP extension points are used in the extensions. SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the ABAP Platform offer a large set of local APIs and extension points which can be used in on-stack extensions. Developers can explore these in the released objects tree of ADT ( Figure 2.6). Additionally, the SAP API business hub 4 provides a section for developer extensibility and SAP CDS views showing the core local SAP APIs. Depending on the use case, one of these options can be used to expose the functionality built using on-stack developer extensibility on an SAP Fiori UI: Create a custom SAP Fiori elements or freestyle SAPUI5 app using SAP Fiori tools. Extend an SAP-delivered app, e.g., with additional fields using Developer Adaptation5. Extend an SAP-delivered SAP Fiori elements app using ABAP CDS annotations or XML annotations. Figure 2.5 - SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment 4 Business Object Interface | SAP S/4HANA Cloud | SAP API Business Hub. 5 Note that Developer Adaptation is not yet available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. 11 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Figure 2.6 - Released object tree in ABAP Development Tools 2.4 Side-by-side extensibility using the SAP BTP ABAP Environment SCENARIO Loosely-coupled applications and partner SaaS solutions USE CASES Custom applications for a separate target group (no ERP users). Custom application workload that shall run separated from ERP. Custom applications needing proximity to intelligent SAP BTP services like machine learning, AI etc. Solutions integrating with several ERP systems and cloud services. SaaS applications provided by partners. PERSONA ABAP developer. An The SAP BTP ABAP Environment provides the ABAP Platform as a service on SAP BTP. ABAP-minded customers and partners can reuse their ABAP skillset to build new cloud solutions, or to transform already existing on-premise ABAP assets to the cloud. · The cloud applications and extensions run side-by-side to the extended SAP S/4HANA system. This model is the preferred option for scenarios which are loosely-coupled to SAP S/4HANA data, transactions, or apps. A typical side-by-side use case is the hub scenario. A hub solution integrates with several ERP systems and cloud services, e.g., to consolidate SAP S/4HANA data and trigger derived actions via separate cloud services. By their very nature, hub scenarios are loosely-coupled and can run side-by-side with the SAP S/4HANA systems. hum ⑮ Another use case is that partners want to provide a SaaS solution and therefore need to operate their service independently of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. SAP BTP ABAP Environment is specially optimized for large SAP or partner SaaS solutions which benefit from the multitenancy offerings and services for partners to run and operate the solution. 12 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. SAP SHANA BTP ↓ Cloud Syste Figure 2.7 – Side-by-side extensions with SAP BTP, ABAP Environment An ABAP developer accesses SAP BTP with the ABAP Development Tools and uses the ABAP Cloud development model ( Chapter 4) to build SAP Fiori apps6 or services based on the ABAP RESTful application programming model (RAP) ( Figure 2.7). The ABAP Cloud development model ensures that only released local APIs of the underlying ABAP Platform can be used. One main difference compared to the on-stack extensibility model is that accessing business objects of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is only possible using remote APIs which are published in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub (https://api.sap.com/). 2.5 Summary of the extensibility options for SAP S/4HANA Cloud The following picture shows a recap of the three ABAP-related extensibility options which are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and which were introduced in the previous sections. - " ~ Y Figure 2.8 - Summary of ABAP-related extensibility options in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 6 The corresponding SAP Fiori UI can be created using SAP Fiori elements or SAPUI5 freestyle. Developing Apps with SAP Fiori Elements and SAP UI5 documentation ) 13 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 3 WHEN TO USE WHICH CLOUD EXTENSIBILITY OPTION This chapter describes when to use which extensibility option. In many cases a combination of the extensibility options is needed to solve the extensibility task. The major aspects to consider are: Extension use case - is the extension a new application, or an extension to an SAP app? Extension architecture - is the extension loosely or tightly coupled to SAP S/4HANA? Extension scope & size - who provides the extension for which purpose? For example, is the extension a small extension that is provided by key users in a line of business organization, a custom development project that is provided by a development organization, or a partner SaaS application that is provided to many customers (even independent from the core product)? The following Figure 3.1 provides a decision tree to select the right extensibility option. Figure 3.1 - Sequence diagram on how to find the right extensibility options. The first three options describe typical side-by-side scenarios on SAP BTP: External target group or consumption via mobile and consumer-grade UIs: this includes native mobile apps, apps that need freestyle UI development for consumer-grade UIs, or apps for persons without a named user in SAP S/4HANA. Partner SaaS solution: a partner solution shall be provided as a cloud service operated by a partner. This use case can only be realized separated from the SAP S/4HANA Cloud operation model and is therefore always a side-by-side scenario. SAP BTP provides multitenancy concepts to minimize the cost of service and provides services to build and operate the partner SaaS solution on SAP BTP. Independent infrastructure and operation: side-by-side on SAP BTP, customers and partners are independent of the cloud infrastructure and operation model of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The main benefits are: Customers can flexibly access resources for the respective runtime environment. Resources can be scaled without impact on the core system. This means customers can physically outsource the workload and resource consumption of the extensions to safeguard the performance of their ERP system. Customers can schedule the downtime of their extensions independently of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. 14 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Customers can choose the data center for the SAP BTP extension. This can be of interest if e.g., the co-location of the extension with certain SAP BTP services like AI or machine learning is more important than the proximity to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Customers can freely choose which services, libraries or products shall be used or integrated in their SAP BTP extension. The next important selection criteria are the extension requirements concerning proximity to and coupling with SAP S/4HANA Cloud data, transactions, and apps. Here we distinguish between loosely- and tightly- coupled extensions: Loosely-coupled extensions and custom apps: Stand-alone applications or new process steps with occasional usage of SAP S/4HANA Cloud data. Data is replicated to SAP BTP or read via remote API calls from the core product. Custom data is not changed together with core data (no transactional consistency required). Data hubs or integration hubs that integrate, collect, or distribute data from many systems across company units are typical loosely-coupled scenarios. For loosely-coupled extensions and custom apps, side-by-side extensibility on SAP BTP is the default choice. Tightly coupled extensions need coupling and proximity to SAP S/4HANA Cloud data, transactions, or apps. Typical patterns for tightly coupled extensions are: Frequent read-access or changes to SAP data (many roundtrips). Reading of customer data and SAP data in complex SQL queries (e.g., joins) and with high data volume. Required transactional consistency when customer data and SAP data is changed jointly. Extends the UI of an SAP app, extends the SAP data model, implements the extension point of an SAP app. Uses local SAP APIs to build an own tailored remote service for a side-by-side SAP BTP solution. Build Custom remote API from local API for side-by-side App Tightly-coupled scenarios shall be realized with key user or on-stack developer extensibility. The final decision step for tightly coupled extension is to choose between on-stack developer and key user extensibility: Key user extensibility shall be chosen for extensions by single business experts as explained in chapter 2.2. Developer extensibility shall be chosen for extensions requiring professional ABAP development as explained in chapter 2.3. Customers may additionally define a company-specific policy that considers available business expert and developer resources as well as the extension scenario to choose between these options. 3.1 Additional aspects to consider Finally, the following aspects should be considered for extension projects: Consider the knowledge and experience of your development teams. With the ABAP-based on-stack and side-by-side extensibility options, you can leverage the ABAP skills of your development teams. Loosely-coupled extensions on SAP BTP can similarly be realized in other development environments, but that would require a different set of skills. Balance between homogenous versus hybrid extensions: customers and partners must find the right balance between homogenous (only on-stack or only side-by-side) versus hybrid (mixture of on-stack and side-by-side) extensions. Homogenous extensions should be preferred for simpler lifecycles, but in some cases, hybrid extensions are the best solution. Layering of key user and developer extensibility: on-stack extensions are often a mixture of key user extensions and developer extensibility. For these scenarios customers must consider that these extension types are layered (key user extensions on top of developer extensions). Objects built with 15 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. developer extensibility can be released for key user extensibility, but not vice versa. Consequently, objects that are to be re-used in both layers must be built with developer extensibility 7. 3.2 Examples 3.2.1 Key user extensibility A customer adds custom fields for new package properties (color of the ordered package) and customer member status (level of membership) to the standard SAP S/4HANA Cloud sales process. These new custom fields are then part of all standard SAP S/4HANA Cloud sales screens and all process steps. This includes prefilling, validating, and using the custom fields along the entire sales process (propagate along sales quotation, sales order, outbound delivery, and billing document). Additionally, the customer creates custom analytical reports and a custom form template for the order confirmation printout. The new custom fields are part of the analytical reports and the printout as well. This comprehensive example can be completely realized with key user extensibility tools, see: Key User Extensibility in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Sales | SAP Blogs 3.2.2 On-stack developer extensibility A customer simplifies the process for recurring employee purchases below a certain amount. He uses the ABAP RESTful application programming model ( chapter 4.1) and SAP Fiori elements to implement an employee self-service app on SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP environment. The app uses local public procurement APIs and extension points to validate, create and release the purchase orders automatically. 3.2.3 Side-by-side extensibility A customer uses multiple SAP S/4HANA systems in several of their subsidiaries to manage his purchasing processes. To improve the purchasing process he develops a central purchasing approver determination application on SAP BTP. Based on a set of business rules, the application identifies the allowed approvers for specific purchasing documents and provides the information as a central remote OData API to the distributed purchasing processes. 7Exception: custom fields created with key user tools are usable in both layers. For details on the interaction between developer and key user extensibility, see the documentation, section Key User Extensibility and Developer Extensibility. 16 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 4 THE ABAP CLOUD DEVELOPMENT MODEL With the launch of SAP BTP ABAP Environment, SAP introduced a new ABAP Cloud development model which leads to modern, cloud-ready, and upgrade-stable ABAP applications and extensions. ABAP Cloud development means first and foremost: - Only public SAP APIs and SAP extension points can be used. No modifications to SAP objects are allowed. Use ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse (ADT) as your ABAP development environment. Build RAP (ABAP RESTful application programming model) based SAP Fiori apps or services. Technologies like Dynpro or Web Dynpro are not supported. The ABAP Cloud development rules are enforced via: ABAP compiler and ABAP runtime checks: the ABAP Cloud development model uses ABAP Cloud as the language version8. This cloud-optimized ABAP language defines the set of supported ABAP statements and launches syntax- or runtime errors if e.g., a non-public SAP API is used ( Chapter 4.2). ABAP authorization checks: ABAP Cloud redefined the authorizations in the ABAP Cloud developer role (e.g., no authorization to change SAP objects)9. The ABAP Cloud development model is mandatory for ABAP apps developed on SAP BTP and for extensions built on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and can be enabled in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA on-premise when desired. This chapter will provide details about the main building blocks of this model: The ABAP RESTful application programming model (RAP). Analytics in ABAP Cloud. ABAP Cloud – the cloud-optimized ABAP language version. Reuse services. Identity and access management. Connectivity. Business APIs and extension points. Business configuration. The primary purpose of RAP is to build and expose back-end services based on semantic data models. The services are then consumed by SAP Fiori apps or exposed as Web APIs. The RAP programming model is therefore at the core of every extension project ( Chapter 4.1). For the implementation layer ABAP Cloud is used ( Chapter 4.2). In addition, SAP offers a large library of reuse services ( Chapter 4.4). SAP Fiori applications follow a role-based approach which can be properly modelled with the identity and access management capabilities of the underlying ABAP Platform ( Chapter 4.4.3). Since extensions typically interface, interact and integrate with SAP’s business solutions a large set of connectivity options and protocols is needed ( Chapter 4.4.4). Stable business APIs and extension points provide the semantic link to the standard application ( Chapter 4.5). Last, but not least, business configuration frameworks and tools provide the flexibility to deliver extensions for a wider range of business scenarios and use cases ( Chapter 0). In the following we will examine the various building blocks in more detail. 8 ABAP Cloud is also referred to as ABAP for Cloud Development, ABAP classic is also referred to as Standard ABAP. 9 The ABAP Cloud development model for SAP HANA Cloud private edition is available with release ≥ 2022 and for SAP HANA on-premise with ABAP Platform 2022. 17 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 4.1 The ABAP RESTful application programming model In recent years the requirements for business applications and related technologies have significantly changed. End users expect enhanced user experience qualities. For example, continuous work - start working at home, continue during commuting and finalize the task at the company or the ability to accomplish tasks on different device types. In addition, end users expect personalized, web-like business apps. So, user experience is taking center stage in a constantly evolving business landscape. On the other hand, modern business apps must be able to run in hybrid system landscapes supporting cloud, on-premise, and virtualization. In addition, these modern business apps must continue to meet the requirements of large enterprises including all the steps of the product lifecycle. To satisfy all these business needs and to make the development of modern business applications efficient, a standardized ABAP programming model that guides ABAP developers and optimally supports cloud operation, SAP Fiori, and SAP HANA, has become a pressing need. To meet this need, SAP offers the ABAP RESTful application programming model (RAP). RAP is the new standard ABAP programming model used at SAP to build SAP S/4HANA Fiori apps and services. RAP is the recommended programming model for customers and partners for all ABAP based SAP S/4HANA extensions10. 4.1.1 The big picture RAP is a set of concepts, tools, languages, powerful frameworks, and best practices provided on the ABAP Platform for efficient and rapid development of innovative and cloud-ready enterprise applications, as well as the extension of SAP standard applications in the cloud and on-premise. RAP is deeply integrated with the ABAP language; moreover, the ABAP development tools have been optimized to support the RAP development flow. The main RAP building blocks are: Core Data Services (CDS) used for SAP HANA optimized queries, to define semantically rich data models for all application domains, and to define the transactional behavior of the modeled entities. The modernized and extended ABAP language used to implement business logic. The OData protocol used for stateless communication. The concept of business object (BO) used for building transactional applications. The concept of business service used to define services. RAP offers a standardized development flow in the modern, Eclipse-based ABAP Development Tools (ADT) and a rich feature set for building applications from different domains, either from scratch or by reusing existing custom code. Built-in capabilities such as ABAP unit tests ( Unit testing with ABAP unit), the ABAP cross trace tool ( Working with ABAP Cross trace tools), and knowledge transfer documents ( Documenting ABAP development objects | SAP Blogs) are offered along the RAP development stack to cover core software quality concepts such as testability, supportability and documentability. Different types of services can be built with RAP: OData-based services for building role-based and responsive SAP Fiori apps. OData-based services for exposure as Web APIs. Business events. Figure 4.1 gives an overview of the RAP big picture. A detailed description of the architecture can be found in the RAP developer guide: RAP Developer Guide on SAP Help Portal 10 The ABAP RESTful application programming model is available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, SAP Business Technology Platform and for SAP HANA Cloud private edition starting with release 2022 and for SAP HANA on- premise with ABAP Platform 2022. 18 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Figure 4.1 - RAP big picture Cloud-ready and upgrade-stable apps and services can be built when using RAP together with ABAP Cloud, released SAP APIs and objects. SAP uses RAP to provide local APIs on SAP S/4HANA Cloud for central business objects like Sales Order. These APIs can be used for on-stack developer extensibility to e.g., create or change a Sales Order. Examples of these local RAP-based SAP APIs can be found in the developer extensibility section of SAP API business hub11. Find more information on RAP here: Modern ABAP Development with the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model A more detailed description on supported RAP implementation scenarios and when to use which option can be found in this blog: Modernization with the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) | SAP Blogs 4.1.2 - - Extensibility of RAP business objects (RAP BO) Business objects developed with RAP can have built-in extensibility options13. They can be extended as part of the developer extensibility model. This is particularly useful when SAP S/4HANA business objects or RAP business objects from partner applications have to be extended. The extensibility options for RAP business objects are of course designed for lifecycle stability and a separation of concerns between the original RAP BO and its extensions. By default, extensibility of a RAP BO is disabled. Therefore, RAP BO extensibility must be explicitly - enabled on the original BO12, to allow extensions at dedicated extension points. The extension options are developed to be controlled on a fine-granular level, to give full control over which parts of a BO can be extended with which kind of extension. Trying to define extensions for non-enabled extension points of the original BO leads to a syntax error and it cannot be activated13. 11 https://api.sap.com/products/SAPS4HANACloud/developerextensibility/bointerface 12 The original RAP BO is the base BO on which the RAP BO extension bears 13 Extensibility enablement of RAP BOs created by SAP can only be enabled or changed by SAP and not by customers or partners 19 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. It is crucial to understand that: Each RAP BO extension can only define behavior specifically for its own extension elements and operations and is independent of all other RAP BO extensions. RAP BO extensions cannot redefine or change any behavior for any elements of the original RAP BO. From the consumer's perspective, the original RAP BO and all associated RAP BO extensions appear as one large RAP BO. Figure 4.2 - RAP Extensibility options overview The major extensibility scenarios for RAP BOs, as shown in Figure 4.2 are: Adding a new field including related business logic. Enriching the business logic of the BO. Adding a new action resulting in a new button in an SAP Fiori application. Adding a completely new entity to an SAP BO. The extensibility options for RAP BOs are described in Table 4.1 below and links to further information are provided. EXTENSIBILITY OPTION EXTENSIBILITY TASK DATA MODEL Extensibility enablement: EXTENSION Add annotations and extension include structures to the original RAP - BO to enable data model extensions. Build full-stack data model - For more information about enabling full-stack data extensibility, extensions by adding new see Extensibility-Enablement for CDS Data Model Extensions. fields and associations For an implementation example, see Enabling Field Extensions. including corresponding behavior characteristics and authorization control. Extension development: Extends the original RAP BO with new fields or associations including - field characteristics depending on the options defined by the - - extensibility-enabler. For more information about how to develop data model extensions, see CDS Data Model Extensions. For an implementation example, see Develop Field Extensions. 20 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. EXTENSIBILITY OPTION EXTENSIBILITY TASK BEHAVIOR EXTENSION Extensibility enablement: Enables data model extensibility and behavior extensibility on the Build additional behavior original RAP BO. like new validations, = determinations or actions For more information about how to enable your BO for behavior & including dynamic feature extensions, see Extensibility Enablement for Behavior Extensions. For an implementation example, see Enabling Non-Standard Behavior control and other field- - and Field-Related Behavior and Enabling Standard Behavior I related behavior. Extensions. Extension development: Extends the original RAP BO with new validations, determinations or actions depending on the options defined by the extensibility-enabler. For more information about how to develop different behavior extensions, see Behavior Extensions. For an implementation example, see Develop Behavior Extensions. NODE EXTENSION Extensibility development: Enables node extensibility on the original RAP BO. Build additional BO nodes For more information about node extensibility enabling, with own behavior and see Extensibility-Enablement for the Node Extensibility. data model with node For an implementation example, see Enabling Node Extensions. extensibility. ? Extension provisioning: Extend the original BO with new nodes that have their own data model and behavior. For more information about how to develop node extension, see Node Extensions. Table 4.1 - Extensibility options for RAP BOs Can be skipped 4.2 Analytics in ABAP Cloud Analytics enables multi-dimensional reporting and data analysis in ABAP in two main scenarios: Embedded analytics. Embedded analytics allows you to build sophisticated and complex analytical data models to evaluate and analyze business data in your ABAP system. In embedded analytics, the ABAP analytical engine is part of the software stack and operates on the same data persistence layer as the transactional applications. The analytical queries operate directly on the business data without data replication to an external data warehouse system. Instead, the real-time business data is queried to always evaluate the most recent changes and trends in your business data. Side-by-side analytics scenarios In a side-by-side analytics scenario, the business data is replicated from an analytical source system to other analytical clients (like SAP Analytics Cloud) or to a data warehouse (like SAP Data Warehouse Cloud). The business data is replicated from an ABAP system based on a predefined integration scenario to allow seamless data exchange. The analytical data model itself is implemented outside of the ABAP system and only the analytical data the source system is used and is part of the analytical consumption scenario. Another option to realize side-by-side analytics scenarios is data federation. Data federation is used in scenarios where live access to the source system is required, e.g., to access the most recent data without a time lag, or to rely on data access control mechanisms inside the source system. Data calls are not executed locally in the target system but delegated from there to one or more source systems (where the data is located) and executed on source side. The following chapters focus on the embedded analytics use case and highlight the advantages of this approach. 21 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. ! 4.2.1 The big picture of embedded analytics in ABAP Cloud Embedded analytics unites the advantages of CDS data modeling and the analytical capabilities of the analytical engine to create real-time evaluations based on business data within the same ABAP system: The CDS framework is at the core of the ABAP Cloud development model, enabling the development of cloud- ready and lifecycle-stable analytical data models for all SAP S/4HANA deployment options and for SAP BTP ABAP environment. The main building blocks of an analytical application are 14: Dimensions: master data-like data used as attributes in the data analysis. Cubes: an analytical interface view that is used in analytical queries. Cube views are at the center of the multi-dimensional data model. Hierarchies: define a data hierarchy and can be used for drill-down or roll-up operations to change the data granularity of the result set. Analytical queries (CDS Analytical Projection Views) 15: the initial layout of the initial data set and granularity of the query, based on a cube. Service Binding: the Information Access Protocol (InA) is the protocol used to expose an analytical data model for consumption by analytical clients like SAP Analytics Cloud. The following graphic provides a more detailed overview of the main building blocks used to build a data model for embedded analytics: Figure 4.3 - Detailed overview of the main building blocks used to build a data model for embedded analytics. An analytical data model is multidimensional and is typically modeled in a star or snowflake schema to enable easy data analysis at different levels of granularity 16. CDS allows easy data modeling and data preparation for display in dashboards such as those in SAP Analytics Cloud. 14 For more information, see https://help.sap.com/docs/BTP/65de2977205c403bbc107264b8eccf4b/483cc0637280445b98e98775dd0383b1.html 15 For more information, see https://blogs.sap.com/2022/02/18/cds-analytical-projection-views-the-new-analytical-query- model/comment-page-1/ 16 For more information, see https://blogs.sap.com/2022/11/30/embedded-analytics-with-abap-cloud-a-brief-overview- part-1/ 22 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. T For developer extensibility the analytical data models and services are developed in the modern, Eclipse- based ABAP Development Tools (ADT). ADT offers an efficient development flow, and a rich feature set for creating analytical services. Key user extensibility for analytical scenarios offers a rich SAP Fiori-based toolset for key users for creating and managing custom analytical queries, analytical reports, KPIs and analytical stories. See also: Key User Extensibility Overview | sap.com and SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics – User Roles | Blogs). 4.2.2 Extensibility for analytical data models Extensibility is a built-in quality for all ABAP data models based on CDS. Based on an opt-in approach, the entire data model stack can be enabled for different extensibility use cases depending on the specific data model requirements. Each layer in the stack offers possibilities for dedicated extension points, enabling a well-defined separation of concerns between the original data model and the extensions. Figure 4.4 - Overview on extensibility options for analytical data models In an analytical data model, each part of the data model can be extended individually using predefined extension points in the original analytical data model. You can use extension points to make your own analytical data models extensible or to extend pre-delivered SAP content: EXTENSIBILITY USE CASE EXTENSIBILITY TASK DIMENSION EXTENSION Extensibility Enablement: Add new hierarchies to a dimension or add Add annotations and extension include new fields or associations to the dimension to structures to the original dimension to enable diversify the data model. data model extensions like fields or associations. Extension Development: 23 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. d EXTENSIBILITY USE CASE EXTENSIBILITY TASK Add new hierarchy: To extend a dimension with a new hierarchy, create a new hierarchy and add it as an association to the corresponding dimension. Add new field extension: Extend the original dimension with additional fields. CUBE EXTENSION Extensibility Enablement: Add new dimensions to a cube to extend the Add annotations and extension include scope of the data analysis or add new structures to the original data model to enable measures to the cube to calculate additional data model extensions like fields or additional values. dimensions. Extension Development: Add new dimension: To extend a cube with a new extension, create a new dimension or use a pre-delivered SAP dimension and add it as an association to the corresponding dimension. Add new field(measure): Extend the original cube with additional measures for new calculations. QUERY EXTENSION Extensibility Enablement: Add new numeric fields to the query to extend Add annotations and extension include the scope of data analysis. structures to the original data model to enable data model extensions like additional numeric fields for calculations in queries. Extension Development: Add new fields to extend the scope of the data analysis. SERVICE DEFINITION EXTENSION Extensibility Enablement: Create a new UI based on a released query or Enable the service definition for extensibility to extend the service definition to add new queries add additional queries to a service. to a service definition. Extension Development: Create a custom UI based on a released UI to adapt the UI to your business requirements. Add a new query to a service definition to extend the original service definition with additional queries. Table 4.2 - Extensibility options for analytical data models 24 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. 4.3 Cloud-optimized ABAP language ABAP is a programming language optimized for business applications, both at the small and at the large scale. It is designed to minimize the total costs of development for business applications. As such, the ABAP language has evolved over a long time from procedural and dynamic programming to ABAP objects and is the foundation of the ABAP RESTful application programming model. Thereby, both its capabilities and the number of ABAP keywords increased steadily, allowing for enormous flexibility but leading to complexity at the same time. Now, for the ABAP Cloud development model, the scope of ABAP language commands has been refined to simplify and standardize ABAP development and enable cloud-ready programming. In the new language version named ABAP for Cloud development, only modern ABAP statements and concepts, with a focus on cloud-enabled, object-oriented design and modern programming models are supported. Using non- supported statements results in syntax errors. To ensure the integrity of the cloud extensibility model, direct -- access to the file system, profile parameters, or ABAP server operations is not permitted. ABAP Cloud is mandatory in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and in SAP BTP ABAP environment and can be enabled in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA on-premise when desired. Figure 4.5 - Concepts in Cloud development More details are provided in chapter 5. An overview of programming concepts is shown below and serves as a (non-comprehensive) list of criteria to decide which concepts can be used or not. SAP data can only be accessed by using ABAP SQL or ABAP managed database procedures on released SAP CDS views, or by released SAP APIs. For more information on ABAP Cloud scope, see the ABAP Keyword Documentation. Many technical ABAP Platform features and reuse services are available via public APIs and libraries ( Chapter 4.4). 4.4 ABAP Platform reuse services Besides RAP as programming model for cloud-ready development and ABAP Cloud as language version, the ABAP Cloud development model comprises further aspects like usage of modern reuse services, released APIs, and modern business configuration and connectivity frameworks. 4.4.1 Released local APIs - & ↑ ↑ The released local APIs constitute the local public interface of the SAP code. This stable interface is the key to the lifecycle independence of SAP code and customer and partner extensions. Hence, only released interfaces, released APIs, frameworks and services can be used in extensions. The scope of released local ABAP Platform APIs is continuously enhanced and already covers major building blocks: Data access APIs (CDS views). Technical ABAP Services (Parallel Processing, Compression/Decompression, Runtime Info, Dynamic Programming, -- XSLT, …). --- Technical Reuse Services ( Chapter 4.4.2). 25 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. APIs required to develop integration scenarios (OData, HTTP, RFC, SOAP, Business Events Chapter 4.4.4). ----- Important SAP APIs and objects that are not suited for cloud development have been replaced by new and modern APIs that fit into the cloud extensibility model. For these objects, having a direct successor released for cloud development, the syntax error messages directly point towards the successor to be used. An example is given below in Figure 4.4. A direct select on the database table T005 is forbidden, the successor CDS view I_COUNTRY, is directly indicated in the syntax error. Figure 4.4 - Syntax errors for direct table access All released APIs are shown in the released objects tree in ABAP Development Tools. If released APIs are missing, please make use of the Customer Influence Channels for the ABAP Platform (https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#campaign/2911). This way you can shape and sharpen the public APIs available for your extensions in the cloud extensibility model. 4.4.2 Technical reuse services Technical Reuse Services are essential to lower the TCD and TCO of business applications. Hence, dedicated released APIs and configuration possibilities for well-known ABAP Platform reuse services like Change Documents, Number Ranges, Email Processing, Factory Calendar, and others are provided. In ~ general, to adhere to the principles for cloud development explained above: Reuse services are consumed by calling the corresponding released local APIs. Necessary development objects (like a number range object) are developed in ABAP Development Tools. Required configuration and monitoring is done via SAP Fiori Apps. Just as with the scope of the ABAP language, cloud-optimized services used by SAP S/4HANA in the area of reuse services are enabled for consumption in the context of developer extensibility These services replace older services and frameworks. Popular examples of technical services that shall be used in developer extensibility are provided in the table below. Note that this table is only a snapshot providing hints on which services to focus, but is neither a complete list of all services, nor does it state that all services listed there are already available in the full functional scope. Instead, the services listed to be used will be enabled and integrated into the programming model step-by-step. TECHNICAL REUSE SERVICES USED IN CLOUD DEVELOPMENT SERVICE STATUS RETIRED PREDECESSOR Email Service SAP Office Email Templates ○ Factory Calendar Notes for Application Objects ○ SAPscript Longtexts, STXL Knowledge Transfer Documents SAPscript, SE61, DOKTL Forms Processing integrating SAP BTP Forms by Adobe SAPscript, Smartforms Adobe Forms ○ SAPscript, Smartforms 26 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. TECHNICAL REUSE SERVICES USED IN CLOUD DEVELOPMENT SERVICE STATUS RETIRED PREDECESSOR Number Ranges Change Documents Archive Development Kit ○ Information Lifecycle Management ○ Printing Queue Spool Application Jobs Classical Batch Job SM36 Application Logs XCO ABAP Repository Legacy Workbench APIs, e.g., for DDIC XCO Standard Library Translation Units of Measurement SAP BTP Document Management Service KPro, Content Server, SAP Office SAP BTP Workflow SAP BTP Rules Time zones Exchange Rates and Currency Conversion Generic Object Services, Business Attachment Service ○ Document Service, Archive Link, SAP Office SAP S/4HANA Output Control ○ Post Processing Framework Legend: available ○ planned Table 4.3 - Technical reuse services for cloud development 4.4.3 Identity and Access Management In cloud products, a strict content separation between users and roles is needed to ensure stable cloud operations. Thus, customers do not have direct access to the classical transaction for role maintenance (PFCG). Instead, SAP delivers a new cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM), which consists of: IAM SAP Fiori apps for user and role maintenance on top of IAM catalogs and role templates (maintain business roles, …) and APIs for user upload e.g., from SAP Identity Provisioning Service or other SCIM providers. The IAM app, IAM business catalog, and IAM business role templates, for creating IAM content for their own applications and for SAP applications (with released authorization objects). IAM catalogs and role templates for cloud-enabled applications delivered by SAP application development. 27 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. Key user extensibility: with a custom catalog extension, customers can extend an existing SAP IAM catalog (e.g., add authorization allowing the user to start a custom OData service) in an SAP Fiori app. Business users can authenticate via the SAP cloud identity services. The Identity Authentication Service can be set up in proxy mode to use a corporate identity provider in hybrid landscapes. More information can be found in this SAP community blog: Integrating Identity Authentication service in SAP Cloud Platform – Proxy & Conditional Authentication scenarios. 4.4.4 Connectivity Connectivity capabilities of the ABAP Platform are key to enable integration between SAP cloud products, SAP BTP services, customer extensions and external services. In hybrid landscapes, the SAP Cloud Connector can be used to integrate with protected internal customer landscapes by providing detailed control over a secure tunnel connection. The integration with external APIs is simplified through the generation of typed proxies in the system from uploaded metadata via the service consumption model (OData, SOAP, RFC) and event consumption model. Several classic integration technologies can no longer be used (e.g. IDoc), only released frameworks are available for cloud development. A list of the current scope is given below. INTEGRATION FRAMEWORKS RELEASED FOR CLOUD DEVELOPMENT OData services - 6 Business Events - C HTTP services ~ O RFC via cloud enabled WebSocket RFC C SOAP consumption (SOAP service provider planned) SQL service for external ODBC clients G SAP information access (InA) for analytical clients Table 4.4 - Integration frameworks for cloud development To ensure content separation between credentials, customers do not have direct access to classical transactions for destinations (SM59) and logical ports (SOAMANAGER) in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Instead, SAP delivers a new Cloud Communication Management, which contains the following: The ABAP Platform provides SAP Fiori apps for both inbound and outbound communication (Maintain Communication Arrangements, Maintain Communication User …). Custom development: using the development objects Communication Scenario, Inbound & Outbound Services, customers can create integration content for their own applications and for SAP applications (with released services). SAP application development delivers Communication Scenarios for supported integrations. Key user extensibility: key users can create their own Communication Scenarios for OData services generated from released CDS views and own applications in an SAP Fiori app. 4.5 SAP S/4HANA business APIs, extension points and events In addition to the ABAP Platform content, in SAP S/4HANA deployments released business APIs and extension points are available in the ABAP Cloud development model ( Table 4.5). 28 / 52 © 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to SAP Materials for general audiences. REMOTE CONSUMPTION LOCAL CONSUMPTION - LOCAL EXTENSION POINTS CDS Views E - OData services Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) RAP BO interfaces SOAP services & RAP BO extensions - Classes I Events & Events (planned) & Table 4.5 - Available business APIs and extension points in SAP S/4HANA Information on the released SAP S/4HANA APIs can be found in the product documentation and on the SAP API Business Hub. If an API is missing, please request it in the Customer Influence Channel for SAP S/4HANA: (https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/campaign/2759). 4.6 Business Configuration (BC) The ABAP Platform provides two programming models for business configuration (BC) apps: SAP GUI-based BC apps (SM30 – Table View Maintenance, SE54 - Create Table Maintenance View). SAP Fiori/RAP-based BC apps. Some aspects of business configuration apps are different from other apps, and the programming models reflect these differences. BC maintenance apps are used less often, and they are usually very simple compared to the apps for master or transactional data. On the other hand, applications often have a greater number of BC maintenance apps compared to the apps for master and transactional data. This calls for highly standardized apps. Therefore, the programming models support standardized: Maintenance UIs. Authorization management. Change log. Maintenance of language-dependent texts. Transport recording and BC content management. SAP GUI/Web GUI is not available in SAP BTP ABAP Environment and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Therefore customers and partners can only implement SAP Fiori/RAP-based BC apps. To support development, SAP provides a wizard to generate the required RAP objects and a generic SAP Fiori UI. With these tools, customers can create simple maintenance apps with low development effort. Details are described in the following blog post: Create a Business Configuration Maintenance App Customers and partners using SAP S/4HANA on-premise or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition can decide per scenario whether they go for SAP GUI or SAP Fiori-based BC apps. As of version SAP S/4HANA release 2022, customers can use the generator for Business Configuration objects. The Custom Business Configurations SAP Fiori app is not yet available, but the release is planned for an upcoming on-premise version. This means in 2022, customers must create SAP Fiori apps using Business Application Studio and a tile for the SAP Fiori Launch
