SAP ABAP

one day, while refactoring an old report, It came to create a dedicated method for a select to MARC in a dedicated DB access class. The selection is done using a select range for material numbers. Until now, I always proceeded like this: search a ready-made ranges type for the needed data type (there is RANGE_T_MATNR) if not found, declare a ranges type myself use the type for passing the selection range. Now, depending on standard SAP DEV objects (be it function modules, classes, or DDIC types) always brings the slight danger of code crashes when something changes in the standard system. I also made already bad experience when trying to bring some home-made basic programming tools from ERP to other systems like APO or SCM. Many DDIC objects do not exist there. So I thought of reducing the dependencies. What about a “range of string”? Will it work in a selection? I wasn’t really sure, so I gave it a try: First, I defined the interface of my method using generic standar...

Do you know ABAP? As you know, ABAP is the programming language used by SAP products. But you may not know ABAP as a programming language. I would like to introduce you to ABAP again. What does ABAP stand for? ABAP once represented a general reporting processor in German, History of ABAP We will look back on the history of ABAP when and how it was born. The first procedural programming language, Fortran, was born in 1954, and ABAP was born about 30 years later in 1983 as a procedural language. The first object-oriented language, Simula, was born in 1962, and ABAP Object was born 5 years after Java, as an object-oriented language. ABAP exists as an object-oriented language that is not a machine language, but a language that can describe procedures that people understand. How does ABAP differ from other languages? So how does ABAP differ from other programming languages? There are other languages that don’t require compilation, and there are ma...

Today I would like to summarise a few basics about the words “transactional” and “analytical” and how they are linked to a SAP Retail architecture. On my daily job, I could experience, that it is worth to talk about this. Since the beginning, people in Retail are split into those who know about ERP and those who know about  Business Warehouse. That’s understandable since for a long time, those were the two most important systems in Retail. However today, everybody knows that there are far more systems a Retailer has to rule to dominate the business. Unfortunately, the mindset has not really changed. People think either “transactional” or “analytical” . And the worst: most of the people aren’t aware of this fact. (Or should I say, aren’t aware of this “other” world at all?) So let’s try to understand, what the words “transactional” and “analytical” means. SAP started 1972 with the Vision to develop Standard application software for real-time data processing.  Since the...

Data has become the game changer of the market. Today’s possibilities in technology are amazing – and still rapidly evolving. With that, the ability to adapt faster than others becomes a survival challenge in Retail. Digital transformation as the integration of digital technology in almost all areas of business is a must for Retailer. Why is that? The pace of competition has dramatically changed and digitisation has raised powerful rivals from outside the industry. These are facts everybody is aware of, but “how to solve” this challenge is a complete different topic. To understand how the traditional backend systems can be refined with “the cloud” really hurts: Lot’s of possibilities! Technology nowadays is amazing. Personally, I’m persuaded already today, we can do everything we want to do with data. The challenge here is, that we are lost in possibilities and have to relearn to “dream”. Here an example, I found while giving an introduction to SAP Analytics Cloud to an CIO: I...

The 2020 Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Grapevine, Texas (March 23 – 26th) is quickly approaching.  This year’s theme is “Rewire Your Culture for an AI-Augmented Future.”  Gartner describes that “demand for data and analytics skills has doubled inside IT, and even more rapidly outside IT. New business models and sweeping technology change, including AI, are driving the need for a data and analytics-centric culture.” Come Join Us! In Intelligent Enterprises, data feeds intelligence which in turn feeds process automation, innovation and insight.  Today’s data and analytics leaders are powerful change agents that leverage enterprise data strategy as a blueprint for creating a data-driven culture that harnesses the power of data and analytics to achieve their business outcomes. I invite you to come visit us at the 2020 Gartner & Analytics Summit in Texas to explore and discuss how to build a solid foundation for data-driven innovation through: Enterpris...

Motivation Do you develop mobile applications with SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS and Android and do you capture behavior events? Do you like the built-in analytical capabilities of SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services but those are either not flexible enough or not sufficient? In this blog post, I will help you to understand how to export client usage information in various ways. Option 1: Export to File You can download client usage (as well as client feedback) data into a file. This file is a comma-separated value (CSV) file. You can export client usage data directly to a system of your choice. The specified endpoint has to be capable to handle the predefined OData schema listed below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <edmx:Edmx Version="1.0" xmlns:edmx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/06/edmx">    <edmx:DataServices m:DataServiceVersion="2.0" xmlns:m="http://schemas.mic...