Summary of The SAP Ecosystem and

Functional Software

Slide 2

Review Last time – we looked at various

topologies for implementing enterprise systems

This time – we will look at how SAP provides a “fairly” complete infrastructure for System configuration System development and customization System testing System deployment

Slide 3

Lecture Structure It’s a high-level overview of SAP / R3

Breadth not depth at this point

I’ll breeze through many screens to demonstrate navigation through the SAP GUI

Slide 4

Course Simulations We will use various separate SAP

instances throughout this course Global Bike configuration ABAP Web Dynpro And possibly some sort of integration tool

Slide 5

Introduction (Roles and Responsibilities) This is my taxonomy Developers customize SAP Administrators designate roles to other users

and tune the system Responsible for security administration Responsible for deployment activities

Implementers configure SAP Third party integrators interface SAP with

other software packages And of course, the users

Slide 6

SAP Architecture (Introduction) Keep in mind that

this is the most complex software package that you have ever seen

It’s been around for a very long time and has remained backward compatible

It’s written in and developed by Germans

Slide 7

SAP Architecture (Introduction)

From BC ABAP Programming

Slide 8

SAP Logical Architecture (1) Underneath, there is a database and a

database management system SQL Server, ORACLE, MaxDB, and HANA

are supported The R/3 Basis is really an operating

system within an operating system The Basis is it’s own virtualization system

too There is no user contact with the

underlying operating system

Slide 9

SAP Logical Architecture (2) ABAP workbench is the development

environment with which you write, debug, and test ABAP applications ABAP is the programming language of SAP

and resembles COBOL An R/3 application has special meaning

It’s an ABAP program It’s has a well-defined structure

Slide 10

SAP Logical Architecture (3) Our presentation component will be

the NetWeaver program that you used in IS 365 All user interaction is through the

presentation component

Slide 11

SAP Layers SAP is built using three layers

Slide 12

SAP (Database Layer) SAP interacts with other RDMSs

(ORACLE, SQL Server, DB2, INFORMIX, etc…

However, the database layer stores everything for the entire SAP “instance” ABAP code User accounts EVERYTHING!

Slide 13

SAP (Application Layer) Application servers run ABAP

applications We typically have many of them The server group is load balanced

A message server communicates state information between application servers More later

Slide 14

SAP (Presentation Layer) It’s NetWeaver

We will not get into the topic yet but there is much that can be done with Netweaver

The presentation layer interacts with the application layer in a very structured way As you complete screens, you perform

dialog steps” Control passes back and forth between the

presentation layer and application layer

Slide 15

SAP (Presentation Layer)

Slide 16

Application Server (Structure) Application servers are responsible for

two things Dispatching work across a network of

application servers Performing work (work processes)

Execute dialog steps Gateways communicate with other

application servers Shared memory is used to persist

application context

Slide 17

Application Server (Illustration)

Slide 18

The SAP Programming Model (1) This discussion is based on the cardinal

rule that the database can never be left in an inconsistent state or a transaction be lost

But we might have thousands of users concurrently recording transactions You should see the synchronization

problem

Slide 19

The SAP Programming Model (2) Executing an application (transactions)

is done by completing one or more dialog screens Each screen is called a dialog step Each dialog step corresponds to a

database Logical Unit of Work LOW ABAP provides constructs to bundle

several DB LUWs into a SAP LOW

Slide 20

THE SAP LUW

Slide 21

Structure of a Work Process

Slide 22

Types of Work Processes Work processes have different types Dialog work process operate with user

requests to execute dialog steps Update processes execute database updates

that are parted of a bundled SAP UOW Background processes are executed without

user interaction Enqueue processes are used for locking Spool processes are used for printing and

archiving

Slide 23

Summary An application program has one or

more screens which are processed by the screen processor of a work process

The processing logic of a program gets data from screens, processes it, and returns data to screens

Slide 24

Screens Unlike the VB form with which you are

familiar, the ABAP screen is much more structured

Two types Screens have a definition and flow logic

created using a screen painter Selection screens and lists provide a

simplified way to select data for a list or report

Slide 25

ABAP Program Structure ABAP programs execute within

individual dialog steps A program is divided into processing

blocks

Slide 26

ABAP Program Declare global data here Create selection screen definitions Dialog modules, event blocks, and

subroutines are all processing blocks

We will delve into the structure more later

Slide 27

Types of ABAP Programs (1) A program’s technical attributes and

capabilities are determined by its type Type 1 programs are executable

programs They do not need to be controlled by

screens Type 1 programs are often called reports

Type M programs are controlled through screen flow logic and must be started from a transaction code

Slide 28

Types of ABAP Programs (2) Type F programs are function modules

containing reusable functiond Type I programs are includes

Includes just break up programs into smaller chunks.

Slide 29

Administrator (Overview) Performance User and role management Deployment of test and production

systems

Slide 30

Administrator (Tuning) Significant system management and

performance tuning is necessary in large enterprises We can tune and monitor memory

management In some enterprises we have HTTP and

other services System monitoring

Slide 31

Administrator (User Groups) User groups allow user administration to

be distributed among several administrators

Groups are also used to perform “mass maintenance” on several users

Transaction code SUGR to show user groups

Slide 32

Administrator (Roles) Access to resources is granted through

roles Roles are hierarchical and have different

types Single roles contain authorization data Composite roles are created using multiple

composite roles, which are then assigned to users

SAP ships with predefined bundle of standard roles (single and composite)

Slide 33

Administrator (Roles) Transaction code PFCG to view roles We are in role Z_ABAP

Slide 34

Administrator (Roles) Roles

Slide 35

Administrator (Deployment) SAP manages deployment of system

changes from development to training to test to production Other system types can be defined The process is called transport (more in a

moment)

Slide 36

Administrator (Other) Data must be archived System performance needs to be

monitored and tuned

Slide 37

Implementer (Introduction) In my opinion a formal definition gets a

bit fuzzy here We use the IMG to configure (customize)

the system We use the SAP system itself to create all

sorts of “master data” Production schedules You did some of this in IS 365

Slide 38

(IMG) Introduction IMG is short for Implementation Guide It contains all of the actions to

implement, control and document the SAP system General Settings Enterprise Structure Financial Accounting And all of the functional sub systems

Slide 39

(IMG) General Settings Country settings (countries in which we

do business) Currencies in which we do business Public calendars containing holidays,

workday configuration

Once configured these are either hard to change or cannot be changed

Slide 40

(IMG) (Illustration)

Slide 41

IMG (Enterprise Structure) Here, we describe our organizational

structure to the SAP system (Organizational Units) It’s not easy to change the organizational

structure once it has been created

Slide 42

IMG (Enterprise Structure – Parts) Financial accounting Controlling accounting Logistics Sales Materials Management Plant Maintenance Production HR

Slide 43

Definement and Assignment Configuration of the enterprise structure

(and many other components) requires a two-step process

Definement Create organizational structures

Assignment Assign those organizational structures to

other organizational structures

Slide 44

Definement and Assignment (Examples) You define company codes and assign

them to a company You define credit control areas and

assign them to a company code There are hundreds of these We will get through many of the core

functions in this course

Slide 45

IMG – Business Configuration (BC) Sets In this class, we will “globally” configure

system elements using the “SAP Reference IMG”

In practice, we use BC sets BC sets can be created for specific

processes These BC sets can be deployed separately

SAP provides numerous BC sets for industries and industry sectors

We can create our own BC sets too

Slide 46

BC Set (Implementation) Types:

Simple BC sets contain configuration data Hierarchical BC sets contain other BC sets

The hierarchy can be nested Attributes

Name Type Release information Change information (person, date time)

Slide 47

SAP Transport (1) In SAP, instances (clients) are

provisioned into different types Development (created from production

backups) After development is complete, the

system is copied to a “test / QA” system Then to a “consolidation system” Finally, the test system is deployed to the

production system Custom intermediate systems can also be

created

Slide 48

SAP Transport (2) The Transport Organizer is the tool used to

mange transport of BCs and development code from one instance to another

Transaction code for the Transport Organizer is SE01

STMS for the Transport Management System

Slide 49

SAP Development THIS IS A MONSTER Unlike most development environments

you are used to, all code (programs) are stored inside of the SAP instance itself

Code is deployed using transports mentioned previously

There are different types (categories) of code

Slide 50

SAP Development (Interface) The Object Navigator is the entry

point into the ABAP objects (programs) (Transaction code SE80)

The ABAP Editor is used to create, edit, test, and debug ABAP applications

The Data Browser lets you look at the SAP tables from the SAP / ABAP API

… And Much More

Slide 51

Object Navigator It’s used to organize programing in the

SAP integrated development environment Repository Browser is the primary code

storage area The Repository Information System is used

to search for programming objects The Transport Organizer manages changes

made during configuration and development and propagates (transports) changes to test and production systems

Slide 52

Object Navigator (Illustration)

Select object type from Object List

Slide 53

Repository Browser (Object Lists) The application hierarchy contains all

development objects A package contains logically related

development objects In this class, we will create local

objects, which are not transported to QA / production systems

Slide 54

Packages (Contents) Packages contain many things

Programs containing fields, events, subroutines, screens, and so on

Function groups are containers for functions (external procedure calls)

Dictionary objects contain (roughly speaking) references to SAP data

Remember, all data is processed through the SAP API

SHOW PACKAGE FARC

Slide 55

Classes / Interfaces SAP supports an OOP approach to

development using classes and interfaces

Slide 56

SAP Runtime Architecture (1) SAP Basis is the fabric on which all sap

applications run This fabric runs on top of a host OS

UNIX (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux) Windows … IBM mainframe systems

ABAP program execution is managed by the ABAP (managed runtime) and the SAP kernel

Slide 57

SAP Runtime Architecture (2) A SAP system consists of

One or more instances (application server) accessing a centralized database containing

All data All programs (ABAP and other)

The database interface handles marshals communication between the SAP system and the relational database

Slide 58

SAP and the Database SAP uses a logical database

We don’t usually touch the underlying ORACLE / SQL server / whatever database

ABAP programs are stored in the SAP database

SAP supports IBM DB2, Informix, MaxDB, Oracle,

Microsoft SQL Server A similar model exists for the Web

application Server

Slide 59

Transactions Roughly speaking, a logical unit of work In the SAP context, it means a calling

and executing an ABAP program that perform an indivisible operation on data Corresponds to a transaction code

Slide 60

ABAP (History) Acronym:

Allgemeiner BerichtsAufbereitungsProzessor

Generic report preparation rocessor Advanced Business Application Programm

ing Created back in the 1980s Looks very much like COBOL SAP itself, is written in ABAP

Slide 61

ABAP (Introduction) There are two types of executable

(ABAP) programs Reports

Enter a set of parameters Generate a report based on those

parameters Module pools

More complex screen and flow logic (these are dynpros or dynamic programs)

Slide 62

ABAP (Creating a First Report) Activate the ABAP Editor (Transaction

code SE38 ) You must have the developer key I gave

you) Create a program Save and activate the program Run the program

Slide 63

ABAP Editor (Initial Screen) Start program names with Z_ as in

Z_Ekedahl (Some names are prohibited by SAP)

Slide 64

ABAP Editor (Create / Change Attributes) Type: for now Executable Program but

other program object types are selected here

Status: We will create Test Programs

Slide 65

ABAP Editor (Specify the Package) Executable programs belong to a

package There is a “special” package named

$Temp that is never transported

Slide 66

ABAP Editor(Creating the Code) My opinion – it’s a pretty good

development environment Supports intellisense, code highlighting,

and a robust debugger Most of you have never seen COBOL,

but it looks like COBOL!

Slide 67

ABAP Editor (Creating the Code) REPORT statement names the program

The argument Z_EKEDAHL is the name of my first report

Statements end with a period WRITE statement prints to the output

(report) stream

Slide 68

Run the Report To run a report, it must be activated

Programs must be activated after they are saved

Press F8 to run

Slide 69

Getting Started with the ABAP Dictionary Remember that we work with data

logically through ABAP, rather than operating on the physical database

The database layer supplies extensive metadata beyond most native databases

Transaction code SE11 gets us to the ABAP dictionary

Transaction code gets us to the DataBrowser We will look at MARA (Material Master

Record)

Slide 70

Data Browser Select the desired table

You need to know the table names and meaning of fields

Slide 71

Data Browser (Table Output)

Slide 72

ABAP Dictionary Search for table