Do You Speak SAP ABAP ?

What is SAP ABAP ?

ABAP stands for — ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming). It is a programming used for development and customization purposes in the SAP software.

ABAP can help customize workflows for financial accounting, materials management, asset management, sales distribution, production planning and all other modules of SAP.

ABAP is a 4th Generation Programming Language and was first developed in 1980s. By 1990s most of SAP’s application software and systems were written in ABAP.

ABAP/4 code is portable between databases. To access the database in an ABAP/4 program you will code SAP’s Open SQL.

Types of ABAP programs

SAP ABAP program is either an executable unit or a library, which is a reusable code. However, it is not separately enforceable.

ABAP executable programs are divided into two types:

• Reports
• Module pools

The Non-Executable Program types are:

• Include modules
• Subroutine pools
• Function groups
• Object classes
• Interfaces Type pools

SAP R/3 Architecture and ABAP

SAP R/3 is based on Client Server Architecture and the model is based on three-tier hierarchy.

The Presentation layer — User Interface consists of any input device that can be used to control SAP system ıt’s capable of providing a graphical interface.

The Application layer — All central processing takes place in application layer, it’s built to process business logic. With multiple application servers, users can get the output more quickly. ABAP programs run at the application server level.

The Database layer — Data is stored in this layer in a RDBMS (Relation Database Management System). The database server is a set of executables that accept database requests from the application server. The RDBMS sends the data back to the database server, which then passes the information back to the application server. The application server in turn passes that information to your ABAP/4 program.