This blog contains experience gained over the years of implementing (and de-implementing) large scale IT applications/software.

SAP Inside Track – Munich 2013 – ABAP Future

On Saturday I attended the SAP Inside Track Munich 2013 event hosted in Munich.
Although my main experience is around BASIS and underlying technologies, the event proved to be very insightful into the future directions of some of the technology.

Some of the presentation slides are now available on the main page:
https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/events/SAP+Inside+Track+Munich+2013

Summary of the event for me:

  • ABAP 7.40 will be the release for HANA integration with ABAP.
  • Eclipse will be the future direction for ABAP development, starting with the HANA integration.  Say bye bye to SE80 and SE38.
  • Some new features in the syntactical makeup of ABAP programs means better performance and cleaner code through the introduction of things like inline views.
  • The linkup of ABAP with HANA means that developers can push-down certain new OPEN SQL commands to the HANA layer, instead of returning loads of records and iterating on an in-memory ABAP table.
  • SAP have around 43,000 students from the Munich universities working on a range of SAP products and features.
  • The Eclipse based development tools use the REST protocol for comms via the SAP ICM instead of via RFC like the SAP GUI.
  • NW7.40 includes an improved SQL Trace for HANA.  These new tools are accessible through the new SWLT transaction.
  • Free HANA related courses are available through OpenHPI.com and open.sap.com.
  • The recommended version of 7.40 is SP5, since this includes better integration with the SAP transport management system and removes the need for HANA containers as transports.

Thanks to all the speakers at the event, it was very enjoyable, especially the free beer at the end!