Core Development Tasks

Just as engines, steering, and breaks are required in the manufacture of vehicles, some basic problems
must always be solved in the development of business applications for example, storing data, providing
users with a user interface, and enabling communication between systems. Mastering a programming
language means knowing the programming concepts of this language that address these problems.
The section Core Development Tasks shows how these fundamental concepts are implemented in
ABAP and the SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP and thus provides you with a first point of
orientation:
UI Technology: The standard Web user interface is Web Dynpro. If you require a Web interface
that allows a high degree of adjustment to suit specific requirements, Business Server Pages
(BSP) are the best UI choice.
ABAP Objects: If you develop a new component in ABAP, you should do so using ABAP
Objects. Several million lines of productive ABAP code are written in the classic procedural
ABAP, but ABAP Objects still offers advantages even if you decide against an object-oriented
design: Data can be better encapsulated, the syntax check is stricter and prohibits the old error-
prone constructs, and you have more control over the control flow. Furthermore, new ABAP
technologies only provide object-oriented interfaces.
Sharing Data: Different programs or users often require access to a large amount of aggregated
data on the application server. Copying this data and holding it in every program context requires
a lot of time and memory space. With ABAP shared objects, you can aggregate data once at a
central location and the different users and programs can then access this data without the need
for copying.
Exception Handling allows you to specify how the system is to react to a program error of such
severity that continuing the normal program flow is not an option. With the class-based exception
concept of ABAP, you can define a special control flow for a specific error situation and provide
the user with information about the error.
Persistence: In ABAP, you have different options for storing your data in the database. With
database-independent Open SQL, which is integrated in ABAP, you store the data in relational
database tables of the integrated system database. The Object Services store selected objects
transparently, and you can use the command EXEC SQL to access the proprietary SQL of the
integrated or additional databases.
Using Connectivity and Interoperability: Web services are the strategy for communication within
NetWeaver and with other systems. With the corresponding tools, you can easily make functions
available as services or consume the services of other providers. Furthermore, the Exchange
Infrastructure has a number of features to enable, manage, and adapt the integration scenarios
between systems, as well as retain an overview of the relevant metadata. The Exchange
Infrastructure and Web services are the means by which developers can implement a service-
oriented architecture.
Making Enhancements: Special industry solutions, subsidiaries, and customers often have to
change or enhance the SAP standard code. With the Enhancement Framework, you can enhance
programs, function modules, and global classes without modification as well as replace existing
code. Modifications and user exists are thus replaced with a uniform framework. In addition, the
Switch Framework enables you activate only specific development objects or enhancements in a
system. The code of different additional components can thus be held in one system, even if
these components each make different changes to the same code sections of the basis system.
With the Switch Framework, you can activate only the desired component and thus only its
changes. The other development objects then remain inactive.