SAP packages dev platform into S/4HANA
Several weeks ago, global ERP company, SAP, renamed their developer platform and packaged it with S/4HANA, its current gen in-memory application platform.
During the TechEd, CTO Juergen Mueller announced a replacement for Embedded Steampunk, a tool also known as SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment. Crucially, this tool allows developers to build in the SAP’s ABAP language. You can watch the keynote highlights here.
SAP packages into S/4HANA
In 2021, SAP launched the platform for selected customers on RISE with SAP, the vendor’s lift-shift-and-transform partner plan. S/4HANA Cloud 2108 was also released for general availability in August 2021.
Additionally, now SAP packages this with S/4HANA Cloud and S/4HANA on-premises. Mueller said, “We took all the great experiences of Steampunk and put them into an ABAP Cloud.”
“ABAP cloud is designed for state-of-the-art stable and cloud-ready ABAP extensions for S/4HANA directly within the S/4HANA stack. It means using public SAP APIs to access S/4HANA data and functionalities.”
“[Using] public SAP extension points to objects, [but] modifications to SAP objects are no longer allowed. It means [developers] get strong tooling support in the IDE.”
Starting with a clean core
While developers could continue to use the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model, support for Dynpro or Web Dynpro would end.
However, SAP users have experienced difficulties in the past to move to S/4HANA because the customisations many spent years building on earlier editions cannot be carried over to the new environment. SAP says they must start with a clean core, adding any modifications as “extensions” in the new environment.
Though, Mueller says ABAP Cloud is “exciting because it enables customers to get to a clean core in a much simpler way.”
Lastly, SAP has also launched a new Cloud Application Programming (CAP) model for Java and JavaScript developers. Indeed, it includes libraries and tools for building enterprise-grade services and applications. Additional details of the announcements can be read here.
