This is part 2 of the 5 part series on ABAP OO. In this part we will expand the lesson by looking at static vs. instance, visibility, exception classes, inheritance, polymorphism and abstract classes. We start with a very basic class with only static methods that works very much like a Function Group/Function Modules. Next we change the methods into instance methods and see how a class instance allows us to model complex data structures and relationships in code. Then we see how exception classes can make our exceptions more meaningful and simplify the surrounding code for dealing with exceptions. Finally we see the real power of object oriented design come to life as we use inheritance and polymorphism to hide the inner complexity of our business logic from calling applications all while ensuring uniform execution of our code. These techniques may feel foreign at first, but in the long run they lead to code that is easier and safer to maintain.
It’s with sadness and happiness that I write this post, it’s been fun over at the Toolbox and maintaining my blog about odd and different types of development with SAP technologies from PHP to Zoho, however time has caught up to me and I need to re-optimize my online efforts.
Over the past several weeks I’ve closed several of my blogs, and with luck I’ve been able to consolidated several of them including this one together with several great friends who share a focused interest on enterprise software as I do.
It’s an exciting time when you can combine so many of your interests into a single focused area, I hope my previous loyal readers will find a warm welcome here with the rest of the awesome eGheads!
SE38 running on an ABAP App Server all local to the IPhone
Thanks to a recent all night hacking session, the Enterprise Geeks have managed to get an entire ABAP Application Server running on the iPhone. That’s right, not just the SAPGUI but the whole Application Server. This means that ABAP developers now truly have the freedom to code on the go as we bring the power of the complete ABAP environment to the world’s most popular portable device.
There were some obvious technical challenges to getting a piece of software that was designed for 64-bit memory architecture and multiple CPUs to run in the considerably smaller hardware of the iPhone. When asked about these technical challenges, the Enterprise Geeks responded with the following. “There were plenty of problems squeezing the thing onto the iPhone. The biggest was probably the fact that the database size alone is nearly 12Gb. That was a bit of a problem for a device that potentially has only 8Gb of storage. So we had to cut out some of the features. For instance there was no room for any eye candy. So we cut out the Signature and Enjoy designs and went back to the classic battleship grey Windows 3.1 mode only. We also had to cut out SE80, the new ABAP editor, Web Dynpro ABAP, and lot of other stuff. What didn’t we cut? Well, there is still command line based editing and we of course left in the ABAP powered Matrix Screen Saver. We would love to tell you how well the system runs on the iPhone, but to be honest those damn icons are just too small for the touch screen interface of the iPhone and we keep exiting the program when we try to save.”
Lies, Damn Lies: just so everyone is on the same page; this posting was made on April 1st. You know, April Fools Day. Just in case you haven’t caught on yet, everything above is a total lie. I can’t imaging actually trying to code development – in any environment – on the form factor of the iPhone. Not to mention running the ABAP engine on an iPhone would surly drain the battery quite fast.
Nanomonk was a RedMonk event hosted by Adobe and SAP. It took place back in July in London and was a simple one day event.
Small and intimate group of experts, customers, partners, analysts and consultants the day was a bit unplanned and certainly not rehearsed and the result was an amazing conversation around the world of the enterprise, RIA and community.
I recorded the entire day and you can check out the video replays here and here. Each video is about an hour (and some change) long but the content has gotten great feedback and I certainly think it’s worth the watch if you are interesting in the various technologies between Adobe and SAP.
RedMonk has said they plan to make these Nanomonk events a regular (3 to 4 times a year) so very much looking forward to that!
Abesh over in the SDN community is a fan of Adobe’s Flex and AIR technologies. He’s also a fan of Widgets so he decided to work on some combining of technologies, since he works with SAP (and at SAP) he decided to create some helper libraries for working with ActionScript.
The first he created is “Adobe Actionscript helper Libraries for SAP MII”, found here. His describes this library as follows:
Since there is a lot of activity on using Adobe Flex as an alternative UI for SAP MII on SDN, I’ve created a helper class which will ease this process.
His second helping of ActionScript with SAP was in his blog “Actionscript Libraries for SAP Widget Foundation : Available now!” found here.
That was just an example or a Proof of Concept. What I have here is something that makes the whole deal a lot more easier for everyone. The Actionscript Libraries for SAP Widget Foundation lets anyone using Adobe technologies consume services from the Widget foundation at ease without having to wonder about the nitty gritties of the REST services exposed by SAPWF.
