SAP Development Community of Experts

The Development Soap Box

SAP UI Options

Corneila Pirvu (Cornelia.Privu@Accenture.com)

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

Agenda The Development Soap Box

Objectives
SAP UI Technologies - Overview
SAP UI Technologies - Detailed pros
and cons

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

Objectives The Development Soap Box

Identify the different tools and

technologies that SAP provides for
building user interfaces and what the
primary benefits and/or limitations
are for each UI technology
Identify where each UI technology is
most suitable and best utilized

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

SAP UI Technologies - Overview The Development Soap Box

BSP Write a BSP application and access it via BSP iView or

directly using its URL.
WebDynpro for ABAP write a WebDynpro application in
ABAP and access it via WebDynpro iView or directly using its
URL
WebDynpro for java write a WebDynpro application in Java
and access it via WebDynpro iView or directly using its URL.
JSPDynPage / JSP / Java application (servlet/EJB), PAR
files. Write a java servlet, JSP, EJB application,
AbstractPortalComponent (PAR), or JSPDynPage and access it
from Portal via URL iView, custom iView from PAR. JSPs ,
servlets and EJB applications can be accessed directly using
their URLs.
Visual Composer Write a SAP function module and deploy it
via Visual Composer.
WebGUI for HTML and ITS write a custom SAP transaction
and access it from portal via SAP Transaction iView, or access it
directly via ITS.
APS/.Net Application write a .NET application and access it
generic URL iView, or directly using its URL.

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

SAP UI Technologies Overview - The end-to end The Development Soap Box
solution

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BSP technology The Development Soap Box

Advantages:
Proven, scalable development environment
Tight integration with security and administration tools
The BSP runtime includes a library of HTML Business tags for automatically generating
complex user interface elements.
Native Web Look and Feel
Can leverage standard HTML business tags , which automatically output HTML for tables,
trees and graphs
Less complicated for ABAP-ers than WDJ

Disadvantages:
Separation of concerns BSP pages allow you to insert ABAP code anywhere in the static HTML
code.The application code, the business logic, and the presentation data are free to mix
together an arrangement that is error-prone and difficult to debug. However this may be
an advantage as well, allowing for more flexibility.
Automatic data type conversion If you output an ABAP field in the dynamic HTML page, you
will find no standard way for performing the data type conversions (e.g., for date, time, or
currency handling) needed in complex web applications.
Reuse BSP pages offer limited reuse capabilities via page fragments.
Style and branding Although BSP pages support cascading style sheets (CSS), BSP
applications do not have a way to enforce a consistent look and feel across multiple pages of
complex applications.
Browser independence Anyone who has written a nontrivial web application will face
portability problems with plain BSP pages.
No ALV, F4, Office or Adobe forms integration out of the box.

So.
Great for less complicated, SAP-centric applications for SAP and non-SAP users
Great option when a true Web look and feel is desired
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WebDynpro for ABAP technology The Development Soap Box

Advantages
Proven, scalable development environment
Tight integration with security and administration tools
Offers HTMLB tags
Complex integrated controls/functionality: F4 help, ALV forms, Adobe
Interactive Forms

Disadvantages
SAP Web Dynpro ABAP still does not offer all the functionality that
WebDynpro Java provides (for example Mobile Infrastructure).
Available only with NetWeaver 04s
Unlike WDJ, it has no support for mobile solutions
No interoperability with the most popular Web UI frameworks (Struts,
JSF,Tapestry)
Will only run on WebAS not on third-party web servers
Cannot access portal runtime services.

So.
This option is appropriate for developers with extensive ABAP experience.
WebDynpro for ABAP promises to be the best ( SAP preferred) option for
building web-based applications that access SAP and non-SAP data.

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

Web Dynpro for Java technology The Development Soap Box

Advantages
The Web Dynpro runtime provides many services for you (for example, flow control and field
formatting) that you would otherwise code yourself.
Productivity through declarative approaches to modeling instead of programming, layout,
screen usage, navigation, and data binding.
Supports personalization totally dependent on EP personalization
Page reloading- reloads only a particular component
Reusability through development components
Predefined interfaces to backend systems (Web Services, JavaBeans, XMI, RFC, )

Disadvantages
Web Dynpro Java application can only run in SAP Web AS 6.30 or higher.
The ui elements are dragged/dropped into the layout. Web Dynpro is a standard UI used to
build business applications, which means that you can't change the look and feel with
embedded html or javascript.
Unlike WDA, it does not have F4 help and integrated ALV grids.
Unlike other Web java-based frameworks, it does not provide an easy way to gather
requirements and present the design to stakeholders.
Must still connect to SAP system via Jco which is much more complicated than from ABAP

So.
This option is appropriate for developers with extensive Java experience.
When WebDynpro does not apply: Applications that serve a large consumer community (B2C
applications like Amazon, eBay) , stateless and browser independent.
Great for Web applications that need to pull data from multiple systems/databases and that
wont benefit from tight SAP security integration.

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Java-based application The Development Soap Box

Advantages
Custom JSPs and servlets can be ran on any J2EE server .
Complete control over the business logic and control flow of your application
Maximum code portability.
The JSP approach does not provide browser independence, is still pretty low-level, and is strictly
bound to the Java/J2EE platform
The JSP DynPage provides enhanced event handling an easy session management
JSPDynPage provides support for HTMLB
Flexible personalization : both custom via own css files, or it can use EP personalization for JSPDyn
Page and PAR files
Can leverage the portal runtime
Can easily access non-SAP systems

Disadvantages
If you develop applications on your own, you lose the ability to automatically access information
provided by the portal server runtime (for example, users, themes, and other information).
Accessing data from the SAP back end by calling function modules through SAP JCo is far more
complex than accessing it with OpenSQL in an ABAP application.
JSP/Servlets offer basic event handling where you have to take care of the event handling yourself
With JSP/servlets The programmer has to take care of the session identifier, which is a unique
identifier that makes sure that the datasets are user specific
Page reloading reloads the whole page
No out of the box reusability

So.
This option is appropriate for developers with extensive Java experience who want
If you are working (or planning to work with ) JSP, use JSPDynpage

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

NetWeaver Visual Composer technology The Development Soap Box

Advantages
If the SAP system provides existing function modules, you can concentrate
on building iViews using the design tools of SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer.
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer automatically generates all required Java
code.
No programming knowledge
Very easy, quick and cheap to develop
Familiar tools and development model for ABAP developers
Output automatically shares portal look and feel

Disadvantages
If the SAP system does not provide existing function modules, you have to
implement them first, which means you need experienced ABAP developers.
This option is the easiest way to create a portal application that accesses
data in an SAP system.
Limited control over the user interface

So.
Great for simple SAP-centric applications requiring a rudimentary one or two
screen input-output interface, or when you have strong ABAP development
skills in-house

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

ASP/.NET applications technology The Development Soap Box

Advantages
Like Java applications, you can easily integrate .NET applications into the portal
using a generic URL iView.
Another advantage is that you gain complete control over the business logic
and control flow of your application
SAP connector products available
Can easily access non-SAP systems

Disadvantages
You need a Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) to host your .NET
application.
SAP has announced ABAP and Java to be the strategic developing languages /
platforms.
This option is appropriate for developers with extensive experience with
Microsoft tools (for example Microsoft Visual Studio) and languages like Active
Server Pages (ASP), ASP.NET, Visual Basic .NET, or C#.
Accessing SAP application with the .NET connector is much more complicated
than accessing them from ABAP
Cannot run on EP, unless you run an IIS in parallel

So
Use when you want to strategically locate your web applications on a single
Microsoft IIS server.

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SAPGUI for HTML via ITS The Development Soap Box

Advantages:
Generates HTML page for every SAP screen Dynamically
ITS functionality is integrated in SAP Web AS kernel
Runs on one machine, reduces number of servers
Common http infrastructure, no additional Web Sever required
Common load balancing
Common installation and administration
Proven, scalable development environment
Tight integration with security and administration tools
Familiar development model and tools for ABAPers
Applications can be accessed by all SAPGUI Users
Tight coupling with SAP security and administration

Disadvantages:
SAP Transaction iViews do not use the portal style sheets
SAPGUI look and navigation paradigm is different from other web applications
All users must have SAP user ID logon
User can mistakenly use the browser back arrow instead of SAPGUI back arro, causing
problems.
In older Netweaver versions , you cannot remove standard SAP menu security concerns

So.
This option is appropriate for developers with extensive ABAP experience.
Great for SAP-centric applications with a complex user interface (lots of screens,fields,
functions), developed to an experienced SAP user base.

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 SAP Development Community of Experts

Q/A The Development Soap Box

Questions?

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