Introduction to ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (ABAP RAP)
ABAP RAP is a new concept. ABAP as you know, went through evolution and till ECC 6.0, it was termed as one of the fourth generation programming language. Everyone including Customers and Developers were quite okay with what ABAP as a programming language could achieve. We are talking about the era of on-premise applications where Customers used to spend on IT hardware as an investment. They subsequently create applications on top of it. Internet used to be a luxury. It was accessible with a desktop/laptop with a wired connection. Widely accepted consumer handheld mobile devices were a far cry.
Time changed. With the launch of handheld mobile devices with touchscreen and wireless internet on these devices was a revolutionary step for mankind. It changed the way people connected with each other, access information and subsequently do business. Cheap prices of mobile devices made sure that the mainstream acceptance. Due to pocket size of mobile devices, there was a limitation on storage, memory and computational power. This created a use case of cloud computation and storage, packaged solution. This even led to whole cloud platform to manage end-to-end life cycle of IT infrastructure including hardware and software. Moreover there were more disruptions like open source software and community which further shaped up the ERP and software industry.
ABAP with the time was heading towards becoming a legacy programming language. There was a knee-jerk change required to address the recent innovations to provide modern user experience as well as faster response time. Moreover, the architecture of classical ABAP was designed with a different mindset altogether. In addition, Database was slow and developers were asked to put minimal load on Database Management system. Development standards and best practices were designed to process calculations on application layer.
Why ABAP RAP?
With ABAP RAP(Restful Application Programming Model):
- ABAP RAP is doing more with coding lesser lines. e.g. BOPF based ABAP Programming Model for Fiori is achievable with simple CDS
- SAP is pushing calculation to Database layer with new ABAP and RAP
- Easier Data Modeling
- Out of box Fiori screen creation from within CDS artefact
- Whole Business Object and their behavior definition is possible from within Core Data Services (CDS)
A word for Classical ABAP Programmers
- RESTful stands for Representational State Transfer is a architectural pattern for creating web services. This is not a new concept and developers have been using it from quite some time. REST style of development specifies constrains e.g. uniform interface. It is very easy to achieve good performance, scalability and modifiability with RESTful applications. REST helps to design simple APIs to access resources via URL and uses JSON or XML to transmit data.
- Learn new – ABAPers must upgrade themselves for ABAP RAP. Most of the organizations have strategically either already moved to HANA based solutions or plan to do so in near future. ECC based SAP ERP systems will become obsolete in 2025(subject to revision). Obsolete ECC system means obsolete classical ABAP. For an ABAP programmer, it will very difficult to find a new job or get a hike from your employee if you don’t upgrade yourself NOW to ABAP RAP!
- Easy to Learn and lesser lines of code – S4 HANA’s new syntax works better with new ABAP and RAP which helps to pushdown code to database layer and reduce Lines of code dramatically. This also means effort reduction and an easier life for an ABAP programmer. Good news is; RAP is easily learnable with a guided approach in short span of time.
- Futuristic – RESTful model decouples Backend and Frontend development intelligently. So, in future if user experience mechanism changes e.g. Screen click to Voice command, then also backend RAP development stays relevant. This makes RAP future ready.
A word for SAP Customers
- Safe Investment – ABAP RAP is a futuristic programming model, so it makes sense to ask Development partner and Maintenance provider to strictly do all developments on RAP. Reason is also provided up.
- Safeguard system from future upgrades – As per SAP guideline, a HANA version upgrade recommendation is within five years to claim SAP product support. Future upgrades may require a lot of code correction or design revisit in case of classic ABAP.
- Revisit/Audit Obsolete coding standards – Get rid of old standards(classic ABAP based) and ask/enforce a latest standard
- ABAPers go wild; Stop it – With proper governance, impose RAP model development. Hire competent developers because old code may hit your business
