.net developper calling SAP

[Former Member]

Excuse the ignorance as I am very new to this.

I am an experienced .net / sql server developer. I have been tasked to connect to SAP and extract some data. So far so good...Im using the dot net connector proxy object and connecting to sap. I specify an RFC module and I am able to pull data from SAP and use a function like ToADOTable to convert the table to a datatable.

My question is, I am very new with SAP. What is a good book to pick up to find out what modules do, return, and how to use them. For instance, one of my requirements was to pull project information from SAP into SQL. I was able to get our project information by calling a module called:

BAPI_PROJECTDEF_GETLIST

It told me it needed the number of rows as parameter etc etc.

My question is I need to be able to understand the basics of where to find information (is that even easy). I want to be able to know what to call and when to call it. Like if someone says get me information pertaining to X then I should be able to understand what RFC module to call.

So what books can help me out there ? Can anyone post some links / titles/ ISBN numbers so that I may purchase some books. Please remember that I am a .net developer and very new to SAP in general.

Thanks in advance.

[Former Member]

Hi Jon,

How are you doing ?

Transaction BAPI in an SAP system will provide documentation on the RFC's that are provided by SAP. For custom RFC's you will need to contact the specific author to provide details on usage.

the system that you connect to :

when you log on using SAPGUI, type 'bapi' in the top left hand corner textbox.

it should list the bapi's in an alphabetic and hirearchical way.

books would usually take longer to absorb as you cannot efficently search in them as per the task at hand. In time as you gain experience with ABAP objects, it should get simpler, as you will get used to the naming convention.

What could help is if you read up on SAP tables and commonly used objects, for example : purchase order : PO, purchase requisition PR, or sales order etc ....

a good book for idocs is : ALE, EDI & IDOC Technologies for SAP

http://www.amazon.com/IDoc-Technologies-Prima-Techs-Books/dp/0761534318

amazon lists pretty much all the relevant SAP & .NET interfacing books available

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-2395447-0274231?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords...

with respect,

amit