Enhancement-possibilities for Java Applications

[Former Member]

Hi, all!

Does SAP provide an enhancement concept for it' s Java application side similar to its ABAP development? Something like BADIs, customer exits on screens, customer includes for data structures a.s.o.? Something that would enable a customer to enhance either a SAP Java app or a ISV app without modification?

Regards,

Thomas

[Benny]

Hi Thomas,

that wouldn't be very standard compliant, would it?

JEE has it's own idea about enhancements of running solutions and in future the SOA environments are built so to say "natively" around such a concept. Therefore it does not make sense to build proprietary enhancement frameworks into Java now.

Regards,

Benny

[Former Member]

Hi, Benny!

Of course, it wouldn' t, but think of what SAP built around Java development with NWDI & the Component Model - this has nothing to do with any Java standard, but is in my opinion essential for hiqh quality development processes which meet customers expectations into SAP technology: multi-stage systemlandscapes with a controlled transport system, an integrated Software-delivery & maintenance-concept a.s.o.

Brilliant concepts like this - and nothing less - I would have expected regarding other crucial problems in Software lifecycle - like modification-free, upgrade-secure enhancement concepts for UIs, logic and data-structures.

You can' t imagine how often I have been laughed on by SAP customers telling them that SAP Java deliveries cannot be enhanced, easily debugged in Prod systems and have no direct access to ABAP data. "What for then?" was the most common answer to this statements.

Regards,

Thomas

[Benny]

Hi Thomas,

there is not only one reason for the things you ask here. First of all the question is: does it make sense to just copy all technology concepts we have done for ABAP? Sometimes it does, as can be seen by the OpenSQL technology and other concepts. Sometimes it doesn't as there are concepts in ABAP that are only there for historical reason.

To implement all the other concepts does not make any sense as we are on the way to a completely new paradigm where those old entry points do not make any sense. Remember: the idea of SOA is to have an entry point between the call of any two services. Once we are in the SOA world entry points are a major part of the system.

As long as you want to stay in the old world of direct data access, screen programming and module calls, I have to ask you why to use Java anyway?

As we said many times and will continue to: just replacing ABAP with Java does not make any sense. Even if we did so it would take about ten years to be at the same stage. And this major invesmtent would have be done to just get what we already have today in ABAP???

The purpose of Java in NetWeaver at the moment is twofold: First of all it gives us the flexibility to use it (for many reasons, technological and non technological it sometimes makes sense to use Java, sometimes not) and second it gives our customers the possibility to consolidate their systems and bring in Java technology also (usually JEE standard).

On the long run we expect a new paradigm to emerge, which SOA is just the start of. The problem here is that we can only talk about this in theory as long as we don't have very much to show (or worse: ugly things to show).

I don't like to play the 'if-I-only-could-talk'-game here to show how much more I know (actually it is not much) but be sure that things go into the direction we officially talk about and that some years from now your work from today will be as strange to you as programming a mainframe host is today for most of us (which are still good systems, by the way!)

Regards,

Benny

[Former Member]

Hi Benny,

you can' t imagine how hard I wish to believe in this brave new world you' re drawing here - I really do. Services, standards, modelling - this all sounds to good to me.

Unfortunatly, all I can see is another decision taken against Java in our company, find out that even SAP is back-pedaling within many applications formerly released in WDJ (e. g. ESS) and long-term strategies being developed based on ABAP and Web Dynpro ABAP.

Anyway, I already had to leave my former ground and am now developing 100% pure ABAP Objects with WDA - enjoying all the features that SAP has kept back from me in Java world.

I think that there is already a large gap between SAPs technology visions and customers willingness to adopt them, and with these announcement strategies of half-baked technologies like ESA/ESOA and conficting plattform statements like above mentioned this gap will enlarge.

Regards,

Thomas

[P248029]

Thomas,

If you are looking for some tools then the answer is probably no. There are some tools like Profile which can analyzie applications. Howvere some line of coding can be always put into application for routine jobs, like - disconnect / invalidate all JCO connections before closing an application using disconnectIfAlive() method, logging out the user.

regds,

Sukanta