J2EE Developer Migrating to SAP/Netweaver

[Former Member]

I am an experienced J2EE developer with over 3 years experience in writing JSPs, servlets, custom tag libraries, etc. I have written web applications that utilize SQL Server, MySQL & HSQLDB. In addition to the programming aspect I am also a pretty well rounded DBA with a healthy SQL background.

I tend to work strictly within the J2EE framework and <b>don't</b> use OR tools like Hibernate or Spring, <b>nor</b> other application frameworks like Struts, Tapestry or JSF. I have multiple custom tag libraries that I've written over the years that I use to speed up application development.

My typical development environment includes using Eclipse with the MyEclipse J2EE plug-in, using Tomcat (for web applications) or JBoss (for Enterprise applications) as the application servers.

I have been asked to join a firm writing J2EE applications (I assume including Portals with iView) but I have not experience with SAP. How steep do you believe would the learning curve be before being a productive developer in this area? What are the biggest differences between developing in a complete J2EE environment vs. developing within the SAP Netweaver environment?

Thanks for your assistance.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Several parts..

I think you can download preview version of Netweaver and judge for yourself. If you browse through help, you will find most of documentation there..

1. From your experience it should no problem getting used to NetWeaver Developer Studio (it based on Eclipse) and to do J2EE (beans, servelets /JSP etc) portion of work.

2. For developing Portal/iViews, HTMLB/DynPro/Portal architecture have some new lingo to get used to. But not complex.

3. I am not familiar with SAP, depending on what aspect of SAP you will need to deal with you may never need to understand SAP (as in R/3 business system) at all.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

for 3 meant to type

[Sorry slip of keyboard]

> Several parts..

>

....

> 3. I am not familiar with SAP, depending on what

> aspect of SAP you will need to deal with you may

aspect of Netweaver you are dealing with you may

> never need to understand SAP (as in R/3 business

> system) at all.

>>

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your replies. Unfortunately I do not have access to an SAP system or database at this time, as I'm just determining my feasibility as an SAP developer. If I download the rather large preview (1.5GB) does it include all I would need? I have a SQL Server, but of course it's got no SAP databases in it.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

It has been a while since I downloaded. But this is what I downloaded "Sneak Preview SAP NetWeaver 04 - Enterprise portal) JAVA edition" (NetWeaver 6.0 SP 11)

2 files

- NW04SneakPrevJavaSP11.part1.rar (1.5GB)

- NW04SneakPrevJavaSP11.part2.rar (1.2GB)

You will get (NetWeaver) J2EE Application Server, Development studio (for J2EE apps as well as portal component development), and other tools for deploying and managing J2EE server and portal.

[And remember to change your system clock to German (if you install SP11, there was a bug that caused problem otherwise, somewhere in forums you can find details)]

There is no free "SAP" database. I do not think you can get a free one. But you will not need it, if your goal is to get familiar with develop environment as such (or do portal components). You need treat it as anyother J2EE server (not SAP R/3). You can use SQL server to get your J2EE beans to talk to JDBC data sources!!

There are some components of NetWeaver that were not part of free download (e.g. XI component).

If you consider it as pure J2EE Application Server (like one you get from Sun) and start off, it will help you kick start.

I would recommend reading some of white papers at SAP J2EE Engine 6.0 documentation (https://www.sdn.sap.com/sdn/developerareas/was.sdn?page=WebAS_620.htm) especially "Development Manual for J2EE 6.0. Since that is what you are getting with download.

Good luck..

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi

Actually there is a free SAP DB (depending on your licensing situation) - SAPDB is now MaxDB and you can download it from the mySQL site.

http://www.mysql.com/products/maxdb/

I think you will find this is the one included in the Sneak Preview editions of Netweaver.

You can download the admin tools from that site and use them on your sneak preview.

Cheers

Dom

[guru_subramanianb]

Hi Tom,

for ur third q,if you are a java developer then there are few dev area with Netweaver in java.Predominantly u will be accessing the R/3 DB with Webdynpro.Webdynpro are application developemnt areas in Netweaver which is similar to JSP but involves very less coding.Drag & drop functionality makes it ease to use.

It is based on MVC architecture.Then there are J2EE dev also.then there are Webservices devlopment in netweaver.

If ur familiar with Java then You can easily learn and code in Netweaveralso.