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Author's profile photo Thomas Jung

SAP TechEd 2005 Boston: Demo Jam

Last night to kick off SAP TechEd Boston we had the Demo Jam.  Even though it was a very long day, the croud was really enthusiastic.  For some pictures from the Demo Jam, have a look over on Flickr.  However most intersting was the outcome of the Demo Jam.  The second place winner was the example of SAP workflow on the Blackberry device.  Not only was this a really cool technology example, but I found the underlying technology espeically interesting – BSP. That’s right – of all the slick new technology that was shown, it was good old BSP that was used (and only about 15 lines of code at that) for building a real-time interface to SAP workflow on a Blackberry device.  I have been getting a lot of questions about the future of BSP vs. WebDynpro and I think this demo gives an excellent example where the two can co-exist in the toolbox of any ABAP developer.  The ability of BSP to imbed any HTML or JavaScript and to run statelessly, makes it a perfect way to build a quick solution such as this.  Overall this was an excellent example of Keeping It Simple.  The big winner of the evening was the new ABAP editor and the new functionality in the Debugger.  Amazingly among all the talk of ESA, WebServices, Java and WebDynpro – the thing that gets a croud of geeks most excited is the new ABAP editor!  It makes sense however, because ever single ABAP programmer can immediately benefit from the enhancements to the editor.    But now the big drawback – the new editor is only available in NetWeaver04S (webAS 7.0 or ERP2005). This release won’t be generally available until next spring.  Even then how many customers can really go out and upgrade right away.  Of course the new editor will be years away still for most customers.  They joked in the demo jam that it has taken 20 years for us to get color coding in the ABAP editor – well for most customers we have a few more years to wait.  How, after winning the demo jam in Boston and Vienna, can SAP not consider back porting the new editor to at least WebAS 640.  There is obviously huge customer interest in the development! Let’s continue to due our part as customers – by thanking and supporting the ABAP workbench group at SAP and by continuing to ask SAP to give them the resources to consider back porting this enhancement.

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      Author's profile photo Gregor Wolf
      Gregor Wolf
      Hi Thomas,

      was the Blackberry Demo shown live on a real Client via GPRS or on the Blackberry Simulator? Because we have the problem that everything runs smoth and quick in the Simutator but in the real device connected via GPRS it takes about 10 Seconds to navigate from one Page to another.

      Regards
      Gregor

      Author's profile photo Thomas Jung
      Thomas Jung
      It was done on a simulator at the demo jam, but as I understand it live on a real blackberry the next morning in the SDN clubhouse. I unfortunetly couldn't attend that session due to a conflict.  Perhaps someone else can answer to how that second demo went.
      Author's profile photo Eddy De Clercq
      Eddy De Clercq
      Gregor,

      I've seen a live demo of a worflow -> BB in Brussels. I don't recall what the web app was made in. It was done by Eozen (eozen.com). They are located in BeNeLux and France.

      Eddy

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      After winning both Demo Jams that really is a sign there should be some serious thoughts about back-porting the editor within SAP.

      Hope you remember them every time you run across someone in TechEd, Thomas 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Hi Thomas,

      Can you tell me a bit more about the Blackberry demo? Was it SAP that demoes it or another company? Do you know who the company was?

      What exactly were they running on the BB device? We are very interested in this functionality...

      Regards,

      Alon

      Author's profile photo Gregor Wolf
      Gregor Wolf
      Hi Alon,

      as Thomas answerd to my question the Demo Jam Session was done on the Blackberry Simulator. Which I also used to test the CRM Mobile Sales Online for Blackberry application. Here everything went smothly. Responstime about 2 Seconds. Now with a real Blackberry it takes about 10 Seconds to navigate.

      Regards
      Gregor

      Author's profile photo Thomas Jung
      Thomas Jung
      It was an SAP employee who did the demo.  He said he would share the code on SDN (it isn't an offical product - just a sample appliction).  I also believe that the demo jam was recorded and will be available for later viewing.  I will have to ask someone in the SDN booth if they know when/where those videos will be available.
      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai
      > I will have to ask someone in the SDN booth if they know when/where those videos will be available.

      In the SAP TechEd '05 To Go FAQ there is info about it:
      "Please note that this year, SAP TechEd '05 content will NOT be available on SDN, nor anywhere else. The SAP TechEd '05 To Go product is the only way you can access SAP TechEd '05 recorded content."
      :-(((

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Thomas,

      Do you know the name of the person who did the blackberry workfflow demo?

      Thanks,
         Chris...

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      I too would like to know more about the ABAP code to mobilize SAP Workflow.  Can someone point me to the source code or presenter?
      Author's profile photo Thomas Jung
      Thomas Jung
      I'm afraid that I don't have any further information on who this presenter was or his source code.  I had hope (as did many others) that the source code would wind up on SDN. 

      I have some pictures of the code up on Flick:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjung/sets/1027164/

      You can make out some of the code.