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Author's profile photo Horst Keller

ABAP News for Release 7.40 – What is ABAP 7.40?

SAP NetWeaver 7.40 is announced and with it comes its ABAP Application Server AS ABAP 7.40.

With AS ABAP 7.40 the ABAP language has some nice new features.

But first of all, what is AS ABAP 7.40?

  • AS ABAP 7.40 is the successor of AS ABAP 7.31 (aka AS ABAP 7.03) which is the successor of AS ABAP 7.02 which is built on AS ABAP 7.0.
  • Please note that regarding ABAP language and ABAP language environment AS ABAP 7.31 and with it AS ABAP 7.40 is not the successor of AS ABAP 7.30. Instead, AS ABAP 7.03 was renamed to AS ABAP 7.31 and therefore AS ABAP 7.40 is a successor of AS ABAP 7.02.
  • After the release of AS ABAP 7.0 the further development of the ABAP language was mainly done in the 7.10, 7.20, 7.30 code line while most users stayed with the 7.0x code line. In order to make all the nice developments available to a larger developer community, a major feature backport took place from 7.2 to 7.02 some years ago. All features of 7.2 (except class based exception enabling for RFC and syntax errors from package violations) were made available in 7.02.
  • There has been no enhancements of the ABAP language between 7.2 and 7.3 or between 7.02 and 7.03 (aka 7.31). Meanwhile the 7.10, 7.20, 7.30 code line is closed. Since most developments of that code line (especially also those enhancements that are not releated to the ABAP language itself) were backported to 7.03 anyway, 7.03 was renamed to 7.31 and two code lines became one:  the 7.0x -> 7.31 line.
  • In between, another ABAP code line was opened for SAP internal usage: ABAP 8.0 to 8.04 based on 7.2. This is the first ABAP code line ever, where ABAP was developed further in a non downward compatible way. In fact, many features that are regarded as obsolete have been removed from that code line (yes, even logical databases!). The new AS ABAP was made for NGAP (Next Generation ABAP Platform) and is used SAP internally for modern object oriented and framework based development of new products (e.g. Business by Design). Of course, legacy ABAP programs will hardly run on NGAP.
  • With the dawn of HANA the need arised to further develop ABAP also in the 7.0x -> 7.31 line. The first result is 7.40. Again, a large backport took place. This time from 8.0x to 7.40. Many helpful ABAP features that were developed for NGAP found their way back to the 7.0x line – this time by maintaining full downward compatibility (alas, there are still some features that have not been backported due to this restriction yet).
  • From 7.40 on, ABAP is further developed in support packages that are bundled with kernel releases. The first bundled support package that was available for customers was SP02 with kernel 7.40. Following up was SP05 with kernel 741. Further bundled SPs are to come, each with an own kernel and therefore with new ABAP features.

The following figure summarizes the evolution of the ABAP codelines:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/releases_390756.jpg

Besides the backports from NGAP, independent enhancements of ABAP are applied to 7.40 to make the AS ABAP fit for HANA. Some are already available with SP02 and more come with SP05, SP08, and so on.

The ABAP 8.0x codeline and NGAP are not available for public usage but are used for SAP owned platforms only.

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      28 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Thomas Zloch
      Thomas Zloch

      Horst, any reason why you are posting in your personal space? Your blogs would be much more visible if posted in ABAP Development.

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      Oh, that's where the big boys play ...

      Author's profile photo Thomas Zloch
      Thomas Zloch

      Exactly, so just the right place for your stuff 😉

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Thanks for this ABAP release clarification. Now the picture is getting clear 😉

      What is the plan with ABAP NGAP? For which application can it be used? If "legacy ABAP programs will hardly run on NGAP", probable it cannot be used for SAP ERP for example without a huge effort. Or it will be used for something else?

      Thanks,

      Peter

      PS: I also think it would be worth to make this series visible under the main ABAP development place.

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      NGAP is not used for SAP ERP but for ByD.

      Once I finished the series I will provide a structured TOC in ABAP Development.

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Thanks for your answers!

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Horst,

      does this mean that ABAP is now developed further only on basis of this not-downward compatible 8.0 release? If so, I wonder what will happen with all the innovation that is built on innovation that has not been ported initially - a lot of new features will stay out of customer reach, won't it?

      Regards,

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      No, its the other way araound. We backported as much innovations as possible from 8.0 to 7.40 and new developments are done in 7.40 only (at least for the moment), because that's where our customers are. E.g., there are no table expressions in 8.0. Alas, also things from 8.0 are missing in 7.40, e.g. new date/time-fields (real ones), typed literals, int8, test seams. Those are expensive to port and we need real demands and use cases from our customers (i.e. developers in and outside SAP)  to port these.

      Horst

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Mr. Keller;

      From the site I got the information that SAP ABAP AS 7.4 is provided as clour service.

      But I want to work with ABAP 7.4 on a MiniBasis version for example using MAX DB installed on Windows Server 2012 R2 running on WMWARE.

      Would you give me a date of public availability for the ABAP 7.4 MiniBASİS installable on Windows ? Is it planned at least ?

      Kind Regards.

      Erkan VAROL

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      Hello,

      As far as I know, there are no plans for a standalone ABAP Trial Version for Release 7.40.

      Kind regards

      Horst

      Author's profile photo Uwe Fetzer
      Uwe Fetzer

      Before the migration to the SAP Store (grmphl 😡 ), there was a trial version to download with NW GW included, see SAP NetWeaver Gateway Developer Center

      Unfortunately the links don't work anymore.

      Maybe Andre Fischer can help?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Maybe David Metser can help migrating that one too.

      Author's profile photo David Metser
      David Metser

      Hi Samuli,

      Yes this wasn't part of the old catalog and therefore wasn't migrated.

      As i allready aware how popular these files, I will follow up with the relevant people and make sure the links are working and update you here.

      Dedi

      Author's profile photo Dmitrii Iudin
      Dmitrii Iudin

      any update on this topic?

      Author's profile photo Uwe Fetzer
      Uwe Fetzer

      No, but in the meantime you can read Does SAP really want NON SAP Developers ? 1 of 3 (This sums up this problem)

      Author's profile photo Martin Maruskin
      Martin Maruskin

      Really? No ABAP Trial Version for Release 7.40? What a pity 🙁 I'm sure all ABAP developers would appreciate it. 74 has so many new features and there is no on-premise trial version available to try them out...

      cheers

      m./

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      There is a cloud version available, no on-premise one.

      Author's profile photo Nic Teunckens
      Nic Teunckens
      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Hi Horst,

      Some OSS notes already mention BASIS 760. How does it fit to this picture? Is it the successor of 7.40? Or it's still top secret? 😉

      Thanks,

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      Well if you've seen it, I might add it to the picture.

      the 7.60 code-line  branches of from the 7.40 code line (after 7.40, SP08) und is used SAP-internally (like NGAP but without incompatible changes up to now). The 7.60 ABAP enhancements will be collected and ported to the 7.40 code line with the next bundled kernel/ABAP release that will be around 7.40, SP12.

      But let me update the image above only after official release to customers next year, when the final naming will be clear ... 😉

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Thanks a lot for the info!

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Hi Horst,

      Currently there is a lot of info about SAP S/4 HANA (SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA), but I totally miss the info about architecture.

      Is it still ABAP based or HANA XS based?

      If it's ABAP based, what is the BASIS release?

      Thanks,

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Uwe Fetzer
      Uwe Fetzer

      Hi Peter,

      maybe this is a topic for a new discussion thread rather than a question to a blog post. (but the answer will be "ABAP")

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Hi Uwe,

      Opened a thread for this a couple of days ago (SAP S/4HANA & ABAP), got no answer so far, so that's why I tried here.

      Peter

      Author's profile photo Uwe Fetzer
      Uwe Fetzer

      Shame on me, haven't seen your question there. Sorry.

      But I'm glad Horst chimed in and gave the official answer now...

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      >Shame on me, haven't seen your question there. Sorry.

      No problem 🙂

      >But I'm glad Horst chimed in and gave the official answer now...

      Yes, I'm also very glad 🙂

      Author's profile photo Horst Keller
      Horst Keller
      Blog Post Author

      If it's ABAP based, what is the BASIS release?

      NW and ABAP 7.50 built on 7.40, SP08. My above answer about 7.60 is not fully correct any more. The next bundled kernel/ABAP release will be 7.50 and not  7.40, SP12. The 7.60 ABAP enhancements will be collected and ported to the 7.50 code line.

      The forthcoming 7.40 SPs  will contain bug fixes, but will not contain innovations (well that's what support packages are made for 😉 ).

      I will draw a new picture, when 7.50 is released (and blog about the news).

      Author's profile photo Peter Inotai
      Peter Inotai

      Thanks a lot for the clarification ( as always 🙂 ). Looking forward for the news.

      Peter