Technical Articles
Getting Started with ABAP in the Cloud – Update
With this blog we provide an update about the latest information on getting started with the ABAP environment on the SAP Cloud Platform.
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Steampunk
ABAP is as old as SAP (almost). At SAP TechEd 2018 the availability was announced for the ABAP environment on the SAP Cloud Platform, followed by a free trial version one year later. Latest release is 2002 (Feb 2020).
The internal code name was steampunk, a science fiction cyberpunk spin-off, mixing the old with the new, which like Neo has stuck. The official full name is SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment, also known as ABAP Platform-as-a-Service or ABAP PaaS (say out loud, ten times, and you hear the steam engine going).
- It’s Steampunk now by Harald Kuck
- It’s Trial Time for ABAP in SAP Cloud Platform by Andre Fischer
- SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment – Release 2002 by Florian Wahl
SAP Community
Probably the best place to get started is the ABAP Environment topic area on the SAP Community. Here we find official product information (presentations, videos), links to the trial edition, FAQ, and an up-to-date list of the latest blogs and Q&A’s.
To stay up-to-date, simply follow the tag: SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP environment (tag). Frequent bloggers are Florian Wahl, Thomas Schneider, Olga Dolinskaja, Harald Kuck and Andre Fischer, which you could also consider following.
Product Information
For the business side of things visit the resource center. Here we find the solution briefs and pricing examples (plus the same links to the documentation and FAQs as above).
For recent innovations, planned functionality, see the roadmap (includes the ABAP environment)
Learning Journey(s)
Training
There are no SAP Training courses specific to the ABAP environment yet (but there are plenty of courses about ABAP, of course). The ABAP Environment learning journey lists blogs from the Community and Developer Center tutorials (but no courses or certifications), so it is a free ride!
SAP Help Portal Learning Journey
SAP TechEd
At SAP TechEd 2019, there was also a learning journey dedicated to the topic. All the lectures are freely available to watch
For the list of all ABAP sessions, see
SAP Developer Center
Most of the stepping stones on the SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment point to the tutorials on the SAP Developer Center. There are several missions and tutorials groups to organise the growing number of tutorials and the Tutorial Navigator will help you find them. To name a few
- Start Developing on SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment
- Create Your First Console Application with ABAP Environment
SAP Developer Center Tutorials
SAP HANA Academy
Just released, a new video tutorials series by Philip MUGGLESTONE covering all aspects of SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment including creating an instance of the ABAP Environment, setting up client tools, and creating and deploying applications.
- SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment (playlist)
- Hands-on Video Tutorials for SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment (blog)
In part two of this blog, we cover this series in more detail.
Getting Started with the Docs
For detailed and additional background information, bookmark the SAP Cloud Platform documentation set. You can filter on the ABAP Environment to only get the relevant info. The Getting Started section might be a good place to start…
SAP Help Portal
The ABAP RESTful programming model defines the architecture for the development of OData services optimized for SAP HANA in SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment (or Application Server ABAP). Obviously, this is essential reading for Steampunk.
See also
SAP Press Books
There is not yet a book dedicated to the topic but there are several titles related that may be of interest
- ABAP RESTful Programming Model by Stefan Haas and Bince Mathew
- ABAP, An Introduction by Brian ONeill and Jelena Perfiljeva
- Complete ABAP by Kiran Bandari
- ABAP Development for SAP HANA by Mohsin Ahmed and Sumit Naik
- ABAP to the Future by Paul Hardy
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Connect and Share
Questions? Post as comment.
Useful? Give a like and share on social media. Thanks!
If you would like to receive updates, connect with me on
- LinkedIn > linkedin.com/in/dvankempen
- Twitter > @dvankempen
Best,
Denys van Kempen
I was giving a presentation about the future of ABAP Programming at assorted SAP Inside Tracks last year.
Here is a link to the event at SIT RuhrPott in Essen.
https://opensit.net/sitpott
My one is called "All That You Know is At An End"
Thanks for sharing, Paul. Good one.
Direct link for the lazy ones. 🙂
https://opensit.net/sitpott/2019/all-that-you-know-is-at-an-end
Great Blog Denys! 🙂
I have a special question regarding SteamPunk - maybe you can help 🙂
As a PoC I built an OData Service in the SteamPunk Trial Environment (CF) and wanted to publish it to the Cloud Platform Neo Environment in order to build a Fiori Elements Application in WebIDE on top of it.
I created successfully a Destination in Neo with the Server-URL of the SteamPunk Trial Service link (similar to this: https://cfb51dbd-36ea-4fed-8080-af474856f5e3.abap-web.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/).
However, when I tried to choose a Service in the WebIDE Template Wizard (for a FE List Application) I could choose my SteamPunk Destination (Option: Service Catalog), but my Service was not available - instead there was an error message: "Unable to reach the catalog service. Please check the service configuration and connect again" 🙁
Unfortunately, it also didn't work with Option: Service URL - there was just a text "undefined undefined" 🙁
Is it actually a valid scenario or is it maybe not allowed/possible to connect SteamPunk to CP Neo?
Any help is more than appreciated 🙂
Best Regards
Thorsten
Hi Thorsten,
I have not yet had the opportunity to try it out myself but the tutorial https://developers.sap.com/tutorials/abap-environment-deploy-cf-production.html
describes in detail how to consume an ABAP-based service from within a Fiori template application using SAP Web IDE in a SAP CP trial account.
Can you give it a try?
Thanks for helping Denys! 🙂
Hi Denys van Kempen as usual very informative and helpful .
I would like to share our experience so far with SCP and ABAP Environment and hopefully you can point is in the right direction. Technically we have made good progress, the admin side hasn't been easy in getting set up has been a bit of a struggle.
Enterprise accounts
We started by creating a trial account , which was simple enough and we got up and running fairly quickly .
We then wanted to convert our trial account ,we have experience with S4 on AWS where we could convert from trial to paid account seamlessly, but struggled here . After much research we found out this was not possible and you need a totally new and separate enterprise account, no conversion possible, but this was easier said than done .
https://help.sap.com/viewer/3504ec5ef16548778610c7e89cc0eac3/Cloud/en-US/171511cc425c4e079d0684936486eee6.html
We have not been able to create an enterprise account , simply like the trial account , so our first question after contacting the Technical team , the non-technical team , the CIC team is how does one create an enterprise account that allows us to get a subscription version of SCP ABAP Environment ?
Do we need to be existing customers or partners ? or is there a special process ?
Pricing
On the pricing side , we reviewed the subscription model and the consumption model and could purchase the subscription based model minimum 3 months, for both the persistence model and the runtime , through our trial SCP account. But we are not sure if once we purchase this subscription model, if this converts our SCP trial account into a full account ?
Also the pricing changes each time we go into the pricing simulator , for the subscription model ranging from 10K for 3 months to over 42K for 3 months, with exactly the same parameters as they are mainly defaulted by the SAP calculator .
For the consumption model , which has no buying option on the pricing page, we finally found another article that the SAP Pay as you go model ( which for us would be about 2/3 cheaper than the cost of the subscription model) is by invitation only i.e. companies who want to develop in the ABAP environment in the Pay as you Go model cannot do so , they have to take the full subscription model ,
Screen shot - SAP Pay-As-You-Go is currently available on a limited basis and by invitation only.
https://help.sap.com/viewer/3504ec5ef16548778610c7e89cc0eac3/Cloud/en-US/7047eb4a15a84ac7be3c8612179e6d1f.html
Services
The services included in the ABAP environment are not always easy to find. For example we saw that the new Business Studio can be included for a great price of 13USD per month per user , but integration items were not on the list . For example if one wants to include SDI or SDA in the ABAP environment is this included in the ABAP environment core already or is it a separate item and if so how can this be done ?
Thanks Denys any insights you can provide on how we can move forward with these 3 main topics would be much appreciated . Overall we are very excited to be moving our entire platform to SCP and look forward to getting over these teething problems.
Many thanks
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for sharing. It sounds like there is room for improvement.
==
Concerning buying the service, you can get the ABAP runtime and persistence from the SAP Store: https://www.sapstore.com/solutions/40191/SAP-Cloud-Platform%2C-ABAP-environment
From the store you can submit a request. As I am not familiar with the process and as employee, cannot do a dry-run to see what exactly happens after you click buy, I have to propose to contact the Store (sales) directly through the form.
I noticed you can enter a promotion code. One can always ask ?
From the documentation, I understand you need to get a customer account first. For help, you can call Sales (select your region first).
==
Concerning pricing, same response. See also https://www.sapstore.com/faqs.
I understand hat there is no automatic conversion from trial to enterprise accounts for the SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment. I will see if I can get some more information whether this is on the roadmap or why it is the way it is.
==
Concerning what’s in the box: are you familiar yet with the Discovery Center? https://discovery-center.cloud.sap/serviceCatalog/abap-environment
The Feature Scope Description document for the service lists exactly what is included.
==
Thanks Denys appreciate your help once again . We have been able to confirm that we do need an Enterprise Agreement signed first, before we can have the SCP fully up and running . Thanks for the screen shots above - the submit request although quick in replying, was not able to help with this type of request and we called our country offices , not with any luck so far 🙂 but they seem to acknowledge that this is the way to do it .
But thank you for your help much appreciated , maybe just as feedback , would be great if amongst all the great literature it said clearly what needs to be done.
This can be done through one of the options below :