The ABAP Keyword Documentation for AS ABAP 7.56 for ABAP Platform 2021 is available at the SAP Help Portal under
The main focus of the further development of the ABAP programming language in recent years has been the support of RAP (ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model), which is now reflected in the ABAP keyword documentation.
There is already great documentation on the importance and implementation of RAP in the form of the RAP Guide. But as the name says, there is also some ABAP in RAP and the ABAP Keyword Documentation must also contribute its share.
From an ABAP perspective, RAP means a transfer of large parts of previous programming models such as the BOPF-based ABAP Programming Model for FIORI into deeper layers of the infrastructure. Layers that were previously implemented by ABAP classes are now part of ABAP CDS and the ABAP programming language itself. This has great advantages in terms of performance and correctness. For example, compliance with the REST contract can already be ensured by syntax checks and other static checks.
The RAP programming model is based on Business Objects (RAP BOs) and these are fully defined in ABAP CDS and ABAP language:
Of course, the keywords used for this are the domain of the ABAP keyword documentation and we now fully support the RAP Guide with the associated reference documentation:
A major strength of moving BOs to the language level is type safety for parameter passes, for which special derived types have been introduced, documented in detail under BDEF Derived Types.
Furthermore, with the Entity Manipulation Language (EML) there is a completely new subset of the ABAP language to work directly with RAP BOs, i.e.. to execute transactional actions. This language is used for accessing RAP BOs from outside, for their implementation in ABPs and also by RAP-internal frameworks like SADL. EML is documented under ABAP EML - Providing RAP BOs and especially under ABAP EML - Consuming RAP BOs.
As always, the documentation is supported by extensive embedded text and separate executable examples that are all checked for syntactical and functional correctness. For example, see here.
As usual you can find more news under News for Release 7.56.
Last but not least, from AS ABAP 7.56 on, the ABAP Keyword Documentation that is available as F1 documentation in the system can or must be configured, see SAP Note 3051036.
Brought to you by the ABAP F1 Help team.
See also ABAP Keyword Documentation (ABAP F1 Help) now available for the ABAP RESTful Application Programming...
The main focus of the further development of the ABAP programming language in recent years has been the support of RAP (ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model), which is now reflected in the ABAP keyword documentation.
There is already great documentation on the importance and implementation of RAP in the form of the RAP Guide. But as the name says, there is also some ABAP in RAP and the ABAP Keyword Documentation must also contribute its share.
From an ABAP perspective, RAP means a transfer of large parts of previous programming models such as the BOPF-based ABAP Programming Model for FIORI into deeper layers of the infrastructure. Layers that were previously implemented by ABAP classes are now part of ABAP CDS and the ABAP programming language itself. This has great advantages in terms of performance and correctness. For example, compliance with the REST contract can already be ensured by syntax checks and other static checks.
The RAP programming model is based on Business Objects (RAP BOs) and these are fully defined in ABAP CDS and ABAP language:
- CDS entities (mainly views) define a hierarchical data model for RAP BOs based on root entities and its child entities in the CDS DDL (Data Definition Language)
- CDS behavior definitions define the behavior of RAP BOs in CDS BDL (Behavior Definition Language)
- ABAP Behavior Pools (ABP) implement the behavior of RAP BOs in ABAP classes.
Of course, the keywords used for this are the domain of the ABAP keyword documentation and we now fully support the RAP Guide with the associated reference documentation:
- The addition ROOT and COMPOSITIONs for CDS entities
- BDL for Behavior Definitions
- ABAP Behavior Pools (ABP)
A major strength of moving BOs to the language level is type safety for parameter passes, for which special derived types have been introduced, documented in detail under BDEF Derived Types.
Furthermore, with the Entity Manipulation Language (EML) there is a completely new subset of the ABAP language to work directly with RAP BOs, i.e.. to execute transactional actions. This language is used for accessing RAP BOs from outside, for their implementation in ABPs and also by RAP-internal frameworks like SADL. EML is documented under ABAP EML - Providing RAP BOs and especially under ABAP EML - Consuming RAP BOs.
As always, the documentation is supported by extensive embedded text and separate executable examples that are all checked for syntactical and functional correctness. For example, see here.
As usual you can find more news under News for Release 7.56.
Last but not least, from AS ABAP 7.56 on, the ABAP Keyword Documentation that is available as F1 documentation in the system can or must be configured, see SAP Note 3051036.
Brought to you by the ABAP F1 Help team.
See also ABAP Keyword Documentation (ABAP F1 Help) now available for the ABAP RESTful Application Programming...
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