ABAP Data Models Guide

My name is Konrad and I am a User Assistance Developer at SAP. A few years ago, I was new to the world of ABAP and ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) and wasn’t sure where to start. Are you in the same boat as I was then?

If you are new to ABAP CDS and want to learn about the basics first, if you otherwise are experienced and need to brush up on the basics of CDS, or need to reference the fundamentals of concepts within CDS and how they fit into the big picture, you can check out the new guide that we have just released.

What is it?

We have just released a guide, the ABAP Data Models Guide, which aims to answer some of the questions you may have about how to build data models using ABAP CDS. In this guide we explain the different object types that you can use in your data model in order to exploit the powerful capabilities of your SAP HANA database.

Where do I go from here?

This guide is about the bigger picture of data modeling with CDS in the business context. It provides background information for the developer to be able to model and enrich their data using CDS. The user can then move on to build an analytical application to showcase their data. Or, if you need transactional capabilities, you can continue on to the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) Guide to create your very own transactional data model, utilizing all of the powerful features that the RAP model provides.

What’s next for this guide?

Currently we are working on also delivering a reference scenario, in which you will see how the various CDS objects can be used in a larger model. Here, you will be able to follow along a step-by-step guide with examples. This will give you the experience necessary to then model your own data using CDS.

As new CDS features are released, they will be documented in this guide.

Of course, if there’s anything that you would like to see documented in this guide, let me know in the comments. We would love to hear what you think and what you would like to see in future releases!