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1. Andreas Blumenthal
Jürgen Heymann
SAP AG ABAP Objects
2. ABAP Objects ABAP Objects as a strategic SAP technology
Programming with objects, classes, and interfaces in ABAP
Interoperability with other object systems
3. Positioning ABAP Objects Benefits of object orientation
Current situation
External interoperability
ABAP programming
What are ABAP Objects ?
Benefits of ABAP Objects
4. Benefits of Object Orientation Encapsulation - outside vs. inside
Explicit interfaces
Control of complexity and dependencies
Reuse - of components and by inheritance
Maintainability
Interoperability across languages (Java, VB, ...) and object systems (DCOM/CORBA)
Foundation for patterns and frameworks
5. Current Interoperability Technology BOR (Business Object Repository)
Foundation for DCOM/CORBA connection
Fully featured standard object model
Medium level object wrappers for business functionality written in standard ABAP
BAPIs (Business APIs)
Defined within the BOR
Function-oriented, stable interfaces to R/3 applications
Support for Internet applications
6. Current ABAP Programming Complexity reduction by powerful high-level programming constructs
Procedural abstraction (function library)
Data abstraction (type pools, complex data types)
Logical databases for hierarchical data access
Event-oriented programming with logical databases and interactive reporting
Fully integrated SQL interface
In-memory tables: fast key access, sorted and/or nested, group control, ...
...
7. What Are ABAP Objects ? Complete integration of a fully featured object model into the ABAP programming language
100% upward-compatible extension of ABAP/4
Bottom up: use objects in existing ABAP programs (reports, module- and function-pools)
Top down: call forms and functions from within objects
All ABAP language constructs are available within objects
Fully integrated into the ABAP Workbench
Class library for global classes (will absorb BOR)
8. Benefits of ABAP Objects Identical object model for external access and internal usage
Seamless object model from analysis through design to implementation
Kernel-embedded foundation for objects
Make OO benefits available for the implementation of the world’s largest business application
True two-way interoperability: ABAP <=> Java, ABAP <=> VB, ...
Speed, speed, speed !
Enabling technology for GUI programming with frontend controls (ActiveX, JavaBeans)
9. ABAP Objects ABAP Objects as a strategic SAP technology
Programming with objects, classes, and interfaces in ABAP
Interoperability with other object systems
10. Fundamentals: Objects vs. Data & Functions Objects occur 'naturally' in the world. We want to model our software accordingly
E.g.: Transportation company: trucks (various kinds), loads (various), etc.
Functions and data
‘Big common data structure’ and some common functions
Lots of CASE statements, sparsely filled data structures
Objects: car, truck, load, …
Various kinds of everything, objects for truck, load, …
Object: data and functions that belong together to model / implement a specific concept
Fewer CASE statements, densely filled data, cohesion
11. Fundamentals: What Is an Object ? Objects have…
...state, described by its attributes
...behavior, described by its methods
...identity to distinguish them from other objects with same state and behavior
Objects can interact with each other...
...by accessing (public) attributes
...by calling methods
...by raising or handling events
Objects are instances of classes
12. The ABAP Object Classes…
...specify behavior of ‘same kind of’ objects
...define how objects can be accessed from outside (public vs. protected vs. private)
...hide implementation details
...may be specialized in subclasses
13. An Example
14. Some Important Points Objects are created dynamically
Storage management, garbage collection
Access to objects via object reference only!!!
Distinguish instances by object reference
Only and explicit means of dependency
Sharing always and only via (object) references(similar to field-symbols; all other ABAP types are value-based!)
Internal data hidden from users
Private data accessible only by the object’s methods
15. Component Definitions Attributes…
...store the internal state of an object (data)
...can be references to other objects
…can be: read-only, virtual, class attributes
…can be constants
Virtual attributes: ‘Attribute’ from the outside, inside the object Set- and Get-methods. Dynamic control of Set-/Get-methods.
16. Component Definitions Methods…
…are operations on objects (the ‘functionality’)
…are the only way to change the state of an object (other than public attributes)
...have parameters and can raise exceptions (similar to function modules)
...can pass back a return value
No method-name overloading!
17. Using Attributes and Methods
18. Component Definitions Events...
...occur at a particular point in time, e.g. ‘change in state of an object’
...can be raised to inform other interested objects
...can pass parameters
19. Event Handling Events are handled by classes
General publish-subscribe model
Syntax similar to ‘Visual Basic’ event handling
Event handlers...
...are methods for handling events from other objects
...are declared with reference to the event to be handled (signature from there)
…must be ‘registered’ explicitly
21. Class Component Definitions Class attributes...
...are data on class level, independent of object / instance
...are ‘always there’ like global variables / functions
...have global lifetime, with scope tied to class
Class methods...
...can only access class attributes
...can be called like ‘global functions’, but are tied to class
22. Using Class Components
23. Inheritance A class can be derived from another
Only specify what is different / added
Add attributes and methods
Redefine / override existing methods (in any section) = change implementation, ‘slight change’ of interface possible
‘Single inheritance’ on class
24. Using Inheritance Polymorphism on object references
25. Interfaces define the interaction between different objects
Polymorphism independent of class / inheritance
Classes can implement multiple interfaces
Uniform access through interface reference
26. Interfaces...
…can define same components as class - without implementation
...may ‘enclose’ multiple other interfaces (hierarchy)
…have separate name spaces for their components
Components of enclosed interfaces are not visible in the top-level interface (‘black boxes’); there is a mapping/aliasing feature
27. Implementation of interfaces
A class can implement many interfaces
Interfaces are implemented ‘side-by-side’ in a class (like COM)
No name conflicts on the class level
No semantic conflicts at class level and interface composition
Using interfaces
Access by interface reference like object reference
An interface reference only exposes the components of that interface
Assignment / ‘cast’ to another interface possible
28. Interface Example
29. Interfaces and Classes
30. Naming and Visibility Class components...
…share a common name space within the class
...may be
public = visible to all
protected = visible to subclasses and implementation
private = visible to the class implementation only
...depend on instance data or not
Interface components
Separate name space for interface components
Interfaces are visible as a whole (like ‘view’)
31. Miscellaneous Avoid naming conflicts, selectively make components visible
Constructor (Destructor)
Friends
32. The ABAP Object Model Summary
Classes and interfaces
Attributes, methods, and events
Classes can implement interfaces
Interface composition
Single inheritance for classes, multiple composition + aliasing for interfaces
Event handling
33. ABAP Objects ABAP Objects as a strategic SAP technology
Programming with objects, classes, and interfaces in ABAP
Interoperability with other object systems
35. Interoperability Features Transparent two-way mapping between ABAP Objects and external object models
Automatic generation of proxies and stubs
Location transparency:
CREATE OBJECT obj DESTINATION dest
Delta management for mass data
For details see presentation on Distributed Objects