SAP Project HELP

cyberwit

Currently i am a third year computer student. One of my modules is 100% CA we have to design a project appropriate documentation and a prototype before the end of the semester.

We can use any technology we want, since the college got SAP this year i am hoping to use that it will also help in 4th year knowing SAP the problem is that i have to learn it on my own.

I can't use Java to develop my project as we don't study all the applets and GUI until next semester. I did a bit of SQL connecting with Access last year or connecting VB with Access but i don't want to go back. We are doing oracle and
SQL in another module i could use that but then i would be doing Oracle and SQL projects in two modules.

Studying SAP now will help with next year the problem is i have never used SAP and am having trouble finding information on SAP or SAP Programming

Help

Opinions on whether to use SAP or not in my project are welcome

cousin_borat

I would not recommend using SAP for a third year project. Especially since you have had no training or lectures on it.

seamus

My advice is don't.

SAP is far bigger than you can hope to get your head around just by using the web.

You will have trouble finding information on SAP. This is because the information is tightly controlled by SAP and in order to find out anything about it, you need to pay them thousands of euros for courses in foreign countries which could easily be covered in half the time.

Going onto the SAP website won't help. SAP is a system designed by programmers for marketing people. So it doesn't work the way you would expect most other systems to work, and it uses insanely convoluted ways of giving patently obvious messages. All documentation, even the technical stuff, is littered with marketing speak. Most of the text within the system is badly translated from German. If you dig deep enough into an English system, you can find non-translated messages.

I'll give you a simple breakdown of it:

It's a frontend (GUI) with a database backend. Just like boards.ie has a web frontend and a database backend, SAP uses the SAPGui frontend (it's just a custom GUI), which connects to a server at the backend. This server processes the commands which are given in the frontend and is based on a database at it's core. The Database can be MSSQL or Oracle (and maybe others).

I won't go into the details of the SAP server, but it's written in Java. This means that it can run on Linux or Unix servers.

The SAPGui calls individual programs on the server (known as "transactions"). Each transaction has a very specific purpose. In web terms, much the same way that the screen where you create a post on boards.ie has the purpose of adding your post to the database, so too do transactions "do something".
They are laid out much like someone took an old UNIX terminal "GUI" (i.e. a green-black terminal which was made to look like a GUI), and converted it directly to a proper GUI. They are laid out oddly, are non-intuitive, and don't conform to the windows standards. All buttons and visual objects are custom.

Each transaction is a program written in a language called ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming). This language is proprietary to SAP. When the transaction is first called, the underlying server compiles the ABAP program, and then executes it. For all intents and purposes, ABAP programs are just interpreted by the server into actions, much like the JVM interprets Java.

There are multiple SAP "Systems", each designed for a particular type of function. One SAP system might be primarily suited to the manufacturing industry - keeping track of raw materials in, production quantities out, and so on. Other SAP systems are more general, in an attempt to provide core functions for any kind of business - HR, Financial, Customer Management.
They are essentially all the same thing - a database system with a bunch on programs on top of them which manipulate the database to store and retrieve the information as it is required.

It's just the the volume of functionality provided is fricking HUGE, and you don't get a quick start handbook. The systems attempt to provide a program menu when you log into the Gui, but as I said above, the language used is next to useless - you would never know from a program's name what it actually does. There is no quickstart wizard which guides you through inputting all of your configuration/company data.

Most companies install the vanilla system and then spends 100's of thousands, if not millions of euro paying SAP developers to customise the system for them, and input the basic data that you need to put in to get the system to work for you.

So, again, I advise you not to even bother trying.

cyberwit

It was never my intension to use SAP for the entire project. The point of doing it now is that if I decide next year to use SAP I won't have to worry about learning it then. I am thinking in terms of modular design.

By doing it now I can gain the experience, the lecturer stated that I can evaluate two technologies and if for whatever reason technology limitations, resource limitations, time constraints, I can implement the project with the other safer technology (Contingency Plan). But would still have some experience or knowledge at the very least of SAP even if I don’t use it.

I am also contemplating doing it in AJAX, nothing is set in stone the semester has just started.

I very much appreciate the advice.

SAP is a big giant to try and take on alright what with FoxMeyer Drug and all.

cousin_borat

cyberwit wrote:

It was never my intension to use SAP for the entire project.

By doing it now I can gain the experience, the lecturer stated that I can evaluate two technologies and if for whatever reason technology limitations, resource limitations, time constraints

I am also contemplating doing it in AJAX, nothing is set in stone the semester has just started.

Fair play to Seamus for taking the trouble to explain exactly what SAP is. It's an ERP system NOT a technology like Ajax. I come from an Oracle Applications background but the same thing applies there. Honestly, until you know enough about SAP and can pick a specific technology that is used within that product then forget about using it for a college project.

cyberwit

I was well aware that SAP is an ERP system, i was not making any comparisons between SAP and Ajax i was simply stating i could use AJAX instead.