Professional VB SAP R/3 Programming - Softcover

Ovanesyan, Oleg

9781861002785: Professional VB SAP R/3 Programming

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861002785 ISBN 13: 9781861002785

Publisher: Apress, 1999

This book introduces the fundamentals of SAP, including the new SAP tools and technologies. SAP R/3 business objects and BAPIs are implemented and a guide to the SAP Business Framework is illustrated. The SAP R/3 Automation tools are used to replicate SAP functionality from VB and the DCOM Component Connector is used to generate business object proxies, aswell as programming the core components of the DCOM Component Connector. Browsing the SAP R/3 Business Object Repository is demonstrated and working code samples of both inbound and outbound SAP R/3 operations are included. This book will demonstrate how to combine existing Visual Basic tools with the new extensibility tools, so that you can develop robust enterprise applications based on SAP R/3 from a non-SAP programming environment.

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Review:

Used for decades for enterprise distributed computing, SAP R/3 has a well-earned reputation for considerable power and difficulty. Recent new tools allow Visual Basic (VB) developers to work with SAP. Professional Visual Basic SAP R/3 Programming provides a useful glimpse into the world of SAP R/3, as well as some useful techniques for Windows programmers facing the world of SAP development for the first time.

While SAP R/3 runs many of the world's largest businesses, most VB programmers have probably only heard of it. (There are many reasons for this, including the high cost of SAP software and the relative lack of information and training in comparison to Windows tools.) The first reason to read this book is to get a feel for what SAP R/3 is and how it works. To this end, this book is filled with screen shots featuring the latest SAP tools for the Windows platform (such as the SAP Assistant 3.0 and the new browser-based DCOM Component Connector.) SAP's new tools offer several VB (OCX) controls that allow VB programmers to call SAP functionality from within Windows.

The rule of thumb for the aspiring VB SAP programmer is that you must dig into the world of SAP business objects and APIs to make calls in VB. In several examples here, the author provides custom code that wraps the functionality of the SAP controls (for logging on, calling BAPIs, and loading table data, for instance) to make it a lot easier to work with SAP. This book is excellent at showing both realities of using SAP and some specific advice for approaching the world of legacy enterprise development.

There's little doubt that to benefit from most of this book, the reader will need some additional information about SAP R/3. Yet for the potential VB SAP R/3 programmer or manager facing integration with a legacy SAP system, this book certainly fills an important and useful role with plenty of information and a strategy for making this difficult leap. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to SAP R/3, business objects and proxy components, BAPIs (parameters and help values), Remote Function Calls (RFCs), integrating SAP with Microsoft COM and Visual Basic, SAP Automation Toolkit, SAP Logon Control, SAP BAPI Control, SAP Table Factory Control, ADO, SAP Assistant 3.0 (Metadata Repository and Code Generator), SAP R/3 Business Object Repository Service, DCOM Component Connector (DCOM CC): basics, administrative, and builder functionality within VB.

From the Publisher:

A recent agreement between Microsoft and SAP makes Microsoft Visual Studio an acknowledged development environment for SAP R/3. SAP have recently developed, and made available as open download, a set of ActiveX controls designed to be used with Visual Basic to extend SAP R/3 and integrate it into existing Microsoft tools and applications. Microsoft Visual Basic is being promoted by SAP as a suitable language to implement this new technology.

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