Sapcommunity
Enabling document fragment links for headings in SAP Community blog posts
I came up with a bookmarklet to allow me to get hyperlinks for pointing to specific sections of blog posts on the SAP Community platform. I'm running the Developer Challenge this month and for that I...
Test drive Joule's generative AI features in SAP Build Code now!
TL;DR - SAP Build Code is GA, and for a limited time (1 month, starting now) you can test drive the generative AI features of Joule in SAP Build Code. Introduction This week, SAP Build Code is GA:...
SAP community memories
This year, SAP is celebrating 20 years of the web-based SAP Community platform. Happy anniversary! I thought I'd contribute to these celebrations with some memories of my own. Recently my good old...
Managing resources on SAP BTP - what tool do I choose?
There are myriad resources on the SAP Business Technology Platform, and different ways to manage them. In this post I outline a way to think about the different tools and when to use what. Update: The...
SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - new home for configuration
Be informed about updates to where the btp CLI configuration is stored by default. This post relates directly to the SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI -- managing configuration post, and provides a brief update...
Getting BTP resource GUIDs with the btp CLI – part 2 - JSON and jq
In this second part of a 2-part blog post series on getting BTP resource GUIDs with the btp CLI, we look at how the CLI supports JSON output, why it's a good choice, and how to parse that. If you...
Getting BTP resource GUIDs with the btp CLI - part 1
Learn how to use the btp CLI to determine resource GUIDs in your global account. This post is part 1, covering the bgu mechanism. Update: the second blog post in this series is now also...
UTFRW - Unofficial TechEd Fun Run / Walk / Roll - Share Your Pics!
Roll, walk or run a 5K distance during this SAP TechEd week (Nov 15-19) and share a picture with us here! Read more in this blog post: Unofficial Fun Run / Walk / Roll for SAP TechEd 2021 Cheers! Phil...
SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - autocompletion
Get the btp CLI to help you with command autocompletion. This is a follow-on post from the previous one: SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - managing configuration and starts where we left off there, with you...
SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - managing configuration
Understand and manage the btp CLI client configuration. 🚨 Update: See SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - new home for configuration for new information. This is a follow-on post from the previous one: SAP...
SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI – logging in
Start exploring with the btp CLI by logging in, then finding and selecting a subaccount for subsequent activities. This is a follow-on post from the previous one: SAP Tech Bytes -...
SAP Tech Bytes: btp CLI - installation
Install the btp CLI to be ready to start exploring its features and functions. The SAP BTP Command Line Interface (aka btp CLI) is a great tool for administering accounts and related resources on the...
SAP Tech Bytes: Exploring SAP-samples with gh and fzf
Discover repositories that might be useful for you by exploring them from the command line with a couple of powerful tools. The SAP-samples organisation on GitHub contains many repositories with...
SAP TechEd Developer Keynote - Info Central
All the information about the SAP TechEd 2020 Developer Keynote and related resources, in a single place for you. The Developer Keynote, put together by the SAP Developer Advocates, was shown at SAP...
SAP Tech Bytes: Approuter User API Service
Use a simple example to kick the tyres of the new User API Service available in the @sap/approuter NPM package. In the SAP Developer News episode for calendar week 04, there was an item covering...
From Classics to Developer Advocate
Here's my story of how I went from reading Classics at university to becoming a Developer Advocate at SAP. Timo Elliott asked me earlier this week in a Twitter thread about how I went from doing a...
Updating your fork of the Developer Keynote repository
If you've forked the SAP TechEd Developer Keynote repository on GitHub recently, there have been some additions and improvements. This post shows you how you can update your fork so that it contains...
SAP TechEd 2020 Channel 1 at home
I'll be watching all the Channel 1 content as it happens from the comfort of my TV - as well as interacting with individual sessions on my computer. Here's how. Next week's SAP TechEd is almost upon...
UTFRW - Unofficial TechEd Fun Run / Walk
Let's get together virtually over the course of the SAP TechEd 2020 virtual event and share our 5K walking or running experiences. This year SAP TechEd is global and virtual - and free! I'm...
SAP TechEd Developer Keynote DK100 - The Story
We got together to build a Developer Keynote for TechEd for you; this post gives you some context on what you'll see, and, following the keynote, will contain all the links you need. Update 10 Dec...
My SAP TechEd 2020 - what I'm looking forward to
SAP TechEd 2020 is fast approaching, and in many ways it will be a different experience for all of us. Then again, there's one thing that will remain - and that's the dedication of those folks...
An overview of SAP Developers video content
There's a wealth of video content for SAP developers on the SAP Developers YouTube channel. Find out what it is, and how to navigate it. Back in January 2019, our live streaming journey started over...
Programmer's Day Mission 2020
Learn about Programmer's Day and how you can take part in a fun conversation that will earn you a special mission badge here on the SAP Community. Update Fri 11 Sep 06:20: The mission is live! Head...
SAP NPM packages now on npmjs.org
This post tells you what you need to know - and do - about the recent migration of SAP Node.js packages to the default registry at npmjs.org. 🚨See the Updates section for an important...
SAP Community Coding Challenge 2 - Finalists
This is the voting thread for the SAP Community Coding Challenge 2. For more information, please see the following material: - SAP Community Coding Challenge Nr.2 - the challenge description - SAP...
SAP Community Coding Challenge 2 - Contestants
Here's a list of the SAP Community Coding Challenge 2 contestants who were successful in their submissions. Congratulations to them all! Following the update blog post and the live stream last week...
SAP Community Coding Challenge 2 - Update
Here's a quick summary of where things are with the current SAP Community Coding Challenge, and what's to come. (The contestants and their successful submissions have now been listed in "SAP...
Terminal Tip: a CF remote monitor script
In the previous terminal tip (remotely monitor a CF deployment) we saw the building blocks of how we might go about finding and then remotely monitoring an ongoing multi-target application...
SAP Community Coding Challenge Nr.2
Welcome to the second challenge in the SAP Community Coding Challenge Series. Just like the first challenge, we have a puzzle for you to solve. Again, something fun and simple enough to solve in a...
Terminal Tip: remotely monitor a CF deployment
In today's HandsOnSAPDev live stream, Ep.65, we built the SAP Cloud Platform Workflow sample application MTA in the SAP Web IDE, and deployed it to our Cloud Foundry (CF) space from there too. We...
Terminal Tip: switching CF targets
Working with Cloud Foundry (CF) from the command line, I use the cf CLI a lot. As you perhaps may know already, due to the use of Multi Target Applications (multiapps, or MTAs) in the SAP Cloud...
Terminal Tip: parsing CF app logs
Further to my last Terminal Tip on truncating CF output I have another terminal tip for you that might help in the context of reading log output from Cloud Foundry (CF) apps. Application logging...
Terminal Tip: truncating CF output
I am a big fan of the terminal, and it's my preferred work environment for many reasons. I use the Cloud Foundry CLI cf frequently in my work on the SAP Cloud Platform but the output options are...
Mini adventures with MTAs and the Cloud Foundry CLI
A few more small adventures using the cf command line client, as well as some shell pipeline goodness and that nifty tip from Marius Obert about radically reducing the size of your deployment...
Scripting Cloud Foundry activities in trial
In this post I share a simple script that I use to recreate my Business Rules environment in the Cloud Foundry environment of my SAP Cloud Platform trial account. Scripting and the CLI in general is...
My learning list for 2020
Turning the page into a new year is often useful to reflect on the previous period and look forward to the next one. I usually don't set hard and fast "new year resolutions" but like some of...
Help us to help you - good questions beget good answers
Composing good questions is important and will help your fellow community members answer them more easily. This post suggests some key aspects of a good question, and also gives some tips on how...
Mission 'Use CAP and SAP Cloud SDK to Extend S/4HANA' - an overview
This post serves to outline what you can build in the "Use CAP and SAP Cloud SDK to Extend S/4HANA" mission created for SAP TechEd 2019. Update Feb 2021: This mission has now been retired as...
CAP is important because it's not important
In this post, I consider what CAP really is, what it gives us, and why we should consider it a fundamental piece of the puzzle in the cloud context and beyond. Update (08 Nov): This blog post is...
Submit suggestions for Tech Aloud during SAP TechEd 2019
Learn how you can submit suggestions for content to be included in the Tech Aloud podcast. The Tech Aloud podcast is relatively new, and consists of blog posts & articles read aloud for you to...
Tech Aloud podcast - an introduction
I started a new podcast called Tech Aloud, where I read aloud blog posts and articles so you can consume them on the go. There's no specific theme to the episodes I've published so far ... or...
Happy Programmers Day!
Today is Programmers Day, and I take a moment to reflect on a couple of folks who have inspired me in my growth as a programmer. Happy Programmers Day! Today is the 256th day of the calendar year, and...
Computed field example in CAP
In this post, I show one way of using computed properties in CAP, using CDS and service events in Node.js. Over in the CAP section of the Community Q&A, Pierre Dominique asked an interesting...
Double SAP CodeJam Athens - a report
Last week I travelled to Athens to give not one but two SAP CodeJams. It was exhausting but very rewarding. Read on to find out how it went. As you may already know, my colleagues Max Streifeneder and...
Revisiting UI5 on CodeTalk
A few days ago Marius Obert and I took part in an SAP CodeTalk session with host Ian Thain, where we revisited the subject of UI5 - SAP CodeTalk - SAPUI5 Update. We decided it might be useful to write...
Monday morning thoughts: looking back and forwards
In this post, I look back on the posts in this series, reflect upon the journey we've made, and think about what 2019 might hold for us. The holiday season is pretty much upon us, and for many it's a...
Monday morning thoughts: digging deeper
In this post, I think about the tools we use in our day-to-day activities, the feeling I have that I'm just scratching the surface with regards to their capabilities, and what I plan to do about it...
Monday morning thoughts: indirect influence
In this post, I think about how our work can directly and even indirectly influence those that come after us, and about what this means for how we should act. Last week's I attended SAP TechEd 2018 in...
Monday morning thoughts: learning media and mechanisms
In this post, I think about the different ways I learn, and wonder how that translates to how we learn in the SAP developer ecosphere. This will be a shorter post than usual*, as I've just arrived at...
Monday morning thoughts: rethinking like the web
In this post, I revisit some principles that help us "think like the web" and think about them in the context of today's SAP technology landscape and community. Last week I watched someone I...
Monday morning thoughts: longevity and loose coupling
In this post, I think about the importance of core technologies, and how the arrival of functions-as-a-service might be merely the next incarnation of an idea that's existed for a while. This weekend...
Monday morning thoughts: on starting blogging
In this post, I think about what it is that made me start blogging, and about the reasons to start blogging that might resonate with you, if you've not yet made that step. Deep down I'm a shy person....
Monday morning thoughts: exploring reuse
In this post, I think about reuse and extension, in the context of the Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform, and mindful of Björn Goerke's SAP TechEd 2018 keynote message in Barcelona...
Monday morning thoughts: dynamic language
In this post, I think about a particular function definition in JavaScript, and how it represents beauty and practicality in equal measure. On Friday evening, I tweeted: Heading to the woodstore with...
Set up VS Code on Chrome OS for local Application Programming Model development
In this post I walk through the process I used to set up a development environment for CAP on my Chromebook. (See the Updates section end of this post for a couple of notes on things that have changed...
Monday morning thoughts: big school and community
In this post, I think about my experience going from primary school to secondary school - "big school", how that parallels our collective move from on-prem to the cloud, and how the...
SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - start here
Note: While this blog post was originally published in 2018, it's been updated for 2020 and now also for 2021 thanks to great help and input from the excellent Iwona Hahn. Take a few mins to have a...
Monday morning thoughts: more on ABAP in the cloud
In this post, following my previous post on the subject, I think a bit more about the SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment, inspired by the conversations around the subject at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas...
Monday morning thoughts: impostor syndrome
In this post I think about the impostor syndrome, how it relates to me, and one of the possible causes. I'm in Las Vegas for the first SAP TechEd event of 2018 which starts in earnest tomorrow. Last...
Monday morning thoughts: growth is upwards
In this post, I think about how we grow, how we improve ourselves by adding to our knowledge and experience, and consider that our growth is sometimes uphill but almost always rewarding. I live to the...
Monday morning thoughts: Workflow Forms and the definition of a developer
In this post, I think briefly about the definition of a developer, and in that context look at the advent of Workflow Forms, a major new addition to the functionality of the Workflow service on SAP...
Monday morning thoughts: ABAP in the cloud
In this post, I think about the new SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment, what it is, what it isn't, and why I think it's a great move. A day or two ago this tweet appeared in my timeline, and it made...
Monday morning thoughts: considering GraphQL
In this post, I think about GraphQL, and its relationship with existing ideas for managing data and structured exposure to that data over a wire protocol. Update: This post is now available in audio...
Monday morning thoughts: a good blog post
In this post, I think about what makes a good blog post, and also what writing such a post does for the author, too. It's a bank holiday Monday today in England, and so of course it's raining*. I...
Monday morning thoughts: OData
In this post, I think about OData, in particular where it came from and why it looks and acts like it does. I also consider why I think it was a good protocol for an organisation like SAP to...
Monday morning thoughts: the cloud is the computer
In this post, I think about what the future of programming in an enterprise environment might look like, and realise that it makes sense to consider that the cloud itself is the new computer. Sun...
Monday morning thoughts: mainframes and message documentation
In this post, I think about mainframes and a message documentation aspect from the mainframe world that, while originally proprietary, is a big plus for operators and developers alike and something...
Monday morning thoughts: local http servers and containerisation
In this post, I look back on an idea surfaced by a hero of mine, and think about how that idea laid the path for today's containerisation initiatives. One of the periodicals I eagerly anticipated and...
Monday morning thoughts: what not how
In this post, I think about how we program, about the way we describe what it is that we want the computer to do for us, and look at what has become for me the canonical example of the difference...
Monday morning thoughts: abstraction
In this post, I think about abstraction, the power and facility it affords, and consider CDS as one example of a modern abstraction language. Last week I was chatting to some old friends. One of them...
Monday morning thoughts: curiosity and understanding
In this post, I think about how curiosity can lead to a better understanding of things, and give a specific example concerning CDS and the new Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform. On...
Monday morning thoughts: developers and advocacy
In this post, I think about what it means to me to be a part of the Developer Relations team, and talk a bit about evangelism, outreach and advocacy. It's been just over four months since I joined...
Monday morning thoughts: programming models
In this post, I think about the idea of the programming model and consider the occurrence of such over the recent years in the SAP development ecosphere. Update (same day): I interviewed Rui Nogueira...
Interview with Rui Nogueira on the new Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform
In this post you'll find a transcript of an interview between me and Rui Nogueira on the new Application Programming Model for SAP Cloud Platform. There's also a link to the audio version, available...
Monday morning thoughts: community engagement
In this post, I think about some of the basic ingredients of a good online community, and describe what I'm going to try to do to engage more with the SAP Community. I was re-listening to a great...
Monday morning thoughts: Core Data Services
In this post, I think about what Core Data Services (CDS) is, what it does, and why we should make it a priority to learn more about. Earlier this morning, while following a tutorial, I came across...
Monday morning thoughts: the learning continuum
In this post I contemplate the idea of the learning continuum, and think about the fact that we're all learning together, which is a good thing. On a run last week I listened to an episode of Scott...
Monday morning thoughts: programmers and identity
In this post, I look at how some programmers identify strongly with a particular language, consider the meanings of 'programmer', 'coder' and 'developer', and what it means for us as the SAP...
The Business Rules service - overview and getting started
The Business Rules service is available on the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and is categorised within the "Integration" section, along with other services such as the Workflow service, and in...
Monday morning thoughts: milestones
In this post, I look back at changes and developments that I consider milestones in SAP's technology history, and muse on some of the developments today that we'll consider milestones in the...
Monday morning thoughts: functions - what functions?
In this post, I think about the concept of functions-as-a-service, what it means, and what it's good for. Serverless, cloud functions, functions-as-a-service. Three terms that we're hearing more and...
Monday morning thoughts: containers and silence
In this post I think about the silence of workstations and what that represents to me, and the new ability to look at maintaining software and services in a completely different way - via...
Monday morning thoughts: editors and editing
In this post I look at how the editor environments that we come across in our daily work are different, and, as those differences might grow and expand as we become cloud native, how we bridge the...
Monday morning thoughts: debugging approach and Greasemonkey revival
In the inaugural episode of the new Community Podcast we touched on how interesting it can be to find out about other people's programming setups, even down to the actual screens and keyboards they...
Monday morning thoughts: upload / download in a cloud native world
This weekend I was exploring some Cloud Foundry features on the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and came across a pattern that is pretty much everywhere - not only within the SAP space but far beyond too. It...
Monday morning thoughts: a cloud native smell
Continuing on from my earlier random thoughts about what cloud native means to me, I was musing this morning on the nature of the web, and specifically URIs - or rather their specialisation that we...
Introduction to SAP Cloud Platform Workflow - Summary
Yesterday I gave a webcast for ASUG entitled "Introduction to SAP Cloud Platform Workflow". This is a short post that pulls together all the resources related to that webcast. The SAP Cloud...
Monday morning thoughts: cloud native
This weekend I discovered that one of my favourite online REPLs* - repl.it - has a new feature where you can build and publish a website on a repl.it subdomain: *REPL: Read Evaluate Print Loop - an...
Understanding SAP Fiori Webinar - The Director's Cut
Yesterday Brenton O'Callaghan and I hosted a public webinar "Understanding SAP Fiori", which was well attended and also a lot of fun to do. There was never going to be enough time to cover...
SAP Developer Advisory Board - Your Input!
Gregor Wolf and I are attending the SAP Developer Advisory Board meeting on Tue 22 Apr 2014. We'd like to ask you, as members of the general SAP Developer Community, for your thoughts. There isn't a...
Small steps - OpenUI5 toolkit now in jsbin.com
In our continued efforts to spread the word of SAPUI5 in general and OpenUI5 in particular, we try to make small steps forward. Here's some quick news about a small step forward with respect to...
Reaching Out
As a technology company SAP is over 4 decades old. Over that time it's innovated at a tremendous pace, and along the way it has abstracted, invented and reinvented technologies like no other company I...
Mocking up the Payroll Control Center Fiori App
Following on from a great debate about Fiori and Freeori that stemmed from a post by John Appleby there were some comments about HCM app renewals. Latterly John Moy pointed out a post Improve payroll...
Public SAP Mentor Monday 24 Mar 2014 - UI5 with Andreas Kunz
On Monday 24 March 2014 we will have a public SAP Mentor Monday session on the subject of UI5. UPDATE 25/03/2014: Links to the recording and items mentioned in this session are available. For those of...
XML Views and Resource Bundle Declarations
Just a quick post on the train on the way down to London this morning. The other day, Andreas Kunz pointed to an overview of the MVC options which contains very detailed information - an interesting...
UI5 XML Views - Another Example
I've been diving into UI5 XML views and sharing the love recently - see Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - XML Views - An Intro (as part of Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - Intro), and the XML view...
Help Us To Help You - Share Your Code
Yesterday I tweeted: "We should encourage folk to post full Gists with their #UI5 issues, for easier debugging and analysis (http://scn.sap.com/message/14665116). Agree?". So I decided to...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - XML Views - An Analysis
I rewrote the mobile dev course sample app from W3U3. Then I created a new branch 'xmlviews' in the repo on Github and rebuilt the views in XML. I then took a first look at XML views in general. Now...
Custom Sorting and Grouping
Learn how to control the order of groups in a sorted list. You don't do it directly with the grouper function, you do it with the sorter function. One of the features of the app that the participants...
CodeTalk - SAPUI5 and SAP Fiori
Yesterday I was honoured to be a guest on Ian Thain's CodeTalk series of video interviews. The subject was SAPUI5 and SAP Fiori, and the published interview is split over two videos on YouTube. Here's...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - XML Views - An Intro
I rewrote the mobile dev course sample app from W3U3. Then I created a new branch 'xmlviews' in the repo on Github and rebuilt the views in XML (they were originally in JavaScript). This post talks...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - ProductList, ProductDetail and SupplierDetail
I rewrote the mobile dev course sample app from W3U3. This post explains what I changed in the ProductList, ProductDetail and SupplierDetail views / controllers. See the links at the bottom of the...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - App and Login
I rewrote the mobile dev course sample app from W3U3. This post explains what I changed in the App and Login views / controllers. See the links at the bottom of the opening post to get to explanations...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - Index and Structure
I rewrote the mobile dev course sample app from W3U3. This post explains what I changed in the index.html file, and why. It also takes a look at the general app structure of directories and...
Mobile Dev Course W3U3 Rewrite - Intro
tl;dr - the Github repo "w3u3_redonebasic" is a simple re-write of one of the open.sap.com mobile course sample SAPUI5 apps to fix some fundamental issues. In the current open.sap.com course...
Building SAP Fiori-like UIs with SAPUI5
SAP TechEd 2013 is fast approaching, and the excitement is building. Interested in SAPUI5 (you're reading this blog post in the SAPUI5 Developer Center space on SCN already!), you're looking to see...
An Amazing 36 Hours at SAP Labs Israel
I'm sitting in TLV airport waiting for my flight back to MAN via FRA. I've just spent a whirlwind 36 hours, more or less, in an amazing developer engine also known as SAP Labs Israel. Before I start...
Engaging the Next Generation
As many of you might know (from my #YRS2013 tweets this month), I was involved again in Young Rewired State, an initiative that gathers kids all around the country, gives them a week-long opportunity...
Happy Birthday SCN, Old Friend
Happy Birthday, SAP Community Network, or, to give it it's original name (which gives you a clue to its origins) the SAP Developer Network - SDN. Finding myself sending birthday greetings to an...
Simple SAPUI5 Chrome icon for lazy developers like me
I created a Chrome “hosted app” manifest to get a large start page icon with which I could navigate directly to this excellent content resource. Now I can get to my favourite area on SCN in even less...
Public Github repo sapui5bin available
Recently I've found myself making references to a small but growing collection of runnable SAPUI5 snippets that I've been collecting together, called "sapui5bin". It started from early...
Jump to Shell Workset Item from URL
During SAP TechEd 2012 I attended CD163 "SAP HANA - Application Services Basics" which really helped firm up my knowledge of XS, thanks to the great presentation and exercises. What was...
OData Everywhere
We're well into Day 1 at SAP TechEd 2012 in Madrid, and while SAP NetWeaver Gateway has already been mentioned in this morning's keynote (even though the keynote was more Sapphire-focused than...
Blog It Forward - DJ Adams
Well hello there. I guess if you're reading this you know already about the great Blog It Forward initiative here on SCN. I've been nominated by the great (Austrian!) Matthias Steiner on his BIF post,...
SAPUI5 says "Hello OData" to NetWeaver Gateway
So following a very interesting podcast from Rui Nogueira with SAP's Michael Falk and Tim Back on the HTML5-based UI Toolkit for SAP NetWeaver Gateway (aka "SAPUI5") earlier this month, a...
Making OData from SAP accessible with the ICM's help
I'm totally enamoured by the power and potential of SAP's NetWeaver Gateway, and all it has to offer with its REST-informed data-centric consumption model. One of the tools I've been looking at in...
REpresentational State Transfer (REST) and SAP
REST (which stands for REpresentational State Transfer) is an architectural style that is informed to a large extent by, but theoretically not limited to, the HTTP application protocol (yes,...
Tech Skills Chat with JonERP - A Follow-on Story
Sitting in a traffic jam on the A34 this week, twice, I got the opportunity to catch up with the excellent Enterprise Geeks podcasts. In one particular TechEd Phoenix episode "Tech Skills Chat...
REST orientation - Controlling access to resources
Background Using my new REST handler / dispatcher for the ICF, I can adopt a Resource Orientated Architecture (ROA) approach to integration. This gives me huge advantages, in that I can avoid...
A new REST handler / dispatcher for the ICF
One of the best underlying mechanisms to be introduced into the Basis / NetWeaver stack in the past few years is the Internet Communication Framework (ICF), which is a collection of configuration,...
SAP and Google Wave - Conversation Augmentation
It's been pretty much six years to the day since I last wrote here about Dashboard, Nat Friedman's project and implementation of a realtime contextual information system. So I thought it fitting to...
Book review - SAP Business ONE Implementation
A short while ago I was sent a review copy of “SAP Business ONE Implementation”, by Wolfgang Niefert, published by Packt Publishing. On receipt, I skimmed through it, and my first impressions were...
One way of dealing with blogtheft from SDN - through images
I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent #blogtheft issue – where some rogue has been lifting content lock stock and barrel from here and reproducing it – sans author name – on their website...
A return to the SDN community, and a touch of Javascript
A few days ago, Mark Yolton pointed out to me that this Friday, 30th May will mark 6 years since my first SDN blog post “The SAP/MySQL Partnership“, in SDN’s first month. My oh my, how things have...
OssNoteFix script updated for Greasemonkey 0.6.4 and Firefox 1.5
Last year, I got so frustrated at the pain of using the SAP Service Marketplace, and particularly OSS notes, that I got up and did something about it – I wrote ‘OssNoteFix’, a Greasemonkey script...
SAP and Open Source - an analysis and letter to SAP and Shai
Well this has certainly been an interesting few days in the intersecting worlds of SAP and Open Source. There’s been a lot of comment and discussion already, but having listened to the whole Churchill...
The SAP developer community 10 years ago
Yesterday Alan pointed us (Whopping big collection of tips for developing workflows) to a collection of tips on developing workflows, hosted by MIT, on a mailing list called ‘SAP-WUG’. I guessed that...
Hacking the SAP service portal to make OSS notes better
Ahh, OSS notes - a topic close to my heart: Improving the OSS note experience FOSDEM, and small OSS Notes Browser Hack The OSS Notes Experience The other day I decided to stop going on about how...
SDN Meets Labs gets underway at SAP University
The SDN Meets Labs at Walldorf-Rot gets underway at Walldorf-Rot. I’ve written a post on my weblog that I uploaded during the Keynote by Klaus Kreplin and Ivo Totev (Ivo’s just telling us about visual...
(Mini) Installfest in the SDN clubhouse at TechEd
Piers and I got hold of the latest WAS 6.40 demo system (NW4) from the LinuxLab guys’ stand here at SAP TechEd. It contains ABAP service pack 3 and Java/J2EE service pack 7. Since I had my small...
Photos from SAP TechEd Munich
(The third weblog in two days … what’s going on? Well, Mark is a hard taskmaster, obviously 🙂) There’s a group photo pool on Flickr for SAP TechEd this year; I’ve just uploaded a load of photos (of...
The meaning of LIFETIME_RC
Last week, during some preparation for my talk at TechEd on Thursday this week, I’d been wondering about something in the ICF that hadn’t seemed quite right. Interface IF_HTTP_EXTENSION, which is what...
SAP TechEd first day - notes from Munich
Well, after a nightmare getting here (V-Bird, the airline I was booked with, went bust) I’m now in Munich at a decidedly disconnected TechEd 04 (more on the disconnected misery later). After...
SAP TechEd here I come ... with session slides!
SAP TechEd is looming large, and this year it's in Munich. (If you’re not in Europe, then SAP are holding TechEd events in Bangalore, Tokyo, and San Diego too). I went last year (in Basel), and was...
A little taste of SAP at EuroFoo
I’m in Enschede (Netherlands) this weekend for EuroFoo – a mini-conference get-together for hackers and geeks of different persuasions. It’s a great mix of ideas, skills, and energy, where the talks...
SDN Meetup in Walldorf - a summary
Well, 24 hours (almost to the minute) have passed since I got off the train at Wiesloch-Walldorf station yesterday. I’ve just got on the train again to go home. Yesterday was quite a day. There was a...
SDN Meetup in Walldorf - pictures
I arrived in Walldorf this morning and was met and looked after very well by Mark. I’ve just taken some pictures with my trusty mobile phone and posted them on the web. There’s lots of great...
TechEd talk winners - congrats
Congratulations to the three TechEd talk winners Luke, Jayakumar and Andreas. The winning talks look really good – I’m looking forward to hearing them. It’s interesting that two of the three are BW...
Forget SOAP - build real web services with the ICF
I don’t like getting into a lather when it comes to data and function integration. Rather than using SOAP, I prefer real web services, built with HTTP. As an example of taking the RESTian approach to...
Real Web Services with REST and ICF
This was a piece I wrote in 2004 as part of a set of articles I contributed to the early SAP Developer Network. Back then the content was published behind a login wall; plus, unfortunately, during an...
NW4, OSS1 and logon group selection for OSS
While waiting for the DD ACTIVATION phase of an add-on installation to finish, my mind wandered off to something I’d noticed with my new WAS 6.40 testdrive for Linux is here! system, with the SID...
SAP at JAX 2004
My friend Matthew Langham reports on SAP at JAX 2004 in Frankfurt (Matthew is giving a total of three sessions at JAX). It’s not that SAP hasn’t had a presence at other non-SAP events before now; it’s...
WAS 6.40 testdrive for Linux is here!
Phew. What a day yesterday at the world’s biggest IT fair. I arrived by train and joined the masses along the CeBIT skywalk to enter Aladdin's cave. I made a beeline for the main SAP area in Hall 4,...
Successful installation of EP plugin into testdrive WAS 6.10 system
I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen, my favourite place. Everything I need is there - ingredients, oven, Radio 4, a Cat5 network port, and my laptop. At work, we've recently started looking at...
FOSDEM, and small OSS Notes Browser Hack
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Brussels for FOSDEM - the Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting. Some people might wonder what this has to do with SAP, but don't forget that lots of people...
Evaluation WAS 6.40 on Linux - top reason for attending CeBIT 2004
Ahh, it’s always great to be able to attend the world’s biggest ICT (information and communication technology) fair – CeBIT. And of course being an SAP hacker, it goes without saying that a visit to...
Food for thought - LDBs and ABAP Objects
During part of this week I've been fighting with an old adversary, output determination. In the fracas, I spent some time inside RSNAST00 (the selection program for issuing output) and couldn't help...
BSP - Mangled URL Decoder
The BSP mangles URLs. Deep down. In BSP In-Depth: URL Mangling, Brian McKellar did a splendid job of both feeding hunger for information and increasing one’s appetite. He mentioned the BSP application...
SAP TechEd - Collaborative notes
I’m off to SAP TechEd this week in Basel. Fantastic. It was a bit of a bumpy start – the online-registration process was a bit of a shambles, and I had to ring up to complete the transaction as the...
Dashboard as extension to R/3 and SAPGUI client
How do your users work with SAP data? Exclusively through SAPGUI or with other desktop apps too? If it’s the latter, read on. Dashboard is an intriguing project headed up by Nat Friedman. The concept...
Improving the OSS note experience
I remember the time when OSS was a fledgling service, and it ran on an R/2 system in Walldorf. You accessed it via the R/2 SAPGUI just as any other R/2 system. It was great, and the volume of notes...
SAP InfoTag on Web Application Server
SAP are running an Infotag on the Web Application Server in early September. It’s in Ratingen (Duesseldorf), just around the corner – literally, in fact – from where I used to hack on R/2 at...
SAP talk at OSCON, and RSS
We got a pretty good attendance at our talk on SAP R/3 at OSCON this year. We had people who were using R/3 in a corporate environment already, and people who were just curious about the famous ERP...
SAP and Open Source BOF at OSCON
If you’re at OSCON or around the Portland area this Wednesday (9th July), come along to the SAP and Open Source BOF to chat with SAP and Open Source hackers about where the crossovers between the two...
SAP stuff at OSCON
My partner-in-(code)-crime Piers Harding and I are speaking at this year’s OSCON (Open Source Convention). What can the desperate open source hacker do in and around R/3? Plenty! If you’re going to...
The SAP/MySQL Partnership
I keep hearing reports that the recent announcement of cooperation between SAP AG and MySQL AB has been making the community unhappy. What’s the deal? I don’t understand what’s not to like here. SAP...