SAP S/4HANA 2023 was released to the SAP customer base on October 11, 2023.
ABAP Platform 2023 is the technology platform underlying SAP S/4HANA 2023 and is shipped as part of SAP S/4HANA 2023. In addition, ABAP Platform 2023 is part of SAP S/4HANA Foundation 2023 for SAP HANA-only Add-Ons.
ABAP Platform 2023 is not shipped as a standalone product. ABAP Platform 2023 consists of the AS ABAP, the ABAP development tools for Eclipse and several additional technology components which are required to run SAP S/4HANA.
Previous SAP S/4HANA versions such as 1610, 1709, 1809, 1909, 2020, 2021 and 2022 can be upgraded directly to SAP S/4HANA 2023, which is based on ABAP Platform 2023 (corresponding to SAP_BASIS 758).
Future-proof ABAP extensibility for SAP S/4HANA is crucial for the success of SAP, and SAP customers and partners. It provides means for key-user extensibility, on-stack developer extensibility and side-by-side extensibility options using ABAP Cloud as development model. ABAP Cloud is SAP’s new development model for cloud-ready and upgrade-stable extensions targeting clean core for customer systems. ABAP Cloud is offered on SAP BTP and in all SAP S/4HANA editions: public and private cloud and on-premises. The ABAP Cloud supports the development of transactional (OLTP) and analytical (OLAP) apps and services, both sided with a strong support for data and application integration to complement the programming model requirements of today’s service-oriented environments. ABAP Cloud development can be carried out in SAP S/4HANA using local public APIs offered by the SAP S/4HANA applications and the underlying ABAP Platform, as well as remote APIs. ABAP Cloud comprises public SAP APIs and extension points, the cloud-optimized ABAP language, ABAP development tools for Eclipse, ABAP Core Data Services (CDS), and ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP).
ABAP Cloud is the SAP recommended development model for all new custom extensions in SAP S/4HANA 2023, whereby the classic ABAP extensibility can still be used.
ABAP Platform 2023 delivers innovations for the ABAP stack in different areas.
One of the other major investment areas in the ABAP Platform is the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) which is at the heart of ABAP Cloud for the development of transactional business apps and services.The ABAP Platform 2023 enhances the functional scope of RAP with the ability to model side effects in the behavior definition of a RAP Business Object (BO) - to trigger reloads of SAP Fiori elements UIs based on user input. Developers can model hierarchical data as read-only tree views in RAP based SAP Fiori elements-based applications using with CDS hierarchies. Business events modelled and raised in RAP BOs can be consumed locally by other applications and frameworks in SAP S/4HANA, in addition to the remote consumption via SAP Event Mesh on SAP BTP. SAP object types are provided to semantically relate and group RAP development artefacts. Thanks to the new background processing framework (bgPF), asynchronous processing can be triggered from RAP BOs without breaking the RAP logical unit of work (LUW). The easy integration of services from SAP Workflow Management on SAP BTP into RAP BOs enables the development of applications with workflow capabilities for process automation. RAP provides various options for the modification-free extension of business objects. Starting with release 2023, service definition objects can also be enabled for modification-free enhancement.
The SAP Fiori elements feature showcase app for RAP and ABAP CDS has been enhanced with capabilities around actions, actions parameters, front-end validations, quick views, and more. The app is available on GitHub and can be imported into the relevant system. A detailed guide is also provided on GitHub (see here).
ABAP analytics is in ABAP Cloud for building multidimensional analytical apps and services. ABAP CDS support the modeling of analytical star schemas. Queries can be defined on top of dimensions and cubes and exposed using business services.
Several enhancements have been made to ABAP CDS and ABAP SQL. For example, developers can define CDS simple and enumerated types that combine the main features of data elements and domains from the ABAP Dictionary. CDS scalar functions can be defined and used in CDS-based data models. A new cardinality syntax for associations and joins can be specified to improve the query performance in ABAP CDS and ABAP SQL. A new type of access rules is available for CDS projection views of type CDS transactional query.
The ABAP development tools for Eclipse deliver various enhancements for RAP, ABAP CDS, and ABAP for SAP HANA development for the ABAP Platform 2023. The BO context of the Relation Explorer was enhanced by a navigation to the base behavior definition. The RAP BO behavior (BDEF) extensions and abstract BDEFs can now be extended, BDEF extensions are now also shown in the Element Information popup. Beyond this, different migration capabilities for CDS and RAP are now supported: it is possible to migrate a CDS based BOPF BO to a RAP BO using the migration wizard and to migrate CDS DDIC-based views to CDS view entities. In the area of troubleshooting the ABAP Cross Trace can now display the record stack of a trace result. Over and above that, the ABAP development tools for Eclipse offer the new view Object Set Playground, which enables developers to create and combine object sets with the goal to perform different actions on the contained objects, such as running ABAP test cockpit checks or ABAP Unit tests. Developers can export their object sets for example to share them with colleagues. Other improvements were implemented in the management of transports, like for example it is now possible to configure tree hierarchy in the Transport Organizer view, view action logs and group ABAP objects in the transport by object type. The ABAP Object Search was reworked to offer more options for sorting and grouping search results and to support additional object types (for example behavior definitions). The new ABAP Memory (Debugger) View is delivered to investigate changes in the memory consumption of your ABAP application while debugging it.
Further enrichments are offered in the code analysis tools of ABAP Platform 2023. The Custom Code Migration App supports the custom code analysis for ABAP Cloud based on the information from the Cloudification Repository on GitHub, which provides the list of released local public APIs offered by the SAP S/4HANA business objects. If using remote ABAP test cockpit (ATC) the replication of exemptions from the ATC central check system to the checked systems is now supported. It is now also possible to display processing times by object and check of the ATC check runs.
Additional enhancements are provided in the connectivity, integration, and security areas, like for example advanced integration with SAP Event Mesh for the large projects where performance is crucial, local business event consumption, outbound SOAP enablement for ABAP Cloud, further features for OpenID Connect and option to regain access to AS ABAP client after having lost the credentials of all privileged users.
➡️This document will be updated. Stay tuned to get the latest ABAP Platform 2023 news.
Latest News
| October 11th, 2023: SAP S/4HANA 2023 based on ABAP Platform 2023 is generally available! |
At a Glance
- Foundation for SAP S/4HANA 2023, SAP HANA-only Add-Ons and custom applications
- SAP S/4HANA versions such as 1511, 1610, 1709, 1809, 1909, 2020, 2021 and 2022 can be upgraded to SAP S/4HANA 2023
- No standalone ABAP platform installation supported
- Supports only SAP HANA database with full exploitation of its advanced capabilities
- Continuous innovation without disruption
- Seamless end-to-end development experience in Eclipse
- One common ABAP extensibility for all SAP S/4HANA editions
- Fosters clean core with the ABAP Cloud development model
Product Highlights
Overview Presentation
This presentation provides the official slide deck, just click on it to view:
Useful Blogs, Community pages and Learnings
ABAP Community Topic Pages:
ABAP Development Community
ABAP Testing and Analysis Community
ABAP Extensibility Community
ABAP Connectivity Community
SAP BTP ABAP Environment Community
SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment Community
ABAP Cloud at SAP Events:
ABAP Cloud at SAP TechEd 2023
ABAP Cloud at Devtoberfest 2023
ABAP Cloud:
ABAP Cloud blog – May 2023 Update
ABAP Extensibility Guide
ABAP Cloud – What does it comprise?
Make use of ABAP Cloud support in the ABAP development tools for Eclipse (ADT)
How the ABAP test cockpit supports you to adopt ABAP Cloud
How to mitigate missing released SAP APIs | Mitigate missing released SAP API – Developer Tutorial
How to check your custom code for ABAP Cloud
ABAP Cloud FAQ
Training and Certification
Learning the Basics of ABAP Programming on SAP BTP
Acquire Core ABAP Skills
Practicing Clean Core Extensibility for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Become SAP Certified Associate – Back-End Developer - ABAP Cloud
Further blogs and topic pages:
State-of-the-Art ABAP Development with ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP)
ABAP Tools for Clean ABAP
Usage of ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) in the cloud for on-premise developments
How to report an incident for ABAP development tools for Eclipse
Consuming a SAP BTP service from an S/4HANA system using SM59 destination with OAuth
Consume services of an on-premise system securely from SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition or SAP BTP ...
Useful Links
Release Notes for ABAP Platform 2023
Documentation on SAP Help Portal
Product Availability Matrix (PAM)
The ABAP Platform Strategy
ABAP Platform Releases and Consumers
SAP Note 3346290 – ABAP Platform 2023 – General information
Previous landing pages
ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA 2022
ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA 2021
ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA 2020
ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA 1909
ABAP Platform for SAP S/4HANA 1809
SAP NetWeaver AS for ABAP 7.52
SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.50
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