This blog post is a collection of links to material on SAP S/4HANA Extensibility, grouped by topic.
This blog post is organized in 6 sections:
This blog post was completely rewritten on October 2022 to reflect the release of the developer extensibility (“SAP S/4HANA Cloud Environment”, or “Embedded Steampunk”). In June 2023 I added the aspects of "ABAP Cloud". In 2024, I changed the title of the blog (I removed the term “Learning Journey”, because this is used by official SAP learning materials) and included topics such as SAP Build and SAP Build Code.
As a small disclaimer, I want to point out, that this blog post focused on the ABAP-based extensibility options. This is because ABAP is in my comfort zone, and I want to leave the topics of the other extensibility options on SAP BTP to the experts in this domain.
Please note that this is collection of links to specific documents and resources. Please do not ask questions in the comments section of this document but refer to the specific documents or the community and ask your questions on specific extension tasks and tools there!
As a first step, get a basic understanding of the extensibility concept for SAP S/4HANA.
The basic buildings blocks of the extensibility concept are:
To understand the extensibility concept, I recommend:
The whitepapers include also the recommendation when to use which extensibility option.
ABAP Cloud is the ABAP development model to build cloud-ready business apps, services, and extensions. It covers developer and key user extensibility with SAP BTP and SAP S/4HANA and works with public cloud, private cloud, and on-premise.
To understand ABAP Cloud, read the blogs of my colleagues, namely ABAP Cloud and ABAP Cloud – What Does It Comprise? for a starting point.
The SAP Application Extension Methodology provides methodology for assessing customer extension use cases and defining an extension target solution in a structured and formalized way. It provides a structured, technology-agnostic approach for customers and partners to define an organization-specific extension strategy. It covers challenges like ‘clean core’, ‘cloud readiness’, and ‘future proof’.
Knowledge sources:
In the following sections, I provide additional links with specific documents from these knowledge sources:
The key user extensibility tools are a major pillar of the extensibility concept of SAP S/4HANA. They are designed for the cloud, but also made available in the on-premise / private cloud edition.
Key User Extensibility is available
In my blogs I introduce the key user extensibility tools:
Laying back for a moment, you might enjoy some videos to get a visual impression on extensibility look and feel:
Schneider, Thomas; Wolf, Werner: Erweiterungen für SAP S/4HANA (in German) SAP PRESS 2018. (in German): https://www.rheinwerk-verlag.de/erweiterungen-fur-sap-s4hana_4613/
Before you start developing, it might be helpful to have a look into the documentation (Note: Language and Version of the documentation can be selected in the right upper corner of the screen.):
Now, you want to create some in-app extensions.
Sample Scenarios: The SAP Extensibility Explorer for SAP S/4HANA Cloud shows many real-life sample scenarios (for in-app extensibility and for side-by-side extensibility) written by application experts.
Tutorials:
Additional tutorials, tutorial-like blogs, some of which I want to mention here:
As mentioned, the key user extensibility tools are designed for the cloud, but also made available in the OP/PCE edition. However, there are some differences between public cloud and OP/PCE:
As a consequence, key user tools work differently in some areas (e.g. in OData-Publishing and UI) or are not available in OP/PCE at all (key user tools IAM/COM). Please refer to the documentation for public cloud and OP/PCE. For UI creation for custom business object, refer to the following article: Create a custom SAP Fiori App for a Custom Busines... - SAP Community
Developer extensibility (aka SAP S/4HANA Cloud Environment or “Embedded Steampunk”) was introduced with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2208 and SAP S/4HANA (OP/PCE) 2022.
The following blogs give and overview on the new developer extensibility in the context of the different environments:
The Learning Journey Build an SAP Fiori App Using the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model [RAP100] provides concrete examples you can implement.
The SAP Community SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment | SAP Community provides a Product Overview, but also Hands-On Experience tutorial and a Q&A forum on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Environment.
On the SAP Extensibility Explorer for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can find examples for developer extensibility, e.g.
And there are some blogs:
The main difference between Public Cloud and On-Premise/PCE is that in Public Cloud the ABAP Cloud is mandatory. Classic extensibility is not available.
But, there are some additional differences between public cloud and OP/PCE:
As a consequence, tools work differently in some areas (e.g. in OData-Publishing and UI) or are not available in OP/PCE at all (e.g. ADT editors for Cloud IAM/COM). Please refer to the documentation for public cloud and OP/PCE.
Classical extensibility (aka classic ABAP custom development) is available in SAP S/4HANA (OP/PCE). It refers to SAP's classic custom ABAP development model that you as customer or partner can use to extend ABAP-based on-premise SAP solutions.
3-Tier Model
The 3-tier model is the way modern ABAP Cloud development is brought to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition and SAP S/4HANA. It allows you to separate between extensions that follow the cloud extensibility model (tier 1), the tier 2 as Cloud API Enablement layer, and tier 3, which contains existing custom code or legacy developments using classic extensibility techniques.
Since 2018, ABAP as a programming language together with the rock-solid ABAP server is available on SAP BTP (SAP BTP ABAP Environment).
The following blogs provide an overview on SAP BTP ABAP Environment:
The official product page SAP BTP, ABAP environment shows information on features, pricing, and resources.
You can find the tutorials and other material on SAP BTP ABAP Environment in the Learning journey for SAP BTP ABAP Environment (https://help.sap.com/learning-journeys/49047e7668844d419ccee567923a475e) and in the tutorial navigator Tutorials for SAP Developers for SAP BTP ABAP Environment.
As mentioned before, this blog post is focused on the ABAP-based extensibility options. This is because ABAP is in my comfort zone, and I want to leave the topics of the other extensibility options on SAP BTP to the experts in this domain.
SAP Build
SAP Build Code:
SAP Cloud SDK: For Java and Node.JS, the SAP Cloud SDK (fka SAP S/4HANA Cloud Extension SDK) supports you with libraries and an SDK that makes it easy to consume the APIs and events and achieve Cloud qualities for your applications.
Herzig, Philipp; Heitkötter, Henning; Wozniak, Sander; Argawal, Akhil; Wust, Johannes: Extending SAP S/4HANA. Side-by-Side Extensions with the SAP Cloud Platform SDK. SAP PRESS 2018.
https://www.sap-press.com/extending-sap-s4hana_4655/
In the SAP Leaning Journeys, you can find a number of learning journeys for SAP BTP environments, development tools, and services. Start the browser for SAP Learning Journeys, e.g. for the developer role: Learning Journeys - Overview (sap.com) . In this browser, you can find learning journeys, for example for:
On the SAP Extensibility Explorer for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can find examples for developer extensibility, e.g.
The Localization Toolkit for SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides tutorials/how-tos for country & language-specific extensions.
Last, but not least, there are additional tutorial-like blogs, some of which I want to mention here:
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