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Perhaps this is the proper forum to ask this question: I simply don't understand what SAP is form? Isn't it just a bunch of forms sitting on top a database? How

Perhaps this is the proper forum to ask this question: I simply don't understand what SAP is form? Isn't it just a bunch of forms sitting on top a database? How is it different from Oracle services?

jbarciauskas 16y ago
What a fantastic question. SAP is a form on top of a database the way Emacs is a text editor. From a certain point of view that is sort of true, but you only need to scratch the surface to see the gigantic morass lying underneath. SAP is meant to automate business processes. In particular, it focuses on general business processes that cross industries, plus specific business process that apply generally within an industry. For instance, cross-cutting processes might be procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, asset management, general ledger, invoicing, payroll, time and expense entry, contract management etc. Each of these single functions has a set of common forms that can be customized with the master data of the specific implementation (select box 1 has values Product A, Product B and Product C), plus any custom business rules (field A value X means field B is disabled). And for your next trick, get everyone to agree on the set of forms, the transitions between forms, the required validations, the exact right set of master data, and other business rules. And that is barely scratching the surface.
dhoe 16y ago
From a modern point of view, SAP's architecture feels pretty alien. In a way you're right, and it's a massive amount of forms on top of a database, plus staggering amounts of business logic. But as it was born before the web, it does not render to HTML, but to it's own display system. Most parts are written in ABAP, an interpreted language, and the source code is stored in the database. A quite usable IDE and a debugger are included. The source code is there, so you can read it and explore how things happen. There's a database abstraction layer, which works around some limitations of the underlying databases. What SAP sees as a table might be a set of tables in the database. It's not an unpleasant system to work with.
- omnipath 16y ago
  I'll have to take your word for it, as there doesn't seem to be a way to take a casual look around the product. But thank you for explaining it to me.

Perhaps this is the proper forum to ask this question: I simply don't understand what SAP is form? Isn't it just a bunch of forms sitting on top a database? How is it different from Oracle services?

jbarciauskas 16y ago

What a fantastic question. SAP is a form on top of a database the way Emacs is a text editor. From a certain point of view that is sort of true, but you only need to scratch the surface to see the gigantic morass lying underneath. SAP is meant to automate business processes. In particular, it focuses on general business processes that cross industries, plus specific business process that apply generally within an industry. For instance, cross-cutting processes might be procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, asset management, general ledger, invoicing, payroll, time and expense entry, contract management etc. Each of these single functions has a set of common forms that can be customized with the master data of the specific implementation (select box 1 has values Product A, Product B and Product C), plus any custom business rules (field A value X means field B is disabled). And for your next trick, get everyone to agree on the set of forms, the transitions between forms, the required validations, the exact right set of master data, and other business rules. And that is barely scratching the surface.

dhoe 16y ago

From a modern point of view, SAP's architecture feels pretty alien. In a way you're right, and it's a massive amount of forms on top of a database, plus staggering amounts of business logic. But as it was born before the web, it does not render to HTML, but to it's own display system. Most parts are written in ABAP, an interpreted language, and the source code is stored in the database. A quite usable IDE and a debugger are included. The source code is there, so you can read it and explore how things happen. There's a database abstraction layer, which works around some limitations of the underlying databases. What SAP sees as a table might be a set of tables in the database. It's not an unpleasant system to work with.

omnipath 16y ago
I'll have to take your word for it, as there doesn't seem to be a way to take a casual look around the product. But thank you for explaining it to me.