What is new in SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP 7.4 SP8

A lot has happened since the delivery of SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.4 Support Package 5 in December 2013. Since September 2014, AS ABAP 7.4 Support Package 8 has been released and is generally available to customers.

This document provides an overview of the major deliveries contained in AS ABAP 7.4 SP08.

Code Pushdown starts with Open SQL

With its ongoing renovation, Open SQL is getting much closer to the SQL-92 standard. After the large feature set delivered together with a new syntax with 7.4 SP05, Open SQL has been further enhanced.

Just to name a few of the enhancements:

• Inline declaration for the target area of SELECT
• Search CASE expression
• Use of SQL expressions as arguments in aggregate functions, behind GROUP BY
  and in the HAVING clause
• Consumption of parameterized CDS views (currently only on SAP HANA)
• Strict mode of the syntax check

Check out the documentation  for more information.

Advanced View Building with the ABAP Core Data Services (CDS)

Introduced with 7.4 SP05, ABAP CDS provides a database abstraction layer which simplifies and harmonizes the definition and consumption of semantically rich data models, regardless of the consumers.

The enhancements include the following:

• Complex case distinctions
• Conversion functions for currency and quantity fields
• Views with input parameters
• Modification-free extension of CDS views

Check out the documentation for more information.

ABAP Managed Database Procedures

Writing clever database procedures can be the key to boosting performance significantly. Starting with 7.4 SP05, the ABAP Managed Database Procedures (AMDP) allow developers to create, call and manage the whole lifecycle of HANA procedures in ABAP.

With SP08, the class-based framework has been enhanced as follows

• Support of tabular changing parameters in AMDP methods
• Modification-free extension of AMDP methods using BAdIs
• Improved exception handling via handleable exceptions in AMDP methods
• Support of secondary database connections

check out the documention for more information.

ABAP CDS and AMDP provide a so-called “Top-Down”-approach for consuming HANA artifacts, with AS ABAP as sole master during their whole lifecycle. This means that ABAP developers remain in their familiar development environment and proven ABAP concepts and mechanisms can be applied.

ABAP development tools in Eclipse

The ABAP Development Tools (ADT) have been further developed since ABAP 7.4 SP05. ADT 2.31 has been released together with AS ABAP SP08. Some of its new features are:

• Support for incremental development
• Diverse Quick fixes and Quick assistance
• 1-Click pull-up of members to interface and superclasses
• Text element support
• New ABAP Test Cockpit UIs for developers

Enhanced Performance Tooling

• Execution of remote static checks with the ABAP Test Cockpit
• Analysis of time series now supported in the SQL Monitor
• Integration of the SQL Trace data and management in the SQL Monitor

Further enhancements

Various improvements and enhancements have also been provided in other areas such as ALV with IDA, ABAP Language and ABAP Channels with the new remote static checks option for old system releases. Last but not least, the Fast Data Access (FDA) protocol for fast data transfer from and to SAP HANA database is part of the release.

ABAP Kernel 742

A new ABAP Kernel (742) was delivered for SP08. The new kernel supports all of the new features above and therefore is mandatory if you apply SP08.

Like its predecessor 741 which is downward compatible to 740 the 742 kernel will be declared as downward compatible moving forward (currently planned for Q2 2015).

Additional Information

• New ABAP for HANA features in SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP05
• ABAP Keyword Documentation: Changes in release 7.40
• SAP Help Portal: What's new in SAP NetWeaver 7.4 (Release Notes)