Developing and Composing Applications
The following sections define a few possible scenarios to use the tools and technologies provided by SAP NetWeaver CE to create composite applications.
Lightweight Composite Applications Consuming Services
In this case, you use SAP NetWeaver CE to define the process logic and the user interfaces in your composite application. It does not implement own business logic; it rather consumes services (typically exposed as Web services) that have their business logic and persistence implemented in a back-end system.
Creating such a composite application involves the following tools:
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1. (Optionally) Publish the service definitions of the back-end services to the Services Registry (SR).
By publishing the services definitions to the SR, you are able to organize large volume of services provided by multiple back-end system in your landscape. The SR provides classification capabilities and convenient way to search for services.
More information: Consuming Enterprise Services.
2. (Optionally) Use the Composite Application Framework (CAF) to reduce the complexity of the consumed service in code-free model-driven way. For example, you can reduce the number of the output parameters of the original service by defining the corresponding mappings of the parameters of the generated CAF application service.
More information: Composing Services with CAF.
3. Build the user interface layer of your composite application. You have the following options:
¡ Use Visual Composer to model composite views, which can make use of a wide range of available Web services and data services, including BI data sources.
More information:
Modeling Composite Views with Visual Composer.
¡ Use Web Dynpro for Java (WDJ) to develop more complex user interfaces.
More information: Developing User Interfaces with Web Dynpro for Java.
4. Orchestrate your composite views and services into a collaborative process using Guided Procedures (GP).
More information: Designing Composite Processes with Guided Procedures.
Full-fledged Composite Applications with Local Business Logic
In this case, you implement the business logic within your composite application using the corresponding tools and technologies provided by SAP NetWeaver CE.
Note that there is not any technical restriction in this case to also consume available services provided by back-end systems.
Creating such a composite application involves the following tools:
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1. Implement the application’s business logic and persistence. You can use:
○ CAF, which provides an entirely model-driven approach to defining your business objects (handling data persistence) and application services (handling business logic) for increased developer productivity. It also has built-in integration with Web services standards and infrastructure to allow for easy consumption of the CAF components by the UI and process layers of the composite application.
More information: Composing Services with CAF.
○ The Java EE 5 technology for standards-based development of the service layer of your composite application. This ensures portability across platforms but requires much higher software design and development skills.
More information: Developing Java EE 5 Applications.
2. Build the user interface layer of your composite application. You have the following options:
¡ Use Visual Composer to model composite views, which can make use of a wide range of available Web services and data services, including BI data sources.
More information:
Modeling Composite Views with Visual Composer.
¡ Use Web Dynpro for Java (WDJ) to develop more complex user interfaces.
More information: Developing User Interfaces with Web Dynpro for Java.
3. Orchestrate your composite views and services into a collaborative process using Guided Procedures (GP).
More information: Designing Composite Processes with Guided Procedures.
Complementary Tools and Technologies Supported by SAP NetWeaver CE
● Develop voice-enabled applications that allow you to access business processes by telephone at any time.
More information: Developing Voice-Enabled Applications.
● Use portal APIs for applications that run in the SAP NetWeaver Portal to take advantage of portal services.
More information: Developing Applications for the Portal.
● Create portal content using visual, code-free modeling tools provided by Visual Composer.
More information: Modeling Portal Content with Visual Composer.
● Make use of the security APIs and infrastructure of SAP NetWeaver CE to fulfill the authentication and authorization requirements of your applications.
More information: Integrating Security Functions.
● Use the Java Dictionary tools to define the database tables and data types used by your applications.
More information: Providing Java Dictionary Tables and Data Types.
● Use the APIs provided by the SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java to add scheduling capabilities to your applications, or instrument them to generate logging or monitoring data.
More information: Using Common Server Infrastructure APIs.