Overview of Development Process

This section describes the process of developing new BAPIs. The guidelines also apply to enhancing and modifying existing BAPIs.

For more information about enhancements and modifications, see the following:

• Customer Enhancement of BAPIs

• Modifying BAPIs

• SAP Enhancements to Released BAPIs

To implement a BAPI using these programming guidelines, you need:

• Basic understanding of BAPIs

• Knowledge of the ABAP programming language

• General knowledge of SAP Systems

The entire development process can be divided into four phases:

1. Analysis:

   The analysis phase involves determining which business process is to be implemented using the BAPI. Scenarios are defined and then the steps that are to be visible externally (to other components) and implemented by business object types and their BAPIs, are identified.

2. Design:

   For each BAPI involved in a scenario, the structure of the BAPI's interface is defined at a conceptual level. The purpose of the design phase is to structure the interfaces concisely and intuitively so that the BAPIs will be easy to use. At the same time the interfaces must comply with all technical and formal guidelines.

3. Implementation:

   The implementation phase can be divided into three successive stages:

   • Defining the data structures (including domains and data elements) that the BAPI parameters are based on.

   • Implementing the program logic in function modules.

   • Defining the BAPI in the Business Object Repository (BOR) to ensure object-oriented access.

4. Testing and releasing:

   The documentation as well as the functionality and usability of a BAPI are checked in the test phase. The BAPI can be released once the test phase has been completed.

For more information, see BAPI Explorer