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BAPI User HandbookLocate this document in the navigation structure

Use

It is becoming increasingly important that SAP software components can interact and integrate with the software components of other vendors.

SAP business objects are a prerequisite for the interoperability of software components. They cover a wide spectrum of business data and processes.

SAP business objects are accessed through BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces), which are stable, standardized methods. SAP business objects and their BAPIs provide an object-oriented view of the business functions in an SAP System.

SAP provided the first BAPIs for customers and external providers in R/3 Release 3.1, enabling them to integrate their software components in an SAP System. The number of BAPIs increases with each R/3 Release and with this the possibility of object-oriented access to an SAP System.

This User Guide is an introduction to the technical concepts behind BAPIs. It also shows you how you can use BAPIs to achieve seamless integration between an SAP System and external applications, legacy systems and add-ons.

Prerequisites

The User Guide is targeted at application developers who want to create new integrated activities using SAP Business Objects and their BAPIs. For example:

  • Integration of external applications in an SAP System

  • Integration of existing business applications in an SAP System

  • Integration of new SAP components (Advanced Planner & Optimizer (APO) and Business Information Warehouse (BW), for example)

  • Alternative frontend interfaces to an SAP System for occasional users, for example

    These frontends can be implemented as Windows-based client applications, for example, as macros in desktop applications (Microsoft Excel or Access), which are usually written in Visual Basic for Applications or implemented as applications in Visual Basic, Java or C++.

  • Web-based access to an SAP System through Internet or Intranet applications.

  • Separation of components within an SAP System.

Required Knowledge

To use BAPIs to access SAP business objects you will need a good understanding of object-oriented programming. Even if you use BAPIs without a good understanding of SAP Systems, you must have a basic knowledge of the SAP System.

BAPIs are available from all development platforms that are not in an SAP System and that support the Remote Function Call (RFC) protocol. If you are developing your application in a non-object oriented programming language, you need to have RFC programming skills to call BAPIs via RFC. In particular, you need to know how to perform RFC calls.