The Book (SAP Web Client)

SAP Web Client Book Cover

It has been on SAP Press’ web site for some time now, but it finally made it into the featured releases section. By ‘it’ I am referring to the book that I co-authored – ‘SAP Web Client: A Comprehensive Guide for Developers’.

About one year ago, together with my friends Armand and Sanjeet, we decided that it is time to put into use our knowledge of what is more commonly known as the CRM Web Client UI framework. We thought that this would provide us with a sense of achievement, while delivering information about a product that is widely used but yet poorly understood. The typical SAP ABAP developers know ABAP WebDynpro and probably BSP Application Programming but they often lack knowledge in the UI framework that powers CRM. Their only source of information was SAP Help and the SDN community. Well, there was also another book called ‘SAP CRM Web Client Customizing and Development’ but we felt that it is not that development oriented. Although I must say it provides quite a comprehensive overview of the framework and its customizing. In the meantime it turned out that our former colleagues Tim and Uwe are working on a similar project together with Michael Füchsle. But SAP Press assured us that there is room for two such books – one for the German and another one for the English speaking audiences. So if you prefer to read in German we encourage you to check ‘SAP Web Client’, again by SAP Press.

Those of you familiar with SAP CRM are very much aware of the Web Client UI. Few years ago the CRM organization figured out that ABAP WebDynpro cannot meet its specific requirement. As time was of an essence, the man in charge of CRM at SAP – Bob Stutz (a person that we all deeply respect) – decided that CRM shall develop its own UI framework. The framework would be based on the BSP technology and use some of the architectural principals of Webdynpro. CRM took an existing framework developed by the Interaction Center (IC) team and assembled development and product management teams. Armand, Sanjeet and I were part of those teams. This is how we got introduced to the framework, contributed to it and ultimately fell in love with it.

So what you will find in this book? I will create a separate SDN blog where I will give an overview of the content, but in the meantime you can check the following SAP Press link:

http://www.sap-press.com/products/SAP-Web-Client%3A-A-Comprehensive-Guide-for-Developers.html

Keep in mind that this is quite a technical book. The topic presentation always revolves around examples. We have tried to stick to one an imaginary use case that we implement via different techniques. As a result, the reader is not distracted by the story and can focus on the implementation task. Sometimes we deviate and present other examples but this is relatively rare.

To summarize, if you want to become a CRM developer or are just curious of this beast called the Web Client UI, go ahead and get this book. If you have questions, doubts or need help please come back to this blog and let us know what is troubling you. Your feedback will be highly appreciated!

 

There is a also a 10% discount coupon if you purchase the book at http://www.sap-press.com: WEBCLIENTILN.

Moved to Munich

It has been 2 weeks since I moved to Munich. I started with OpenText (OT). It is a bit ironic that prior to this engagement I have been living in Canada and working for a German company. Now I am in Germany and working for a Canadian company.

The folks here are not only nice but also very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what they do. The set up reminds me of the good old days in CRM when development and product management strived to deliver something useful quickly to the market. All in all, I hope I will fit in and become part of that team.

The project that I am involved is about integrating OT’s Enterprise Content Management suite with SAP products (ERP and CRM). After looking into the architecture, I must say it is very similar to what I have integrating SAP’s StreamWork and CRM. This is extremely positive, as it means that two teams/individuals independently came up with the same solution approach.

On the personal side – I sleep on a mattress and hope that my belongings from Canada will arrive soon. But I have an internet connection (thumbs up to Vodafone) and a table with chairs to sit on. The beer is affordable and tastes great!!!