A) Environments for SAP ERP 1. 2. 3.

Supported Hardware Supported Database Supported Operating System

B) FEW MODULES OF SAP ERP 1. Basis 2. ABAP/4 Programming 3. FI (Financial Accounting) 4. CO (Controlling) 8. HR (Human Resource) 9. SD (Sales and Distribution) 10. Logistics Information System 11. MM (Materials Management) 12. PM (Plant Maintenance) 13. PP (Production Planning) 14. QM - Quality Management 15. BW (Business Warehousing) - BI 22. mySAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 25. Netweaver

A) ENVIRONMENTS FOR SAP 1. Supported Hardware for SAP ERP SAP can be installed on the following systems. The functionality and programming technique is same for all systems. 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 1.7. 1.8. 1.9. HP IBM Sun AT&T AS400 Bull Sequent SNI Compaq Digital

2. Supported Database for SAP ERP

SAP is a back-end-free ERP system. That means the following Database can be used in SAP software. The functionality/programming technique is same for all database system. 2.1. Oracle 2.2. MS SQL 2.3. Informix 2.4. Sybase 2.5. Adabas D 2.6. DB2 for AIX 2.7. DB2/400 3. Supported Operating System for SAP SAP can be installed on the following platforms (Operating systems): 3.1. MS Windows NT 3.2. OS/400 3.3. Unix 3.4. Solaris 3.5. AIX 3.6. HP UX 3.7. Sinux B) Complete SAP Modules: 1. SAP Basis 1.1. Security (BC - SEC) 1.2. Application Link Enabling (ALE) 1.3. Remote Function Calls (RFC) 1.4. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 1.5. Common Program Interface Communications (CPI-C) 1.19. Documentation and Translation Tools (BC - DOC) 1.20. Controls and Control Framework (BC - CI) 1.21. Business Management (BC - BMT) 1.22. Middleware (BC - MID) 1.23. Computer Aided Test Tool (BC - CAT) 1.24. Ready to Run R/3 (BC - BRR) 1.25. Authorisations System Monitoring with CCMS Workload Alert Monitor 2. ABAP/4 Programming 2.1 ABAP Workbench 2.2 Menu Painter 2.3 Screen Painter 2.4 Data Dictionary 2.5 SAP Script 2.6 Business Workflow (BC - WF) 2.7 ALE 2.8 EDI 2.9 Business Connector 2.10 Business Server Pages 2.11 Internet Application Server

2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23

Mercator Report Painter ALV reporting Report writer Dialog Programming Repository Information System ABAP 00 IDOCS LSMW Smartforms EBP ASAP methodology ABAP Query

1 What is SAP? SAP is the name of the company founded in 1972 under the German name (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) is the leading ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software package. 2 What is ERP? ERP (Enterprises Resource Planning) is a package with the techniques and concepts for the integrated management of business as a whole, for effective use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. Initially, ERP was targeted for manufacturing industry mainly for planning and managing core business like production and financial market. As the growth and merits of ERP package ERP software is designed for basic process of a company from manufacturing to small shops with a target of integrating information across the company. 3 Different types of ERP? SAP, BAAN, JD Edwards, Oracle Financials, Siebel, PeopleSoft. Among all the ERPs most of the companies implemented or trying to implement SAP because of number of advantages over other ERP packages. 4 Explain the concept of Business Content in SAP Business Information Warehouse? Business Content is a pre-configured set of role and task-relevant information models based on consistent Metadata in the SAP Business Information Warehouse. Business Content provides selected roles within a company with the information they need to carry out their tasks. These information models essentially contain roles, workbooks, queries, Info Sources, Info Cubes, key figures, characteristics, update rules and extractors for SAP R/3, mySAP.com Business Applications and other selected applications. 5 Why do you usually choose to implement SAP? There are number of technical reasons numbers of companies are planning to implement SAP. Its highly configurable, highly secure data handling, min data redundancy, max data consistency, you can capitalize on economics of sales like purchasing, tight integration-cross function. 6 Can BW run without a SAP R/3 implementation? Certainly. You can run BW without R/3 implementation. You can use pre-defined business content in BW using your non-SAP data. Here you simply need to map the transfer structures associated with BW data sources (InfoCubes, ODS tables) to the inbound data files or use 3rd part tool to connect your flat files and other data sources and load data in BW. Several third party ETL products such as Acta, Infomatica, Data

Stage and others will have been certified to load data in BW. 7 What is IDES? International Demonstration and Education System. A sample application provided for faster learning and implementation. 8 What is the Business Work Flow of IDES? Business Work Flow: Tool for automatic control and execution of cross-application processes. This involves coordinating the persons involved, the work steps required, the data, which needs to be processed (business objects). The main advantage is reduction in throughput times and the costs involved in managing business processes. Transparency and quality are enhanced by its use. 9 What is SAP R/3 ( R REAL TIME )? A third generation set of highly integrated software modules that perform common business function based on multinational leading practice. Takes care of any enterprise however diverse in operation, spread over the world. In R/3 system all the three servers like presentation; application server and database server are located at different system. 10 What are presentation, application and database servers in SAP R/3? The application layer of an R/3 System is made up of the application servers and the message server. Application programs in an R/3 System are run on application servers. The application servers communicate with the presentation components, the database, and also with each other, using the message server. All the data are stored in a centralized server. This server is called database server. 11 What should be the approach for writing a BDC program? (not imp ) Convert the legacy system data to a flat file and convert flat file into internal table. Transfer the flat file into sap system called sap data transfer. Call transaction (Write the program explicitly) or create sessions (sessions are created and processed ,if success data will transfer). 12 Explain open SQL vs native SQL? ABAP Native SQL allows you to include database-specific SQL statements in an ABAP program. Most ABAP programs containing database-specific SQL statements do not run with different databases. If different databases are involved, use Open SQL. To execute ABAP Native SQL in an ABAP program, use the statement EXEC. Open SQL (Subset of standard SQL statements), allows you to access all database tables available in the R/3 System, regardless of the manufacturer. To avoid conflicts between database tables and to keep ABAP programs independent from the database system used, SAP has generated its own set of SQL statements known as Open SQL. 13 What are datasets? The sequential files (processed on application server) are called datasets. They are used for file handling in SAP. 14 What are internal tables check table, value table, and transparent table? Internal table: It is a standard data type object, which exists only during the runtime of the program. Check table: Check table will be at field level checking. Value table: Value table will be at domain level checking ex: scarr table is check table for carrid. Transparent table: - Exists with the same structure both in dictionary as well as in database exactly with the same data and fields. 15 What are the major benefits of reporting with BW over R/3? Would it be sufficient just to Web-enable R/3 Reports? (not imp )

Performance Heavy reporting along with regular OLTP transactions can produce a lot of load both on the R/3 and the database (cpu, memory, disks, etc). Just take a look at the load put on your system during a month end, quarter end, or year-end now imagine that occurring even more frequently. Data analysis BW uses a Data Warehouse and OLAP concepts for storing and analyzing data, where R/3 was designed for transaction processing. With a lot of work you can get the same analysis out of R/3 but most likely would be easier from a BW. 16 How can an ERP such as SAP help a business owner learn more about how business operates? In order to use an ERP system, a business person must understand the business processes and how they work together from one functional area to the other. This knowledge gives the student a much deeper understanding of how a business operates. Using SAP as a tool to learn about ERP systems will require that the people understand the business processes and how they integrate. 17 What is the difference between OLAP and Data Mining? OLAP - On line Analytical processing is a reporting tool configured to understand your database schema, composition facts and dimensions. By simple point-n-clicking, a user can run any number of canned or userdesigned reports without having to know anything of SQL or the schema. Because of that prior configuration, the OLAP engine builds and executes the appropriate SQL. Mining is to build the application to specifically look at detailed analyses, often algorithmic; even more often misappropriate called reporting. 18 What is Extended Star Schema and how did it emerge? (not imp ) The Star Schema consists of the Dimension Tables and the Fact Table. The Master Data related tables are kept in separate tables, which has reference to the characteristics in the dimension table(s). These separate tables for master data are termed as the Extended Star Schema. 19 Define Meta data, Master data and Transaction data Meta Data: Data that describes the structure of data or MetaObjects is called Metadata. In other words data about data is known as Meta Data. Master Data: Master data is data that remains unchanged over a long period of time. It contains information that is always needed in the same way. Characteristics can bear master data in BW. With master data you are dealing with attributes, texts or hierarchies. Transaction data: Data relating to the day-to-day transactions is the Transaction data. 20 Name some drawbacks of SAP Interfaces are huge problem, Determine where master data resides, Expensive, very complex, demands highly trained staff, lengthy implementation time.

ABAP/4 including module-pool GUI ABAP/4 Reports, ALV Reports, Dialog Programs, SAP Scripts, Smart Forms

A20: What is the meaning of a field symbol? A20: Field symbols dont make space in the physical memory, instead they display fields that will be available at the program start. Usually it is enough to know just the field that we are about to process and the mode in which it is processed at runtime. To accomplish this we can make field symbols in our program and real fields can then be assigned to the field symbols during runtime. The processes that we initiated with the field symbols will then be transported along with their assigned fields, after this it doesnt matter if we reference the fields or the field symbols. Till here its enough to get the knowledge of SAP ERP !!!

Q22: What is the way for using a grid list? A22: For using grid lists we will use Function Module Display_*LIST.We will put all the required data for output in the last format and then transport the internal table on the function module. There are 2 types of grid lists: a)in version 4.0b we have DISPLAY_GRID_LIST b)in version 4.6b we have DISPLAY_BASIC _LIST. Q23: What database integrities do we know? A23: The database integrities are classified like this: relational, foreign key, semantic, primary key, value set and operational. Q24: What types of lock modes exist? A24: The lock modes are: exclusive, shared and extended exclusive. Q25: When do we have to use GPA an SPA and what is their meaning? A25: To insert report data in the fields of the invoked transaction we have to use the SPA/GPA technique. SPA and GPA are parameters or values that are deposited in the global memory by the system. The memory of SAP is actually good for moving the values from a program to another. The values that are deposited can be accessed by the user in the SAP memory in the time of a single terminal session for every mode together in the same time. Q26: What message types exist and what is the way of displaying them? A26: The system is announced about errors that appear by the ABAP/4 module in the form of information, messages of warning or error, it can also issue messages of success when some action that have been made is a success. By pressing the ENTER key the process currently running will be terminated. The SAP main menu can be reached with the aid of the Abend message. Q27: Where is the Message class generated and how is this made? A27: 2 locations in the system can generate a Message class: a) b) The Object Broweser, where we will have an object list- Object class. The ABAP/4 Editor, where there is the ABAP/4 module.

Q28: What is the meaning of interactive reports and what separates them from HTML reports? A28: With interactive reporting users can be have an interactive participation at data presentations and recovery in the time of a session, interactive reporting is not making a very detailed list but a concentrated and simple list from where we can invoke more information and details by moving the cursor over it and inserting commands. It also lowers the recovery of information of the needed data. The secondary list contains the details, this list can be as a full overlay of the main list or it can be displayed on a supplementary dialog window from the main screen. We can also make the secondary list to be interactive as well. Q29: What do we have to define for Domain and for Data element? A29: For Domain we define the Field Length, the Data Type and the data values that are permitted. For Data Element we define the FIELD TEXTS and COLUMN CAPTIONS represented as fields on the display. They the table contents output.

Q30: What phases exist for generating tables in the data dictionary? A30: The first phase is choosing the table fields, second is keeping the foreign keys, third is making secondary indexes( is not mandatory), the fourth is keeping the technical settings and fifth is enabling the table. A31: What separates transparent tables from pool tables? A31: Pool tables is related multiple to single to the database table, this means that for a single database tables there are multiple tables corresponding to it in the dictionary. The dictionary table is named separately from the database table, also the field count and field names are different. The storage of pool tables is made at the stage of the database. A table pool is the same thing with a table in the database and its construction is specific for activating the data of multiple R3 tables for storage. Q32: What benefits do we get from structures and what is the way for using them in the applications of ABAP/4? A32: Structure can be defined like tables in the dictionary and the access to them is made from the applications of ABAP/4, when modifications are made in this structure every program receives the change in an automated way. The data in a structure is valid just in the time of the application runtime, unlike the data from tables which is deployed in the database forever. Structures are meant for moving the data from program to program at a global level in ABAP/4, at a private level they are good at defining the data from module pools to screens and for function module case in which they generate standard parameters. Q33: What is the role of the EXEC SQL statement and what are the weak points of it in ABAP/4? A33: The EXEC SQL statement is used prior the Native SQL statement which will be finalized with ENDEXEC statement.databases. Q34: Can we describe what is happening when we enable tables in DD? A34: When we enable tables , in the ABAP/4 Dictionary a physical table definition will be linked and deposited and the single table definition from the database will be converted in a relevant database definition. Q35: What is the meaning of a matchcode? A35: Matchcodes are utilities that help us find data records in the system, being simple and efficient in the case we dont have the key of a record. It is made of 2 level: the Match code object which refers to the group of paths that a search item can have and the Match code ID which refers to a particular search patch that a search item has. Q36: What is the description of the SAP Client concept and also the Client independent? A36: When we speak in a technical, commercial or management language we can say that a client is a stand-alone full unit in R3 that that has a particular group of Master data and its own Tables set. Every client from the system is affected if a client gets modified, in this case we say that we have Client independent objects. Q37: What is the meaning and usage of variants? A37: When we have to start a report program with equal selections at some regular time intervals like for instance monthly or weekly statistics we will have to insert each time tha same values. There is an option in ABAP/4 that gives us the possibility to bring together all the selections and make one single

selection group. These groups can be as many as we want each one for a particular report program( they will remain linked on that report). A group like that is named a variant. Q38: How can we transfer selection and parameter data in a report? A38: For transferring selection and parameter data in the report there are three ways: a) b) c) SUBMITWITH Report variant RANGE table. Q39: What is the best way to transfer data to the program Subroutine from forms? A39: This can be achieved by using the ITCSY structure. Q40: What is the way to use Variants Online or in Background Processing? A40: Beginning a report online through variant helps the user to save the work an avoid errors of input. When it comes to Background Processing there is no other option for transferring the values for selections than the variant. For filling those selections that have values which are modifying depending on the application we have to use variants because they pick up the values from the TABLE TVARV. Q41: What is the meaning of Internal tables? A41: The table objects that are in existence just during the program runtime are the Internal tables. In order to work using Internal tables many ABAP statements exist like delete, insert, find or append lines. The line count that Internal tables has can be extended in a dynamic way according to our needs. Internal tables can be useful for to calculate the tables on subsets from the database tables. They are useful as well for content management for the purpose of accomplishing the program requirements. Q42: What is the best way to validate a reports selection criteria and how can we display on the selection screen the default values? A42: In the processing block of the event named AT SELECTION SCREEN The criteria will become validated and the default values on the selection screen can be showed using: a) b) c) INITIALIZATION EVENT DEFAULT VALUE option of the PARAMETERS Statement SPA/GPA Parameters or PIDs. Q43: What is the meaning of get and set parameter? A43: The SPA/GPA parameters are used for transferring data to an invoked program and they are values of fields stored in the memory globally. Every parameter can be found by a three-character code. To define parameters we have to go in the object browser and choose Other objects in the next display. The saving of SPA.GPA is particular to users and in every session that a user has they are valid. The statements GET PARAMETER and SET PARAMETER are good for depositing and recovering the values of SPA.GPA in the ABAP/4 program. If the needed fields are not shared between the two selection screens of the transactions we can then use the statements for depositing the screen fields with names. Prior to invoking the new transaction we can deposit the transaction fields of the invoker with this name : SET PARAMETER ID RID FIELD. The values from the SPA parameter RID will be deposited by the system. RID is the three-character identifier and we have to make its definition in table TPARA in SAP. When this parameter has a value already it will be overwritten by the statement SET PARAMETER with its details. To recover the fields with the other name for the invoked transaction in the PBO module: GET PARAMETER ID RID FIELD.

Q44: What is the meaning of ranges and number ranges? A44: Many times it is required to make a direct access to personal records from data structures and we do this with unique keys. For linking numbers to personal databases we will use number ranges. Examples of this type of numbers: material master numbers and order number. Q45: What is the meaning of check tables and value tables? A45: In the relational data model we dont find just tables, we also find the relations of the tables with other tables and these relations are defined with the use of foreign keys in the dictionary of ABAP. Foreign keys have the role of maintaining the integrity of data in the relational data model. The foreign key fields can have just the values that the check table allows, meaning values that appear on the check table primary key. Two tables are connected through a foreign key as in this example: table T1 and table T2 with a primary key reference in T2. The foreign key fields of the primary key fields from T2 are contained by T2, T1 is the tables verified, T1 is named foreign key table and T2 check table, we can use as well the terms dependent (table) and referenced (table). When the check field domain contains a value table it will be seen as check tables by the system (in the routine of the foreign field). Now the value table key fields are the fields of the foreign key table and they have an equal domain, they can take just the values that the value tables allows. By specifying value table we may define the domains value range and every field that has reference to the current domain may be verified for this fields value table. For making this verification we have to define a foreign key on the value table. Q46: What events are found in ABAP/4? A46: In ABAP/4 these are the events: INITIALIZATION, AT SELECTION-SCREEN, AT SELECTIONSCREEN ON, START-OF-SELECTION, TOP-OF-PAGE, TOP-OF-PAGE DURING LINE SELECTION, END-OFPAGE, END-OF-SELECTION, AT-USER-COMMAND, AT LINE-SELECTION, AT PF, GET, GET LATE, AT USER COMMAND.

Q48: How can we describe SAP locking and what is a lock object having? A48: Through Sap locking we understand implementing or defining logical locks on the objects of the database. The lock object can have a lock argument and tables. Q49: What is the way for invoking a lock object in a transaction? A49: This can be done With the invoking in the transactionof Enqueue and Dequeue. Q50: What is the role of function modules and what types of parameters exist for them? A50: The function modules are library routines with a generic use and they are found everywhere in the system. Usually they have 4 types of parameters: a) EXPORTING- used to transfer data to the invoked function. b) c) d) TABLES-used to transfer by reference just internal tables. IMPORTING-used to get data that the function module returned. CHANGING-used for transferring parameters to a function and from the function. Q51: What events allow us to program help texts and display possible values lists? A51: The events are: PROCESS ON HELP-REQUEST (POH) and PROCESS ON VALUE (POV). Q52: What is the way for, instead of displaying a report to print it? A52: We can print the report with the aid of the keywords TO SAP-SPOOL: SUBMIT RSFLINDTO SAP-SPOOL DESTINATION LT50.

Q53: How do we differentiate PARAMETERS from VARIANTS and SELE-OPTIONS? A53: For inserting values in the selection screen variables the variables have to be defined with the PARAMETER statement. For inserting range of values in the selection screen the statement SELECTOPTIONS does the job. When we need to repeat the program at regular times using the same selections we can make combinations of the values we want in a single selection group, the selection is named VARIANTS. Q54: Through what way we can get data to reach external programs? A54: This can be made with the SPA/GPA parameters in the memory of SAP and with EXPORT/IMPORT data in the memory of ABAP. Q55: What is the meaning of filed symbols and field groups and what is the usage of an idx structure component in relation to field groups? A55: Field symbols are not providing physical memory spaces for fields, instead they show a field that become known only at the program runtime. They can be compared to pointers at the level of concept (like in the C language). Extract datasets are made of record sequences, the records can be of various structures. The records that have an equal structure can be categorized together as a record type and every record type has to be defined as a filed group with the aid of this statement: FIELD-GROUPS. Q56: What is the meaning of the collect statement and in what way can we separate it from an append statement? A56: Inserting lines in internal tables that have independent standard keys, the statement COLLECT is used. When we already have an entry with that key the COLLECT statement brings the numeric field contents from the place of work to the numeric field contents from the current entry instead of appending a new line (thing that is made by the APPEND statement).

Q57: What is the role of the EXTRACT statement in ABAP/4? A57: Once the primary EXTRACT statement is used in a report the extract data set is generated by the system and the primary extract record is brought. Then at every EXTRACT statement a supplementary extract record is brought to the extract dataset.