Customer Reviews

ABAP Objects

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book "ABAP Objects - ABAP Programming in SAP NetWeaver" (grey Cover, 950 pages, published by SAP PRESS, March 15, 2007, ISBN-10: 1592290795 ISBN-13: 978-1592290796) is the new edition of the book "ABAP Objects: Introduction to Programming SAP Applications" (black Cover, 576 pages, published by Addison-Wesley, June 14, 2002, ISBN-10: 0201750805, ISBN-13: 978-0201750805).

The new book replaces the old book. The new book covers release 7.0 of the ABAP Application Server (former SAP Basis). The old book covers release 4.6. The software of the new book is a Trial Version of the ABAP Application Server 7.0 that is supported in the SAP Developers Network (SDN). The software of the old book is a Mini Basis 4.6 and is not supported any more.

The contents of the old book is partly out of date. The software of the old book should not be installed any more. The programming examples of the old book are still valid and can also be carried out with the software of the new book. If you have the old book and want to install the software of the new book, you can download it from the SDN.

A Trial Version of the SAP NetWeaver Application Server 7.01
ABAP is available for Windows Vista now. This version includes all programming examples from the book. You can download it from the SAP Developers Network.

I think it's highly unfair to have a list of 'reviews' when if you look carefully they don't actually apply to this edition of Abap Objects. Most of the reviews on this site that are 'recommended' for this book were written for the previous edition of this book. Until more people purchase this edition and review it, please keep this in mind if you are using the reviews to help make a decision...

Please note that I had over 28 days of formal ABAP training in 2001 but have not programmed in it since. In addition, I can program in over a dozen languages, including COBOL, SQL, VB, and .Net C#. This knowledge certainly made it easier to understand and learn object-oriented ABAP.

That said, I have read this book from cover to cover and performed ALL of the exercises and programming in the chapters using a full instance of SAP R/3 ECC 6.0. In my estimation it is a five-star textbook and probably the benchmark for ABAP object-oriented programming. It is easy to follow, provided you carefully execute the examples as indicated: I had unexpected results a couple of times and in each case it turned out I had either missed a step or had not implemented something exactly as directed by the textbook. So, if you use the text and this happens to you, simply retrace your steps and things should work out. The authors explain how to use the ABAP Development Workbench to develop the full range of ABAP object-oriented functionality. I highly recommend it as a programming resource and tool for learning about ABAP object-oriented programming.

I thought that the book is in overall good, with a full breadth of concepts. But having said that I think that it could have been written more simply and eloquently. Compared to other books of its kind, it takes the writer double the space to get to the point and in many points it gets tiresome.
1000 pages could be more than enough to cover everything but sometimes in the book some concepts are presented overcomplicated or not presented at all. Also I think being called abap "objects" it should give more emphasis to OO with design patterns and so on.

I recently did the SAP ABAP course and this book helped so much. It has everything you need to know, and it even has a sap trial so you can practice your programming. Before i had the book i had to stay late at class and practice, but the trial works perfectly on my home pc. The book cleared up a lot of the things i was unsure of from my course text books, i think they should give this book to the SAP students, really. I was a complete beginner, not just in ABAP but programming, i knew nothing and i was the only one in my class with no programming experience but this book gave me the advantage i think, because when it came to the tests i got the 2nd highest mark and thats not bad for someone who's never done it before. The only problem i had was actually installing the software, its quite tricky but there are a lot of tutorials on how to do it on google and youtube. I highly recommend this book, i actually recommend it so highly that i think the dude that wrote it should pay me coz of all the advertising i'm doing for him :) But seriously , it helped me understand abap and sap. Yeah, i think that about says it all hey, if you looking for a book to help you with abap , go for this one. (i dont think there are actually any other ones out there but even if there were, still get this one coz you know it will help.) Thank you, thank you very much ;)

If you're planning on making use of the NetWeaver trial system, be aware that it will not install on Windows Vista. On Windows XP, the instructions on the SAP site do NOT work...the system is simply not usable...After two hours of attempting to figure out how to fix the installation, I just removed it...

In my opinion, the examples in the book are nice, but without a working system to review HOW the examples work, the book is of limited value to an SAP programmer....

I got this book last week from SAP press.i read first 5 chapters and i can say this book clearly explains all the concepts. The writers explained the differences between procedural ABAP and object oriented ABAP where ever neceessary. Also the usage of obsolete statements are marked for the reader. this will be a good book for those who have previous ABAP experience and wanted to learn the Object oriented concepts from scratch. My only problem is i cant install the software that comes with the book. its like you cant install ABAP server on Vista.Be patient and read it its a 1000+ pages book.

Never judge a book by its size. This is over 1000 pages long. That does not make it a good book.
This is certainly not a teach yourself ABAP OO. I am an experienced ABAPer and I found this book very frustrating. The main thing is that although the book is title ABAP OO it really only has a few chapters on OO. Those chapters really just present the syntax without any real explanation, although the chapters seem to go on and on and on. The chapter about Polymorphism and the essential explanation on casting, only is covered in 2 pages and really only over 4 paragraphs - after which I was still left wondering how and why !

If you do not know ABAP or have little experience then do not get this book expecting to finish it knowing about ABAP OO. Really you need to attend or get the notes from the ABAP BC404 course - seriously. Do not be fooled by the fact it has a DEMO ABAP system - I think you can get this anyway from SDN or SAP for free... plus it is only a trial system which will expire after 90 days and then you need to keep unlocking it.

I found it strange that they have a number of chapters that explain basic ABAP - ridiculous in such a book. It only adds more weight to an already large and cumbersome book.

Be careful when buying this as there are TWO EDITIONS. The latest is for the current version of Netweaver (7.0). The first edition is for version 4.6c. I don't know what has changed between editions but the PDF preview is from the first edition.

Most software/technology books are obsolete once a new version of the software comes out. I don't know if this is the case with this book. It's not obvious when buying on Amazon which one you're getting.

I just received the old edition. There's no way I would have purchased this if I had known.