For many years, Advanced Business Applications Programming (ABAP) developers have played a critical role in transforming business processes by building extensions to SAP applications. Earlier this year, we released the first version of ABAP SDK for Google Cloud that helps ABAP developers easily connect and integrate SAP applications with Google Cloud. Since its release, our customers and partners have already built innovative extensions to their critical SAP business processes. A few examples include automating business transactions in SAP using Pub/Sub, securing operations using Secret Manager, and conducting unstructured data processing using Document AI.
While our customers are already seeing business benefits with ABAP SDK, they have also asked us to support more Google Cloud services and improve the tooling to quickly onboard, develop, and deploy ABAP SDK based solutions. Building on this feedback, we’ve released the next version (V1.5) of the ABAP SDK for Google Cloud. This version comes with additional features in three main areas:
Support for more APIsAn additional authentication mechanismEnhanced ABAP developer productivity
Support for more APIs
The first version of ABAP SDK was released with support for nine Google Cloud APIs. With this new version, we are supporting 40+ additional APIs in the areas of Google Workspace, Google Maps, and Google Enterprise APIs. A few notable ones include:
Google Cloud Vertex AI: You can now easily consume generative AI models available in Vertex AI directly into your ABAP programs using the ABAP SDK. For example, an oil & gas company can automate the creation of safety procedure checklists for new work orders in SAP using a large language model (LLM) deployed on Vertex AI.Google Maps Platform: You can now easily consume various APIs available in the Maps Platform to augment your SAP data with Google’s location solutions. For example, a freight handler can create effective routing of deliveries in SAP using the Distance Matrix API or capture accurate address data using Geocoding API.Google Workspace: You can integrate Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Drive directly into your SAP applications using the ABAP SDK. For example, you can easily allow your SAP users to upload and download files from their Google Drive folders or export/import tabular data to/from Google Sheets directly from your ABAP programs.Google Cloud Data Loss Prevention: You can discover, classify, redact, anonymize and protect your most sensitive data. For example, you can use the built-in infotype detector to identify and redact personally identifiable information like email addresses, Social Security numbers, passport numbers, etc.
A new authentication mechanism
The first version of ABAP SDK already supported multiple authentication mechanisms including token based and API keys based authentication. In this new version, we are also supporting OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials-based authentication with OAuth consent. This is especially useful when consuming Google Workspace APIs that need OAuth-based authentication for propagating the user context.
Enhanced ABAP developer productivity
In the first version of the ABAP SDK, we published code samples as part of our technical documentation. While ABAP developers found this useful, they also told us to make it easier to import the sample code into their development instances. To support this need, we have published a public code samples repository on GitHub. All the code samples are published in abapGit format, allowing developers to easily clone the sample code and quickstarts into their ABAP development environment.
While the ABAP SDK is fully supported by Google Cloud, we are also making it easy for ABAP developers to collaborate and quickly get their questions answered using the Google Cloud developer community forum with an “ABAP SDK” label. See the Welcome to the ABAP SDK for Google Cloud Community post for more details on how to engage and collaborate in this forum.
Our customers are transforming their businesses by migrating their SAP applications to Google Cloud and integrating them with Google Cloud services. Our goal is to make the integration between SAP applications and Google Cloud services easier for our customers. ABAP SDK for Google Cloud is one of the many solutions available at the disposal of ABAP developers. With this new version, we have increased the surface area of API coverage, added a new authentication mechanism and improved the developer experience. Go ahead and install the new version of the ABAP SDK onto your development environment and use the quickstarts and the code samples to quickly try out the new features. We are only getting started and we can’t wait to see what innovative solutions you build using the ABAP SDK for Google Cloud.
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