Application Development and Automation
Application Development and Automation brings together low-code and pro-code tools in SAP BTP, enabling businesses to quickly build, extend, and automate applications while enhancing process efficiency and responding to customer demands. At TechEd 2024 this week, SAP introduces significant enhancements to SAP Build, including streamlined SAP S/4HANA extension development, new generative AI capabilities, and expanded access to ABAP development tools, all of which empower the developer community to innovate with greater ease and agility.
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SAP Galvanizes its Developer Community with New SAP Build Capabilities
SAP announces several improvements to SAP Build, its comprehensive solution for extending SAP S/4HANA Cloud and other line of business applications.
"This is the next evolutionary step for SAP Build and for our global community of SAP developers,” said Michael Ameling, EVP and Chief Product Officer for SAP Business Technology Platform. "With direct access to ABAP tools from SAP Build, our customers will be able to build and extend their business processes with unprecedented ease."
The most significant updates enhance SAP Build by streamlining SAP S/4HANA extension development, introducing new generative AI capabilities, and expanding access to ABAP Cloud development tools.
Streamlining SAP S/4HANA Extension Development
A new extensibility wizard, available now, lets developers access SAP Build directly from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. With this access, developers can extend custom fields, business logic and processes either on-stack (that is to say, deployed in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, ABAP environment) or side-by-side (deployed in SAP BTP). A critical feature of this integration is the knowledge of business context—such as events and objects—when creating business processes and while transitioning between SAP S/4HANA and SAP Build. This preserves important business information, letting developers seamlessly switch between environments without losing crucial context.
In Q4 2024, the extensibility wizard will let developers create custom SAP Fiori and SAPUI5 applications, leveraging the full set of features available in SAP Build.
New Generative AI Capabilities with Joule
In Q4 2024, new capabilities such as code explanation and documentation search in SAP Build Code will reduce development time for Java and JavaScript developers. Developers will also be able to automate workflows in SAP Build Process Automation with assistance from generative AI.
In Q1 2025, ABAP developers will be able to generate high-quality code and unit tests with generative AI copilot Joule that comply with SAP’s ABAP Cloud development model. Joule will also be able to generate explanations for legacy code, making it easier to modernize legacy codebases and migrate to a clean core.
In Q4 2024, Joule will also be integrated into SAP Build Work Zone, a low-code tool for creating engaging and personalized business sites. Joule’s generative AI capabilities will offer users intelligent support to navigate data from connected business systems. This will be available in SAP Build Work Zone standard edition, the SAP Start site and the SAP Mobile Start app.
By Q1 2025, developers will also be able to enhance Joule with custom skills using Joule studio in SAP Build, integrating it seamlessly with both SAP and non-SAP applications. This flexibility ensures that Joule can be tailored to meet customers’ specific business needs.
Finally, developers can now create applications that feature generative AI capabilities by taking full advantage of SAP HANA Cloud to ground large language models using its vector engine. Soon, developers will also be able to
achieve this using the SAP HANA Cloud knowledge graph engine, scheduled for general availability in the first half of 2025.
Expanding access to ABAP development tools
By the end of 2024, SAP Build will include access to ABAP development tools and ABAP development environments for SAP S/4HANA Cloud on SAP BTP. New access from the SAP Build Lobby, the solution’s central starting point for all extension projects, will make it easier for multidisciplinary development teams (also known as fusion teams) to build extensions and custom processes across all technology stacks. Developers will also be able to create and monitor their ABAP Cloud projects directly from SAP Build. This integration streamlines workflows by reducing the need to switch between different environments, significantly improving development efficiency.