Development Trends

For quite some time now SAP and Adobe has presented different methods and initiatives you could use if you would like to integrate Adobe Flex and SAP Netweaver.  I will try to summarize four different scenarios you could consider.

Using SAP Flash Island scenario

If you are using Netweaver 7.0 EhP1 or 7.1 then you can use the SAP Flash Island framework to integrate Adobe Flex with SAP (read more about SAP Flash Island here). The framework will create a ‘bridge’ between a SAP WebDynpro application and Flex. In order to ‘connect to this bridge/framework’ – you need to use a library from SAP in your Flex project – I have created a template project you can use for this purpose click here. Flash Islands are best suited for smaller applications/components – especially for areas where you are missing UI functionality in the WebDynpro, e.g. could be advanced graphics, interactive maps, graphs and statistics. Authentication, User and session management will be handled by the WebDynpro application.

Using SAP BSP and an embedded Adobe Flex component

So what do you do if your application is SAP is not based on WebDynpro – then you will be missing the framework and bridge which will make it easy to communicate with an Adobe Flex application – or ? Well in SAP BSP you can use <object><embed> … </embed><object> to include an SWF application in the application – read more here.  But the data binding and event handling you will have to handle yourself in the BSP and in the Flex application. This kind of integration is also meant for smaller applications/components – especially for areas where you are missing UI functionality in SAP BSP, e.g. again could be advanced graphics, interactive maps, graphs and statistics. Authentication, User and session management will be handled by the SAP BSP application.

Using an HTTP REST backend application in SAP BSP – and an Adobe Flex RIA as Frontend

So… what do we do if we want to build a larger application in Adobe Flex (RIA) which should be integrated with SAP Netweaver? Well.. One possibility would be to build a set of backend services in SAP BSP using the HTTP REST approach/architecture (read more here). In SAP you will then be building normal BSP’s which will receive the input parameters in a HTTP request – and send the reply to the calling application as XML. These services can be called from Adobe Flex using the HTTP-request object. The work could be divided in two parts: the work regarding the design and implementation in SAP and the work with the design and implementation of the RIA using Adobe Flex. In between you need to describe and design the implementation of the interface. User and session management could be handled by the SAP BSP application if it’s running as a state full application. Regarding Authentication you need to consider how you would implement this in the application.

Using WebService enabled SAP BAPI’s as backend application – and an Adobe RIA as Frontend

In the last method you could consider using Webservice enabled BAPI’s instead of having to write BSP’s to communicate with the frontend. From Netweaver 6.40 and onwards all BAPI’s in SAP could be webservice enabled – and from 7.0 the functionality has been improved. And it’s possible to call these webservice enabled BAPI’s directly from Adobe Flex. You can use standard BAPI’s and/or make custom development for your own specific BAPI requests. User and session management should be handled by the Adobe Flex application. Regarding Authentication you need to consider how you would implement this in the application.

HP has released a free tool to help developers find and fix security vulnerabilities in applicationes developed with Adobe Flash.

From the HP Blog:

“The tool is the first of its kind to decompile applications developed with the Flash platform and perform static analysis to understand their behaviors. This helps developers without security backgrounds identify vulnerabilities hidden within the application which cannot be detected with dynamic analysis methods.”

Read the full article here

I ran into this Adobe Flex video training site the other day…. and I find it really great. Especially if you have the Adobe Media Player installed on your PC – and adds the feed from the site.

The Adobe Flex video training site from contains nearly the same as you would find in other ‘How to get started’ courses/eLearning materials (and yes… it also includes excercises) – and it’s for free…

Flex in a Week video training

With the introduction of SAP Flash Islands in Netweaver 7.0 EhP1- SAP will now also attract ressources from the Adobe Flex community together with SAP’s own developer community. Developers from both communities will be needed to make SAP Flash Islands a real success.

Flex developers will now have the possibility to use their existing skills from the Adobe Flex ‘world’ to develop and invent new SAP Flash Islands components which can be integrated easily with SAP Netweaver.

SAP developers on the other hand can focus on UI integration areas where advanced  e.g graphical components are needed and use the new SAP Flash Islands from the Adobe community to complete this kind of task.

Read more at:

Development Trend

Adobe – Developer Connection

SAP Community Network – a video about SAP Flash Island

SAP Flash Island – LinkedIn Group

Adobe Flex Builder 3 software is currently available for free for software developers who are affected by the current economic condition and are currently unemployed.

See the terms & conditions and read more here

Time to register for FITC Amsterdam 2009

A few lines from the FITC website:
“FITC has held 17 events over 7 years, through 9 cities and 4 countries, with over 700 presentations and over 10,000 attendees. From Flash to motion design, to design and creative inspiration, to other technologies like Flex, Air and processing, FITC events stand as unique and exciting events that educate, challenge, and inspire. We began as a Flash festival, and we’ve kept Flash at the core but have also continued to add more and more diverse presentations over the years, ever expanding the programming of our events.”

Click here to read more..

In SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Enhp1 a new xml rendering technology is introduced. The xml rendering is called xBCML – Extensible Business Client Markup Language. The xml will contain the description of the UI elements and their properties which is send to the client using HTTP(S). The purpose of this new protocol is to be able to send rendering information to Smart clients built in e.g FLEX, Silverlight or SAP’s own Business Client. Does this mean that existing WebDynpro applications should be changed? The answer is no – existing WebDynpro application can also be rendered using xBCML without any changes.

With FLEX3 the process of integrating Flex and SAP NetWeaver has been made a bit eaiser. All webservice in SAP could be made available in the Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) which is the central information repository for enterprise services in SAP. In order to use these webservices in a FLEX application you import the relevant WSDL using the ‘Import Web Service’ in Flex Builder 3. The import-feature will generate all the classes and datatypes needed in order to call the webservice in SAP. After this you will be able to work with the webservices using the ActionScript classes – no need to think about xml etc. In previous Flex versions you had to generate proxies using a Proxy Generator in order to integrate FLEX with SAP.

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