sap system overview

sap system overview

Within an SAP system, or at least the example used here, there are two types of programs, Reports and Dynpro’s. Reports, as the name would suggest, are programs which generate lists of data. They may involve a small amount of interactivity, but mainly they supply data to the front-end interfaces, the SAP GUI and so on. When a user runs a report, they typically get a selection screen. Once they enter their selection parameters and execute the report, they normally cannot intervene in the execution of the program. The program runs, and then displays the output. Dynpro’s are slightly different. They are dynamic programs, and allow the user to intervene in the execution of the program, by processing a series of screens, called 19 SAP SYSTEM OVERVIEW Dialogue screens. The user determines the flow of the program itself by choosing which buttons or fields to interact with on the screen. Their action then triggers different functions which have been coded within the flow logic of the program. While reports are being created, interfaces are also to be generated which are classed as Dynpro’s, for all the selection criteria. Most of the work done by people involved with ABAP is done within Report programs, and even though these programs are labelled 'Reports', they do not always generate output. The Report programs are there to process the logic, reading and writing to the Database, in order to make the system work. Work Processes Every program that runs in an SAP system runs on what are called Work Processes, which run on the Application server. Work Processes themselves work independently of the computer's operating system and the Database that it interacts with, giving the independence discussed earlier with regard to the Technical architecture. When an SAP system is initially set up, the basis consultants (who install the system, keep it running, manage all the memory and so on) configure SAP in such a way that it automatically sets the number of Work Processes programs use when they start, the equivalent of setting up a pre-defined number of channels or connections to the Database system itself, each of which tend to have their own set of properties and functions. The Dispatcher You might come across something referred to as the Dispatcher. The SAP system has no technical limits as to the number of users who can log on and use it, generally the number of users who can access an SAP system is much larger than the number of available Work Processes the system is configured for. This is because not everybody is sending instructions to the Application server at exactly the same time. Because of this, users cannot be assigned a certain number of processes while they are logged on. The Dispatcher controls the distribution of the Work Processes to the system users. The Dispatcher keeps an eye on how many Work Processes are available, and when a user triggers a transaction, the Dispatcher's job is to provide that user with a Work Process to use. The Dispatcher tries to optimise things as far as possible, so that the same Work Process receives the sequential Dialogue steps of an application. If this is not possible, for example because the user takes a long time between clicking different aspects of the