The Abap in Abap-cadabra is the name of a programming language by SAP. The name ABAP started out as abbreviation for Allgemeiner Berichtsaufbereitungsprozessor, which means "generic report preparation processor" in German. Later it was cleverly renamed to Advanced Business Application Programming, as it became so well known, the abbreviation demanded a better name. What does "Java" mean anyway ? What's in a name. There is a lot in this name: ABAP.
There is a limit to what one can remember and to the level of detail it can be remembered by. To have some sort of manual or document for the "nice-to-haves" has always been my way of working and it has proven to be a very effective way of working. AbapcadabrA once started off as a Word document called "Technote", in 1995 Origin had it translated into English to be made available on the Intranet of Origin. AbapcadabrA.com was introduced in 1999 and involving Joomla (november 2012) enables me to fully utilize the knowledge base concept. Whenever I come across something that is worth sharing and whenever time permitted me - I produced an article and placed it on the article pile. Have fun. Let me know where improvements should be done.
The soul author of AbapcadabrA, Wim Maasdam, has been refining his knowledge document since 1994. He's a freelance SAP consultant operating in The Netherlands, where his daily work is all about the topics on AbapcadabrA.
Wim Maasdam has been developing ABAP programs and covering SAP technical areas over a wide variety of projects since 1993. He started his SAP career with BSO (now Atos Origin) in the Netherlands, he worked in the UK for 4 years and he returned to the Netherlands in 2001. His major strength is the technical side of SAP, covering ABAP, Workflow (development as well as customizing), and IDOCs (development as well as customizing). But also more remotely related subjects such as LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench) for data migrations, SAP SRM developments including Internet Service and BSP applications as well as Workflow under SRM. As with many languages, Abap is an Object Oriented language and Wim is fully aware of OOPS capabilities and advantages. He has been developing his works in an Object Oriented fashion since 2011 (thus: all new developments are set up this way).
His development experience allows him to find and implement the best solutions to nearly any SAP R/3 related (technical) problem. He’s an expert in the full cycle of development phases, from user requirements, functional specifications, planning, technical specifications, development and development testing and documentation, through to user hand-over and maintenance. Object Oriented solutions, focus on reuse of coding, performance tuning and utilizing SAP enhancements are his specialties, along with development planning and mentoring/tutoring. His English is flawless and his personality allows him to easily fit in any environment. Wim is not just an ABAP developer, he is a senior technical SAP consultant.
Audience: SAP technicians from Novice to Guru and anyone who likes to know more about R/3's technical topics.
Primary objective: provide an independent platform for SAP-technical related topics. Allow SAP technicians to take a different viewpoint on a wide variety of explanations, issues, solutions and approaches. The contents of AbapcadabrA is used for tutoring purpose on ongoing projects as well as keeping track of "better-not-forgets" from the author. A true knowledge base.
Secondary objective: provide an inside view of the knowledge of the author as extended Curriculum Vitae - which should make the decision of hiring Wim Maasdam easier.