This blog is a recap of the liveblog of the keynote address of the SAP TechEd 09 conference.  To read in chronological order, start from the bottom and work your way up.

• Craig Stasila: 8:57 am on October 13, 2009

  If you missed anything, check back for the full blog posting at http://www.dataxstream.com/category/sap-consultants-blog/

• Craig Stasila: 8:55 am on October 13, 2009

  Well, that’s it. The keynote speeches are over. I hope you enjoyed following along with the DataXstream’s first foray into liveblogging. Make sure you check back tonight at 11pm EDT (8pm PDT) for our liveblog of the Demo Jam.

• Craig Stasila: 8:53 am on October 13, 2009

  Ray’s parting shot: Even life expectancy is growing exponentially.

• Craig Stasila: 8:52 am on October 13, 2009

  2029: An intimate merger $1,000 of computation = 1,000 times the human brain Reverse engineering of the brain complete Computers pass the Turing test!! Skynet goes online (OK, I made this one up)

• Craig Stasila: 8:48 am on October 13, 2009

  There are only about 800 million bytes in the entire genome and it can be compressed into about 50 million bytes. The brain is made up of about 25 million bytes of data.

• Craig Stasila: 8:45 am on October 13, 2009

  

  The brain is getting reverse-engineered.  Individual brain components (e.g. visual cortex, cerebellum, etc.) are getting reverse engineered by researchers.

• Craig Stasila: 8:44 am on October 13, 2009

  Ray is now on Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is all around us, but we’re too accustomed to it to notice it.

• Craig Stasila: 8:42 am on October 13, 2009

  They already had this technology in the 80s. I saw Innerspace (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093260/usercomments)

• Craig Stasila: 8:41 am on October 13, 2009

  Someday you will have millions or billions of nano-engineered devices coursing through your body keeping you healthy.

• Craig Stasila: 8:40 am on October 13, 2009

  Miniaturization is another exponential trend. “What used to fit in a building now fits in my pocket. What fits in my pocket now will fit inside a cell in a few years”

• Craig Stasila: 8:39 am on October 13, 2009

  Ray is now going over how the exponential growth in technology power is also mirrored by exponential decrease in price. RAM, processing power, human genome decoding, wireless devices. All adhere to the exponential growth curve.

• Craig Stasila: 8:38 am on October 13, 2009

  

  Ray thinks we’re due for a new paradigm shift away from flat integrated circuits.  He’s been talking to Intel about their development of 3D processors.  I’ve not heard of this before, but it sounds very cool.

• Craig Stasila: 8:34 am on October 13, 2009

  

• Craig Stasila: 8:32 am on October 13, 2009

  Some critics say that exponential growth can’t go on forever. Ray counters that by saying that there can be periods of relatively slow advancements, but over time, progress will catch up.

• Craig Stasila: 8:29 am on October 13, 2009

  You may think that he only picked events that matched his theory. But, now he’s showing another graph comparing his viewpoints with 15 others. There is a very high correlation.

• Craig Stasila: 8:27 am on October 13, 2009

  

  From life to now, this chart shows how life and technological advancements have followed a constant, exponential growth.  Both axes are logarithmic.  Very cool, indeed.

• Craig Stasila: 8:24 am on October 13, 2009

  

  As big as a washing machine.  Stevie Wonder bought one.  In 2002, it was still a desktop device.  Now, it is a cell-phone based app.

• Craig Stasila: 8:21 am on October 13, 2009

  It took 10 years to bet the first billion phones in the market. Now 2/3 of the world’s population has them!

• Craig Stasila: 8:20 am on October 13, 2009

  “The tools of disruptive change are in everybody’s hands”

• Craig Stasila: 8:20 am on October 13, 2009

  Technology is a democratizing force. Back in the day, you had to be a recording studio or movie studio to create content. Now a couple of hundred dollars can be used to create great content.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:18 am on October 13, 2009

    Back in the 70s, Ray projected that the two-thousand user ARPAnet would grow into a million user internet in the 90s. Umm. Yeah. I saw that coming, too!

  • Craig Stasila: 8:17 am on October 13, 2009

    Exponential growth even applies to solar energy. Solar energy may be a fringe player now, but Ray sees it growing.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:16 am on October 13, 2009

    This exponential growth is unaffected by any financial or other external pressures.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:15 am on October 13, 2009

    There are many underlaying properties of technology (MIPS, # of bits, # of genomes typed). Regardless of the property, technology follows a smooth exponential growth.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:13 am on October 13, 2009

    Not many pictures right now. Ray is just standing in one place and talking.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:12 am on October 13, 2009

    Only 10 years ago, people barely used search engines.  Now we can’t live without them.

    I’m always amazed how true genius can point out the obvious and make it sound profound.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:10 am on October 13, 2009

    Using the human genome project as an example of exponential growth in technology.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:09 am on October 13, 2009

    And progress is getting faster…

  • Craig Stasila: 8:09 am on October 13, 2009

    Your phone in your pocket is a thousand times more powerful and million times cheaper than a computer from 40 years ago. “What fit in a building 40 years ago, fits in your pocket today”

  • Craig Stasila: 8:08 am on October 13, 2009

    Ray thinks genes are software written in COBOL.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:08 am on October 13, 2009

    Oh Ray! Retalling the story of how Viagra was developed and discovered. Got a few chuckles from the crowd.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:06 am on October 13, 2009

    Ladies & Gentlemen, Ray Kurzweil

  • Craig Stasila: 8:06 am on October 13, 2009

    Vishal is done. Last parting shot: “Timeless Software”

  • Craig Stasila: 8:05 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Vishal’s only slide.  All the rest were just pretty pictures.  Notice the public clouds in the lower right.  SAP is looking to be able to be run on public clouds in the future.  Currently there are development and test systems on public clouds.  Getting production systems on public clouds is coming.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:03 am on October 13, 2009

    

  • Craig Stasila: 8:03 am on October 13, 2009

    “Change is the fundamental dimension in which we all live”

  • Craig Stasila: 8:02 am on October 13, 2009

    Cestbon “listens” for business content on your computer and links to it. You can hop straight from Cestbon to the data in SAP.

  • Craig Stasila: 8:01 am on October 13, 2009

    The presenter is British and doesn’t like the frenchies. Demoing Cestbon–An Outlook integration example.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:59 am on October 13, 2009

    Example #4: Ambient, Real-Time Systems

  • Craig Stasila: 7:59 am on October 13, 2009

    Six blade servers = 1 Nehalem processor.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:58 am on October 13, 2009

    Vishal is talking about optimization across all layers. This relates to hardware manufacturers (memory, processors, blade servers). Modularity is making optimization happen.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:57 am on October 13, 2009

    All the demos were very cool. As a geek, I would love to check out the technology involved in each one.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:57 am on October 13, 2009

    Excel integration now being demoed. The 166 million records can’t be loaded to Excel (for memory reasons). The solution allows the end-user to drill down and get the data from SAP as needed.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:55 am on October 13, 2009

    Business Objects Explorer being demoed. Crunching through 166 million records. The example is trying to be green by reducing paper and electricity.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:55 am on October 13, 2009

    

  • Craig Stasila: 7:53 am on October 13, 2009

    A Dilbert Example! Wow, the pop-culture touchpoints never end!

  • Craig Stasila: 7:52 am on October 13, 2009

    Example #3: Coherent Visualization of Massive Information. Looking at Coherent Modularization.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:50 am on October 13, 2009

    Containers need not only modularity, but also locality of design.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:49 am on October 13, 2009

    Now talking about SOA and its growth. Using it as a basis of modularity and coherence.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:49 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Too many tools on the stage… (ahem)

  • Craig Stasila: 7:47 am on October 13, 2009

    

  • Craig Stasila: 7:46 am on October 13, 2009

    Live tracking of tools being checked in and out of the tool crib.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:45 am on October 13, 2009

    Aircraft mechanics were using SAP, but equipment check-in check-out took too long via SAP GUI.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:43 am on October 13, 2009

    Example #2: Extending Information into Physical Systems. SAP runs on aircraft carriers. I hope they bring one in…

  • Craig Stasila: 7:42 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Google Wave and SAP!  So happy together.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:42 am on October 13, 2009

    Cutting edge technology BCE edition: Rosetta stone. Using the analogy to show that we need to be able to work with others

  • Craig Stasila: 7:38 am on October 13, 2009

    They’re pulling out all the stops!!! Google Wave! Google Wave isn’t complying with the demo. “Thank god that’s Google software and not SAP!” Big crowd laughs.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:37 am on October 13, 2009

    The example is now showing our good-ole familiar SAP GUI showing the timesheet approval process for the contractor timesheet application

  • Craig Stasila: 7:36 am on October 13, 2009

    Containers need to be extended. Either to SAP applications or to other Web 2.0 applications.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:35 am on October 13, 2009

    Another ooh-ahh moment! iPhone timesheet app.

• Craig Stasila: 7:34 am on October 13, 2009

  

  Content separated from applicatons

• Craig Stasila: 7:34 am on October 13, 2009

  Oh Snap!!! Cloud computing!! The example is running through a container. The backend is on Amazon S3

• Craig Stasila: 7:32 am on October 13, 2009

  Example uses managers, contractors, and purchasing department.

• Craig Stasila: 7:32 am on October 13, 2009

  Examples of design thinking, and separation of intent and optimization.

• Craig Stasila: 7:31 am on October 13, 2009

  An example of intent being separated from optimization: A painter does not need a scaffolding to paint a building, the scaffolding optimizes the process.

• Craig Stasila: 7:29 am on October 13, 2009

  

• Craig Stasila: 7:29 am on October 13, 2009

  Next, the intent needs to be separated from the optimization.

• Craig Stasila: 7:28 am on October 13, 2009

  Techies need to start with “design thinking”. Start with end-user in mind. “Start from the screen and work backwords”

• Craig Stasila: 7:27 am on October 13, 2009

  

• Craig Stasila: 7:25 am on October 13, 2009

  Content is independent of containers in long-lived systems

• Craig Stasila: 7:24 am on October 13, 2009

  Looking back at the IT industry, a new, major language emerges about every ten years. While Java will be around for a long time, we’re due for a new major language. SAP thinks that Ruby is the future. Ruby reached 1 million developers faster than any other programming language in history.

• Craig Stasila: 7:22 am on October 13, 2009

  Vishal is teasing Ray Kurzweil’s speach on how the rate of change is increasing. Moore’s law gets a shout out.

• Craig Stasila: 7:22 am on October 13, 2009

  There are hundreds of SAP customers that have been using the software for over 30 years. None have left SAP. Vishal is highlighting the change that the companies underwent and how SAP changed with their customers.

• Craig Stasila: 7:20 am on October 13, 2009

  SAP has been around for 37 years. Have worked with over 85,000 customers, tens of thousands of partners, and tens of millions of users.

• Craig Stasila: 7:19 am on October 13, 2009

  Vishal isn’t going to be focusing on the technology. He’ll be focusing on… “change”. Do you sense a theme?

• Craig Stasila: 7:18 am on October 13, 2009

  Dr. Vishal Sikka, CTO SAP is now on the stage. He is the first of two keynote speakers.

• Craig Stasila: 7:18 am on October 13, 2009

  

  “Welcome to TechEd 2009. You are the star of the show”

• Craig Stasila: 7:16 am on October 13, 2009

  Zia is really pumping up “the community”. The SAP user community is almost 2 million strong now.

• Craig Stasila: 7:16 am on October 13, 2009

  “After the PowerPoints, it’s time for action” SAP wants the BPEs to make it happen! I already feel pumped. Let’s go out there an do this!!!! Oh wait, the Keynote hasn’t even started yet.

• Craig Stasila: 7:14 am on October 13, 2009

  

  • To enter a new market, business process have to change. SAP’s emphasis on Business Process Expert community will pay dividends.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:12 am on October 13, 2009

    Zia is giving an example using Dunder Mifflin as a “well-run company”. Perhaps he hasn’t seen The Office…

  • Craig Stasila: 7:11 am on October 13, 2009

    Zia is telling the conference attendees that we are the agents of change–A very person-centric focus.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:11 am on October 13, 2009

    

  • Craig Stasila: 7:10 am on October 13, 2009

    The world is changing. SAP is changing.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:09 am on October 13, 2009

    Change is constant. Michael Jackson gets a shout-out!

  • Craig Stasila: 7:09 am on October 13, 2009

    On the stage now: Zia Yusuf, Executive Vice President, Global Ecosystem & Partner Group, SAP

  • Craig Stasila: 7:08 am on October 13, 2009

    Inspirational Video: “Clarity is a necessity”.

    and

    SAP: “It’s time for a clear new world”

  • Craig Stasila: 7:06 am on October 13, 2009

    And away we go. Lights down. Check. Ominous Music. Check. Inspiring Opening Video. Check. Can you feel the excitement?

  • Craig Stasila: 7:05 am on October 13, 2009

    

    The crowd is filling in nicely.  Sorry guy-behind-me for accidentally flashing the camera in your face TWICE before I snapped one without the flash.

  • Craig Stasila: 7:03 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Uploaded from backup backup plan.  This is from my iPhone.  Doug, Adam, Tim say “hi”

  • Craig Stasila: 7:00 am on October 13, 2009

    Cell phones off, y’all!

  • Craig Stasila: 6:59 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Pictures will be slow, but here is a teaser

  • Craig Stasila: 6:57 am on October 13, 2009

    Five minutes to go. With me are Tim Cooper, Doug Foss, and our good friend Adam Blum from Grom & Associates

  • Craig Stasila: 6:55 am on October 13, 2009

    

    Here we go!

  • Craig Stasila: 6:49 am on October 13, 2009

    We had an awesome setup to capture pictures from the event, but it relied on the conference WiFi. We’re working on a backup solution now.

  • Craig Stasila: 6:48 am on October 13, 2009

    The conference public WiFi isn’t working. I have to be working on backup off of my Verizon Aircard, so posts may be a little slower.

  • Craig Stasila: 6:47 am on October 13, 2009

    First take from the keynote address. The welcoming music is horrible, but we’ll survive

  • Craig Stasila: 6:45 am on October 13, 2009

    Welcome to the DataXstream Liveblog of the SAP TechEd 09 Conference Keynote address

Head over to live.dataxstream.com on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 to get up to second updates from the show.  We will be getting our liveblog on starting at 8am PDT (that’s 11am for you right-coasters) for the general keynote session.  We’ll also be liveblogging from SAP TechEd 09 Demo Jam at 8pm PDT on Tuesday.  The Demo Jam promises to be a great time, so plan to join us online after you put the kiddies to bed!

This is our first foray into liveblogging.  Hopefully it will go off without too many technical glitches.  We hope you’ll enjoy following the events with us!

In the previous post, the setup of the JCO.Server class was explained. To actually do anything with this class, we have to override the handleRequest() method. This method gets called when ever the SAP system with the proper credentials contacts your server.

In the handleRequest() function, There are 2 important tasks that are almost always included:

1. Get the parameters for input, output, and table structures using the JCO.Function class
2. Checking the function name to make sure the right code is run

Here is an example of the basic setup:

protected void handleRequest(JCO.Function function)
{
    JCO.ParameterList input  = function.getImportParameterList();
    JCO.ParameterList output = function.getExportParameterList();
    JCO.ParameterList tables = function.getTableParameterList();
    if (function.getName().equals("BAPI_CUSTOMER_GETDETAIL"))
    {
       //code to retrieve and manipulate data
    }
}

The first task involves the JCO.Function class to extract objects into one of three different that correspond to import, export, and table structures in SAP. The first step is to convert them into the the JCO.ParameterList object. This object encapsulates all the different parameters for input, output and table structures.

For input and output parameters, scalar fields are very easy to set and get, and no conversion to JCO.Field is necessary.

input.getString("scalar_name");  //getting string
input.setValue("value","scalar_name")  //setting string

For structures, things get a bit more difficult. First, we need to get call our parameter list and get our structure with a JCO.Structure object and then use the basic set and get methods available to read and store data:

JCO.Structure js = input.getStructure("structure_name");
js.getString("name_of_field_in_structure");
js.setValue("value","name_of_field_in_structure");

For tables, It gets much more complicated. First, we need to get our table data from the JCO.ParameterList by calling the “getTable(String tablename)” method.

JCO.Table jtab = tables.getTable("tablename");

Once the JCO.Table object has the table reference desired, there are several methods to use to manipulate the data. The biggest hurdle in using the JCO.Table object is the internal row pointer system that is used. For instance, if you have an empty table, the first step to add data is to use the “appendRow()” method to create the row and set the internal row pointer to that row. Then, you can set the value of field in that row directly:

jtab.appendRow();
jtab.setValue("fieldvalue","fieldname");
jtab.setValue("fieldvalue","fieldname2");

It is possible to create more than one row at a time using the “appendRows(int rows)” method. In this case the internal table is set at first row that was appended, and you can move to the next row with “nextRow()” method. The “nextRow()” method also returns a boolean value that checks for the end of the dataset, so you can use it to loop through a table. Its also possible to access the row directly. The internal row pointer starts at 0 for the first row. I’ve listed out the most commonly used table functions below:

• isEmpty() – Returns true if the table is empty
• nextRow() – moves the pointer to the next row, returns false if at the end of the dataset
• previousRow() – moves the pointer to the previous row, returns false of at the beginning of the dataset
• isFirstRow() – Returns true of the pointer is on the first row
• firstRow() – Moves the pointer to the first row of the dataset
• isLastRow() – Returns true if the pointer is on last row
• lastRow() – Moves the pointer to the last row of the dataset
• getNumRows() – Returns the number of rows in the dataset
• getRow() – Returns the position of the row pointer
• insertRow(int row) – Inserts a row at the specified location
• deleteRow(int row) – Deletes a row at the specified location
• deleteAllRows() – Deletes all rows in the dataset
• setRow(int row) – Sets the row pointer to specified location

The next blog will tie all this information together and cover error handling.

The key Java object in JCO server programing is the JCO.Server, which is easy to use, but very powerful. At a high level, only these three things are needed to setup the server class:

1. extend the JCO.Server class
2. in your constructor, call one of the JCO.Server constructors
3. override the handleRequest(JCO.Function function) method

Below is an example of a basic server setup. When the Server is running, all requests coming from the configured SAP system, will be sent to the handleRequest() function

public class JcoServer extends JCO.Server { public JcoServer(String gwhost, String gwserver, String programid, IRepository repository) { super(gwhost,gwserver,programid,repository); } protected void handleRequest(JCO.Function function) { //code for the function goes here. explained later } }

To actually start the server, standard procedure is to write a wrapper class that will manage the starting and stopping the server, getting connection parameters, setting up the repository, etc.

The JCO.Repository Class The JCO.Repository class is an important object. This object stores the template for the function module you created, or in our case, borrowed, from inside of SAP. There are two different ways to create the JCO.Repository:

1. Create it Manually in java code with JCO.MetaData objects
2. Have the JCO.createRepository() function call SAP and return the function template for the import, export, and table structures automatically

In the code below, we are leveraging the SAP created repository . The repository keeps track of the function metadata, so as your server runs, it keeps the metadata of the calls in the repository. keep in mind that you are making an RFC call into SAP to get the information, so you will need the following authorization objects and function groups:

• authorization objects S_RFC, ACTVT:16, FUGR
• Function Groups RFC1, SDIFRUNTIME, SG00, SRFC, SUNI, SYST

The JCO.Client Class The JCO.Client class is need here because we are creating the repository from SAP automatically. If we were to build the metadata manually, we wouldn’t need it. We could also create connection pooling for this, but Its only for the metadata lookup, so I’m not doing it. I’m also using a properties file to create the client connection to SAP. This is quite useful and has several built in connection parameters. I’m just using the bare minimum here:

• jco.client.client SAP client
• jco.client.user Logon user
• jco.client.passwd Logon password
• jco.client.lang Logon language
• jco.client.sysnr SAP system number
• jco.client.ashost SAP application server
• jco.client.gwhost Gateway host
• jco.client.gwserv Gateway service

public class JcoWrapper { private JcoServer jcs = null;

public static void startServer() { java.util.Properties props = new java.util.Properties(); java.net.URL url = ClassLoader.getSystemResource(“sapconnection.properties”); props.load(url.openStream());

JCO.Client client = JCO.createClient(props);

IRepository repository = JCO.createRepository(“REP”, client);

JcoServer jcs = new JcoServer (“gwhost”, //gateway host, often the same as host “sapgw00″, //gateway service, generally sapgw+ “JCOSERVER01″, // corresponds to program ID defined in SM59 repository);

jcs.start(); }

public static void stopServer() { jcs.stop(); }

public static void main(String[] args) { this.startServer() ; }

}

So now we with parts 1 and 2 we have the ability to listen for SAP calls. Part 3 will deal with actually doing something with data we receive.

In this first installment, I will just cover basic architecture and connection needs. To create and run a java server successfully, we need the following two things:

• Proper connection Parameters
• A function template of your function in R/3

Proper Connection Parameters

In order to connect and use the JCo Server with R/3, the following items must be known:

• Gateway host – The SAP gateway server name or IP address
• Gateway Service Number – The service number is related to the SAP system number and starts at sapgw00
• Program ID – The Program ID must match the Program ID registered in SM59

This information is available most likely from a Basis administer. The RFC registration matching is a common problem. The a sample Program ID is shown below. This HAS to match the program ID you start your JCO.Server object with.

SM59 Registration Configuration

Functional Template

A JCo server needs to have the skeleton of the program in R/3. SAP cannot just call your external java program without the import, export, and table parameters defined within the system. Instead of creating a custom RFC for this example, I’ll use a pre-existing one. remember, we are only using the import, export, and table parameters, the code is running on our java server. The BAPI we are going to use is BAPI_CUSTOMER_GETDETAIL.

After these two things are in place, we are ready to start coding.

The next post will cover:

• JCO.Server Object
• JCO.Repository Object
• JCO.Client Object

The next posting is Server Programming in JCo Part 2