This year, ABAPConf – the prime event for SAP ABAP developers – took place in person across several locations in Germany and Austria, in addition to the usual YouTube livestream. I had the privilege of attending and presenting in beautiful Vienna, where the energy in the room was a great reminder that the ABAP developer community is very much alive, curious, and evolving.
ABAPConf delivered a mix of practical sessions and forward-looking insights that made the trip well worth it. My presentation was about SAP EWM for developers (replay available here and slides here) and based on the feedback, the topic is probably worth its own article. But in this post, I’d like to highlight a few other topics from the conference that ABAP developers should pay close attention to.
CDS Views Are Multiplying
It feels like only yesterday we had just the classic ABAP CDS views – but those have already been replaced by view entities, and now there is even more coming in the new release.
The session CDS-only Data Modeling – Harnessing New ABAP CDS Object Types for Modern RAP Applications was presented by SAP’s Katharina Altrichter and Matthias Herchenröther in Vienna and included multiple examples. The CDS table entity is one of the new types, aligning with the Clean Core strategy to avoid direct access to database tables.
There were also some updates related to buffering management, but I found that the general approach remains unchanged: buffering works best with small datasets that are updated infrequently.
XCO Library
This is an intriguing topic that remains almost unknown among ABAP developers. To be fair, it hasn’t been widely advertised, and most of the available content is from Björn Schulz, who presented on this in Mannheim.
So, what is the XCO library, and why should you care? While the concept of a “library” is common in many programming languages, it hasn’t really been used in ABAP. Official documentation can be found here, but in layman’s terms, it’s a collection of global classes that provide predefined types and utility APIs.
Just some of the examples of what you could do with XCO classes.
- Create UUID (this previously required the use of a function module)
- Perform string operations (e.g. convert to upper case)
- Handle date/time conversions
- Work with data in JSON format
There’s quite a bit of useful functionality, and it’s great to have it consolidated in one place instead of spread across random packages. One downside is that using XCO can sometimes result in more verbose code, which might be a tough sell to some developers. Still, I’d encourage you to explore the XCO classes, which may already be available in your S/4HANA system.
Design Patterns in ABAP
This isn’t a new topic, but interest in object-oriented ABAP has grown as SAP customers recognize that outdated practices don’t support innovation well.
These days, job descriptions for ABAP developers often highlight the need for expertise in object-oriented design. And while many developers are familiar with classes and methods, designing something is a different skill than, say, implementing a BAdI.
The presentation Smart ABAP: Design Patterns for Real-world Scenarios by George Drakos was especially timely. He shared examples of common patterns and explained how they act as implementation templates for specific use cases. Think of them like sewing patterns: there are templates for shirts, pants, and skirts. Choosing the right one lets you produce the right outcome with less effort.
If you’re interested in patterns in ABAP (as you should be), I also recommend the excellent series by well-known SAP Community member Naimesh Patel, available on his website.
Conclusion
ABAPConf wasn’t just a showcase of the latest trends – it was a call for action. If you’re still not comfortable with OOP in ABAP or hesitant about trying RAP or XCO, the message was clear: start now. The pace of change isn’t slowing down, and the best way to future-proof your career is to master the foundations and build on them continuously.
