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Object Orientation | Its Uses

Date: 2010-02-09T21:39:00.000+05:30

What is Object Orientation?

In the past, information systems used to be defined primarily by their functionality: data and functions were kept separate and linked together by means of input and output relations.

The object-oriented approach, however, focuses on objects that represent abstract or concrete things of the real world. These objects are first defined by their character and their properties which are represented by their internal structure and their attributes (data). The behaviour of these objects is described by methods (functionality).

Objects form a capsule which combines the character to the respective behaviour. Objects should enable programmers to map a real problem and its proposed software solution on a one-to-one basis. Typical objects in a business environment are, for example, ‘Customer’, ‘Order’, or ‘Invoice’. From Release 3.1 onwards, the Business Object Repository (BOR) of SAP Web Applicaton Server ABAP has contained examples of such objects. The BOR object model will be integrated into ABAP Objects in the next Release by migrating the BOR object types to the ABAP class library. A comprehensive introduction to object orientation as a whole would go far beyond the limits of this introduction to ABAP Objects. This documentation introduces a selection of terms that are used universally in object orientation and also occur in ABAP Objects. In subsequent sections, it goes on to discuss in more detail how these terms are used in ABAP Objects. The end of this section contains a list of further reading, with a selection of titles about object orientation.

Objects

Objects are instances of classes. They contain data and provides services. The data forms the attributes of the object. The services are known as methods (also known as operations or functions). Typically, methods operate on private data (the attributes, or state of the object), which is only visible to the methods of the object. Thus the attributes of an object cannot be changed directly by the user, but only by the methods of the object. This guarantees the internal consistency of the object.
Classes

Classes describe objects. From a technical point of view, objects are runtime instances of a class. In theory, you can create any number of objects based on a single class. Each instance (object) of a class has a unique identity and its own set of values for its attributes.

Object References

In a program, you identify and address objects using unique object references. Object references allow you to access the attributes and methods of an object. In object-oriented programming, objects usually have the following properties:
Encapsulation

Objects restrict the visibility of their resources (attributes and methods) to other users. Every object has an interface, which determines how other objects can interact with it. The implementation of the object is encapsulated, that is, invisible outside the object itself. Inheritance You can use an existing class to derive a new class. Derived classes inherit the data and methods of the superclass. However, they can overwrite existing methods, and also add new ones.
Polymorphism

Identical (identically-named) methods behave differently in different classes. In ABAP Objects, polymorphism is implemented by redefining methods during inheritance and by using constructs called interfaces.
Uses of Object Orientation

Below are some of the advantages of object-oriented programming: · Complex software systems become easier to understand, since object-oriented structuring provides a closer representation of reality than other programming techniques. · In a well-designed object-oriented system, it should be possible to implement changes at class level, without having to make alterations at other points in the system. This reduces the overall amount of maintenance required. · Through polymorphism and inheritance, object-oriented programming allows you to reuse individual components. · In an object-oriented system, the amount of work involved in revising and maintaining the system is reduced, since many problems can be detected and corrected in the design phase.
Achieving these goals requires:

· Object-oriented programming languages

Object-oriented programming techniques do not necessarily depend on object-oriented programming languages. However, the efficiency of object-oriented programming depends directly on how object-oriented language techniques are implemented in the system kernel.

· Object-oriented tools

Object-oriented tools allow you to create object-oriented programs in object-oriented languages. They allow you to model and store development objects and the relationships between them.

· Object-oriented modeling

The object-orientation modeling of a software system is the most important, most time-consuming, and most difficult requirement for attaining the above goals. Object-oriented design involves more than just object-oriented programming, and provides logical advantages that are independent of the actual implementation.

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SAP Object and Properties | Polymorphism | Inheritance | Encapsulation

Date: 2010-02-09T21:36:00.000+05:30

Object Introduction

ABAP Objects has appeared with the version 4.0. of R/3 and has never stopped maturing since that time. It has now reached a level that makes it a real object oriented programming language that is worth learning. So if you are ready to see what this great technology is about, take a big breath and go on reading.
What is ABAP Objects

ABAP Objects stands for Object oriented ABAP. Compared to the traditional ABAP programming language, ABAP Objects represents an extension of ABAP that provides the language with the tools to support the object oriented programming paradigm.



What is object oriented programming?

To anyone who doesn’t know what object oriented programming is, the object orientation terminology might sound like it is yet another fancy concept that doesn’t serve any real purpose nor provide any real added value just like too many other concepts in computer sciences. More recent than the traditional procedural programming model in which the source code is arranged in procedures to help achieve some level of modularity, the object oriented programming builds on the basics of the existing procedural programming model to propose a radically more sophisticated and comprehensive programming model.

This model lets the analyst-programmer implement complex systems made up of numerous objects linked together or not and control the interactions between these objects. This characteristic of the object programming language constitutes a definitive advantage other traditional programming techniques as it becomes much easier to solve complex problems. As you have already understood, the notion of Object is at the center of the model. It is voluntarily a very general notion as its aim is to describe anything that has properties and functions. In this sense, the terminology object is not yet abstract enough because it bears some idea of concreteness while an object in the sense of object oriented programming might very well represent abstract things. In fact the notion of Object could have been advantageously replaced with the notion of Concept as the programming model we are going to see is able to manipulate any kinds of concepts and to make actual representations of them.
The object oriented programming model has three major characteristics. It assumes support for:
1. Encapsulation
2. Inheritence
3. Polymorphism

We are going to see in more details what these terms mean but keep in mind that these characteristics of object programming represent only the minimum key features that any object oriented programming language must implement. The object oriented programming is not limited to these characteristics. Also we are going to see here what these terms mean in a rather abstract way. We will become more concrete in the next sections of this article when you will have a better understanding of the key concepts of object programming.
1. Encapsulation

Encapsulation is the ability that an object has to contain and restrict the access to its members. We will see later that objects members may be either properties (data) or methods (functions) of the objects. Encapsulation is a key concept of object programming that ensures the autonomy and integrity of the objects.
2. Inheritance

Inheritance is the ability of an object to inherit the properties and methods of an other object. We will come back to this later as you need to have a good understanding of what an object really is if you want to apprehend this concept. Keep in mind for the moment that inheritence is the ability offered to objects to inherit properties from other objects and to form hierarchies. This characteristic leads to the creation of families of objects (just like families exist for humans) with parent objects and child objects. In this configuration, it is clear that child objects inherit some characteristics from their parent object.
3. Polymorphism

This somewhat barbaric term designates the ability of objects to redefine properties inherited from their parents. In other words, a method of an object may have different implementations (behaviours or forms) depending on the object that implements it. This characteristic of the object oriented languages is an important asset to implement abstract concepts which often make sense only in specific contexts.

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SAP HR | ALE | EDI | PP | MM | ABAP | ERP Interview Questions and Answers

Date: 2010-01-27T07:59:00.000+05:30

In the below links there are few questions and answers faced by my colleagues and friends in SAP Interview.

SAP HR Interview Questions
SAP MM Interview Questions
SAP ABAP Interview Questions
SAP  Interview Questions
SAP ERP Interview Questions


Keep Watching this space for more resources.Leave me a comment on this page on any specific resource if you need..

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Cost Component Split In FICO

Date: 2010-01-27T07:33:00.000+05:30

Can someone brief what is cost component split? What config is to be done?

In addition to standard iteration, price calculation enables you to calculate prices as a cost component split. This means that the output price of an activity type can be split into a maximum of 40 cost components. These cost components represent either:

Individual cost components (such as wages, salaries, or operating supplies) or the costs of complete cost centers (such as energy or maintenance cost centers).

The cost component split enables you to analyze which cost components are contained in the output prices of the activity types.

You can then control cost elements, cost element groups, and also entire cost centers in cost component splits. The corresponding cost center costs and the costs of the cost centers providing the activity are channeled into this cost component split. For example, if you have assigned the salary cost element to component 1 (salaries), then the system displays the salaries (for example, for a production cost center) in this cost component. If a plant maintenance cost center provides services to the production center, then the salaries for the plant maintenance cost center are assigned to this cost component.

Cost center splitting apportions activity independent costs to the activity types of the cost center. It does this by multiplying the total of the activity independent costs by the equivalence number of the activity type, and then dividing by the sum of the equivalence numbers. So if there are two activities, one with equivalence number 1 and the second activity has an eqivalence number of 2, then 1/3 of the activity independent costs will be apportioned to activity one, and 2/3 will be apportioned to activity two.

Activity independent costs are always fixed, so any variable costs will need to be planned as activity dependent costs.

Planned cost center splitting happens automatically when calculating the activity price. You can view what costs will be apportioned during activity price calculation by clicking on the Splitting menu item.

I've ran cost splitting against one cost centre. For this cost centre I know the planned activity rate (per hour) and the planned quantity (in hours) but the target cost calculated for the activity is slightly different to the result of these two multiplied together.

Is this calculation correct please?

Planned act. qty in period @ planned act. rate for period = target costs

If you have only one Activity for the cost center, then you do not need to run splitting. Just run activity price calculation. Splitting is required only if you are allocating the same costs to 2 or more activities.

The calculation is generally right. The other thing to check will be rounding of the time (mins/hours) and value.

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SAP Controlling FAQ

Date: 2010-01-27T07:32:00.000+05:30

CONTROLLING

Controlling: Controlling provides you with information for management decision-making. If facilitates co-ordination, monitoring and optimization of all process in an organization.

Features of Controlling: Cost Center Accounting, Activity Based Accounting, Internal Orders, Product Costing, & Profitability Analysis.

Controlling Area: Organization unit that represents a closed system Used for accounting purposes.

You can assign one or more company codes to one controlling area.

If you assign more than one company code to one controlling area, then you need to note the following.

1) Consistent Chart of a/c’s (Treat each cost element in all company codes in same way).
2) The Operative fiscal year variants in the company codes must match the fiscal year variant in controlling area.
3) You should execute period end closing in controlling for all company codes at same time.
4) The system only post reconciliation posting across company codes without taxes, which means that it cannot automatically create invoice.
5) Maintain controlling area - OKKP .
6) Maintain no. ranges for controlling documents - KANK
7) Maintain versions - OKEQ

COST ELEMENT ACCOUNTING

Cost Elements: Cost Elements Describe the origin of costs. Cost element classifies the organization valuated consumption of production factors within a controlling area.

Primary Cost Elements: These arise through the consumption of productions factors that are sourced externally. Primary cost elements are used for direct posting and must be accompanied in GL a/c’s in FI.

T-code : KA02 : The categories are follows 1) General primary cost element, 03 - Imputed cost element percentage method 4 - Imputed cost element, target = Actual Method, 11- Revenue elements, & 12 - sales deductions.

Secondary Cost Elements: Cost elements arise through the consumption of production factor’s that are provided internally i.e., by enterprise itself. Secondary cost elements are used strictly for internal controlling posting like assessments and settlements. T-code - ka06

Category: 12 - internal settlements, 31 - Result analyses, 41 - overhead’s, 42 - assessments etc. Cost Element Group - kah1

COST CENTER’S

Cost Center’s: Organizational Unit within a controlling area that represents a defined location of cost incurrence. The definition can be based on 1) Functional Requirement, 2) Allocation criteria, 3) Physical location and 4) Responsibilities for cost.

Change Cost center hierarchy - OKEON
Creation of Cost Center - KS01

Distribution: Was created to transfer primary costs from a sender cost center to receiving controlling objects. Distribution is primary cost elements.
Define Distribution - KSV1
Execute “” - KSV5

Assessment: Was created to transfer primary and secondary costs from a sender cost center to receiving controlling objects.
During assessment, the original cost elements are summarized into assessment cost elements (secondary cost element, category=42).

Define Assessment - KSU1
Execute Assessment - KSU5

Activity Types: Categorizes productions and services activities provided by a cost center to the organization and used for allocating costs for internal activities to the originates of the costs.

Creation of Allocation Cost elements - KA06
Creating/Maintaining the Activity types - KL01

Statistical key figures: Are used as the basis (tracing factor) on which to make allocations (assessments & distributions) and to analyze structural key figures.

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