ABAP_to_the_Future

Summary 8.4
Therefore, if you work on the computer system of a zoo that contains only mythical
animals, say, then next week you might be ca lled upon to create a unicorn
business object in the SAP system. You could reuse the previous helper class as is
without looking at it. However, I would urge you to look at the examples in
which it’s used (in Section 8.2.9, mainly) and try to understand what’s going on.
It’s highly likely that during your work you’ll find yourself writing some code
that falls into the generic basket and can be abstracted into a new method of the
preceding class or to a different helper class if the code’s purpose is not database
relevant.
If you do find the need to do this, then when creating wrapper classes it makes
sense to change the parameter names of the wrapper methods so that they make
it a bit clearer to programmers callin g the custom method what was actually
required. As an example, the standard method asks for a node key, and you might
try to pass in the object key, when what isreally required is a GUID that indicates
what type of node you’re dealing wi th. Therefore, rename the parameter node
type. This is the adapter pattern: in this case, you’re adapting the standard SAP
parameter names into something easier for a human to understand.
For the same reason, it often makes sens e to rename the method names. If you
find yourself having to put a comment above a call to one of your custom methods
in order to explain what it does, yo u should rename the method to exactly
match the comment you have just written, and then get rid of the comment
(which is now redundant).
One or more wrapper classes takes away most of the pain of using BOPF, but in
some areas you’re still going to end up with more code than you’re used to.
8.4 Summary
This chapter discussed the new Busine ss Object Processing Framework (BOPF)
SAP applies to represent business object s such as sales orders and any custom
equivalents you may create. I’m going to have to leave it to you to experiment
with writing an application using BOPF an d seeing if there is less effort overall
than the traditional method; SAP certainl y believes this to be case, and I’m
inclined to agree.
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