This year you can expect to see a variety of sessions touching on the Web Dynpro ABAP topic at TechEd. In this blog, I will point out some of the key sessions covering Web Dynpro ABAP as well as provide some content you might want to review before arriving at TechEd.
Track Structure
The first major change that is effecting Web Dynpro ABAP content at TechEd this year is that there is no longer a User Productivity track. Instead this year, User Productivity topics are mostly a sub track within Custom Development. If you remember back to TechEd 2009, we had some Web Dynpro ABAP sessions in Custom Development and some in User Productivity. This was done only because of internal budgets during the TechEd planning process, but led to confusion among attendees that were looking for unified track of Web Dynpro ABAP education.
So this year you can view all the Web Dynpro ABAP related content within the Custom Development Track:
Las Vegas
Berlin
The other major change this year was the expansion of Web Dynpro ABAP content. New sessions were added and lectures were expanded from 1 to 2 hours. I will discuss some of this new material in detail in a moment, but first let's talk about what we had to cut. In order to make room for all the new material, we did have to cut something from previous years.
Introduction To Web Dynpro ABAP
We have been presenting the introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP since 2005. Therefore it became a prime target for our reduction efforts. In past years we have conducted a 1 hour lecture and a 4 hour hands-on for the introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP. The slides and presentation material are the same between these two sessions and often attendees went to both.
Therefore we made a decision to no longer offer the 1 hour lecture version. As many customers are still just experiencing Web Dynpro ABAP for the first time as their companies upgrade we want to support their efforts. The 4 hour hands-on will remain. It is session CD160 (Las Vegas / Berlin). We believe that the time spent hands-on with the development environment is one of the best ways to learn the tool.
We didn't completely discard the lecture version of the materials, however. Instead we decided the best way to service those who wish to begin learning Web Dynpro ABAP is to provide these materials as eLearning Videos all the time (for free) on SDN. Here are links to this eLearning series:
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 1
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this first part we begin by explaining the motivations in the design of Web Dynpro.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 2
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this second part we discuss the Web Dynpro ABAP programming model.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 3
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this third part we learn about the View and placing UI elements on the screen.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 4
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this fourth part we explor how to model data in the context and respond to events with event handler methods of the controller.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 5
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this fifth part we expand our project to include the Component Controller, Context Mapping and multiple Views.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 6
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this sixth part we look at multiple component usage and navigation plugs.
Introduction to Web Dynpro ABAP: Part 7
This eLearning explains in depth the Web Dynpro programming model and how to develop Web Dynpro applications within the ABAP workbench. In this seventh and final part we explorer integration possibilities in the form of NetWeaver Portal, NetWeaver Business Client, Interactive Forms by Adobe and Flash Islands.
New and Expanded Web Dynpro ABAP Sessions
If we look at the rest of the Web Dynpro ABAP session offerings at TechEd this year, you will see that there are many new and expanded session. CD105 (Las Vegas / Berlin) will once again focus on the delta features of NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 1 and 2, but this year has been expanded to 2 hours. This should provide more time for additional details on the Floorplan Manager and Islands technologies as well as expanded demos and a look at the future roadmap.
CD163 - Creating Mashup User Interfaces with the New Web Dynpro ABAP Page Builder (Las Vegas / Berlin) is one of two new sessions this year that focus completely on Web Dynpro ABAP. In this two hour hands-on session you will get your first opportunity to use the new Page Builder framework that will ship with NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 2.
CD203 - Best Practices for Designing Web Dynpro ABAP User Interfaces (Las Vegas / Berlin) is a new 2 hour lecture designed for experienced WDA developers who want to learn from some of SAP's best practices for the UI design as well as technical architecture and performance of large scale Web Dynpro ABAP applications.
In addition, there are several other sessions that will have interaction with Web Dynpro ABAP related topics. If you are a Web Dynpro ABAP developer or want to become one, we would also suggest the following sessions:
CD102 - SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe: Enhancements and New Developments
Las Vegas / Berlin
CD103 - Choosing the Right UI Technology for the Right Project
Las Vegas / Berlin
CD164 - Using SAP NetWeaver Business Client
Las Vegas / Berlin
CD217 - Building Interactive UIs Utilizing Page Builder and SAP BusinessObjects
Xcelsius in SAP NetWeaver Business Client
Las Vegas / Berlin
CD264 - Creating Online and Offline Form Processing Scenarios with Adobe forms and Web Dynpro for ABAP
Las Vegas / Berlin
CD266 - ABAP Development: Update Your Skills to SAP NetWeaver 7 and Beyond
Las Vegas / Berlin
This session always focuses on new development techniques at each layer (Persistence/Business Logic, Services Consumption/Provisioning, User Interface) as well as how the layers interact with one another. This year for the UI layer we will focus on the Web Dynpro ABAP Floorplan Manager and Generic UI Building Blocks via Feeder Classes.
