What are APIs? APIs operate similarly to pizzerias. You don’t need to know how to make a pizza or where to procure the ingredients. You walk in (or use an app), select the toppings from the list, and then magically get a pizza based on your selection. If the toppings you want are not on the list, you need to go to another pizzeria.
In SAP, historically the BAPIs (special kind of a function module) served as APIs. Some global classes and web services can also be considered APIs. The APIs in SAP have been notoriously poorly documented or even behaving in the way they’re not supposed to.
In most SAP projects, the main challenge is how do you make SAP to execute business transactions and do stuff in general. And for that you need the APIs. The developers have been asking “where are the APIs?” way before this and this 2014 blog post. And we are still asking in 2022. Even though API Hub has been a significant improvement over nothing, there are still challenges, such as:
- Web APIs are not always helpful, e.g. you wouldn’t call them from an ABAP program. There is no API Hub equivalent for non-web APIs.
- There is SAP functionality that does not have API coverage.
- The feedback opportunities are limited to the SAP Influence website that tends to operate like a black hole.
Without the APIs, any platform would be like a Netflix app without the movies. This is kind of a big deal. And it’s time for the software buyers to start asking about the APIs too. JP
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