Introduction to RAP

SAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) is SAP's strategic development framework for building enterprise applications in SAP S/4HANA and ABAP Cloud.

RAP provides a model-driven approach that separates data modeling, business logic and service exposure, enabling developers to build Fiori applications faster and with less custom code.

Traditional ABAP development required developers to manually create database tables, business logic, OData services and UI integrations.

RAP simplifies this process through a model-driven architecture that automatically generates much of the required application framework.

• CDS View Entities – Define the business data model.
• Behavior Definitions – Define business behavior.
• Behavior Implementations – Implement custom logic.
• Service Definitions – Expose business objects.
• Service Bindings – Publish OData services.
• Fiori Elements – Generate enterprise UIs.

Every RAP application starts with a CDS View Entity that represents the business data model.

define root view entity ZI_EMPLOYEE
  as select from zemployee
{
  key employee_id,
      first_name,
      last_name,
      department
}

RAP follows a layered architecture that separates responsibilities between data modeling, business behavior and service exposure.

In the next lesson, we will explore CDS View Entities, which form the foundation of every RAP Business Object.