SAP has a number of programs for software developers, none of which are easy or cheap. Unlike most other major software vendors, it seems as if SAP is almost trying to push away developers.
There is a terrific website (for SAP) called SDN, which includes a wealth of information for SAP development projects ranging from Mobile to Business Process. From this site, you can download trial editions of SAP and developer editions of SAP. Apparently, there is a difference. The problem with these systems is that they are empty, and therefore not very useful.
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| SAP ABAP 7.02 Trial |
How am I supposed to demonstrate any integration scenarios when there is nothing to integrate with?
SAP does have this system called IDES or Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System. However, this again has a terrible flaw. It is only for customers or partners! Wouldn’t a potential customer or partner be the proper audience for an evaluation? In any case I cannot get one for less than a few years of salary.
We’re going to have to work with the development system the best we can.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any extra servers sitting around my home to install SAP on. So I used the EC2 Cloud Computing service from Amazon. I followed this blog: Install SAP on Amazon Web Services
With a few tweaks I was able to get the system up and running. So far I have spent less than $50 to install and host this server. Far less than the SAP offering, RAC, which charges 1167 Euros per month for a short trial.
A few quick pointers on the Amazon Cloud SAP installation:
- Get a cloud system with EBS (permanent storage). If you don’t, when you hit stop, all of your SAP installation will be gone.
- Use a service like dyndns.org. The Amazon IP address constantly changes.
- Use a Windows 2003 i386 (not x64) image. Otherwise you will have to start over like I did.
Now that the server is installed I should be able to start integrating some mobile applications. I doubt a little bit how useful they will be without a proper business scenario. Unless of course someone has an IDES to lend me?
