SAP White Paper

mySAP TECHNOLOGY
™

WEB DYNPRO:
PROFESSIONAL
WEB-BASED
USER INTERFACES
VERSION 1.2
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CONTENTS
mySAP TM Technology for Open E-Business Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Web Dynpro Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Usability of Web Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Support for Multiple Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Support for Multiple Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Support for Multiple Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Rapid Adaptability and Effective Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Customization and Personalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
– Appropriate Method of Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
– Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Architecture and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
– The Design-Time Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
– The Runtime Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
– Portability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Migrating Dynpro-Based Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Document History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Version 1.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3
 mySAP TECHNOLOGY FOR OPEN E-BUSINESS INTEGRATION

mySAP TM
TECHNOLOGY FOR OPEN E-BUSINESS INTEGRATION
To gain a sustainable competitive advantage, companies need
to drive collaborative business. And to implement collaborative
business, companies need to integrate their existing heteroge-
neous IT landscapes and extend this integration to their busi-
ness partners, customers, and suppliers. This integration will
then create an open platform that provides existing applica-
tions as Web services and enables cross-applications – a new
type of application that combines existing and new Web services
that cross functional, technical, and organizational boundaries.
As companies implement collaborative business, mySAP TM Tech-
nology enables them to manage heterogeneity and powers
collaborative solutions. It does so for several reasons:
• mySAP Technology is a native Web infrastructure based
on open standards for reliable e-business solutions. It
is designed to operate in heterogeneous environments,
integrating any application from any vendor based on any
technology.
• mySAP Technology powers enterprise, cross-boundary appli-
cations, and collaborative business processes based on one
common infrastructure for integration within and beyond
company boundaries.
• mySAP Technology features syndicated Web services,
allowing for the integration of people, processes, and
information based on shared collaboration knowledge.
And mySAP Technology does all this while protecting existing
investments and achieving the lowest possible cost of owner-
ship. mySAP Technology is the foundation of SAP ® R/3 ®
Enterprise, all mySAP.com® solutions, and cross-applications.
With mySAP Technology, SAP solves the integration challenge
from a business perspective.

[1] mySAP Technology

A Web Services Architecture for Open E-Business Integration

[2] SAP Enterprise Portal [5] Security

People-Centric Collaboration Secure Business in Open Environments
[7] Web Dynpro
Professional Web-Based
User Interfaces
[8] SAP Business Information
Warehouse [6] IT Landscape Management
Structured Information Integration Life-Cycle Management of Distributed Environments
[3] SAP Web
Application Server
Reliable Web Services
Provision
[4] SAP Exchange Infrastructure
Process-Centric Collaboration [9] Globalization
Meeting Local and Global Requirements

5
mySAP TECHNOLOGY FOR OPEN E-BUSINESS INTEGRATION

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The key building blocks of mySAP Technology are:
• SAP ® Enterprise Portal: Integrating people and unstruc-
tured information to empower individuals
• SAP ® Business Information Warehouse: Integrating
structured information to make smarter decisions
• SAP ® Exchange Infrastructure: Integrating processes
to drive end-to-end collaborative business processes
• SAP ® Web Application Server: A reliable infrastructure
for portals, warehouses, exchanges, and all application com-
ponents, providing Web services in Java 2 Platform, Enterprise
Edition (J2EE), and ABAP through open standards
• Web Dynpro: To design and operate powerful presentation
logic for professional, highly interactive user interfaces
• Infrastructure services: Powerful and integrated services,
including security, IT landscape management, and globali-
zation
This white paper is part of a series of nine white papers explain-
ing the architecture and vision of mySAP Technology. This
white paper describes SAP’s Web Dynpro technology and ex-
plains how professional, highly interactive user interfaces can
be designed using this open, standards-based environment.
The figure on the previous page lists all nine white papers.

6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
New, native Web technologies, such as SAP ® Web Application
Server, include flexible, server-side scripting technology. But
that is not sufficient to create and maintain platform-inde-
pendent, fast, and highly interactive user interfaces that are
consistent through several applications. Therefore, SAP Web
Application Server uses Web Dynpro technologies to handle
the presentation logic of business Web applications. As an inte-
gral part of SAP Web Application Server, Web Dynpro technolo-
gy is a powerful presentation layer for creating easy-to-use user
interfaces that are fast, easy to develop, and provide a low cost
of operations.
Web Dynpro provides a design-time environment that is inde-
pendent of the underlying runtime environment and enables
companies to model and design user interfaces cost-effectively
and precisely. Web Dynpro is backed by rich usability patterns,
exploits information about business data types, and runs on
multiple devices, networks, and platforms. Web Dynpro’s
design-time tools are integrated into the development environ-
ment that is an integral part of SAP Web Application Server.
Executive Summary
Web Dynpro provides additional services for easy deployment
and maintenance, as well as device independence and inter-
nationalized support of browser-based interfaces. Caching
mechanisms guarantee fast response for highly interactive user
interfaces.
In all these ways, SAP supports the development and operation
of Web applications and Web services for professional user inter-
faces. Companies can use their favored runtime environment
and any Web browser to run their business Web applications.
Through Web Dynpro, SAP makes the benefits of a powerful
environment for user interface development available to devel-
opers using Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), ABAP TM,
and Microsoft .NET.
7
WEB DYNPRO TECHNOLOGY
WEB DYNPRO TECHNOLOGY
SAP Web Application Server is a scalable and reliable com-
ponent platform. It supports the development and operation
of both J2EE and ABAP-based Web applications, as well as Web
services. For more information on the SAP Web Application
Server see the white paper entitled SAP Web Application Server:
Building Reliable Business Applications.
Web Dynpro provides a design-time environment that allows
companies to model and create browser-based user interfaces.
This environment leverages their ability to build cost-effective
and easy-to-use user interfaces for all kind of business
solutions.
Web Dynpro also provides a standards-based runtime environ-
ment that is device agnostic and bridges the gap between
different platforms like J2EE, ABAP, and .NET, different Web
browsers, and different mobile devices. This environment sup-
SAP Web Application Server
Web Dynpro
Meta Model
J2EE ABAP
Figure 1: Web Dynpro: Integral part of the SAP Web Application Server
8
ports location-independent rendering so that the decision
whether to create the user interface on the client or on the
server can be made dynamically and automatically at runtime
based on client capabilities, computing power, or network
bandwidth availability.
SAP's Web Dynpro technology closes the huge gap between
typical Web development tools and the need for cost-effective,
responsive, easily adaptable, maintainable, and professional
browser-based user interfaces for business solutions. Web Dyn-
pro technology uses declarative design principles similar to
SAP’s Dynpro technology. In fact, companies will be able to
migrate existing Dynpros into the new world of Web Dynpro.
However, Web Dynpro goes far beyond the original Dynpro
technology. Web Dynpro is a completely new technology
designed for Web applications.
Web Dynpro provides a design-time environment and a stan-
dards-based runtime environment. In the design-time environ-
ment, developers construct a user interface on a unified meta-
model layer. Runtime objects and services are generated for
the different Web Dynpro runtime platforms – J2EE, ABAP,
or.NET – from this meta-model layer.

THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Most Web applications lack the comfort and usability of familiar
PC software packages. They offer little or no help on entering
data in the right format. Web applications usually don’t honor
locale settings, forcing users to provide a date in exactly the
format demanded – not the one they actually use. There is no
such thing as a defined tab order to allow users to switch bet-
ween entry fields quickly and conveniently. Error handling is
often poorly implemented, forcing users to reenter a lot of data
if they make an invalid entry somewhere. And Web applications
usually don’t provide a stable, consistent user interface so after
each data submission users are prompted with a completely
new Web page. They rarely maintain context or state.
Web applications do not fail to provide a state-of-the-art user
interface because of technical limitations. The real reason is the
immense effort required to develop and maintain user inter-
faces with typical Web development tools. When it comes to
working with mission-critical business data and exposing core
business processes in a Web browser, they simply fall short.
REQUIREMENTS
A professional Web application development and runtime
environment requires the following capabilities.
Support for Multiple Devices
To let an entire company and ecosystem participate in collabo-
rative business scenarios, a subset of the Web services (at least)
must be enabled for Web browsers on desktop PCs and mobile
devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones,
or touch-screen devices. Companies need a common program-
ming model, a common development environment, and a
common runtime environment to cost-effectively develop
applications for multiple platforms.
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Requirements
Support for Multiple Networks
Collaborative business scenarios cross the borders of local area
networks and globally connect business partners via the Inter-
net, virtual private networks, and satellite connections, and
they potentially access Web services through mobile devices.
Connections like these demand Web applications that reduce
bandwidth requirements and minimize the number of server
round-trips.
Support for Multiple Platforms
Companies have made huge investments in a multitude of
hardware and software platforms. That means server platform
independence is critical for every Web technology that tries to
integrate itself into any existing infrastructure. Therefore, SAP’s
high-level Web programming environment supports ABAP and
J2EE, and it will be open to support new technologies, such as
Microsoft .NET.
Rapid Adaptability and Effective Maintenance
Companies must be able to rapidly adapt business processes
to meet changing requirements. A Web development environ-
ment for Web services has to offer ways to easily and efficiently
change the look, feel, and behavior of applications. And the
adapted Web service has to be redeployed instantly.
Customization and Personalization
User interfaces need to fit the business processes, as well as
individual requirements and preferences. The look and feel of a
Web application needs to be adjusted to suit corporate branding
and the flow of user interaction. To preserve the ability to easily
upgrade Web applications and to support modification-free
branding, customization, and personalization, presentation
logic, and business logic must be strictly separated. A declara-
tive programming model helps to achieve that separation.
9
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Requirements
Architecture and Features
Appropriate Method of Interaction
Point-and-click functions provide good interaction for, say, a
Web shop. But professional users like call center clerks entering
customer orders while on the phone often prefer a consistent,
more keyboard-based user interface that supports efficient data
entry, improved focus handling, defined tab ordering, and
flicker-free screen updates. Maintaining a consistent look and
feel on the process, application, and simple or complex screen
level requires adequate tools for choosing and implementing
sophisticated usage patterns.
Globalization
Working in global markets means working with people of all
nationalities. Customers and partners expect a company to
adapt to their language and culture, not vice versa. If a call cen-
ter crew speaks customers’ languages, so should the software
they use.
ARCHITECTURE AND FEATURES
Web Dynpro technology is an integral part of mySAP Tech-
nology and SAP Web Application Server. Business applications
built with this technology seamlessly integrate into SAP ® Enter-
prise Portal and can use the Web services provided through
SAP Web Application Server and SAP ® Exchange Infrastructure.
Even though the tools, services, and interfaces are streamlined
to operate in the mySAP.com® environment, the Web Dynpro
development and runtime components can potentially be used
in conjunction with arbitrary back-end or front-end infrastruc-
tures.
Web Dynpro operates on the server; no additional coding is
needed on the client device. The programming model is based
on portability, the design-time environment, and the runtime
environment.
10
• The Design-Time Environment
Presentation design, dialog logic, and business logic are sepa-
rated following the broadly accepted model-view-controller
(MVC) paradigm. This allows for a role-driven development
process that clearly separates user interface design from busi-
ness logic implementation.
• The Runtime Environment
A common service layer is available on each of the supported
platforms for processing applications. This layer provides
almost every standard, generic function found in a typical
business user interface.
• Portability
Web Dynpro applications are highly portable because Web
Dynpro uses a meta-model based on Extensible Markup
Language (XML) and location-independent rendering as the
foundation for the Web Dynpro runtime. The declarative
design-time environment generates the runtime code for
J2EE, ABAP, and .NET runtime environments.
The Design-Time Environment
Runtime platform abstraction is a main design criteria of Web
Dynpro. This requires backing as many development aspects
with metadata-based tools and exposing developers to as few
runtime platform specifics as possible.
When developers design an application, most of the metadata
(data types, screen definitions, process or dialog flow, and
validation rules) is known before implementation. Using
development tools to explicitly declare this information allows
applications to automatically derive code for different run-
time environments. This considerably reduces the amount of
manual coding, and it saves time and money on development,
customization, and maintenance.

The Web Dynpro tools, which are part of the integrated devel-
opment environment of SAP Web Application Server, support
the core functions. These functions include specifying dialog
flows, designing and composing views (for example, the graphi-
cal presentation of a page), modeling business data types, and
customizing all of these aspects. For more information, see the
white paper entitled SAP Web Application Server: Building
Reliable Business Applications.
Designing views allows developers to specify the graphical
representation of a screen or part of a screen, composing them
from user interface elements like buttons, edit fields, or tables.
These elements can be bound interactively to data sources
defined in a repository for business data types. Developers can
also flexibly group fields to field sets and define a view’s tab
order and many other layout aspects. View design can be spe-
cific to a class of devices, such as full-screen devices, quarter-
screen handhelds, or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
phones. Web Dynpro’s tools support these different form
factors and device capabilities so developers can design views
that use the most appropriate features of the device. However,
they use the same familiar set of controls whatever type of
browser or device they want to address.
Composing views involves assigning interaction patterns or
views based on templates to all the Web pages of an application.
Developers can also describe the relations between these views.
For example, a master-detail pattern can display a list of sales
orders in the master view and the detail properties of an order
in the detail view. The key of the selected order in the master
view determines which detail data is displayed on the detail
screen. This association is declared, and developers don’t need
to add glue code. Developers can also reuse composed views
(called ViewSets in Web Dynpro).
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features
Dialog flow specification with a graphical user interface
allows developers to design and modify the dialog flow im-
plemented by a particular Web application. Developers can
model a graph of an application’s dialog steps and the possible
sequences – or transitions – of these steps. This allows for easy
modification and adaptation to changing business require-
ments with little or no code modification.
A repository for business data types, which can be coupled
with existing metadata repositories, such as the data dictionary
in the ABAP environment, holds metadata to automatically
generate code for features relevant to data type, such as input
validation and value help.
Customization helps to adapt the user interface at a cus-
tomer site without changing business logic and ensures stability
during upgrades. Web Dynpro offers a catalog of different
customization proceedings for typical changes in the user
interface. Each proceeding provides a special, wizard-guided
approach to simplify the customization process. For example,
typical customization efforts include adding a company logo,
changing a layout, or entering default values.
The Runtime Environment
The runtime environment is based on the server-side scripting
programming model and platform-independent control
libraries. Web Dynpro also provides a set of runtime services
and framework components that reduce maintenance tasks
and improve performance, as well as users’ experience.
BEST-OF-BREED CLIENT FEATURES
Applications based on the lowest common denominator of
multiple target devices often perform poorly and have limited
functionality. Many applications only use a subset of current
standards. Differences in browser capabilities often lead devel-
opers to implement only what is possible on most browser
platforms, not on specific browsers.
11
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features
Web Dynpro does not follow the lower common denominator
approach to development. Instead, it encourages developers to
take advantage of the features of the targeted client device. But
this doesn’t mean that Web Dynpro applications are restricted
to a single type of device. Because of the declarative nature of
the Web Dynpro programming model, it can also support other
compatible devices. Incompatible devices can often be support-
ed with minimal configurations without breaking the func-
tionality of the supported devices. For example, a highly
responsive application written for Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.x will also work on a Netscape 4.x browser with no additional
configuration, but responsiveness may be reduced because of
different scripting capabilities. The same application may also
need to run on a handheld device, but this will require a
certain amount of modifications (such as view definitions,
adapting the process or navigation flow, rendering on the
server, and so on).
INPUT ASSISTANCE AND ERROR HANDLING
Making use of advanced Web browser capabilities is an essential
strategy of Web Dynpro. This approach allows clients to handle
many tasks without requiring a server round trip at all.
By using a declarative programming model, Web Dynpro can
provide metadata that is automatically made available at run-
time for interpretation on the client. For example, input vali-
dation is based on the declared business data type of the field.
Client-side scripting can interpret the metadata representing
this declared business data type to help users enter values in the
correct format. This check does not need to be processed on
the server, which noticeably improves responsiveness.
12
Web Dynpro uses the scripting capabilities of the browser for
other aspects as well, such as focus handling and support for
various input devices like mice, keyboards, touch screens, bar-
code scanners, and so on. Scripting also enables Web Dynpro to
achieve flicker-free screens – page content is updated without
visibly rebuilding the screen.
One of the difficult aspects of developing browser-based Web
applications involves properly handling error situations. Web
Dynpro provides automatic input assistance combined with
default error handling for many typical scenarios, including:
• Syntactic checks on the field level (like the date of a certain
format)
• Checks based on the declared business data type of a field
(such as material number) or custom code
• Combined checks based on not only a single data field, but
arbitrary sets of fields (like postal code and city)
• Semantic checks on multiple fields (like end date must be
after start date)
Error handling also automatically marks the erroneous entries
in fields and helps users correct the mistake by setting the
input focus to the erroneous field and providing suggestions,
for example.
 THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features

ROUND-TRIP AND BANDWIDTH OPTIMIZATION
Caching is a key element to increase the responsiveness of
browser-based Web applications. It is also one of the key per-
formance features of Web Dynpro. Because of the declarative
model, developers can create documents like screen layouts
or views at design or deployment time. This allows automatic
preloading and caching of these documents to improve the
response time.
Because of the strict separation of layout and content (as
shown in Figure 2), the framework supports location-inde-
pendent rendering (client-side versus server-side rendering).
In other words, depending on the capabilities of the client
device, an HTML page can be rendered either on the server
or the client.

Statistic Layout
(requested few times)

SAP Web Application Server

Product Overview
Web Dynpro Runtime
ID Description available

Choose a product from

Product Overview list to view the details.

ID Description available

10 ABC 40 yes
11 ABC Pro yes
User Client
12 ABC 50+ yes

Choose a product from

list to view the details.
Application
<Product
ID="11" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC Pro
</Description>
</Product>

<Product
ID="12" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC 50+
</Description>
</Product>

Dynamic Data
(requested more often)

Figure 2: Separation of Layout and Content

13
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features

As Figure 3 illustrates, a simple client (like an old browser or a
PDS browser) may not support client-side scripting or process
XML transformations so this client may require that the server
generate the HTML page before sending it to the browser. More
powerful browsers (the “advanced clients” in the figure) can
inject the content into the page on the client using XML and
JavaScript. This location independence is driven purely by con-
figuration and does not require modification to either the
application code or the presentation code. The Web Dynpro
runtime can inspect the capabilities of the client and automa-
tically decide on the right way to treat it. For example, a smart
browser may still have to be given server-side generated HTML
if a company disables client-side JavaScript.

Product Overview Web Dynpro Runtime

ID Description available

Chose a product from

list to view the details.
Data Merging

Product Overview Product Overview

ID Description available ID Description available
10 ABC 40 yes Simple 10 ABC 40 yes

User 11 ABC Pro

12 ABC 50+
yes
yes Client 11 ABC Pro
12 ABC 50+
yes
yes

Chose a product from Chose a product from

list to view the details. list to view the details.

<Product
ID="11" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC Pro
</Description>
</Product>

<Product
ID="12" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC 50+
Application
</Description>
</Product>

Product Overview
ID Description available

Chose a product from

list to view the details.
Data Merging

Product Overview
SAP Web
ID Description available

10 ABC 40 yes
Advanced Application
User 11 ABC Pro
12 ABC 50+
yes
yes
Client Server
Chose a product from
list to view the details.

<Product
ID="11" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC Pro
</Description>
</Product>

<Product
ID="12" Available="yes">
<Description>
ABC 50+
</Description>
</Product>

Figure 3: Web Dynpro and Client Devices

14

Another positive side effect of this process is the effective use
of the client browser’s cache. Views or layout definitions can
be cached and reused if the client can merge the content with
the layout. This reduces bandwidth and substantially boosts
performance. On top of that, Web Dynpro uses an efficient
delta mechanism that fetches only the updated content –
provided the client is powerful enough. In other words, only
a minimal set of the content data is transported between the
client and the server where feasible.
AUTOMATIC DATA BINDING TO APPLICATIONS
Web Dynpro can automatically bind data from the model to
the user interface elements that are displayed in the view. The
binding is backed by the information stored in the repository
for business data types. Data is transparently transported
between the view and the model. Still, application developers
can intercept the automated transfer and adapt the binding
to the actual needs.
Because it is backed by repository information, the model is
effectively protected from inconsistencies that result from
incorrectly entered data. Also, developers can focus on the
business semantics of data fields instead of spending time with
type checks and calling conversion functions.
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features
INTERNATIONALIZATION
With Web Dynpro, all parts of a Web application can be global-
ized and displayed in a location-dependent manner. For exam-
ple, labels for input fields can be automatically displayed in
different languages based on the translated texts maintained
in the business data type repository. Additional text data or
language-dependent images like icons are centrally maintained
in a globalization repository and are linked to translation tools.
Where necessary, developers can attach location-specific views
to an application to deal with a user’s cultural background and
aspects like writing direction. For detailed information about
internationalization aspects see the white paper entitled
Globalization: Meeting Global and Local Requirements.
Portability
The Web Dynpro technology is a design-time and runtime
environment based on a common meta-model description that
generators use to create the required runtime structures. Each
runtime offers the same set of user interface controls to render
the application; identical controls are maintained across all
runtime environments.
15
THE USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
Architecture and Features
Migrating Dynpro-Based Applications
Control libraries foster reuse and consistent design of Web
applications. To make it easier to support a number of devices
and browsers, Web Dynpro provides recognition capabilities.
SAP provides libraries of standard user-interface elements to
ensure the same look and feel across mySAP.com solutions and
applications within a company. It also offers more powerful
application patterns, which will form the basic means of reuse
for application developers. Different groups can provide their
own libraries that might enhance or vary the standard library
according to the situation, for example, for corporate branding.
Apart from the design aspect, libraries can encapsulate specific
aspects of a group’s business logic, such as retrieving a set of
data according to specific conditions.
And because Web Dynpro clearly separates application logic
from the user interface, Web Dynpro applications are portable
by design. Application logic can often become very complex
and specific; user interfaces are better built using a few, generic
principles. This makes the user interface an ideal candidate for
declarative instead of programmatic construction. With Web
Dynpro, developers will be able to create the user interface of
real-live applications with only a few lines of plumbing code.
16
MIGRATING DYNPRO-BASED APPLICATIONS
Web Dynpro technology leverages companies’ investments
in SAP technology by providing a migration path for existing
Dynpro-based applications, both for conventional SAP trans-
actions and Internet Application Components (IAC). This
allows unified maintenance of user interfaces for new and exist-
ing applications without rewriting older application code.
The benefit? One set of tools for creating, maintaining, cus-
tomizing, and personalizing screens. New user interface
elements introduced with Web Dynpro can be integrated into
migrated applications. Web Dynpro unifies automated data
entry functions and automatic testing of applications with
user interfaces.
For typical Dynpro-based applications, screens are converted
into the ABAP version of the Web Dynpro runtime environ-
ment. The other, programmatic parts of the Dynpro-based
applications remain unchanged. Of course, not every Dynpro
application can be successfully converted automatically, but
all applications running in SAP ® GUI for HTML can – and
that means the majority of the entire spectrum of SAP appli-
cations.

GLOSSARY
adapter: A component that eases the integration of existing
applications with other applications or the infrastructure. An
adapter provides technical connectivity and necessary business
logic.
ABAP TM: SAP’s object-oriented programming language and
environment for developing, deploying, and operating
mySAP.com application components.
application: A set of functions or Web services that is typically
delivered as a single component.
application programming interface (API): An interface that
applications use to offer Web services and to communicate with
each other.
Audit Information System (AIS): An SAP auditing tool that
improves the quality of system and business audits. AIS consists
of an audit reporting tree and is a structured, preconfigured
collection of SAP standard programs.
authentication: The process of identifying a person or system
component, usually as a prerequisite for allowing the person or
component access to a system.
biometrics: Automated method of verifying or recognizing the
identity of users of digital devices on the basis of certain physio-
logical characteristics, such as a fingerprint or iris pattern, or
aspects of behavior, such as handwriting or keystroke patterns.
Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPI ): ®
Open, stable, object-oriented interfaces through which the
capabilities of mySAP.com applications can be accessed. BAPIs
are independent of the technical realization.
GLOSSARY
business process: The execution of one or several Web services
in a controlled way, driven by one or several individuals or
events.
Business Process Modeling Language (BPML): A speci-
fication for the management of business processes that span
multiple applications, corporate departments, or business
partners and that go behind the firewall and over the Internet.
For more information, go to http://www.bpmi.org.
business scenario: A business process. In a business scenario,
more than one component provides Web services, more than
one person is involved, or business process control resides out-
side a single, service-providing component.
cascading style sheets (CSS): A simple mechanism for adding
style (for example, fonts, colors, or spacing) to Web documents,
typically in HTML.
channel: Collections of iViews that can be built into role-
related work sets defined by the administrator. End users can
drag the iViews contained in channels onto portal pages to
personalize the portal.
container-managed persistence (CMP): Simplifies the task
of writing entity beans because the container generates the
code to access the data source and manages the persistent state
of the bean.
code page: Defines the mapping between a character set and
a sequence of one or more bytes. The code page determines
the characters that can be used in programs and that can be dis-
played on output devices (for example, printers and terminals).
17
GLOSSARY
collaboration: Joint work and communication among people
and systems of a company – including business partners, sup-
pliers, and customers – to achieve a common business goal.
collaboration knowledge: Describes how collaboration
works by detailing process descriptions, business rules, Web
services, interfaces, roles, and so on.
Common Information Model (CIM): A model for describing
the overall management information in a network or enter-
prise environment. For more information, go to
http://www.dmtf.org/standards/standard_cim.php.
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA):
An open protocol for communication between distributed
objects.
Component Object Model+ (COM+): A component model
from Microsoft for communication between distributed
objects.
component: Software that provides application functions and
Web services. Components can be shipped and deployed inde-
pendently, and they have their own release cycle.
demilitarized zone (DMZ): Security zone that exists between
two networks. It allows connections between the networks
while preventing unauthorized access to the systems located
within the networks.
digital certificate: Digital document that acts as a user’s digi-
tal identification card on the Internet. Digital certificates are
used for authentication and for verifying digital signatures.
18
digital signatures: Security mechanism for protecting digital
data. The digital signature serves the same function for the
processing of digital data as a handwritten signature serves for
paper documents. It is based on public-key cryptography.
directory: Used to store and look up shared information.
Typically, directories are optimized for read access. In this
context, a directory is mainly used for information at con-
figuration time.
double-byte code page: Defines the mapping between a set
of characters and a sequence of one or more bytes. Some lang-
uages, such as Japanese, use more than 256 characters so the
complete character set for these languages cannot be mapped
using a single-byte code page. In a double-byte code page, a
character can be either one or two bytes long. For example,
in the Japanese code page (SJIS), if the first byte has a value
between 0x81 and 0x9F, then the second byte is also part of the
representation of the current character. Otherwise, only one
byte is used to identify a character.
Drag&RelateTM: Trademarked name for the user operation
that reaps the benefit of unification. Drag&Relate is a user
drag-and-drop action.
Dynamic Program (Dynpro): Screens elements of SAP trans-
actions. Dynpros are the combination of the screen and its
accompanying flow logic.
Eclipse: An open-source, extensible IDE platform for develop-
ing and debugging applications. Written entirely in Java, Eclipse
is designed to be a unified development environment, includ-
ing testing, performance tuning, and debugging in multiple
programming languages.

Electronic Business XML (ebXML): Framework for an open,
XML-based infrastructure that enables the global use of elec-
tronic business information in an interoperable, secure, and
consistent manner by all parties. It is sponsored by OASIS and
other groups. For more information, go to
http://www.ebxml.org.
electronic data interchange (EDI): A family of standards that
facilitate the electronic exchange of information among differ-
ent companies.
engine: Provides the runtime environment for dedicated func-
tions and Web services. Engines are part of components.
enterprise portal: A single point of entry to all information,
applications, and services that people need to do their jobs
according to their roles. Enterprise portals provide a way for
suppliers, customers, partners, and employees to access all rele-
vant content easily and securely and to participate in all types
of business processes.
eventing: The automatic passing of parameters from one iView
to one or more related iViews.
eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL): An open
specification that uses XML-based data tags to describe financial
statements for both public and private companies. For more
information, go to http://www.xbrl.org.
Extensible Markup Language (XML): The universal format
for structured documents and data on the Web, XML is increas-
ingly becoming the general standard document format of
structured data. For more information, go to
http://www.w3c.org/XML.
GLOSSARY
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT):
A specification for transforming XML documents into HTML
or other types of documents. For more information, go to
http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL.
Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI): A standard for
interfacing external applications with information servers, such
as HTTP or Web servers. FastCGI is a language-independent,
scalable, open extension to the CGI specification that provides
high performance without the limitations of server-specific
APIs.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): An open protocol for exchang-
ing files.
Generic Security Services-Application Programming
Interface (GSS-API): Application-level interface (an API) to
network security systems. GSS-API allows the integration of
security functions that are available from external security
products, such as strong authentication or encryption.
globalization: Strategy that addresses all of the enterprise
issues associated with making a company truly global. Glo-
balizing products and service involves integrating all of the
internal and external business functions with marketing, sales,
and customer support in the world market.
HR-XML: An independent, nonprofit organization dedicated
to developing and promoting standardized XML vocabularies
for human resources. For more information, go to
http://www.hr-xml.org.
19
GLOSSARY
HyperRelational Navigation Protocol (HRNP): A naming
protocol tunneled through HTTP. HRNP manifests itself as a
link behind data represented to users. This HRNP link contains
metadata about the source it is being dragged from and how it
relates to the target it is being related to by the user.
HyperRelational technology: Technology that leverages uni-
fication to pass data and context to the portal through HRNP.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The standard docu-
ment format for display in Web browsers.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): The open Internet
standard protocol that is used to exchange documents.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol with Secure Sockets Layer
(HTTPS): The secure variant of HTTP using Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL).
integrated development environment (IDE): A develop-
ment environment with easy integration into the development
and deployment process for applications. The Java IDE is used
for Java development.
Intermediate Document (IDoc): SAP document standard for
electronic document exchange.
impersonation: Acting on behalf of a user. A component
accesses another component, and the accessed component
assumes the access comes from a specific user.
Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Forum: A family of
global business requirements and specifications that result in an
open and interoperable foundation for online financial services.
For more information, go to http://www.ifxforum.org.
20
interface: An abstract definition of Web services. Interfaces
allow Web services that comply with these interfaces to be
accessed. The interface defines which information and data
must be provided to use a Web service and how the result of
the Web service will be made available.
internationalization: Provides the technical foundation to
enable programs to support multiple scripts and languages
without redesign or modification. Once a user has selected a
language environment, all programs transparently alter their
runtime behavior to meet the expectations of the user.
Internet standards: A common set of open standards used for
communication and integration over the Internet. Examples of
Internet standards are HTTP, XML, and WSDL.
iView: A self-contained, XML-based presentation element. A
well-defined set of interfaces displays content and the personal-
ization of the content elements presented as part of a portal
page.
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE): The standard for
developing multitier enterprise applications based on Java. This
standard has been defined by an open community, including
SAP, and is driven by Sun Microsystems Inc. For more informa-
tion, go to http://java.sun.com.
J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA): Defines standard Java
interfaces for simplifying the integration of enterprise applica-
tions with J2EE-based Java applications. With these interfaces,
Java developers can access existing databases, e-business applica-
tions, and legacy systems.

Java Message Service (JMS): Provides a consistent set of APIs
that gives developers access to the common features of different
messaging system products.
Java Management Extensions (JMX): A universal, open
technology for managing the adapted legacy systems, imple-
menting new management solutions, and plugging into those
of the future. JMX provides the tools for building distributed,
Web-based, modular, and dynamic solutions for managing
Java-based devices, applications, and service-driven networks.
JavaScript: A basic scripting language that allows Web authors
to create dynamic pages that react to user interaction.
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC): Provides uniform access
to relational databases like DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server,
and SAP DB.
Java Data Objects (JDO): An API for transparent database
access. Developers can write code in the Java programming
language that transparently accesses the underlying data store
without using database-specific code.
JavaServer Pages (JSP): Allows Web developers and designers
to rapidly develop and easily maintain information-rich,
dynamic Web pages. JSP technology separates the user interface
from content generation, enabling designers to change the
overall page layout without altering the underlying dynamic
content.
Kerberos: An authentication system that uses symmetric cryp-
tography to provide protection. For more information, go to
http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/.
GLOSSARY
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): A standard
protocol for accessing directory services. It is typically used to
retrieve organizational and user data, as well as other resources,
such as files and devices, in both the public Internet and corpo-
rate intranets.
localization: Making a product linguistically and culturally
appropriate to the target locale (country or region and
language) where it will be used and sold.
marketplace: Connect business communities and enhance
business processes by providing collaborative functions, stream-
lining operations, and improving efficiencies. Private market-
places are also called private exchanges.
messaging: Exchanging documents. Messaging is the transfer
of information among Web services that are provided by sepa-
rate components.
Microsoft .NET: A platform from Microsoft for XML-based
Web services. It includes tools to develop and deploy Web-based
applications. For more information, go to
http://www.microsoft.com/net.
model-view-controller (MVC): A design pattern for success-
fully and efficiently relating the user interface to underlying
data models. It is widely used by developers as a useful pattern
to reuse object code. It significantly reduces the time required
to develop applications with user interfaces.
nonrepudiation: The inability to deny having performed an
action. For example, a nonrepudiation service can prove that a
person sent a message to another person. In electronic business,
this can be achieved by using public-key technology.
21
GLOSSARY
NT LAN Manager (NTLM): The authentication protocol that
Windows NT uses to pass authentication information between
the client and server when logging on.
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Database (DB):
A low-level application programming interface for access to
different data sources. OLE DB provides SQL-based access and
other types of access to different data sources.
online analytical processing (OLAP): Enables users to easily
and selectively extract and view data from different points of
view. To facilitate this kind of analysis, OLAP data is stored in a
multidimensional database.
Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP): Standard used
by client applications to check whether digital certificates are
valid at the time of a given transaction. OCSP enables rapid ver-
ification of the revocation status of digital certificates.
Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS): A nonprofit, international
consortium that creates interoperable industry specifications
based on public standards like XML and SGML. For more infor-
mation, go to http://www.oasis-open.org.
personal digital assistant (PDA): A handheld information
appliance that offers multiple communication features, includ-
ing address book, personal information manager, cellular
phone, calendar, and networking capabilities. PDAs use several
different types of input technologies, including stylus, voice,
and keyboard.
public-key infrastructure (PKI): System that manages the
trust relationships involved with using public-key technology.
The role of the public-key infrastructure is to make sure that
digital certificates and certification authorities can be validated
and trusted.
22
Remote Function Call (RFC): An SAP standard protocol
for remote execution of functions and remote invocation of
methods of business objects. RFC is available on most operating
systems and programming languages.
repository: A storage area for shared metadata and informa-
tion. In this context, a repository is mainly used for information
at design time.
role: A collection of content that users need to access to do
their jobs. Roles are specific to individual groups of internal
and external users, and they match their specific tasks with
information or service needs.
RosettaNet: A consortium of high-tech companies working to
create and implement industrywide, open, e-business process
standards. For more information, go to
http://www.rosettanet.org.
SAP ® GUI: A universal client for accessing SAP functionality.
SAP GUI works like a browser. It gets information from the SAP
server like “what, where, when, and how” to display content in
its window.
SAP ® GUI for HTML: SAP client that dynamically emulates
the screen elements of SAP transactions in a Web browser by
automatically mapping them to HTML.
Secure Network Communication (SNC): SAP interface that
links SAP systems to third-party security products for authen-
tication and encryption.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): A standard protocol for trans-
mitting secure messages over the Internet using public-key and
private-key encryption.

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): An XML
security standard for exchanging authentication and autho-
rization information. For more information, go to
http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/saml.html.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): An open protocol
for exchanging electronic mail.
single-byte code page: Defines the mapping between a set of
characters and a sequence of one or more bytes. In a single-byte
code page (for example, ISO 8859x), each character is mapped
to a single byte. Therefore, a single-byte code page can only
contain a maximum of 255 characters. In ASCII-based code
pages, the first part of a code page table (0x20 Ox7F) contains
printable characters of the 7-bit ASCII character set (English
alphabet). The second half contains language-specific charac-
ters (for example, German umlauts or Greek characters).
single sign-on (SSO): Mechanism that eliminates the need
for users to enter passwords for every system that they log on
to. Single sign-on allows users to authenticate themselves once
and then log on to all the systems that operate in the single
sign-on environment without further intervention.
SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging information in
a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML-based
protocol that is typically used with HTTP. SOAP includes
conventions to represent method calls of objects or function
calls and the respective responses, as well as conventions to
represent standardized data types. For more information, go to
http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP.
SQL-J: A technology that enables a Java program to access a
database using embedded Structured Query Language (SQL)
statements.
GLOSSARY
time stamp: Time and date of an event converted from local
time to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC corresponds
to Greenwich mean time (GMT).
time zone: Set of rules that dictate the offset of the user's local
time from Coordinated Universal Time. The local time of a
particular user depends on the user's location. The offset of a
location from UTC depends on geography, region, or country
and the use of daylight saving time (DST).
Unicode: An international standard (see ISO/IEC 10646) that
assigns characters from virtually every language and script a
unique Unicode scalar value. Unicode currently defines more
than 90,000 characters, with room for more than one million
characters. Unicode includes all characters used in business-
relevant languages, as well as other symbols and icons. For
more information, go to http://www.unicode.org.
unification: Permits user-centric integration of data sources.
Using Drag&Relate, users can understand how information in
one unified source correlates to information in another unified
source.
unifiers: Leverages the application architecture, user interfaces,
security, and all customization inherent in an application while
surfacing the application with HyperRelational technology.
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
(UDDI): A sweeping industry initiative to create a platform-
independent, open framework for describing Web services,
discovering businesses, and integrating business services using
the Internet. Its purpose is to create an operational registry,
which is available today. For more information, go to
http://www.uddi.org.
23
GLOSSARY
virtual private network (VPN): A private data network that
uses the public telecommunication infrastructure while main-
taining privacy through security protocols.
Web-Based Distributed Authoring and Versioning
(WebDAV): An extension of the HTTP protocol that allows file
sharing over the Internet. It provides locking, property man-
agement, and remote file management capabilities, and it makes
Web resources work like standard, local file sharing.
Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM): A set of man-
agement and Internet standard technologies developed to unify
the management of enterprise computing environments.
For more information, go to
http://www.dmtf.org/standards/ standard_wbem.php.
Web service: A self-contained, modularized function, that can
be published, discovered, and accessed across a network using
open standards. It is the implementation of an interface by a
component, as well as an executable entity. To the caller or
sender, a Web service is a black box that may require input and
delivers a result. Web services provide integration within and
across enterprises on top of any communication technology
stack (asynchronous or synchronous) and in any format.
Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI): XML-based
interface to deliver automated, application-to-application
collaboration by describing the flow of messages exchanged by
a Web service in a particular process.
Web Services Description Language (WSDL): A specification
for describing Web services as a set of end points operating on
messages. For more information, go to
http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl.
24
Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I): Open
industry organization chartered to promote Web services inter-
operability across platforms, operating systems, and program-
ming languages.
Windows Message Instrumentation (WMI): An implemen-
tation of the DMTF WBEM initiative for Microsoft Windows.
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): A standard defined
by the WAP Forum, an industry consortium with such mem-
bers as Openwave, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, and Siemens. The
purpose of the standard is to enable wireless access to the Inter-
net and advanced telephony services. For more information,
go to http://www.wapforum.org.
Wireless Markup Language (WML): Part of the application
development environment of WAP. It is a markup language,
similar to HTML, for wireless devices like mobile phones.
work set: A collection of application screens and iViews on a
page or series of pages that allows users to better perform tasks
defined in their roles.
XML Common Business Library (xCBL): A cross-industry
XML component library for business-to-business e-commerce.
It was originally developed by Commerce One Inc. For more
information, go to http://www.xcbl.org.
XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL): A language
to express a shared vocabulary. It provides a way to define the
structure, content, and semantics of XML documents.
X.509: Widely used standard for digital certificates. The format
requires certain standard information (for example, an e-mail
address) to identify the owner and the issuer of the certificate.
 DOCUMENT HISTORY

DOCUMENT HISTORY
VERSION 1.2
• Information on Web Dynpro has been separated from the
SAP Web Application Server white paper.
• An executive summary has been added, describing key
benefits of Web Dynpro technology.
• A new overall figure is included.
• A section about migrating existing Dynpros has been added.
• This white paper reflects the relevant changes from the
updates of the other white papers in the series.

25
26
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