Glossary: Glossary

Glossary

ABAP: See advanced business applications programming.
advanced business applications programming: A high-level language that is used for programming the SAP Web Application Server, part of its NetWeaver platform for building business applications. Its syntax is somewhat similar to COBOL. Short form: ABAP.
BAdI: See Business Add-Ins.
Business Add-Ins: Business Add-Ins are enhancements to the standard version of the system. They can be inserted into the SAP System to accommodate user requirements too specific to be included in the standard delivery. Since specific industries often require special functions, SAP allows you to predefine these points in your software.
Communications Interface: an interface through which various types of R/3 communication can occur. R/3 communicates with all systems that comply with Open Systems architecture. The Communications Interface enables users to work transparently with data from any one of several database management systems in any one of several operating environments. The Communications Interface also enables users to run R/3 in multiple operating environments.
CPI-C: Common Programming Interface-Communications. An application-level interface for direct program-to-program communication.
data dictionary: in R/3 applications, a central repository that stores metadata about the data sources, such as a database that contains information about company expenses and company profits or a database that contains human resources information. The data dictionary also stores information about the applications that use the data sources.
data model: a collection of data that is relevant to a particular facet of a specific business, such as finance or materials management. A data model can contain other data models. A data model is used to organize potentially complex relationships between entity types and other data models.
Database Interface: in SAP R/3, a logical application layer that is used to transport data between one or more physical databases and the R/3 applications. The R/3 Database Interface translates R/3 SQL statements into pure SQL statements and enables R/3 to access data that is in other database formats.
Enterprise Resource Planning system: an integrated application that controls day-to-day business operations such as inventory, sales, finance, human resources, and distribution. From the warehousing perspective, ERP systems differ from standard databases in that they have predefined data models that must be understood in order to successfully extract the data. Short form: ERP system.
entity: in SAP R/3 applications, an abstract or physical object, such as ''Mr. Brown'' or ''Division Management Subsystem,'' which represents the smallest collection of data that has meaning within a business. An entity is categorized according to its entity type properties. See also entity type.
entity type: in R/3 applications, a category of entities that have the same definable characteristics. The definable characteristics are called attributes. Multiple entity types can be grouped into a single table. See also entity.
ERP system: See Enterprise Resource Planning system.
R/3: an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that has been developed by SAP for use in client/server environments.
RFC: Remote Function Call. The RFC is the SAP implementation of a remote procedure call. RFCs enable external applications such as SAS and R/3 systems to access SAP BW and R/3 systems.
SAS data set: a term that describes what is typically referred to as a table in database management systems. There are two types of SAS data sets: SAS data files and SAS data views. SAS data files contain data values in addition to descriptor information that is associated with the data. SAS data views contain only the descriptor information plus other information that is required for retrieving data values from other SAS data sets or from files whose contents are in other software vendors' file formats.
sideinfo file: a text file that can be used to set logon parameters such as RFC host, system number, gateway service, and gateway host, for R/3 users.
variable: a column in a SAS data set or in a SAS data view. The data values for each variable describe a single characteristic for all observations.
view: a generic term (used by many software vendors) for a definition of a virtual data set (or table). The definition is named and stored for later use. A view contains no data; it merely describes or defines data that is stored elsewhere. See also SAS data view.

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