Introduction to SAP BAPI

BAPI (Business Application Program Interfaces) is a standard method of SAP Business Object that enables users or customers and third parties to integrate their software component with SAP R/3 system. The SAP BO (Business Object) is held in the Business Object Repository (BOR) that encapsulates their data and processes. External access to the data and processes is only possible by means of specific methods.
For example, we have SAP Business Object type “Material“. This BO includes method to check the material’s availability. Thus, the Business Object type “Material” offers a BAPI called “Material.CheckAvailability“.

A BAPI interface is define by:

• Import parameters: contain data to be transferred from calling program to the BAPI.
• Export parameters: contain data to be transferred from BAPI back to the calling program.
• Table parameters: for both importing and exporting data.

The BAPI in the SAP R/3 system are actually implemented as function modules. Each function module underlying a BAPI should be supports the RFC (Remote Function Call) protocol, has been assigned as method to SAP Business Object and processed without returning any screen dialogs to the calling application.

The above figure illustrates the relationship between an SAP Business Object Repository, SAP Business Object, SAP BAPI, and its function modules.

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