SAP Web Application Server

An Overview of SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server

What is an SAP Web Application Server?

Today, SAP Web Application Server or SAP Web AS is known as SAP NetWeaver Application Server. The latter is the further development of SAP Web Application Server. The server is perhaps best recognized by the SAP community when referred to by both names, which is how we’ll reference it here.

SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server is a component of SAP NetWeaver and works as a web application server for SAP products. The component is the central foundation for the entire SAP software stack.

Programmers use SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server to express business logic and to avoid having to conduct too much platform-related and purely technical coding.

Key capabilities of SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server include:

Robustness and supportability for the applications running on it.
Two versions for specific programming languages: ABAP (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP) and Java (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for Java).
Five-layer architecture: presentation, business, integration, connectivity, persistence.
Can accept multiple forms of authentication, including SAP Logon Ticket (with appropriate configuration) and other single sign-on technology.
Dual and multi-stack installation instances possible.

An Overview of SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server

What is an SAP Web Application Server?

Programmers use SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server to express business logic and to avoid having to conduct too much platform-related and purely technical coding.

Key capabilities of SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server include:

Robustness and supportability for the applications running on it.
Two versions for specific programming languages: ABAP (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP) and Java (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for Java).
Five-layer architecture: presentation, business, integration, connectivity, persistence.
Can accept multiple forms of authentication, including SAP Logon Ticket (with appropriate configuration) and other single sign-on technology.
Dual and multi-stack installation instances possible.

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders

Use SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server as a web server or a web client.

As a web server, SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server can accept HTTP requests from any web client, process the requests, and send a response back to the client.

As a web client, you can use SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server to create HTTP requirements in an application program and send these requests to a web server. In this case the client receives the responses and can proceed on the basis of the responses.

Consider whether you need the Application Server ABAP (AS ABAP) or Application Server Java (AS Java).

Two versions of SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server exist for specific programming languages: ABAP (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP) and Java (SAP NetWeaver Application Server for Java).

What’s the difference between AS ABAP and AS Java? The AS ABAP provides the complete technology infrastructure to run ABAP applications. The AS Java provides a Java™ 2 Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 1.6 compliant environment for developing and running Java EE programs.

Or, combine ABAB and Java for a dual-stack instance.

There are various ways to install SAP Web Application Server or SAP NetWeaver Application Server. This SAP document outlines two architecture options: A dual-stack instance, and a distributed dual-stack system. Functionality of the dual-stack instance includes operation using SAPGUI and processing web requests. Features of the distributed dual-stack system include distributing HTTP requests using the SAP Web Dispatcher, processing HTTP(S) requests using the internet communication manager (ICM) and caching the ICM. In addition to the dual-stack instances, there are other instance types, such as TREX, Web Dispatcher, and enqueue replication server.

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