Flex Shop with integration into SAP
In our recorded demo below, we are mainly seeking to demonstrate capability – the ability to build a good looking, user rich, easy to navigate online shop that integrates with the SAP Sales & Distribution back-end real time – an application that can be hosted directly on the SAP NetWeaver architecture with all the benefits that such a platform delivers.
In order to do this, we have used Adobe Flex for the front-end web application. In 2004, Adobe Systems released Flex, a tool used to create Rich Internet Applications based on the already popular Adobe Flash Platform. Since 2004, Flex has matured into a product capable of delivering web applications with features previously only possible in desktop applications. Adobe has listened to their user base and each new release has delivered improvements in the Actionscript language and extended the built-in component base. Because Flex is built on the Flash platform, traditionally the platform of choice for animation and creative design on the web, we are able to benefit from the rich feature set enabling us to develop data centric applications with a much enhanced user interface. Flex has been designed with rapid development in mind. It is a tool that can produce applications with great appeal whilst easily maintainable.
In our Flex shop demo video example, we have demonstrated an application that is simple to use while rich in functionality and features, and integrated directly with the back-end SAP system for real-time Sales Order Processing. Examples of the rich functionality include simple drag and drop for selecting products, and using slide bars to filter data, giving the user a number of different ways to perform similar tasks. When interacting with the application, you will notice smooth transitions as products are greyed out when the user modifies the filter. This dynamic approach gives the user visual cues of the impact of the filter in real-time.
On the back-end, we have integrated this directly with SAP where all master data is stored, and a final Sales Order is created. There is no duplication of data in order for this demo to work – it integrates seamlessly with SAP to ensure no timing or data integrity issues.
