Lesson 4 of 5
Released APIs and the SAP Business Accelerator Hub
9 min
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Before anyone builds a service, someone should ask: does SAP already provide one? SAP publishes released APIs for SAP S/4HANA: OData and SOAP services for remote callers, events for event-driven integration, and released local objects such as CDS views and BAdIs for extensions inside the system. SAP guarantees the stability of released interfaces from release to release, which is exactly what an integration needs to survive upgrades.
Finding APIs
The SAP Business Accelerator Hub (api.sap.com, formerly the SAP API Business Hub) is SAP's catalog. SAP Learning describes it as the place to discover remote and local APIs, events, CDS views, RAP business object interfaces and BAdIs. For each API it shows the documentation, the specification you can download, and for many APIs a sandbox where you can try calls against SAP sample data after signing in.
- Choose the productSAP S/4HANA (on-premise and Private Edition) or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition; the lists differ
- Search by business objectFor example "sales order" or "business partner"
- Read the overviewProtocol (OData V2, V4, SOAP), direction, state, and any successor if deprecated
- Study the specificationEntity sets, fields, operations and required authorizations
- Try it in the sandboxOptional: test calls against SAP sample data, not your system
- Activate and test in your systemRegister or publish the service in CMQ and test with Contoso data
Two APIs FleetLink uses at Contoso are good examples. The Sales Order (A2X) API, API_SALES_ORDER_SRV, is an OData V2 service with entity sets such as A_SalesOrder and navigation to the order items. The Business Partner (A2X) API, API_BUSINESS_PARTNER, reads and maintains business partners, customers and suppliers. "A2X" in SAP API names indicates an API meant for application-to-any consumption. Always check the product version and state on the hub page for your release.
Release state and lifecycle
| State on the hub | What it means for Contoso |
|---|---|
| Released (active) | Supported and stable; build on it |
| Deprecated | Still works, but SAP names a successor; plan a move and test it before the old API is removed |
| Decommissioned | No longer available; any client still using it will fail |
Typical API lifecycle states. Read the state and successor note on each API's hub page.
In ABAP development, the same idea applies inside the system. ADT's Released Objects view lists everything released for ABAP Cloud development, and using a non-released object raises a syntax error that suggests a replacement where one exists. The rule of a clean core is simple: integrate and extend through released APIs and released objects, and keep custom code on top of them, not inside SAP's internals.
- Is there a released SAP API for this business object and operation?Yes → use it; activate it and test it with your data · No → next question
- Is there a released event or CDS view that covers the need?Yes → build on that released object · No → next question
- Does a custom service add real business value?Yes → build it with RAP on released objects, as a Web API binding · No → reconsider the requirement
- Will the service be called from outside SAP S/4HANA?Yes → secure it, document it and add it to the integration inventory · No → treat it as internal
What would you do?
FleetLink developers found an internal, unreleased OData service behind an SAP Fiori app that returns exactly the order data they need, and want to call it instead of the released API. What should Theo decide?
- Released APIs are SAP's stable, supported interfaces; prefer them over custom or unreleased services.
- The SAP Business Accelerator Hub lists APIs, events, CDS views and BAdIs with specifications and sandboxes.
- Check product, protocol, release state and successor before you build on an API.
- Sandbox calls use SAP sample data; repeat every test in your own system with your own data.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What is the SAP Business Accelerator Hub mainly used for?
2. An API on the hub is marked deprecated. What should the team do?
3. Why is a successful sandbox call not sign-off evidence?