Development and marketing of SAP EP solutions - any licenses required?

[Former Member]

Hi

Not sure which forum to post this in, so - maybe Coffee Corner is a good start

My question is about the licensing required to development and marketing small add-ons / extensions for SAP Enterprise Portal.

Is it possible for the individual developer to develop and market small add-ons for EP in Java WDP, making use of a trail EP installation?

Do you need a special license for this (to develop commercial products)?

Maybe like a [SAP NetWeaver Developer Subscription|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/subscriptions/development?refer=subscriptionslandingpage], or the [SAP Composition Subscription|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/subscriptions/composition?refer=subscriptionslandingpage]?

Reading up on the [Subscriptions FAQ|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/subscriptions/software-faq#q-4-5], and it is not very clear:

Can I use my developed add-ons, extensions, developments, or modifications in a production environment?

In order to run your add-ons, extensions, developments, or modifications in a production environment, you need to purchase the applicable license from SAP. SAP customers or partners who already have an applicable license can use SAP NetWeaver in a production environment.

So-

"SAP customers or partners who already have an applicable license can use SAP NetWeaver in a production environment"

I'm not expecting to run the SAP NetWeaver Developer/Trail version you get with the subscription in a production environment - the question is would any prospective buyers of your developed add-ons be able to run these in their (fully licensed) NetWeaver / EP production environments?

(I feel this FAQ is not answering its own question correctly).

Purchasing a full EP license is a little out of my budget, and even the two developer subscriptions mentioned above are only available in Germany & the USA (and I reside in neither of which).

Any suggestions from the guys & girls of the Coffee Corner?

Thanks!

[Former Member]

Thanks Julius & Matt

So I guess the subscription is a must then.

I'll also look into the namespace story...

[matt]

There's no additional cost for the namespace. Tip though - don't choose one that's too long!

I'm with you about hiding code. What I've done on one project, where we needed a number of similar programs but customissed per customer, was create a code generator. Sure, the client could create the code manually, but that costs time.

Also, my developments are highly componentised, which makes copy-paste more difficult. Ultimately, though, you have to rely on copyright law and possibly software patents.

matt

Edited by: Matt on Aug 31, 2009 2:20 PM

[Former Member]

I am not a lawyer, but my interpretation of this is that the subscription systems are for "sneak previews" of releases and experimenting with the software to see whether you like it or not...

So this means that if you do development work on it and want to use it in a production environment, you will need a full license to run the software productively first, and then add your development to that licensed landscape.

This is a different topic to licensing your own development. For this you would need to become a solution partner and request your own namsepace in SAP, and then license it as optional software via service.sap.com.

For the "little individual" like you and me, this is not really an option IMO.

In some special cases, I have seen external coding included in the standard system, and you get a special mention for it sometimes in the coding comments.

I was thinking about the same as well because I am busy experimenting with a tool for making dual maintenance of roles during upgrades easier and know a few customers who would be interested in such a tool (possibly controlled centrally by a SolMan CTS+ with after import rule sets).

Being ABAP, I think I could try to sell it once or maybe twice... but after that I expect it would be "in the wild" and see others posting it here on SDN as well...

On the otherhand, ABAP is more of a hobby for me and I am not a guru at it like many others here. If I were to post it here myself... then I could benefit from other contributions to improving it and making it more robust - like an open source project.

Just some thoughts,

Julius

[matt]

I'll have to correct you Julius - I've a friend with a development subscription in the US.

The free downloads are for sneak previews and self-education. Not for any commercial work.

The subscription is specifically designed for third parties to develop commercial add-ons. I think the quoted section is misleading. It is simply saying that if you want to run your application on a production system, then you need a licensed production system. Anyone using your add-on for commerical purposes will need a properly licensed SAP system.

As you noted, you can only get the subscription if you have a US or German credit card and delivery address, which I find really irritating as I live just a few km from the German border! The subscription is specific to an individual - it cannot be owned by a company, which in my view rather detracts from its purpose - to encourage third parties to develop add-ons. You can apply for your own namespace.

One solution is that used by SAP in the beginning. Find a helpful client who'll let you use their system for development.

There's also [the discovery systems|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/discoverysystem], but I don't know if commercial development is permitted on those.

matt

[Former Member]

Thanks for clariying Matt!

I am already persuing the "helpfull client" option and have two, but the solution is something they would like to see supported by more than just an own custom development - so I guess that either the namespace or "open source" community project options are next best to standard functionality.

As you mentioned, for a "small god" like us it can be quite tough to break into this. Do you know whether there are other costs involved in the namespace option, other than the subscription and time?

Perhaps one can "register" a custom development with SAP product management, as a variant of SAP "registering" a ramp-up customer to use "partially completed" code?

The bugger with ABAP is that anyone can copy & paste it (or break it...) and I am not a fan of external RFC servers (or hiding parts of the code......). Additionally in my case (dual maintenance during upgrade periods...) I cannot for the moment see a way of doing it without 2 clients and a setup wizard to connect them. I think even SAP scratches its own head when it comes to objects which are client dependent, don't have version management and the data is treated as application data even although it is expected to be transported.

Perhaps that is why SAP's own "wizards" still build profiles manually?

Cheers,

Julius

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Aug 30, 2009 10:56 PM