RAP Framework

Published: November 2025

Restful application programming is a method for building applications, often using the RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) developed by SAP, to create modern, cloud-ready business applications. It involves designing services that use the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST) to enable client-server communication for data exchange. This approach uses languages like ABAP and CDS (Core Data Services) to model data and define business logic, exposing it through standard OData services for applications like SAP Fiori or other web APIs.

Setup Development Environmet

Installing Eclipse and ADT

The primary Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used for developing the SAP ABAP RESTful Application Programming model (RAP) is the Eclipse IDE with the ABAP Development Tools (ADT) plugin. The eclipse installer and ADT can be found on the following link https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap.

Preparing Access to BTP Trial Account

To prepare access to the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) trial, you need to create an SAP Universal ID, then sign up for the SAP BTP trial account, and finally configure your trial environment. Getting and account and accessing free trial account best describe through the following link https://developers.sap.com/tutorials/hcp-create-trial-account..html.

SAP BTP ABAP Instance and Service Key

Once the account has been created, goto your trial account through the following link https://cockpit.hanatrial.ondemand.com/trial/#/home/trial. Navigate to sub-account and create ABAP instance. Creating ABAP instance is best explained by the following link https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/setting-up-an-abap-environment-on-sap-btp/setting-up-an-abap-environment-in-sap-btp_d0e395ae-6bb3-468e-b141-0934a16c3f37.

Creating ABAP Cloud Project

ABAP Instance and Service Key created previously can be used to create ABAP Cloud Project on eclipse-ADT. The steps is explained in details on the following link https://developers.sap.com/tutorials/abap-environment-create-abap-cloud-project..html.

Creating Package

All the objects created through RAP development must be stored under specific package. For creating a package, Right click on the project –> New –> ABAP Package -> enter the name of package. The package created can have super package.

Building an ABAP Restful Application is best explained as follow https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/learn-the-basics-of-abap-programming-on-sap-btp/building-an-abap-restful-application