Business Application Programming Interface


Business Application Programming Interface

(business, application, programming)(BAPI) /bap'ee/ A set ofmethods provided by an SAP business object.

Release 4.0 of SAP AG's R/3 system supportsobject-oriented programming via an interface defined interms of objects and methods called BAPIs. For example ifa material object provides a function to check availability,the corresponding SAP business object type "Material" mightprovide a BAPI called "Material.CheckAvailability".

The definitions of SAP business objects and their BAPIs arekept in an SAP business object repository. SAP provideclasses and libraries to enable a programming team tobuild SAP applications that use business objects and BAPIs.Supported environments include COM and Java.

The Open BAPI Network.gives background information and lists objects and BAPIs.