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Individual Developer Licenses
Jan Penninkhof
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Company: Phoqus B.V.
Posted on Nov. 02, 2009 07:24 AM in ABAP, Composition Environment (CE), Enterprise Portal (EP), Java Programming, Open Source, SAP NetWeaver Platform, Web Dynpro, Code Exchange
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imageAs long as I am developing custom software based on SAP, I have always had the need (or maybe desire ;) to play around with some new functions or try something out that I didn’t want to do in a regular SAP enviroment, either because it would jeopardise operation or just didn’t have anything to do with the current project or business.
Previously SAP had several types of licenses available that could meet this demand:

  • SDN Trial licenses
  • SAP Discovery server
  • Netweaver Developer subscription

However, there was always a catch:

  • No recent ABAP stack
  • License expirations and the hassle of re-licensing
  • High costs that would need management buy-in and business-cases
  • Geographic availability

Introduction of Individual Developer Licenses

There is good news! SAP has promised to come up with Individual Developer License that could put an end to many of the limitations of the previous licenses. These Individual Developer Licenses were planned to be available in either November or December this year.

During the Teched I learned about some excellent benefits:

  • Available world-wide
  • Contains a recent ABAP stack as well as a Java stack
  • License does not expire
  • Available for free

As with the previous license there are some caveats as well, but I can understand where they come from and aren’t as limiting as the previous issues. Rui Nogueira told me that they didn’t call it an “Individual Developer’s” license for nothing. They don’t want companies to run productive applications on it and also wouldn’t like to see ISVs to develop products on it. Not only would it cause legal issues in the area of liability, but there are other and better licenses available to fulfil that need. For my personal hacking and experimenting with SAP’s latest development environment, this license is a perfect fit though.

Wish-list

Although I might be too too late with my wish-list regarding this license, it may not hurt either:

  • Availability of both an ABAP and Java stack with CE. Inclusion of PI and BW would be a nice bonus.
  • Updated to the latest versions: 7.2 Java and 7.0.2 ABAP.
  • Links to SDN Code Exchange (maybe just Subclipse for Java, and a derivative of SAPLink for the ABAP development)

Jan Penninkhof is a Netweaver architect at Phoqus B.V.


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Comment on this articleEnthousiast about the new individual developer license or would you like to add more wishes to the wish list? Please do not hesitate to comment.
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  • New blog category for "code exchange"
    2009-11-16 02:17:36 Rui Nogueira SAP Employee Business Card [Reply]

    Hi Jan, thanks for your feedback!
    In case you didn't notice: some days ago we've created a new blog category for code exchange. So you can assign your blog to that category, too.
    Cheers,
    Rui
  • Too good to be true
    2009-11-10 08:44:42 Ritin Jain Business Card [Reply]

    It's really unbelieveable.. But please update when licenses are available and from where we can get it. I really want to try the New Java & ABAP capabilities that I can't do in office
  • Wow - Some more good news
    2009-11-05 12:15:24 Michelle Crapo Business Card [Reply]

    I was just catching up reading blogs today. This is great news.


    I also read a good blog, that goes nicely with this one. It's about SDN code exchange. Another interesting concept for those of us who like to play with new "stuff".


    http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/16455

    • Wow - Some more good news
      2009-11-06 03:31:55 Jan Penninkhof Business Card [Reply]

      Yes, it definitely goes together very well. That's why integration with Code-exchange is very high on my wish-list.


      If you are interested in code-exchange, Michael Bechauf's blog is also a must read: http://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/pub/wlg/16469

  • For business solutions as well?
    2009-11-02 09:46:14 Carsten Kasper Business Card [Reply]

    Hi there,


    I would like to see those licences for business solutions as well. As it happens for me to be playing around with the shiny new WebClient of SAP.


    Given all the stuff on SDN you do not have the possibility to try out any stuff as the CRM_UI framework is never included.


    cheers Carsten

    • For business solutions as well?
      2009-11-03 04:58:22 Jan Penninkhof Business Card [Reply]

      Hi Carsten,


      The idea behind the individual developer licenses is that you have an platform to use for individual developement. The license will not include applications such as CRM (or SRM, ERP etc). In case you want to develop applications that make use of CRM functionality, it would probably be best to install your individual developer license (when it is available) and hook it up to web-services published by your CRM system.


      Besides, would you really want to install a full-fledged CRM or maybe even IDES system on your laptop or home computer?


      Cheers,
      Jan

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