Billboard spots rival cars, makes targeted pitch

By Anthony Cecchini Newsletter Archives April 17, 2016

Billboard spots rival cars, makes targeted pitch

TAKE NOTE (Insights into SAP solutions and Emerging Technology)

Drivers along a busy Chicago-area tollway may have recently noticed a large

digital billboard that seems to be talking directly to them. It is.

Launched last month in Chicago as well as in Dallas and New Jersey, the eerily Orwellian outdoor campaign for Chevy Malibu uses vehicle recognition technology to identify competing midsize sedans and instantly display ads aimed at their drivers.

Cruising along in an Altima? The message might be “More Safety Features Than Your Nissan Altima.” Driving a Ford Fusion or Toyota Camry? You might see a miles-per-gallon comparison between the Malibu and your car. The ads last just long enough for approaching drivers of those vehicles to know they got singled out and served by a billboard.

Consumers used to receiving personalized ads on their smartphones may be surprised to see one on a 672-square-foot highway billboard. But data-based technology is finding its way into digital outdoor displays of all types, enabling advertisers to track, reach and sell you stuff — even at 55 mph.

“This is just the tipping point of the disruption in out-of-home,” said Helma Larkin, CEO of Posterscope, an out-of-home communications agency that esigned the Malibu campaign with billboard company Lamar Advertising.

“The technology coming down the pike is fascinating around what we could potentially do to bring digital concepts into the physical world.”

Serving the same sort of targeted ads that consumers receive on their smartphones to a giant billboard, however, represents a leap in the digital evolution of outdoor advertising, and a bold new canvas that is sure to grab attention.

UNDER DEVELOPMENT(Information for ABAP Developers)

Introduction to ABAP 7.4

As time has gone by, more and more commands and constructs have been added to the ABAP language. While nothing has been taken away, this is to ensure backward compatibility, the rate of change seems to
be accelerating. While many changes came as a result of the introduction of SAP NetWeaver 7.02, that is nothing compared to the deluge of change that came with version 7.4.

This blog series will focus on the changes that came with version 7.4 by breaking the blog up into sections a developer would normally be interested in, like string processing, or conditional logic…etc. Since you and I are developers, we tend to spend a good bit of time accessing the database when developing ABAP programs, so let’s begin this series here….

New Commands in OpenSQL for ABAP 7.4

CASE Statements In OPEN SQL Queries in ABAP 7.4

One of the new features of ABAP 7.4 is the ability to insert CASE statements into SQL queries. The code below shows an example of this. In this example, there is a field in a local structure named ERNAM, and it should be filled with the literals “NAME1″, “NAME2″, or “NAME3″ respectively, depending on the contents of the database field AUART (DocType).

You will notice that you have to put an @ symbol in front of your ABAP variables (or constants) when using the fancy new features, such as CASE, in order to let the compiler know that you are not talking about a field in the database. (This is called “Escaping” the Host Variable). You also have to put commas between the fields you are bringing back from the database and put the INTO statement at the end. This is a result of a new “strict” syntax check that comes into force when the compiler notices you are using one of the new features. In other words, if you try and use a new feature like a CASE statement in an SQL query but do not put an @ symbol beside the variable name, then you will get a hard error. In this way, SAP can still being backward compatible.

Q&A (Post your questions to Facebook or Twitter and get the answers you need)

Q. I am trying to find a BAdi to help me with my current requirment. I have tried the SCN and downloaded a program tahts supposed to find exits and BAdi’s but it doesn’t seem to work. Do you know of any way to find BAdi’s in a transaction?

A. I think I can help… BAdIs are called in ABAP programs in two ways depending on the type of the BAdI. We’ll discuss how to find each type of BAdI in the following sections.

Finding Classic BAdIs

Classic BAdIs are instantiated with the GET_INSTANCE static method of the CL_ EXITHANDLER class. If you put a breakpoint into the method and call a transaction the execution will stop every time the program tries to instantiate a BAdI.

Let’s put a breakpoint in the method and call Transaction VA01 as an example. The screen shot below shows the ABAP Debugger screen that is displayed when the ABAP program tries to instantiate a classic BAdI.

As you can see, when you enter Transaction VA01 the program tries to instantiate BADI_SD_SALES. You can now use Transaction SE18 to see the definition of the BAdI and check whether it can be used. If not, you can execute the debugger by pressing to see if there are more BAdIs.

Finding Kernel (New) BAdIs

New BAdIs are instantiated using the ABAP statement GET BADI. This time, you can create a breakpoint to stop at the GET BADI command to see if a new BAdI is available in the same transaction. Switch on debugging using the /h command, and enter Transaction VA01 again. In the ABAP Debugger, select the following menu path to set the breakpoint:

Breakpoints ->Breakpoint At -> Breakpoint At Statement

Enter the statement “GET_BADI” on the popup. Now, execute the debugger by pressing to see if there are any BAdI calls in the transaction. The screen shot below shows the ABAP Debugger screen when the execution reaches the GET BADI statement. This time the BAdI type can be seen on the declaration statement of the l_badi variable, which is again BADI_SD_SALES.

Although you can find the list of available BAdIs in the SAP documentation (and you should read the documentation before implementing it), I hope using these techniques saves you some time and from having to find the BAdI in the documentation.

Cheers!