In this book, I introduce you to the new SAP tools and technologies that allow you to overcome the difficulties and expense of integrating SAP R/3 into existing Information Systems. This book gives you the knowledge to interface SAP R/3 from non-SAP programming environments, such as Visual Basic. I'll show you how to combine your existing Visual Basic skills with the new extensibility tools, so that you con develop robust enterprise applications based on SAP R/3. I explain the SAP Business Object Framework and how to use SAP R/3 business objects and the Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI). I'll demonstrate how you con use Visual Basic and the SAP Automation Toolkit's ActiveX components to access SAP R/3 business objects and call BAPIs and Remote Functions Calls (RFCs). Finally, I'll also, teach you how you can use the DCOM Component Connector to generate COM components based on the SAP Business Object Framework. Who is this book for ? This book aims to introduce Visual Basic programmers to the new SAP extensibility technologies. It will also be of interest to ABAP/4 programmers and consultants who want to learn more about integrating SAP R/3 with Windows. It assumes familiarity with Visual Basic 6.0, and although not required, previous experience of SAP R/3 is preferred. An introduction to the fundamentals of SAP. How to implement SAP R/3 business objects and BAPIs. A guide to the SAP Business Object Framework. Use the SAP R/3 Automation tools to replicate SAP functionality from VB. Use the DCOM Component Connector to generate business abject proxies. Programming the core components of the DCOM Component Connector. Browsing the SAP R/3 Business Object Repository Working code samples of both inbound and outbound SAP R/3 operations.