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SAP NetWeaver offers two different runtime environments: ABAP runtime environment (usage type AS ABAP) and Java runtime environment (usage type AS Java).

ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is a programming language developed by SAP. Most business applications in an SAP system are written in ABAP. This language has been optimized for developing business applications with high scalability. Customers can use the ABAP Workbench to develop completely new applications or to extend the standard SAP applications. For these developments programmers can leverage the whole powerful infrastructure of the ABAP Application Server, which can support the development of complex applications by large teams of programmers. The ABAP Application Server is the runtime environment for all the programs written in ABAP.

SAP offers the runtime environment not only for ABAP, but also for Java. The SAP Java AS is an application server based on the standard Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

The Java programming language was introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1995. Java is an object oriented, platform independent  environment, which is now widely used in many areas. It can be used to develop several kind of applications, from the applets used in web sites up to the most complex client/server applications.

The Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is a standard for a wide range of software components. Sun uses the J2EE compatibility test to guarantee that a program complies to the Java 2 Enterprise Edition specifications.

The goal of these specifications is to offer a framework for using modular components in the development of distributed multilevel applications.

According to the J2EE specifications, the application logic is incapsulated in Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), which represent Java program components. A container implicitly supply the components with the runtime environment services.