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Build a commercial ABAP add-on

An ABAP solution becomes difficult to sell repeatedly when every sale creates a new delivery project. Transport lists, installation notes, prerequisites, and upgrade instructions quickly consume the margin earned by the product itself.

TRM gives independent developers and software vendors a repeatable distribution model for CTS-based ABAP products.

The challenge

A customer buying an add-on expects more than source code. They expect a defined release, predictable installation, documented compatibility, and a credible path for fixes and upgrades. A folder of transport files leaves important questions unanswered:

  • Which features form version 2.3.0?
  • Which shared libraries must be installed first?
  • What SAP system requisites are needed?
  • Can the vendor reproduce exactly what the customer received?

Answering those questions manually for every customer does not scale.

The TRM approach

TRM packages the solution's transports and release metadata in a .trm artifact. The vendor can publish named releases to a registry or provide the artifact directly for local installation.

Each release can describe:

  • its semantic version and product metadata;
  • dependencies on other TRM packages;
  • required SAP objects and entries;
  • workbench, translation, and customizing content;
  • activities to execute after installation.

The customer receives a consistent installation workflow rather than a bespoke set of instructions. Future fixes are published as new versions of the same package, making the upgrade path visible and intentional.

Start small

Choose the smallest independently useful component, establish its package name, and publish a first release from a non-production source system. Test installation into a clean target system before adding optional customizing or post-install automation.

Continue with Publish and install.