🐦 sapsucker

Typed Python wrapper for the SAP GUI Scripting API.

sapsucker gives you typed, IDE-friendly access to SAP GUI for Windows. Instead of working with raw COM objects and guessing method names, you get Python classes with autocomplete, type hints, and docstrings for every SAP GUI element.

Named after the sapsucker — a woodpecker that taps into trees to drink their sap. This library taps into SAP GUI to extract your data.

Quickstart

from sapsucker import SapGui

# Connect to running SAP GUI
app = SapGui.connect()
session = app.connections[0].sessions[0]

# Read session info
print(session.info.system_name)   # → "S4H"
print(session.info.user)          # → "DEVELOPER"

# Navigate to a transaction
session.find_by_id("wnd[0]/tbar[0]/okcd").text = "/nSE16"
session.find_by_id("wnd[0]").send_v_key(0)  # Enter

# Read the status bar
print(session.find_by_id("wnd[0]/sbar").text)

Why sapsucker?

• 40+ typed wrapper classes — GuiGridView.get_cell_value(), GuiTree.expand_node(), not generic element.read("cell", row, col)
• IDE autocomplete & type hints on every method and property
• 430+ unit tests, 50+ integration tests verified against real SAP S/4 HANA
• API verified against the SAP GUI Scripting API 6.40 PDF (2969 pages)
• MIT licensed — no GPL restrictions

Installation

pip install sapsucker

Prerequisites

• SAP GUI for Windows (7.x or 8.x)
• SAP GUI Scripting enabled — ask your SAP Basis team to set sapgui/user_scripting = TRUE in transaction RZ11, and enable scripting in your SAP GUI options (Customize Local Layout → Accessibility & Scripting)
• Python 3.11+ on Windows

Usage Examples

Read an ALV grid

from sapsucker import SapGui
from sapsucker.components.grid import GuiGridView

app = SapGui.connect()
session = app.connections[0].sessions[0]

# Find the grid on the current screen
grid = session.find_by_id("wnd[0]/shellcont/shell")

# Read all rows
for row in range(grid.row_count):
    for col in grid.column_order:
        print(grid.get_cell_value(row, col), end="\t")
    print()

Navigate a tree

from sapsucker.components.tree import GuiTree

tree = session.find_by_id("wnd[0]/shellcont/shell/shellcont[1]/shell/shellcont[2]/shell")

key = tree.top_node
print(tree.get_node_text_by_key(key))

if tree.is_folder(key):
    tree.expand_node(key)

Fill a form

# Set a text field value
session.find_by_id("wnd[0]/usr/ctxtRS38M-PROGRAMM").text = "RSPARAM"

# Press F8 (Execute)
session.find_by_id("wnd[0]").send_v_key(8)

Context manager

with SapGui.connect() as app:
    session = app.connections[0].sessions[0]
    print(session.info.user)
# All connections closed automatically

More examples

The examples/sapsucker/ directory contains complete runnable scripts, all tested against a real SAP system:

• basic_navigation.py — connect, read session info, navigate transactions
• alv_grid_export.py — query SE16N and read ALV grid data
• form_filling.py — fill selection screens and execute reports
• tree_navigation.py — browse and expand tree controls in SE80

Architecture

sapsucker wraps the SAP GUI Scripting COM API as a hierarchy of typed Python classes:

GuiApplication
  └── GuiConnection
       └── GuiSession
            └── GuiMainWindow
                 ├── GuiToolbar
                 ├── GuiMenubar
                 ├── GuiStatusbar
                 └── GuiUserArea
                      ├── GuiTextField, GuiLabel, GuiButton, ...
                      ├── GuiTableControl (classic dynpro tables)
                      ├── GuiGridView (ALV grids)
                      ├── GuiTree (tree controls)
                      ├── GuiTabStrip → GuiTab
                      └── GuiAbapEditor / GuiTextedit

Elements are discovered via session.find_by_id(sap_id), which returns the correct typed wrapper automatically (e.g., GuiGridView for an ALV grid, GuiTree for a tree control). The factory dispatches on TypeAsNumber and SubType COM properties.

Thread Safety

COM objects use the Single-Threaded Apartment (STA) model. All calls to a given SAP GUI session must happen from the same thread that called pythoncom.CoInitialize(). See the _com.py module docstring for details and an asyncio.to_thread() example.

API Overview

Class	Description
SapGui	Entry point — SapGui.connect() returns GuiApplication
GuiApplication	Root object, manages connections
GuiConnection	A TCP connection to an SAP server
GuiSession	A session (mode) within a connection
GuiMainWindow	The main SAP window
GuiTextField	Single-line input field
GuiButton	Push button
GuiCheckBox	Checkbox
GuiComboBox	Dropdown list
GuiGridView	ALV grid (most common data display)
GuiTableControl	Classic dynpro table
GuiTree	Tree control (simple, list, or column)
GuiAbapEditor	ABAP source code editor
GuiStatusbar	Status bar at bottom of window

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

For detailed setup instructions (tox environments, CI, linting, formatting, etc.), see the Hochfrequenz Python Template Repository.

# Clone and install dev dependencies
git clone https://github.com/Hochfrequenz/sapsucker.git
cd sapsucker
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run unit tests (no SAP required, works on any OS)
pytest unittests/ -v

Integration tests against real SAP

Integration tests run against a real SAP GUI system and are automatically skipped on machines without SAP access. To run them locally:

1. SAP GUI for Windows must be running with scripting enabled
2. Create a .env file with your SAP credentials:

   SAP_CONNECTION_NAME=your_connection
   SAP_USER=your_user
   SAP_PASSWORD=your_password
   SAP_MANDANT=your_client
   SAP_LANGUAGE=EN
   

3. Run:

   pytest unittests/ -k integration -v

Integration tests run by default on any local machine and are automatically skipped in CI (GitHub Actions). Set SAP_SKIP_INTEGRATION=1 to skip them locally. They cover SE80, SE16N, SE37, SE38, and SM37 — all read-only, no SAP data is modified.

License

MIT