ABAP in Eclipse using the feature explorer

[former_member184367]

Hello all I am very much glad to present my first blog on SDN. I am grateful of you for showing your technical interest in this topic. Also I am very much thankful to ‘Eclipse Feature Explorer' mission.

Introduction:

I started my career as an SAP ABAP developer since March 2014 in Vodafone India Services Private Limited. I am fond of programming from starting of my college. I have worked on Eclipse for java development during my college days. Eclipse is one of the best IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for working. Eclipse provides all the features at one place. After starting my professional career I got the chance to work on SAP ABAP. Working on SAP workbench was very new to me but continuous working on it made me familiar with it.

How I came to know about ABAP in Eclipse:

As I initially started working on ABAP as a developer I came to know about the feature ABAP in Eclipse in the course ABAP development for SAP HANA on OPENSAP. It seemed very fantastic idea that I can develop ABAP programs in Eclipse as I was aware about the functionality of the Eclipse. Then I searched for ABAP in eclipse on SDN and I come to know about this challenge. I started working on it. I have completed all the steps needed for installing the eclipse with the help of blog post Step-by-step Guide to setup ABAP on HANA with Eclipse. For connectivity of back-end I faced some issues, as our system was not on service package 4 or above. In order to solve this I contacted the basis consultant and requested him to perform upgrade on the system.

On boarding of new developer will be easier using feature explorer:

As per my opinion the ABAP in eclipse will help new developers a lot, because most of the people had definitely worked on eclipse during their Academic curriculum. So eclipse will be very familiar IDE for on boarding of new ABAP developers. As they had already worked on eclipse it is very easy for them to get familiar with the concepts. They also have feature explorer using which they can solve their problems. Feature explorer explains in and out of every feature provided for ABAP in eclipse.

Favorite Features from beginners tour:

My favorite features from beginners tour are the code completion (CTRL + SPACE), the quick type hierarchy (CTRL + T), the quick fix (CTRL + 1), ABAP Element Info (F2), ABAP unit test (CTRL+ Shift + F10), re-factoring-function (ALT + SHIFT + M), where used list (CTRL+ Shift + G), Data preview same as SE16 in ABAP workbench. Another great advantageous feature of the Eclipse development is the local version history. After saving of the source code, Eclipse creates a local version. You can compare these versions with the current version. This is independent from the SAP version history. You can also compare the transported code versions, across ABAP projects.

Additional Features of Eclipse that I explored:

• ADT (ABAP Development Tool) Links:

This is a very cool feature provided by ADT tool. With this you can easily link to any repository object. Using ADT links everything gets easier. If you want to share some code snippet with your colleague to look at, then just select the source code in the editor you want right-click on it select "Share Link for Selection." and paste the link. By sharing link there is no possibility that your colleague will not find the method or code. More information on ADT links is present in this blog. How ADT links change the way you work.

• Split View:

This is very useful feature using which we can show 2 different codes side by side and also to have the docu opened.

• ABAP source code search:

The new search console is provided in this ADT tool, using which we can directly search for a code snippet in source code repository and also can navigate to the related development objects.

You can get more information on ABAP Source Code search in this blog ABAP Sourcecode Search.

• ABAP Doc:

ABAP doc is very interesting feature using which developer can document his/her code. ABAP Doc comments are used to display the ABAP element info in the source code editor, code element information pop-up, and ABAP Element Info view. I use ABAP-Docu quite often to get the syntax right. By placing cursor on keyword and pressing F1, the ABAP-DOCU will be opened in a new tab. As I have mentioned earlier about split view feature, so you can open the ABAP-DOCU in a view on the right and have simultaneously opened the ABAP-syntax in a separate view on the left. This is really a nice feature.

For learning more on ABAP Doc refer this blog post ABAP Doc.

• Statuses:

Various statuses are assigned to the development objects, so it is very easy to know is the object active, inactive, locked.

Following are the different status of development object is indicated by a decorator:

• ABAP Profiling:

Using ABAP profiling we can analyse the runtime behaviour of the ABAP program and the memory consumption of the ABAP program. Profiling helps both in problem analysis and in refactoring and optimization of code.

• ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC):

ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) is a tool for checking the quality of the ABAP development objects using the static checks. It will help you to check the ABAP programs for many types of problems, including syntax check, potential problems in performance, and errors in ABAP unit testing.

• Templates:

Code templates help the developer to reduce the time spent on routine editing activities and improve consistency when writing code. They allow for quick generation of commonly used ABAP code, as well as easy customization. ABAP code templates are not just simple code snippets but also they include direct integration with code completion, Using shortcut Shift + Enter you can also create templates for method or function calls. Just type the full method name or use the code completion then press Shift + Enter to add the template.

I would like to share ADT (ABAP Development Tool)/Feature explorer with my colleagues vyshnavi.sri  ramansingh.saun deepali.mane

If you want to learn more about AIE Explorer Challenge, have a look at mission invitation:

Become an ABAP in Eclipse Feature Explorer and earn the Explorer Badge