Get Started with the ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver

created by Olga Dolinskaja

on Jun 19, 2012 1:01 PM, last modified by Olga Dolinskaja on May 6, 2013 1:56 PM

The ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver are SAP's state-of-the-art IDE for ABAP development on the open Eclipse platform. The ABAP Development Tools targets to significantly increase developers productivity by providing to an ABAP developer the unique opportunity to develop in his comfortable ABAP environment while benefiting from the proven usability, speed and flexibility of the well-known Eclipse platform. The ABAP Development Tools combines powerfull SAP's ABAP application server capabilities like convenient lifecycle managment, server-based development paradigm, full integration, effective testing and troubleshooting tools with powerfull Eclipse's UI and offers a modern Eclipse UI client on top of the ABAP platform. The ABAP Development Tools easily integrates with other development tools (SAP HANA Studio, SAP UI5 SDK) on open Eclipse platform.

Functional Scope: Product, Platform, API

The ABAP Development Tools focus on the following three domains:

Product - a brand new ABAP development experience on top of the Eclipse platform.
Platform - an open, Eclipse-based platform to develop new ABAP related tools in Eclipse.
API - set of open APIs which developers can use to build new custom tools for the ABAP environment. The APIs are language and platform independent.

Architectural Overview

The general idea of ABAP in Eclipse is to provide one Eclipse client that is installed on the developer PC and that can connect to several backend systems from different releases. The connection is done via a RFC/REST based protocol. The client provides a set of standard development tools such as the project explorer for system browsing and search views. In addition there are editors available for each development object - classes, reports, function modules etc. The development paradigm is still server based. That means that the development objects are stored solely on the backend (no local copies via check-in/check-out), and services like syntax-check, search, where-used etc. run on the backend. One benefit of using Eclipse as the platform for the new ABAP development environment is its openness towards new tools and features via the Eclipse plug-in Framework. The new ABAP development infrastructure provides these plug-in capabilities also on the ABAP backend. That means, by making use of Eclipse plug-in capabilities on the frontend and ABAP development infrastructure plug-in capabilities on the backend, it is possible to contribute to the ABAP development environment with new development tools. Those tools will provide the well-known ABAP capabilities (transport, activation, version management, "Where-Used" list etc.) combined with Eclipse-based state-of-the-art UI and integration capabilities in a new highly integrated development environment.

Key Features

Highly flexible, customizable Eclipse UI for ABAP development tools
High-performance, failover-safe online development in several ABAP systems simultaneously
Display and edit functionality for multiple ABAP objects in parallel
Advanced and efficient source code editing including refactoring support
Fast search and navigation capabilities
Cross-system version management
Ideal support of task-oriented and test-driven development
Built-in extensibility of the IDE through the established Eclipse plug-in technology
Powerful SDK for building and integrating custom ABAP development and testing tools (planned)

Benefits for You

The ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver tie in perfectly with SAP HANA Studio and SAP’s in-memory technology by allowing highly productive application development on top of SAP HANA. The ABAP Development Tools significantly increases ABAP developer productivity through rich Eclipse user experience and flexibility, new capabilities for sophisticated source code implementation, task-oriented and test-driven business development. The ABAP Development Tools enables cross-platform application development by integrating ABAP and non-ABAP development tools into one Eclipse-based IDE.Built-in extensibility of the IDE through the established Eclipse plug-in technology enables you to benefit from the huge Eclipse ecosystem, develop on open platform and integrate new custom ABAP and non-ABAP tools.

Download and Installation

Download the free trial version of the ABAP Development Tools on SCN following these instructions
Download and install the regular version of the ABAP Development Tools following SAP Note 1718399

Learning Materials

For a first impression watch the ABAP Development Tools - a Natural Evolution video on Youtube
Using Eclipse for the first time? Get started by watching the Eclipse Workbench Tutorials
The Quick Launch document helps you to start working with the ABAP Development Tools
If you have already installed the ABAP Development Tools, take a look at the ABAP Development User Guide:
Help -> Help Contents -> ABAP Development User Guide (describing ABAP Development Tools concepts and tasks)
Get an overview of the most common shortcuts by downloading the Reference Card
You may find anwers to your questions in the FAQ document

Topics: ABAP

Comments

0 Comments