Hi guys,

I thought I would also share my experience with AiE and also try out the feature explorer. I'm fairly new to ABAP development (compared to some of your around here), but I think I grasped most of the concepts and language features available. I am currently working on an life (re)insurance system project, which mostly involves ABAP with classic dynpro as user-interface. Unfortunately, not all systems I have to interact with support eclipse, so I have to sometimes resort to SAP logon (or NWBC).

To be fair, I have used AiE for some time now and I decided to complete this challenge just recently . AiE has great potential and already provides significant improvements over SE80. My favorite features are:

• F2 and the ability to actually link this with the editor
• Templates. I just love how many things you can do with them.
• Ctrl+Shift+A
• SQL console and data preview
• Source code refractoring

Also, another strong-point in favor of eclipse is the possibility of using pre-existing plug-ins to enhance your list of (already awesome) features. Some good ones that I have been using lately are:

• AnyEdit (convert lower <-> upper case, sort stuff - like data declarations -, compare with clipboard)
• PDE tootls (clipboard history)

Some things are still missing though, but I am sure that, in time, they will be included as well (e.g. more navigation support for F2 popups, full dictionary support, more debugger stuff from the 'old' debugger, etc).

The fact that we can use Eclipse for most of the SAP technologies is also pretty neat. I also sometimes work on the cloud, so I have to develop Java, Hana Native or UI5 apps, and it is very helpful that I only have to switch between perspectives and not IDEs.

Best Regards,

Serban

Hi community,

one reason why we picked Eclipse as development tools platform was the huge eclipse community. There are a lot of developers out there building tools for eclipse that we can simply use also for the ABAP development. Things like small helper tools for the source code editor but also tools like UML modeling tools are available mostly for free.

But do you know that this community is nicely integrated in your ABAP development environment?

You find all these additional tools on the eclipse marketplace that you can open via the eclipse menu:

The marketplace opens in an own window:

The marketplace offers search capabilities for you with tool categories and an integrated rating system that might be helpful to find the plugins you are looking for.

Happy searching for new plugins !

Last week Serban Petrescu already proposed some very nice plugins that he uses already in the ABAP editor. You can find them in his Feature Explorer Blog: AiE - Eclipse Feature Explorer

So I had the idea why not use this blog here to share some of the coolest plugins that you find on the eclipse marketplace with the AIE community. 

Kind Regards,

Thomas.

Hello,

          My name is Anurag Sinha and I am an ABAP consultant. Recently i have started doing HANA with ABAP. So this is how i get the first essence of AIE .It was really great to see the ABAP integration in eclipse. Though it took me some time to get familiar  with the interface of eclipse now its really exciting took work on eclipse as so many things can be integrated to eclipse .It's a great experience to see ABAP in new look specially the debbuging part.But only thing which i was not able to find was a pretty printer button . Will be grateful if any1 can help me with that. Overall my new experience with AIE is great and looking forward to explore more into it . Thanks for the innovation .

Hey There,

     The mission named AiE challenge gave me a chance to write how I discover ABAP in Eclipse, so here I am sharing my Experience.

About me

          I started my career as a software developer in Mainframe Technology. So for some year’s I was in front of Black- Green Screen then I Got a chance to move in SAP and from past 2 + Years I am working on same.

First Step in AiE

          I was totally new in Eclipse when I got my first work to do. I slowly started exploring the things about eclipse, started learning the coding methodology, finding the blogs which tells me how to start a new project dude and things go on and on.

         I saw a post from Thomas Fiedler regarding the ABAP in Eclipse Feature Explorer, I updated tools in my Eclipse installation. I completed the tour and will say that, it will be bit difficult at the beginning but once you will started hands on it you will surely love it. This tool is more efficient and faster.

Feature I liked:

1. We can open multiple windows simultaneously.
2. Quick Fix (Ctrl + 1).
3. ABAP Element Info (F2).
4. Method Information (Alt + F2)
5. Format (Ctrl + Shift +F)& Format Active Elements (Ctrl +I).
6. Inline declaration and table expressions and many more.

For the beginners best way to start is AiE Explorer.

For Shot keys refer  Shortcuts.

Lastly I would like to thankThomas Fiedlerand the team for such brilliant work.

Stay Awesome,

Romit Raina

After working with ADT since several months, I finally did the ADT feature explorer tour today. Most of the things I already knew, but e.g. linking the source code to the project explorer was new for me.

I'm working with SAP software since 2001. First in the area of FI/CO as functional consultant, since 2007 as an ABAP developer. During my studies I was already using Eclipse for Java and PHP development. When I started with ABAP and SE80 I really missed features like code completion and the clean up of not used variables (I know Code Inspectors tells you also where you have not variables, but that's not handy at all). Over the years I got used to SE80, but I was quite happy when SE80 got finally code completion, too.

But anyway, I was always waiting for a Eclipse based ABAP development tool.

I like the beginners tour, because, even if you are used to Eclipse, there are some features which might not miss, but which make you more efficient with your development (e.g. the code linking to the project explorer).

The reason why I like Eclipse is, that I do not need to switch the tools for all different technology. During my studies that was PHP, some UML modelling stuff and Java development. With all the new SAP technology it will be the tool of choice for UI5, HANA modelling and ABAP. But with all the plug-ins available you can make it even more powerful. For example, as we use Jira for task- and bug-tracking in my current project, I also use the Jira Eclipse plug in. This offers the possibility to save my whole development context (all the development tasks which I have to change) to the task.

But, to be honest, some tasks I still do with the good old SAP GUI tooling. E.g. debugging: most of the times I use the old "new" ABAP debugger in SAP GUI. One reason for this is, that I do a lot of debugging of update taks at the moment. This feature is missing at the moment. But as I learned from Thomas Fiedler SAP is working on that.

Dhivya Baskaraniyankannu IyankannuSaravanan Natarajandineshkumar kothandaraman, what's about your experience?

This blog is for mission 'Eclipse Feature Explorer'

About me:

I am a SAP Process Integration / Process Orchestration consultant. I work on Java coding more than ABAP coding. FYI, SAP PO is moving towards Java single stack. Nevertheless, I am involved in a lot of ABAP coding when middle-ware (SAP PO) interact with SAP ECC. Like ABAP proxies, IDocs, RFCs.

Experience with Eclipse:

Coming from Java programming background. I have worked on very good Integrated Development Environments. Like Eclipse, NetBeans and IntelliJ. I am using SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, which is built on Eclipse platform, similar to SAP ABAP Development Tools (ADT).

My opinion about ADT for Eclipse:

Until ADT, I thought ABAP was seriously lagging behind. In providing IDE experience, when compared to other languages, like Java. Now, I can use single tool to edit SAP PO Java code and SAP ECC ABAP code. Less number of things to remember from tool respective. Familiar coding and debugging UI experience. Features I like in ADT are, Ctrl + 1, Ctrl + Space and Shift + Enter (these are in my muscle memory). Pop-up help. ABAP Source code search. Simple joy of Copy, Cut and Paste (Ctrl commands). Intuitive UI. Can connect to multiple systems from single Eclipse instance, means less clutter on task bar. I would certainly recommend ABAP newbies to use Eclipse ADT over SE80.

What I would like to see in future?

Maybe a highly zoomed out code view (like Document Map in NotePad++). More ABAP books teaching how to use Eclipse for coding and maybe in last chapter teach about SE80 (currently, most of the books are other way around).

I would like to invite my colleagues to explorer about ADT. Karanam TrivikramRam Manohar Reddy Bandaru and SAP PI / PO Consultants.

I would say SAP using Eclipse platform for Java, ABAP, UI5, HANA, Process Orchestration and many more is “The Way To Go!”.

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 having a 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 come 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  raman singh saunDeepali 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

• Please introduce yourself and tell us how long you’ve developed with ABAP

Hi! I'm Gabriela, and I've been around developing in ABAP language since 2006.

I'm from Brazil and love to learn new technologies, and the last years were filled with a lot of changes since I've began on this area. So many new things to learn, it's really hard to follow everything. I've participated in many implementations and I'm specialized on HR development, but already did some developments aside HR, for other SAP modules. I'm always trying to reach the top of the technology and be in tune on what's on and what will be.

• Did you know about Eclipse before you took this ABAP in Eclipse Explorer challenge?

Yes, on college I have already developed in Eclipse using Java and C++ to achieve tasks given by the teachers.

• Do you think the feature explorer is helpful to onboard new developers?

Sure. When you don't have an idea on where to start, it is a very nice place to start.

• What is your favorite feature of the beginners tour?

The challenges that make you explore the framework features.

• Have you explored additional features of Eclipse that you like?

I love the debbugging view of eclipse, which have a great variable viewer and in-memory features which help a lot when searching for code problems. And love to have a framework which I can work with many languages at the same time, with a smart code auto-completion, code check when typing the code, and many other features which Eclipse help when developing software.

• Mention some ABAP developers in the community that should know ABAP in Eclipse. You can use “@” and then type their name so that they get notified when you mention them.

Flavio Rasseli, who like me, love to be in tune with the new things to come.

Let's start...

After installing Eclipse and downloading AiE I started...

...creating shortdumps (SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY) in our dev system. Well, let's raise abap/shared_objects_size_MB to 100 MB.

In
customer systems, I didn't tell basis team to do so yet, since we have
other issues connecting to the systems (SAPROUTER, authorizations...).

First steps

After
learning new helpful shortcuts in the Feature Explorer I feel at home. I
had some problems achieving some of the goals, but that could have been
a pebcak thing. What I really like is the possibility to rename
variables, sometimes I was missing this feature in SE80 really bad.

Before
I used it I thought that Eclipse would be pretty slow, but I have to
correct myself - working is really fluent, for example browsing in dev
classes seems faster than in SE80. I also like the help which is not
popping up somewhere and has to be found first in the taskbar.

It's
also good that you can work offline and can customize the perspective
to fit your needs - this makes it more powerful than SE80.

What I'm missing is the possibility to customize help, sometimes I can't reach ICM in customer systems.

Let me sum up: I like it, it's a powerful, helpful tool and I will try to use AiE whenever it's possible!

About me

I
started programming ABAP in 2000 when my education at SAP AG started.
At SAP, I visited several BC courses where I learned ABAP. After my
education, I programmed reports in FI, MM and CO and system helpers as
my main focus was SAP basis. After some years in SAP basis (and
countless modification adjustments), I went to Palmer AG, a consulting
company from Würzburg in the IS-U field. Here I do upgrades including
modification adjustments and some programming in IS-U, ERP and basis.

This week Ondrej Seman  wrote a small blog post about a useful feature in Eclipse that helps to organize your daily life as a developer : Using Mylyn in Eclipse (usefull tools) . I want to summarize shortly what is possible with mylyn within the ABAP development perspective.

Mylyn is a task management system that is integrated in the Eclipse tooling.

You can open the Task List view via the top level menu of your eclipse installation:

The Task List View is opened and is ready to use. Tasks are grouped in categories (My Development Tasks, My Product Backlog) and can have sub-tasks. You can create local tasks that are only stored on your PC or you can use tasks from a so-called task repository like here in the example from a jira repository.

When you double-click on a task in the list an editor comes up to enter the details of the task:

One very beneficial feature of the task management system is the provisioning of a so-called task context. That means that a task automatically tracks which editors are open in the IDE. To benefit from the context handling you first have to activate a task. Activating a task means that from now on you are actively working on the task and the development objects that will be opened are stored in the context of the task. Activating a task is done via the context menu in the Task List: 

You will see the benefit of the context when you switch between several tasks. Switching a task means that you deactivate one task in the task view and activate another one. What happens now in the IDE is that the editors that are related to task1 are closed and the editors that are releated to the newly activated task are opened.

Mylyn in general provides additonal features that are not available yet for ABAP development like for example the filtering in the project explorer. But we already got feedback from developers that even with the restricted feature set for ABAP the mylyn task management is a very beneficial framework to organize your workspace.

Maybe you give it a try and give us Feedback.

Kind Regards,

Thomas.

Today we released a new version of the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse. ADT Version 2.41 is now general available on the SAP Tools Updatesite: SAP Development Tools for Eclipse

In this version we mainly focused on bug fixes, smaller round-offs and preparation work for the upcoming Eclipse Mars release.

We added two cool new features to the client version 2.41:

Editing in the Source Comparision Editor

The first feature might be very helpful when working with the same development object in several systems. There are already a few features available for you when working with several ABAP projects connected to different systems. For example you can open a development object very quickly in the other system just by using the context menu in the editor:
Open in Project -> <project-name>

The editor is opened and displays the object from the chosen system.

Very often you not only want to open the object but you also want to compare the code with each other.

Here we go. Just choose the following context menu item in the editor.
Compare With-><project-name>

The comparision view for the object is opened and explains you what the differences between the two versions. This is the same comparision view that we provide for the local history of objects and the revision history.

So far nothing new.But now to the new stuff:

With ADT 2.41 it is possible to edit both versions in the comparision view !

This is very helpful in case you want to bring some source code from one system to the other. So just start typing in one of the pages and do your job. Lock Handling and transport handling is the same as in the standard editor.

In addition to the standard editing capabilities the view also provides these buttons here that helps you to take over complete code sections from left to right or vice versa.

This feature is not only working for the classic ABAP development source code objects like classes, reports and function modules. It also works for ther new members of the ABAP family like CDS sources and AMDPs. Here for example you see a screenshots of a CDS view which is editable in two systems in parallel:

Outline View for CDS Views

The outline view is a very helpful feature in eclipse in general as it gives you a good overview and summary about a development object. For example for classes it shows you the methods, attributes, local classses and so on. The outline view is now also available for CDS views. Because of the rich feature set within the definition of these new views they can get very complex. Therefore we think that the outline can help the developers to get a quick overview about the defined view. 

Here you see a screenshot of the new outline view for a typical CDS view:

You can very easily see the different sections of the definition like the FROM clause, the SELECT list, GROUP_BY sections and WHERE clauses. The outline view also gives you nice navigation capabilities as the view is linked with the corresponding editor. That means you can position your cursor on an element in the outline view and the corresponding element in the source code editor is marked and vice versa.

The outline view is also available as inline version in the editor called Quick Outline. Just press CTRL-O in the editor tab of the CDS view and you see the outline view as a small popup directly in the editor. In that case you have an additional filter line to restrict the displayed content:

This feature (which is also available for all other source code objects) might help in case you are working in the full screen mode where you don't have the outline view opened.

So that's it for today. Hope you like the new version of ABAP in Eclipse.

Feedback as usual very welcome !

Kind Regards,

Thomas.

On my way to SAP Code Jam and sitFRA I wanted to use the time to write a program. Unfortunately the internet connection via my build-in SIM card was not that stable. But since the Eclipse IDE stored the files off-line I could at least write the program – to some extend:

The ABAP in Eclipse permanently wants to do syntax check. But there was no connection, so I had stop typing again and again waiting for it to ready. Also when I did pretty printing or activation, I do so automatically not thinking of that this would block me as well.

I had connection again activated the program. Afterwards it changes to display mode. When I tried to change it again, it could not be unlocked, because there is no connection and I could not edit the program. Of course there are also no help files available.

What to do? My suggestion is to have some kind of off-line coding mode:

First the program is created and locked in the back-end. Then I switch on the off-line mode and no communication with the back-end takes place. When I am in off-line mode, I can unlock programs and change them. When the communication is back, it syncs the code. Great would be also, if the ABAP help file could be local accessible via the F1-help too.

To be able to create new objects as well as navigation between objects is not necessary from my point of view.

But what is you opinion to that subject? Do you also think, that such a feature would be nice to have? Do you agree with my suggestions regarting its functionality?

Hi all,

today's blog is about features I love to see in eclipse. A lot of it is already built in (here I mentioned some How to get your colleagues into ABAP in Eclipse), but there are some I really miss or maybe I just wasn't able to "refactor" my thinking. What I hope, is to just talk about daily problems and get some other insights from you.

As you might know (or not:-)) the roundtable SAP Stammtisch Würzburg - Community Events - SCN Wiki had the first come together and this was a really hot topic.

1st The Scope-functionality

Good old fashioned SE80 I see it at the bottom of my window.

I use this function to make sure, that I'm not at a silly spot and also to search for the initial loop for example. Right now, I do not find an alternative in AIE so far.

2nd Search String in Program/Source

This hurt me from time to time. Also some of my colleagues are also complaining about it. At the moment I switch to the GUI to use it, because STRG-F just search my displayed include. An example would be that I search for a field, if it is already included in any select...

The where-used-function (STRG-SHIFT-G) is not able to this with a string, is it?

My solution to this problem would be a function that allows in eclipse to expand every include to a onepager...

What I mean is, that all includes are expanded in one big source

Example:

3rd Focus on a program/object

Maybe it is just me, but I really like the focusing on a program and navigating through the stack via the tree. I also like the Eclipse-tree, but it would be really nice to have a focused tree similar to the se80-tree because right now there are a lot of programs left, which are not class-based and the outline-view does not help that much.

I would also be happy, if this is an option would be available with forms in the outline-view.

4th Assist to create dictionary-objects

This is something I have a long time in my mind. With eclipse I'm able to declare variables local or even delete the unused variables in my program using the onboard-tools. I would love to see a function, that I'm able to refactor my local data-definitions to global dictionary-types. To be exact range-types. While using classes I need a lot of it and in my opinion a global type is better than a local type. That must not be true for everything, but having the option would be really nice

5th Defining a Standard-Header in the backend

Also something not really new, but would be a nice feature if it would be possible to define a mandatory-header for the different sources in the backend and every time one is created, the predefined header is included.

6th Multiple Logon pads

I think I'm not alone with my problem here... would really be nice to have this supported. Creating system direct in eclipse is good and works fine but in the end I also have a lot systems in my local logon-pad which I really use only once a year.

7th Extraction of ABAP Doc for Technical Documentation

Dreaming about a TD directly out of the source... this is a really far away idea. I think I could generate my TD with all the data I have available while developing and just press a button at the end. I'm sure it is possible but I have no clue how to do it.

8th Including the SFP-Transaction – Isn't it a Webdynpro Interface :-)

I have a strong focus on developing forms and so I would love to see the implementation of Adobe as part of the eclipse. Not the tool itself, but the interface. So I'm able to just switch between two worlds and two different shortcut-features. Perhaps it is my personal problem, but I nearly always forget to activate my interface because of the other shortcut:-(

9th Enhancements

Last but not least, I would love to do my enhancements via eclipse without leaving the new world...:-) No need to add anything here...

That's it. This is my personal wish list with a few points I really like to see implemented. Feel free to add your personal wishes in the comments or give me a clue, if I can solve one of my points:-)

Cheers

Florian

PS Bruno , below you have as much space as you want to add your points discussed at our roundtable-meetup.

Hi,

This is going to be an extremely small blog post because time has been a very rare commodity around these parts lately.

So here it goes. I'm forcing myself to use Eclipse (again). This time it might stick. It has improved enough for me to break even or maybe even be more productive using it than good ol' SAP GUI. It still has a lot of issues (for me) though. Here's a quick list which adds to this list created by Florian Henninger, A wishlist of features - ABAP in Eclipse.

Disadvantages/annoying things

• Pressing ALT+F8 to start a transaction (like SE11 for data dictionary) takes forever, if it has to "search" for it.

• I'm one of those crazy people that actually creates documentation for classes/methods. I'm completely lost as to how to do this in Eclipse. Also, description on method parameters show up when you use code completion, which is a nice feature. But apparently you can't create these descriptions using Eclipse, which doesn't make any sense.

• (Implicit) Enhancements are impossible. So, anytime you need to do this, you HAVE to use SAP GUI.

• Can't have the tree explorer organized to see the includes in a program? In places where people "stuff" everything in the same package (which is very common), the "Project Explorer" becomes completely useless, and it would be very nice to "restrict" this explorer to a certain program, as you can do in SE80.

• Code completion doesn't recognize global parameters?

• Can't activate an include used in more than one main program.

• I have no idea on how to create an enterprise service out of a function module... On SE80 I just right click on it.
  

Advantages

• The only REALLY nice and productivity increasing feature (for me) I have found so far: using quick fix to create a new method.

That's it from me.

All in all, I think I'll keep using it, but I do hope it keeps improving... For the "regular" abapper, I still don't think it's an obvious alternative to SAP GUI. It might fit some people better, and some others not.

Cheers,

Bruno

This blog is to provide information, how to install Eclipse LUNA. If you wish to use Eclipse Kepler, follow instructions provided on website of Kepler Eclipse.

• Information about Eclipse Development Tools for ABAP is available at https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap
• Open the link above and click on Eclipse Luna
• Choose correct Version to download. My system is Windows 7, 64 Bit, however still on my system I can use Windows 32-bit software of Eclipse. Before installation make sure you have latest version of Java, information about required java version can be checked in the readme folder of your downloaded zip file..

• Once you download the correct version & extract the ZIP file, click on Eclipse.EXE

• Choose a place on your system, where you would like to store Eclipse Projects and Hit Next to see the following screen.
• Click on ADD in screen below, after putting URL for https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/luna

• Provide a Name to the repository

• Select ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver and click Next

• Click Next

• Accept the Agreement and Click Finish.

• Installation begins and at end we get following screen

• You will get eclipse installed, now you are good to play around .

• In SAP GUI make the following settings for the system you plan to use for Eclipse

• Follow the steps below to create a project and write a small program

Provide Login information for that particular system

It might give following popup, hit Yes.

Right click on the project to create a new ABAP Program

Provide the Program Name and Package and that’s it you are good to go.

You may asked to provide a developer key, if you are not registered as a developer in this system.

Write your program and activate using Ctrl+F3

Additional Blogs which provide more details http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/eclipse/blog/2012/07/16/installing-abap-in-eclipse

Disclaimer : All information is based on personal experience of Author and using or installing software on your system/s, should follow the SAP and Eclipse User Agreements / License Agreements at your own risk. Author does not accept any responsibility of any system issues etc that may arise after installation of Eclipse Luna. Author does accept responsibility or liability of whatsoever it may be of using this information.

Once in a while I stumble upon an AiE feature that after the initial discovery I can't work without any more. The last such feature was the possibility to restrict the search for ABAP development objects to certain object type (cf. A take-away "AiE feature" from our last SAP Code Jam event by Martin Steinberg). Today I discovered my new favourite feature, the properties view, through Thomas Fiedlers response in the thread Feature Request: Description in "Duplicate" dialog.

Before the properties view

One thing is used to do in the past was to open up an source code artefact in the SAP GUI. And  then use the context menu to open the object directory entry of the artefact (see screen shots below). As I didn't know any other way I never questioned this approach. However, I was hoping that some day there would be a simpler way of getting to the object directory imformation.

The properties view to the rescue

After reading Thomas' response this morning I gave the properties view a try. First I had to add it to my ABAP perspective using the "Show View" menu in AiE.

After adding the view I immediately saw that the function I was looking for had been available all the time. For each source code artefact the properties view show the important properties including the object directory information. Furthermore, I also allows editing certain properties like e.g. the object description or the main program of an include.

I hope this blog helps everyone who used to get to object directory information using some work around as I did. Nevertheless, I think that the AiE team should add this view to the default views open when starting the ABAP perspective. That way this feature would be easier to find for new users of AiE.

Christian

Let's start...

After installing Eclipse and downloading AiE I started...

...creating shortdumps (SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY) in our dev system. Well, let's raise abap/shared_objects_size_MB to 100 MB.

In customer systems, I didn't tell basis team to do so yet, since we have other issues connecting to the systems (SAPROUTER, authorizations...).

First steps

After learning new helpful shortcuts in the Feature Explorer I feel at home. I had some problems achieving some of the goals, but that could have been a pebcak thing. What I really like is the possibility to rename variables, sometimes I was missing this feature in SE80 really bad.

Before I used it I thought that Eclipse would be pretty slow, but I have to correct myself - working is really fluent, for example browsing in dev classes seems faster than in SE80. I also like the help which is not popping up somewhere and has to be found first in the taskbar.

It's also good that you can work offline and can customize the perspective to fit your needs - this makes it more powerful than SE80.

What I'm missing is the possibility to customize help, sometimes I can't reach ICM in customer systems.

Let me sum up: I like it, it's a powerful, helpful tool and I will try to use AiE whenever it's possible!

About me

I started programming ABAP in 2000 when my education at SAP AG started. At SAP, I visited several BC courses where I learned ABAP. After my education, I programmed reports in FI, MM and CO and system helpers as my main focus was SAP basis. After some years in SAP basis (and countless modification adjustments), I went to Palmer AG, a consulting company from Würzburg in the IS-U field. Here I did upgrades including modification adjustments and some programming in IS-U, ERP and basis.

Now I'm working at arvato Systems perdata, where I'm responsible for Solution Manager and HANA projects.

Hi Community,

since this morning there is a new updatesite available for you:

SAP Development Tools for Eclipse - Mars Software Repository

SAP development tools landed successfully on Mars and this time the ABAP is the first guy setting his feets on the new planet. ABAP development based on Eclipse Mars is now officially supported.

Find all the news of the Eclipse Mars release on the eclipse news page:

Eclipse Mars - New and Noteworthy

But where are all the other development tools from SAP for the Mars Release?

--> Don't worry. They will come in the next days.

Kind Regards,

Thomas.

Hello,

today I have updated to the newest Eclipse-Version mars and technically all is going fine. For the new eclipse version i have generated a new workspace, that i can work with "old" version luna anymore.

Is it possible to transfer my configured system connections incl. favourite packages from the luna installtion to the mars installation? I have tried it with export/import function in eclipse file menu, but i can't find a suitable entry!

Thanks a lot for any Information.

Best regards

Martin

Hi community,

the data preview in eclipse is a very powerful tool to display table content in ABAP in Eclipse.

But I often hear the problem that it is quite cumbersome to open the data preview via the project explorer.

Because you first have to open the correct package in the project explorer to right-click there to open the data preview.

Do you know that there is a quick launch possibility via ALT-F8? 

Just open the dialog 'Run ABAP Application' (ALT-F8) and enter the name of the table you want to inspect:

There is the usual search behavior with type restrictions possible in the dialog field.

When you choose an item from the result list the data preview is opened.

Kind Regards,

Thomas.