Introduction to Eclipse

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2

Overview 3

Understanding How SAP Uses Eclipse 4

Background to Eclipse 4
Benefits of Eclipse 5

Defining an ABAP Project 7

The Log On Process 7
Log On To The SAP System 8
The Online Development Model 9
Multiple Projects in a Single Workspace 10
Eclipse Preferences 11
Project Properties 12
Packages and Favorites 13
Add a Package to Favorites 14

Organizing Work with the Eclipse Workbench 15

The Eclipse Workbench 15
Perspectives 16
Open a New Perspective and Customize the ABAP Perspective 18
Editors 20
To Arrange Objects for Editing 21
Views 21
To Arrange Views 22
To Use Quick Views 23
To Pin a View 23
Quick Access 23
To Use Quick Access 24
Learning Assessment 25

2
Overview
In this section, you will learn about:

● Understand the Role of Eclipse-Based Tools at SAP

● Log On To The SAP System

● Explain the online development model

● Explain how multiple projects can exist in a single workspace

● Modify Eclipse preferences and project-specific settings

● Add a favorite package to an ABAP project

● Describe the Eclipse Workbench

● Organize editors and views into perspectives

● Arrange objects for editing

3
● Navigate information and resources using views

● Access interface elements using Quick Access

Understanding How SAP Uses Eclipse

Background to Eclipse
The open Eclipse platform offers first-class user experience, powerful platform capabilities,

and a broad and vivid ecosystem that regularly contributes enhancements and extensions.

Figure 1: SAP and Eclipse

SAP plays an active role in the Eclipse Foundation as one of its strategic members. Many of its

design-time, development, and administration tools already make use of the Eclipse

platform. These include SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer, SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

for Java development, SAP Mobile Platform, and SAP HANA Studio. The latest addition to the

family is ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver (also known as ABAP in Eclipse, or

ADT).

ABAP Development Tools has been designed to significantly increase developers’ productivity

by leveraging the proven usability, speed and flexibility of the Eclipse platform. ADT

combines SAP's powerful ABAP application server capabilities such as convenient lifecycle

management, server-based development, full integration, effective testing, and

4
troubleshooting tools with the powerful Eclipse UI. It also provides a modern - and for many,

familiar - Eclipse UI client on top of the ABAP platform.

Figure 2: Architecture of ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse

ABAP Development Tools provides the following benefits:

● A brand new ABAP development experience on top of the Eclipse platform.

● An open platform for developing new ABAP-related tools.

● A set of open, language- and platform-independent APIs that developers can use
to build new custom tools for the ABAP environment.

Benefits of Eclipse
With ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse you can capitalize on the usability, speed, and

flexibility of Eclipse while also benefiting from proven ABAP Workbench features. It’s the best

of both worlds.

ADT improves developer productivity by offering better refactoring functionality, code

completion, auto-insertion, and code templates. It also includes an invaluable Quick Fix

feature and is highly navigable.

5
Figure 3: Benefits of ABAP Development Tools

ADT allows you to connect to multiple ABAP systems and provides session failover, reducing

the impact of lost connections. It also enables cross-platform development by integrating

ABAP and non-ABAP development tools, such as SAP HANA Studio and the UI development

toolkit for HTML5, in a single powerful IDE.

Figure 4: Eclipse-Based ABAP Development

ABAP Development Tools accesses objects in the SAP Repository in exactly the same way as

the existing ABAP Workbench tools.

6
Defining an ABAP Project
In this section, you will learn how projects are defined and adjusted in ABAP Development

Tools in Eclipse.

After completing this section, you will be able to:

● Log On To The SAP System

● Explain the online development model

● Explain how multiple projects can exist in a single workspace

● Modify Eclipse preferences and project-specific settings

● Add a favorite package to an ABAP project

The Log On Process

ABAP Development Tools uses the same online development model for ABAP development

as the ABAP Workbench. This means that when you open Eclipse, you must first log onto an

SAP system before you can display or edit any objects. Each logon session (identified by

system, client, and user) is represented in ABAP Development Tools by an ABAP Project.

7
Figure 6: Logging On

To create a new project, choose New → ABAP Project. Use the Browse function to find
the system to which you want to log on and choose Next. Then enter the client, user,
logon language, and password, and choose Finish. You have now logged onto the
system and the ABAP project will be permanently available in your workspace.

Log On To The SAP System

1. Launch ABAP Development Tools.

a) Start Eclipse on your desktop by choosing Start → All Programs → ABAP

Development Tools → ABAP Development Tools Eclipse launches and displays
the ABAP perspective. However, the Project Explorer view is empty.

2. Create a new ABAP project. Your instructor will tell you the connection, client, user name,

and initial password that you should use.

a) Choose New → ABAP Project. Now you need to choose an SAP system to
connect to.

b) Choose Browse and select the ZME system.

c) Choose OK and, on the System Connection screen, choose Next.

d) In the Client field, enter the number provided by your instructor.

e) In the User field, enter BC404-##, where ## is a two-digit number assigned by your

instructor.

f) In the Password field, enter the password provided by your instructor.

g) Choose Next.

h) When prompted, change your password to something of your own choosing.

8
The Online Development Model
Some developers may be used to working in a decentralized development environment. For

example, Java developers who work with the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio each have a

local runtime environment as well as development environment on their computer. This

means that they can develop and test applications locally, independently of their colleagues.

All of the individual developers’ applications are combined in a central system at some later

point.

Development in ABAP Development Tools works differently. Developers using ADT remain

logged on to the SAP system while they are working on various repository objects. In other

words, development is still server-based; objects are stored solely on the back-end. Besides a

small read-only cache to increase performance and to reduce the server load, no objects are

stored on the client side.

Figure 7: The online development model

This means that if you edit an ABAP repository object in Eclipse, an enqueue lock is set for

this object at the client and the most recent version is retrieved from the back-end. If you

save or activate the object, all your changes are stored directly in the ABAP back-end as well.

There are no complex check-out-/check-in mechanisms, and no need to create local copies of

9
objects. Other services, such as syntax checks, searches and where-used functionality are all

run on the back-end. Because all repository objects are retrieved from the back-end, and

there is no client-side ABAP runtime, there is no support for working offline.

Before you begin development in ADT, you must create an ABAP project. An ABAP project

always represents one system connection. It acts as an intermediary between an ABAP

backend system and the front-end Eclipse-based IDE client, and it provides a framework for

creating, processing, and testing development objects. An ABAP project always represents a

real system logon and additionally offers a user-specific view of all ABAP development

objects of the back-end system.

The specification for an ABAP project contains the following items:

● Project name

● System data, including specifications for the system ID, the client, user, and
password

● Default language, that is, the original language of the development objects as well
as the language of the messages and UI texts

● List of the ABAP packages that are displayed as favorites in the project (optional)

Remember that ABAP projects can only be processed if there is an existing system

connection to the ABAP back-end. It is therefore not possible to have read or write access to

the content of an ABAP project in offline mode.

Multiple Projects in a Single Workspace

As with all other project types in Eclipse, ABAP projects, too, form part of a user-specific

workspace and thus define the starting point for all development activities within the new

IDE. Several ABAP projects can exist in one workspace.

10
Figure 8: Multiple Projects

This means, in particular, that the ABAP developer can work on multiple ABAP systems in

one and the same IDE session, without leaving the immediate work environment. This can be

very useful whenever, for example, the status of development objects from the original

development system is to be compared with the status in the consolidation or production

system.

Each subsystem in the Eclipse platform is itself structured as a set of plug-ins that implement

some key function. Some plug-ins add visible features to the platform using the extension

model. Others supply class libraries that can be used to implement system extensions.

Figure 9: ADT Architecture

In the case of ABAP Development Tools, one Eclipse client is installed on the developer PC

and can connect to several back-end systems from different releases. The connection is set

up using a RFC/REST-based protocol. The client provides a set of standard development tools

11
such as the Project Explorer view for system browsing and a variety of editors, one for each

development object.

The development paradigm is server-based. This means that development objects are stored

solely on the back-end and that services such as syntax-check and search are also run there.

Eclipse Preferences
Eclipse Preferences allow you to make general settings about how you want Eclipse
to operate. You can access Preferences by choosing Window → Preferences. The
following graphic shows the Source Code Editors section of the Eclipse Preferences
window.

Figure 10: Eclipse Preferences — Source Code Editors

If ABAP Development Tools is installed, there is a specific section for settings related to

ABAP Development. Settings that can be controlled here include the following:

● Whether the system ID is displayed in the Editor tab page, and if so, where

● Settings relating to Debugging, for example, whether system programs should be

debugged

12
● Settings specific to source code, for example, whether brackets should be
automatically closed, and whether the automatic syntax check should be performed

● Settings related to editors, for example, font size and color options

There is a Restore Defaults button in case you wish to discard the settings you have made.

Project Properties
You can adjust the properties of a specific ABAP project, just as you can adjust preferences

for Eclipse in general. To do so, choose ‘Properties’ from the project’s context menu.

One particularly useful collection of settings is found under ABAP Development→

Editors → Source Code Editors→ Formatter, as shown in the following graphic.

Figure 11: Project Properties Window

The options displayed here correspond roughly to the settings which can be made using the

Pretty Printer in the ABAP Workbench. You can control the code style of the formatter,

including whether source code should be indented (for example, when programming an IF or

CASE construct), and whether keywords and identifiers should be in uppercase or lowercase.

13
After having made and applied these settings in the project properties, the formatting can be

applied by choosing SHIFT + F1 to format the code in the source code editor.

To Adjust Eclipse Preferences and ABAP Project Properties

1. To adjust Eclipse preferences, choose Window → Preferences.

2. To adjust an ABAP project's properties, select its name in the Project Explorer view and

choose Alt + Enter. Alternatively, you can choose the project's context menu and choose

Properties.

Packages and Favorites

When you work with the Object Navigator in the SAP GUI, you are able to

display any package, program, class, or function group in the navigation area

by selecting the relevant object type and entering the name of the object you

want to work with. This is not possible in ABAP Development Tools. (However,

later on, you will learn how you can open any development object using a

special search dialog.)

14
Figure 12: Favorite Packages

However, there may be particular packages with which you want to work on a

regular basis. You can display these packages and their contents in the

navigation area of the Eclipse workspace by adding them as favorites. To add a

favorite, expand the project node and from the context menu of the Favorite

Packages

node, choose Add a Package. Then use the search dialog to locate the package

or packages to which you need regular access.

Add a Package to Favorites

Business Example

You are a programmer for an SAP customer and work with the new ABAP

Development Tools. You want to add an ABAP package to your Favorites list in

a new project.

1. Add the ABAP package BC404 to your Favorites list.

a) On the Project Name and Favorite Packages screen, choose Add.

b) In the ABAP Package Selectiondialog box, enter BC404 in the Select an

object field.

c) Choose OK.

15
 d) Choose Finish. The BC404 ABAP package appears in the Project

Explorer alongside another package called $TMP-Username. The latter is

always generated when a new project is created.

Organizing Work with the Eclipse Workbench

After completing this section, you will be able to:

● Describe the Eclipse Workbench

● Organize editors and views into perspectives

● Arrange objects for editing

● Navigate information and resources using views

● Access interface elements using Quick Access

The Eclipse Workbench

The term Workbench refers to the desktop development environment in

Eclipse. It is used to edit objects, manage views, and arrange the developer's

work area.

16
Figure 13: The Eclipse Workbench

Each Workbench window contains one or more perspectives. Perspectives

contain views and editors. More than one Workbench window can exist on the

desktop at any given time. For example you may open ABAP Development

Tools but also SAP HANA Studio at the same time.

Perspectives

A perspective is a window within the Eclipse Workbench. Each one is made up

of an editor area and a number of panes called views. A perspective provides

the functionality necessary for accomplishing a specific set of tasks or for

working with specific types of resources. As you work in the Workbench, you

may find that you need to switch perspectives frequently.

Figure 14: A Perspective

Perspectives determine the initial set and layout of views in the Workbench

window and determine which options appear in some menus and toolbars.

They define visible action sets, which you can change to suit your own

17
requirements. When you customize a perspective in this way, you can save it

for later use.

ABAP Development Tools provides several perspectives for the Eclipse

workbench: the ABAP perspective, the ABAP Profiling perspective, and the

Debug perspective. The most important of these is the ABAP perspective.

The ABAP perspective, like any other, provides an initial set of views and

editors, and determines their layout. Specifically, the ABAP views and editors

allow you to work with ABAP development objects that are managed by an

ABAP backend system. When using the ABAP perspective, you always have to

establish a system connection which is represented by a corresponding ABAP

project. The ABAP perspective enables access to both Eclipse-based and SAP

GUI-based ABAP tools.

The ABAP perspective consists of an editor area containing various ABAP

source code editors, and the following views:

● Project Explorer

● Outline

● Task Repositories

● Task List

● Problems

● Templates

● Properties

18
● Feed Reader

● Transport Organizer

Open a New Perspective and Customize the ABAP Perspective

Business Example

You are a programmer for an SAP customer and work with the new ABAP

Development Tools. Your current task is to customize the ABAP perspective by

adding ABAP Function Module to the New menu, and then to save the

perspective as BC404_##, where ## is the group number assigned to you by

your instructor. You also want to remove - and then reinstate - the Help menu

and the Launch toolbar from your new perspective.

1. Open the Debug perspective.

2. Customize the ABAP perspective by adding Function Module to the New

menu.

3. Save the ABAP perspective as a new perspective, BC404_##, where ## is

your group number.

4. Further customize your new perspective by removing the Help menu and

the Launch toolbar.

5. Reset the perspective BC404_## so that the Help menu and Launch toolbar

are reinstated in one step.

Solution

19
1. Open the Debug perspective.

a) Choose Window → Open Perspective→ Debug. The Debug perspective

opens alongside the ABAP perspective. You can switch between them
using the icons in the perspective bar.

2. Customize the ABAP perspective by adding Function Moduleto the New

menu.

a) Switch to the ABAP perspective by choosing ABAP in the perspective bar.

b) Choose Window → Customize Perspective...

c) Choose the Menu Visibility tab.

d) Expand the File node.

e) Expand the New node.

f) Select ABAP Function Module.

g) Choose OK. ABAP Function Modulehas been added to the New menu in the

ABAP perspective.

3. Save the ABAP perspective as a new perspective, BC404_##, where ## is

your group number.

a) Choose Window → Save Perspective As...

b) In the Save Perspective As dialog box, enter BC404_## as the name.

c) Choose OK.

20
4. Further customize your new perspective by removing the Help menu and

the Launch toolbar.

a) Ensure that you are currently in the perspective BC404_##.

b) Choose Window → Customize Perspective…

c) Choose the Menu Visibility tab.

d) Deselect Help.

e) Choose the Tool Bar Visbility tab.

f) Deselect Launch.

g) To close the dialog box and verify that the changes which have been made

to your perspective, choose OK.

5. Reset the perspective BC404_## so that the Help menu and Launch toolbar

are reinstated in one step.

a) Choose Window → Reset Perspective ....

b) When prompted, confirm that you wish to reset the perspective. The Help

menu and Launch toolbar are reinstated.

Editors

Most perspectives in the Workbench comprise an editor area and one or more

views.

21
There are different editors for different ABAP development objects. The

appropriate editor opens automatically when you open the object. If there is

no associated native editor for an ABAP development object, the Workbench

attempts to launch an external editor. For example, the Eclipse Workbench has

no editor for ABAP Dictionary objects such as structures and tables. If you

double-click an ABAP Dictionary object, the SAP GUI will be launched.

Figure 15: The ABAP Class Editor

You can have any number of editors open at the same time, but only one can

be active. The main menu bar and toolbar for the Workbench window always

show operations that are applicable to the active editor. Each open editor has

a tab in the editor area. When an editor has unsaved changes, its tab shows an

asterisk (*).

By default, editors are stacked in the editor area, but you can choose to tile

them in order to view multiple source files simultaneously.

If there is a syntax error or problem with the source code, it is flagged with an

appropriate icon in the border of the left margin of the editor. Icons are also

displayed there when you create bookmarks, add breakpoints for debugging,

22
or add a task. To see details about any of the icons in the margin, simply move

the mouse cursor over them.

To Arrange Objects for Editing

1. To tile editors horizontally, drag an editor tab down to the bottom of the

editor area and release it when a horizontal green box appears.

2. To tile editors vertically, drag an editor tab to the side of the editor area and

release it when a vertical green box appears.

3. To move an editor within the editor area, drag its tab to the desired location

and release. Note that editors cannot be moved into the view area.

4. To minimize the editor area, choose the Minimize button in the editor area's

toolbar. Note that the entire editor area is minimized to a trim stack. You

cannot minimize individual editors or views.

5. To restore a minimized editor area, choose the Restore button in its trim

stack.

6. To maximize the editor area, choose the Maximize button in the editor

area's toolbar.

Views

Views support editors and provide ways to navigate the information in your

Workbench. For example, the Project Explorer view allows you to see the

project hierarchy and access specific development objects.

23
Generally speaking, when you open a perspective, task-dependent views are

automatically opened too. You can open additional views at any time, of

course.

Views also have their own menus. To open the menu for a view, click the

triangular icon in the view's title bar. Some views also have their own toolbars.

The actions represented by buttons on view toolbars only affect the items

within that view.

A view can appear by itself, or stacked with other views in a tabbed notebook.

You can change the layout of a perspective by opening and closing views and

by docking them in different positions in the Workbench window.

To Arrange Views

1. To move a view, drag its tab to the desired location and release it when a

green box or line appears. Note that views cannot be moved into the editor

area.

2. To move a group of tabbed views, drag the group's toolbar to the desired

location and release it when the green box or line appears.

3. To minimize a view or a group of tabbed views, choose the Minimize button

in its toolbar. The view or tabbed group of views is minimized to the window's

trim stack.

4. To restore a view or group of tabbed views, choose the Restore button in its

trim stack.

24
5. To maximize a view or group of tabbed views, choose the Maximize button

in its toolbar.

6. To create a new view window, drag a view or tabbed group of views outside

the perspective. Note that this new window behaves as a separate entity -

views can be minimized, restored, and maximized within it.

7. To restore views that have been dragged out into a new window, drag a

single view's tab or the toolbar of a tabbed group of views back into the

perspective.

Trim Stacks

When you minimize a tabbed notebook, a toolbar appears in the trim at the

outer edge of the workbench window. This toolbar is known as a trim stack.

Figure 16: A trim stack.

A trim stack has an icon for each of the views it contains. If you click on one of

these icons, the associated view is displayed as an overlay on the existing

presentation. Of course, you can use the trim stack's Restore button to return

all of the minimized views to their original locations.

To Use Quick Views

25
1. Open a development object in the source code editor.

2. Choose Ctrl + O or in the editor's context menu, choose Quick Outline. The

Quick Outline in-place view appears for the currently opened development

object.

3. Choose Ctrl + O once again. The Quick Outline in-place view shows also all

subcomponents of all superclasses and all implemented interfaces. (This

works only for classes.)

4. In the Quick Outline in-place view, you can filter the results list by typing the

first characters of an element.

To Pin a View

There are occasions when you would like to make changes in a view while also

keeping its current contents visible. For example, you want to compare the

content of a view with a second set. Note that you can only pin views if the Pin

icon is displayed in their toolbar.

1. Open the view that you want to pin.

2. In the view's toolbar, choose the Pin the ## View button, where ## is the

name of the view.

3. You can now open a new instance of the view without losing the original,

and arrange them side by side for comparison.

4. To unpin the view, choose the Pin the ## View button once again.

26
Quick Access

The Quick Access field is located in the top-right of the Workbench. It allows

you to quickly access UI elements such as views, commands, preference

pages, and others.

Figure 17: The Quick Access field

To Use Quick Access

1. In the Quick Access field, start typing the name of the UI element you want

to open. A list of relevant elements appears as you type.

2. Choose the element you want to open from the list. The UI element is

opened.

27
Learning Assessment

28
29