ADT supports a wide variety of ABAP Objects and this is expected too because Eclipse is part of SAP’s future development offering.
SAP is working on future WebIDE which should allow to do ABAP programming on HANA Cloud Platform. Well, we wait with the excitement. Good things take time to happen!
Some of the most important objects which Eclipse ADT allows to work on are:
| ABAP Programs/Include | Enhancements(Elementary, Composite, Enhancement Spot) |
| DDIC Objects(Tables, Views, CDS, Data Types, Table Function, Domain, Lock Object, Search Help, Structure, Table Type) | Web-Dynpro Components, Configurations, Windows, Interface, Controller, FPM application |
| Classes(Interfaces, AMDP) | Test Scripts/ Configurations/ Containers |
| Screens | Transaction |
| Message Classes | Internet Services |
| Function Group, Function Modules | Authorization Objects |
| Package | Workflow Objects/Tasks/Roles |
| BOPF business objects | BSP applications |
Eclipse is integrated with SAP GUI. The Objects for which native ADT editor is not present, Eclipse opens corresponding SAP GUI editor/transaction.
Let’s create a “Hello World!” program in Eclipse(Steps):
- Go to Eclipse Menu > Window > Perspective > Open Perspective > Other… > ABAP
- Create an ABAP Project if ABAP project is not yet created using steps in blog Login SAP @Eclipse OR just open the existing project(in Project Explorer of Eclipse) where you want to write program
- Right Click on Project(in Project Explorer)
- New >
- Other… >
- ABAP >
- ABAP Program(Select by Single Click) >
- Next >
- Enter Package($TMP if local), Program name(Starts with Y or Z) and Program Description > Next >
- Select/Create/Enter Transport(This Step is view only if package is $TMP)
- Finish
- Write your “Hello World!” program… something like this:
- This Program prints “Hello World!” in the output console. Press F8 > ABAP Application > Output is printed on console
Creating a Global class
Steps to create a Global class is very similar to creating a Hello World program.
- Go to Eclipse Menu > Window > Perspective > Open Perspective > Other… > ABAP
- Create an ABAP Project if ABAP project is not yet created using steps in blog Login SAP @Eclipse OR just open the existing project(in Project Explorer of Eclipse) where you want to write program
- Right Click on Project(in Project Explorer)
- New >
- Other… >
- ABAP >
- ABAP Class(Select by Single Click) >
- Next >
- Enter Package($TMP if local), Program name(Starts with Y or Z) and Program Description > Next >
- Select/Create/Enter Transport(This Step is view only if package is $TMP)
- Finish
- Write your Global Class
A point to be noted here that Global class in Eclipse is fully typed in nature unlike SE24 transaction in GUI. You will find that Eclipse doesn’t have any dedicated tab for Attributes/Methods or Exceptions and these can be created by typing code.
Creating other ABAP Artifacts:
Eclipse offers to create most of the ABAP artifacts. If some of the artifacts don’t have Eclipse native editors, Eclipse opens up corresponding SAP GUI transaction for them. Steps are similar:
- Go to Eclipse Menu > Window > Perspective > Open Perspective > Other… > ABAP
- Create an ABAP Project if ABAP project is not yet created using steps in blog Login SAP @Eclipse OR just open the existing project(in Project Explorer of Eclipse) where you want to write program
- Right Click on Project(in Project Explorer)
- New >
- Other… >
- Find the ABAP artifact by browsing the object hierarchy
- Select > Next > Provide required information/TR information if applicable > Next > Create Object