ABAP to the Future

Paul Hardy is a senior ABAP developer at Hanson Australia and has been working with SAP for almost 20 years. He has worked on SAP rollouts at multiple companies all over the world, which has given him experience in multiple modules and areas of SAP, from SAP NetWeaver PI to Ariba. He is also a regular presenter at SAP industry conferences and a prolific SCN blogger.

Foreword …19

Acknowledgments …21

Introduction …23
PART I Programming Tools

1 ABAP in Eclipse …35

1.1 Installation …37
1.2 Features …42
1.3 Testing and Troubleshooting …63
1.4 Customization Options with User-Defined Plug-Ins …71
1.5 Summary …79

2 New Language Features in ABAP 7.4 …81

2.1 Database Access …82
2.2 Declaring and Creating Variables …90
2.3 String Processing …96
2.4 Calling Functions …98
2.5 Conditional Logic …102
2.6 Internal Tables …109
2.7 Object-Oriented Programming …126
2.8 Search Helps …129
2.9 Unit Testing …131
2.10 Cross-Program Communication …134
2.11 Summary …136

3 ABAP Unit and Test-Driven Development …137

3.1 Eliminating Dependencies …139
3.2 Implementing Mock Objects …143
3.3 Writing and Implementing Unit Tests …147
3.4 Automating the Test Process …161
3.5 Behavior-Driven Development …171
3.6 Summary …173

4 ABAP Test Cockpit …175

4.1 Automatic Run of Unit Tests …177
4.2 Mass Checks …178
4.3 Recent Code Inspector Enhancements …192
4.4 Summary …202

5 Debugger Scripting …203

5.1 Script Tab Overview …204
5.2 Coding the SCRIPT Method …209
5.3 Coding the INIT and END Methods …215
5.4 Summary …222

6 The Enhancement Framework and New BAdIs …225

6.1 Types of Enhancements …227
6.2 Creating Enhancements …229
6.3 Defining BAdIs …235
6.4 Implementing BAdIs …245
6.5 Calling BAdIs …249
6.6 Summary …252

PART II Business Logic Layer

7 Exception Classes and Design by Contract …255

7.1 Types of Exception Classes …257
7.2 Designing Exception Classes …263
7.3 Design by Contract …274
7.4 Summary …281

8 Business Object Processing Framework (BOPF) …283

8.1 Defining a Business Object …284
8.2 Using BOPF to Write a DYNPRO-Style Program …290
8.3 Custom Enhancements …350
8.4 Summary …355

9 BRFplus …357

9.1 The Historic Location of Rules …360
9.2 Creating Rules in BRFplus: Basic Example …365
9.3 Creating Rules in BRFplus: Complicated Example …388
9.4 Simulations …394
9.5 SAP Business Workflow Integration …397
9.6 Options for Enhancements …401
9.7 Summary …403

PART III User Interface Layer

10 ALV SALV Reporting Framework …407

10.1 Getting Started …409
10.2 Designing a Report Interface …414
10.3 Adding Custom Command Icons Programmatically …441
10.4 Editing Data …447
10.5 Handling Large Internal Tables with CL_SALV_GUI_TABLE_IDA …454
10.6 Summary …456

11 ABAP2XLSX …457

11.1 The Basics …459
11.2 Enhancing Custom Reports with ABAP2XLSX …466
11.3 Tips and Tricks …501
11.4 Summary …505

12 Web Dynpro ABAP and Floorplan Manager …507

12.1 The Model-View-Controller Concept …508
12.2 Building the WDA Application …515
12.3 Using Floorplan Manager to Modify Existing WDA Components …546
12.4 Summary …559

13 SAPUI5 …561

13.1 Architecture …563
13.2 Prerequisites …565
13.3 Backend Tasks: Creating the Model Using SAP Gateway …567
13.4 Frontend Tasks: Creating the View and Controller Using SAPUI5 ... 592
13.5 Adding Elements with OpenUI5 …615
13.6 Importing SAPUI5 Applications to SAP ERP …620
13.7 SAPUI5 vs. SAP Fiori …626
13.8 Summary …627

PART IV Database Layer

14 Shared Memory …631

14.1 The Promises of Shared Memory …632
14.2 Creating and Using Shared Memory Objects …634
14.3 Updating the Database and Shared Memory Together …647
14.4 Troubleshooting …649
14.5 Summary …654

15 ABAP Programming for SAP HANA …655

15.1 Introduction to Code Pushdown …657
15.2 Top-Down Development …658
15.3 Bottom-Up Development …677
15.4 Locating Code that Can Be Pushed Down …681
15.5 Other Modifications to ABAP for SAP HANA …691
15.6 Summary …700

16 Conclusion …703

Appendices …705

A Improving Code Readability …707

A.1 Readability vs. Concision …707
A.2 The What vs. the How …708

B Making Programs Flexible …711

C The Author …719

Index…721