ABAP in Eclipse Feature Explorer

I started working as an ABAP/4 developer in my last year of college. Before that I focused mostly on Java development, things like UI development (simple Swing “windows”, JSP, …), JDBC. Almost started moving towards HTML and JavaScript when all of a sudden I had the chance to explore this so called ABAP environment (jumped right into it!). Having a computer science background, I wasn’t really interested in all the ERP processes (things like MRO, and so on), yet I was more than curious to find ways to connect different software components (E.g. a backend ABAP system connected to a JSP, or a Web Dynpro UI connected to multiple data sources: web services, Java applications). Trust me, I can go on and on 🙂

I worked with Eclipse all my university years (prefered it over NetBeans or JCreator, contrary to my colleagues). So when time came to switch to SAPGUI, I wasn’t really overly excited. In my opinion, it looked “old fashioned” (including the Corbu theme). To be honest, it looks like my mother’s accounting program.

The good news came when I first discovered that you can integrate the SAPGUI into the Eclipse environment. Even though it didn’t covered everything, it’s was a starting point. I prefer writing code in Eclipse, even more, if the new UI technologies are leaning towards OpenUI5 and mobile apps, you can have everything in one place.

A very needed feature was the proposal of non-keywords which speeds up the coding considerably. But some of my favourites are:

1. You can open multiple source code objects in parallel

2. CTRL+1, ENTER (genius)

3. … the list can go on.

As a conclusion, you have to try it yourself to be convinced! Trust me, it’s worth it!