Improved ADT links or how to display your ABAP source code in a web browser

[thomasalexander_ritter]

Following up on the ADT 2.31 release announcement I want to provide a little bit more details about the new HTTP links.

Please be aware that the HTTP link feature is available from AS ABAP 7.40 SP08 and up. Furthermore, the ADT ICF node on the server has to be active. Check chapter 1.1.4.3 in the backend configuration guide on how to activate it: http://help.sap.com/download/netweaver/adt/SAP_ADT_Configuration_Guide_Backend_en.pdf

Currently, developers can easily create and share so called ADT links for development objects. These links look like this:

adt://DST/sap/bc/adt/oo/classes/cl_gui_alv_grid/source/main#start=18369,0;end=18377,10

As described in this blog post they greatly improve collaboration around development objects. However, the current implementation uses a custom scheme "adt:" so links don't get recognized automatically by most collaboration tools such as: email clients, wiki software, instant messengers,... Moreover, sometimes when receiving such a link you might not be able to open it because ABAP in Eclipse is not installed on your device. The new HTTP links solve all of these problems.

Now, it is possible to get HTTP links for nearly all source code development objects, such as ABAP classes or interfaces. HTTP links have the advantage that they automatically get recognized by all collaboration software. Additionally, they open in a web browser first. No SAP GUI or ABAP in Eclipse installation is needed to have a first quick look at the objects source code. Furthermore, the webpage renderer intentionally uses only HTML features which are supported by most web browsers. This means the webpage can be displayed on nearly any device.

Let me show you how to get and use the new HTTP links.

First, right click in the source code editor and pick the menu entry "Share Link for Selection..." (we renamed it from "Copy ABAP resource url" which sounded a little bit too technical). Second, now there is a pop up window which allows you to pick the best link type for your situation.

As you can see we also added the option to directly open the email compose window for you.

When recipients click on the link the web browser will open and display the object. Moreover, the Eclipse editor selection will be visible on the webpage.

As mentioned before this works on most devices which have a web browser. Below you can see how the source code gets displayed on an iPad.

This feature is very useful if you want to ask a colleague questions such as: "Is this method call still necessary?", "Do you understand this if statement?", "Any ideas on how to optimize this SQL select statement?".

Once the source code is displayed within the web browser you might want to open it in ABAP in Eclipse. You can do this by clicking on a line number or using the header link.

We hope that you are as excited about the new HTTP links as we are and that they make collaboration around development objects easier for you!