Stop using the wrong NWDS version! © – Have a smoother Eclipse experience

Introduction

As SAP’s product team continually closes the gaps between the functionality in NWDS compared to the traditional Swing-based clients, usage of NWDS as the development environment for PI/PO is increasing in popularity. This is especially true when working on features that are only available in single stack environments such as iFlows or NW BPM.

Despite the various NWDS installation materials found on SCN, it is still not uncommon to find discussion threads occasionally popping-up in the forum related to NWDS issues. Such issues can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here (phew!!!).

The most important thing in achieving a correct setup is ensuring correct compatibility between NWDS and the PI/PO system. This means having an exact match between NWDS and the PI/PO system in terms of:-

• Version
• SP level
• Patch level

This means, don’t use an NWDS with a version/SP/patch level higher than the PI/PO system, i.e.:-

• Don’t use NWDS 7.31 on a lower PI system, like PI 7.11

• Don’t use NWDS 7.31 SP17 on a PI system with a lower SP, like PI 7.31 SP12

• Don’t use the latest and greatest NWDS 7.5 on a PI/PO 7.31/7.4 system

While it is fine to use an NWDS version with a lower SP level, it is recommended to use an exact match to benefit from any new feature or bug fixes available.

Checking the version/SP/patch level of the PI/PO system

As compatibility is of utmost important, the first step is to check the version/SP/patch level of the PI/PO system. The steps are mentioned in SAP Note 1381878 which are reproduced here in graphical form.

Navigate to NWA > Troubleshooting > Java > System Information

Select Components Info tab, and filter Name column by XIESR. The version is listed in the Version column.

Note: XIESR component is just one example of the many components in the system, and this assumes all the other XI components are consistent across the system.

The way to interpret the version number is as follows:-

Downloading the correct NWDS version

Once the PI/PO system’s version has been identified, proceed to the following Wiki article to download the corresponding NWDS version. Apart from the latest NWDS 7.5 which is available from Service Marketplace, the other versions are downloadable from the corresponding update site.

NWDS Download Links – Java Development – SCN Wiki

For those working on PI/PO 7.4, there is no corresponding NWDS 7.4 available. This is because NetWeaver 7.4 uses the same code base as 7.31, and therefore an equivalent NWDS 7.31 installation can be used. This is mentioned in SAP Note 1791485 – NWDS 7.3 EHP1 as development environment for SAP NetWeaver 7.4. Following is a snippet from the note on how to determine the equivalent NWDS 7.31 version to use:-

If you are using SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP lower that the latest, please install SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio 7.3 EHP1 with SP version five levels higher than the number of your SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP.

For example: You are using SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP 4. You have to install SAP NetWeaver 7.31 EHP1 SP 9.

So based on the example above:-

• PI/PO system = 7.40 SP08
• NWDS = 7.31 SP13 (8 + 5)

And therefore, the following should be the corresponding compatible version of NWDS.

Additionally, it is also important to have the correct JDK when using NWDS. This should be the same as the JVM version of the PI/PO system.

i) PI/PO 7.31 or 7.4

Runs on JVM 6.1, therefore it requires a JDK 1.6. This can be downloaded from SAP or Oracle. Personally, I prefer using SAP’s as it provides a more stable experience. It can be downloaded from the update site itself as shown in the screenshot below.

ii) PI/PO 7.5

Runs on JVM 8, therefore it requires a 64-bit JDK 8.

Conclusion

Working on NWDS as the development environment is great and I personally enjoy the various benefits of working on the Eclipse platform. However, getting the setup right is essential to enjoying a smooth experience. Hopefully this blog will help the community be aware of the prerequisites when setting up NWDS in order to avoid unnecessary incompatibility issues.