Create transport requests from Features in SAP Cloud ALM

In this blog post I’d like to explain how to create transport requests in your SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP on-premise or SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, development clients from within a feature.

Prerequisites

1. The basic configuration to enable transport management for SAP S/4HANA on-premise, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, and SAP NetWeaver Application Server for ABAP on-premise must be done –> SAP Cloud ALM Setup & Admin Guide
2. To enable the creation of transports from SAP Cloud ALM you must install SAP Note 3322679 and execute the program /SDF/NOTE_3322679 as mentioned.
3. Check, whether you’ve activated the “Feature Deployment: Read Transport Landscape” use case in transaction /SDF/ALM_SETUP in client 000 of your domain controller.
4. Execute ALM Setup transaction (/n/sdf/alm_setup) in each development client you’d like to create transports for. The service key of your SAP Cloud ALM API instance you used already for registering client 000 to your SAP Cloud ALM tenant can be used to maintain the HTTP destination. Make sure that the use case “Feature Deployment: Manage Transports per Client” is activated. We recommend to use 1 minute as collection interval.

Configuration

Nice to know: For releasing transports for a certain export client from within Features the same prerequisites must be met.

Enablement step in CALM

System group with the respective development clients assigned must be available within your project. In application Projects & Setup create a system group and assign it to a deployment plan.

System Group setup

Assignment to deployment plan

Make sure that the deployment plan is assigned to your project you would like to create transport requests for.

Assign deployment plan to project

How to handle transport creation

Use the Create button in a feature of the given project and select “Transport” from the drop down.

Create transport

In the creation dialog following fields must be filled:

1. Fill in a meaningful title for the transport request. We recommend a naming convention.
2. Select whether it should be a customizing or a workbench transport request.
3. Enter a User ID existing in the managed system for the transport owner. This field is optional – in case you do not enter a user or the user does not exist in the managed system we use the background user of your registration as fallback transport owner.
4. Select the export client which is read from the system group assigned to the project as described before.
5. Select the consolidation target fetched from the TMS configuration.

Creation dialog

By confirming the dialog by hitting the “create” button a transport creation is scheduled. The job on the managed system will provide feedback as soon as the Transport is created. During this time the status of the transport shows as “Creation Pending”.

Creation pending

In the history you will see two entries, one with the user scheduling the creation and the system action providing the transport information.The modifiable transport can be used by the developer to do the requested change.

History entry and transports section

Nice to know: Transport creation is possible in feature statuses “In Specification”, “In Implementation” and “In Testing” and you must have the project lead role assigned.

Wrap Up

To ensure that a feature is utilized as starting point for your change you can withdraw the authorizations to create transports in the managed system. This leads to a better organization of your development team activities.

Looking forward to receiving feedback. For latest updates and notifications you can follow me by clicking Moritz Gysler.