NWDI Empowered Landscape vs. Landscape without NWDI Setup

[shreyas_pandya]

     This blog explains about the differences between NetWeaver Development Infrastructure(NWDI) empowered landscape and Landscape without NWDI Setup. Also, why NWDI empowered landscape is more superior and it's advantages over Non-NWDI Landscape.

Landscape without NWDI Setup:

1. Individual Developers work on their local development environment in Developer Studio.
2. In case of big projects, each developer in a team works on different DCs (Unit of Reuse) assigned to them separately.
3. Output of development is deployable objects (like .EAR files), which are collected manually at the end of the development phase for transport. 

Disadvantages of the Landscape without NWDI Setup:

 

1. Entire development takes place in a scattered pattern, i.e. all the development objects are dispersed amongst the development team members.
2. There is no centralized management of the source code.
3. Multiple developers cannot work on a single development object simultaneously due to lack of version control.
4. There is a possibility of missing  some of the development objects during the transport operation, as it has to be collected manually from  all the developers (Human Intervention is involved), which could possibly result into a dirty transport.
5. This kind of development model doesn’t fully comply with the SAP’s Component Model, which recommends Development Component (DC) usage as a standard practice.

      Building Blocks of SAP’s Component Model:

By dividing software projects into components, you can organize them right from the start incomprehensible and reusable units. Components can use other components in a well-definedand controlled manner, can encapsulate child components, and can publish their functions ina set of public interfaces called public parts. These features are applied in the componentmodel.

1. Product - Unit of Delivery :A piece of software that you run or sell to a customer. Products consist of software components (SCs).
2. Software Component (SC) – Unit of Installation and Transport: Unit of Transport and Installation: An installable piece of software. SCs contain development components (DC) and are (re-)used in products. SCs "know" their dependencies to other SCs.
3. Development Component (DC) – Unit of Reuse:–A piece of software on the granularity of an Eclipse-project containing all the development objects like Java classes, interfaces, etc.
4. Development Objects:–Smallest unit in component hierarchy, example Java Classes, Interfaces etc…

NWDI Empowered Landscape:

Revolutionized Development Paradigm

Advantages of NWDI Empowered Landscape:

1. Entire development takes place in an organized pattern in a symphony, i.e. all the source code is managed in a centralized repository called Design Time Repository (DTR).
2. Multiple developers can work on a single development object simultaneously, due to presence of version control.
3. Unlike classical way of transport described in Landscape without NWDI Setup, there is no possibility of missing  any of the Deployable Objects during the transport process because, it is an automated process that is taken care by CMS (Change Management Service) in which .SCA file is constructed as a single deployable unit.
4. Each Project has a well defined boundary because, before the development is initiated, the Landscape Configurator prepares a “Track” for the Project and delivers it to the developer(s) so that developer(s) can only focus on the development configurations belonging to their bucket.
5. This kind of development model fully complies with the SAP’s component Model. Which best fits the easy maintenance and re-usability concepts.