SAP NetWeaver Application Server Munich City Utilities Empowers Developers With ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse Table of Contents 2 Driving Innovation on Standardized Software with ABAP and Java 2 ABAP Runs SWM s Core Processes 3 One Platform for All Developers 3 Eclipse The Extensible Development Environment 4 ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse Key Advantages for SWM 4 Boosting Developer Productivity with Eclipse 5 Modern UI with Powerful Search and Navigation 6 How SWM Rolls Out New SAP Technology 6 SWM Engages with SAP Community Network 7 Moving Forward 7 For More Information
Driving Innovation on Standardized Software with ABAP and Java Live a better life with M. That s the slogan of Munich City Utilities (Stadtwerke München, or SWM). The IT unit of SWM Services GmbH, SWM s shared services provider, builds and hosts mission-critical applications for all SWM business units. By deploying ABAP development tools for Eclipse, SWM Services achieves major productivity gains for developers working with the ABAP programming language. To increase the speed of innovation while maintaining high productivity and low integration effort, SWM Services focuses on two strategic technologies, ABAP and Java, complementing these with new technologies required for specific scenarios. ABAP and Java are the foundation for most of SWM s core applications, which include several million lines of custom-developed code in Java alone. To harmonize business processes across different business units, and to help ensure excellent inter system communication, SWM Services uses optimized application programming interfaces and unified data formats for process integration and communication. ABAP RUNS SWM S CORE PROCESSES Since a core domain of SWM is providing electricity, natural gas, district heating, and water and maintaining the corresponding infrastructure, SWM Services uses SAP for Utilities solutions to run these business processes. These solutions are built on the SAP NetWeaver technology platform for the ABAP programming language. As SWM is constantly optimizing its business processes to best serve its customers, the engaged, highly skilled developers at SWM Services require highly efficient design-time and development tools. ABOUT SAP NETWEAVER APPLICATION SERVER Development tools for the ABAP programming language running on the SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS) component provide an integrated environment for developing business applications to keep pace with changing needs. The functionality of the application server for ABAP provided by these tools supports comprehensive lifecycle management and effective testing and troubleshooting. The tools integrate with a wide range of development tools from SAP (including the SAP HANA studio and the UI development toolkit for HTML5) and from third parties on the open Eclipse platform. 2 / 7
ONE PLATFORM FOR ALL DEVELOPERS SWM has used Eclipse as a Java development environment for many years with very good experiences. But Eclipse is now becoming the integration platform for all kinds of development tools for the SAP software environment. The custom, pure ABAP-centric development model for SAP applications is changing dramatically to a cross-domain model including the SAP HANA platform, mobile solutions, and cloud computing. The developers need to be prepared for this change, and benefit from Eclipse as an integrated development environment (IDE) for fulfilling all the development tasks in a harmonized way. Enterprise mobility is another area where SWM is investing. And the team is planning to use the service and integration tools in Eclipse once they are available in the 7.31 release of SAP NetWeaver. This way, these tools are integrated with the tools for maintaining objects in Enterprise Services Repository. ECLIPSE THE EXTENSIBLE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT But the integration of all SAP development tools in one platform is not the only benefit of Eclipse. Also highly valuable is the huge Eclipse community and the fact that now development tools from other vendors can easily be integrated in the SAP development environment. This was not possible with the ABAP workbench. Code quality, for example, is very important for SWM, which plans to use static code analysis and clone detection tools from specialized partners to address this topic. The team sees a big benefit in Eclipse now that these tools can be combined within one Eclipse installation. Another key factor is the openness of the Eclipse software development kit (SDK). With the help of the SDK, customers and partners are now enabled to implement add-ons to the ABAP development tools on their own. In the future, SWM plans to invest in that area and take further advantage of the SDK once its demanding project plans permit. The IT unit of SWM Services GmbH, SWM s shared services provider, builds and hosts mission-critical applications for all SWM business units. 3 / 7
As SWM is constantly optimizing its business processes to best serve its customers, the engaged, highly skilled developers at SWM Services require highly efficient design-time and development tools. ABAP DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR ECLIPSE KEY ADVANTAGES FOR SWM One of the main advantages of the ABAP development tools for Eclipse is that the IDE does not crash when the system connection to the ABAP server is interrupted. With the ABAP workbench, developers have to log on to the system again and reopen all the editors. This issue disappears with Eclipse because communication with the ABAP server is stateless: the IDE does not close the editor, and it automatically reconnects to the system once the connection is restored. Another big advantage of the ABAP development tools for Eclipse is the ability of the Eclipse client to connect to several ABAP systems at once. SWM has three ABAP development systems where development is done in parallel. Reinhard Döring, the key SAP architect at SWM, explains that the Eclipse approach connects an IDE against several ABAP systems. With that setup, you have tremendous advantages compared to the ABAP workbench, he says. The source-code comparison between several systems is now quite convenient and helps in harmonizing code and optimizing quality by finding duplicates. And the Diff Tool in Eclipse for comparing ABAP classes is much more efficient than in the ABAP workbench, eliminating cumbersome tasks. BOOSTING DEVELOPER PRODUCTIVITY WITH ECLIPSE From the beginning, it was clear that SWM would not use ABAP development tools unless developers could realize significant productivity gains. For SWM, a stable and powerful IDE is essential. We don t have the time for experiments. We need to be sure that new tools will increase our productivity. With the ABAP tools in Eclipse, this is guaranteed, explains Döring. ABOUT ECLIPSE Eclipse is a multilanguage integrated development environment (IDE). It comprises a core platform with extension points for enhancing and customizing the development environment. Eclipse supports the development of applications in Java and, by means of various plug-ins, other programming languages including ABAP, C++, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many more. It also provides a Web Dynpro development environment, a user interface technology developed by SAP for Web applications. The thriving Eclipse ecosystem provides developers with a vast array of tools and encourages them to share their own best practices. Available as open-source software, Eclipse is developed and driven by the Eclipse Foundation, a not-for-profit consortium of software vendors. The Eclipse Foundation provides support to the Eclipse community for four critical components: an IT infrastructure, an ecosystem development environment, a development process, and integration platform management. SAP is a key member of and major contributor to the Eclipse Foundation. 4 / 7
Eclipse, the custom, pure ABAP-centric development model for SAP applications, is changing dramatically to a cross-domain model including SAP HANA, mobile solutions, and cloud computing. MODERN UI WITH POWERFUL SEARCH AND NAVIGATION The first feature SWM recognized as beneficial is the powerful user interface of the Eclipse environment itself. The developer can arrange the views and editors in so-called perspectives, which provide the flexibility they need. With Eclipse, a developer can open several source-code editors in the IDE and arrange them in parallel Eclipse tabs. This solution is much more efficient than working in several SAP GUI modes. A number of features in the editor enable the developer to navigate quickly between the code artifacts. The ability to navigate to my last edit position with just one shortcut is one of my favorite features, says Martin Steinberg, senior developer at SWM. The Eclipse project explorer with the favorites feature gives you a very good overview of your package structure with contained objects. And the powerful search function is very helpful for quickly finding and opening the development objects in the IDE, he says. I just type in parts of the name of the object that I need; the editor quickly shows me the search result, and I can open the related editor. The ABAP development tools even offer visual integration of Web Dynpro based transactions in an SAP GUI view, which is very useful for certain use cases. This solution is ideal for SWM since it facilitates the developer s workflow and supports consistent navigation across the project explorer, search, and different editors. Smart Source-Code Editing Moreover, the code editor far surpasses the editor in the ABAP workbench. The source-based approach in the Eclipse editor is much more efficient than the form-based editors of the ABAP workbench, which requires switching between mouse and keyboard and frequent navigation between forms. The code editor provides powerful features such as code completion, quick fixes, helpful element information, and source-code templates, all available with shortcuts. ABOUT MUNICH CITY UTILITIES AND SWM SERVICES GMBH Munich City Utilities (Stadtwerke München, or SWM) is the leading universal service provider for electricity, natural gas, district heating, water, local public transport, and telecommunications in the Munich region. It s the sixth-largest utility company and the third-largest public transport company in Germany, with 7,800 employees serving 1.1 million corporate and private customers. In 2012 SWM generated 4.5 billion in revenues. SWM Services GmbH, a member company of Munich City Utilities, provides shared services for all SWM business units. Part of SWM Services, the information and process technology unit offers comprehensive IT services including development, implementation, and support of mission-critical business applications. This unit employs approximately 500 people and generates a high project volume every year. 5 / 7
ABAP in Eclipse Easy to Learn Another important aspect of having the ABAP tools in Eclipse is the ease of onboarding new people into the ABAP development area. With Eclipse, there s no need to become familiar with the ABAP workbench; they already know the environment and only have to learn the ABAP language. For SWM, the main source for news about the ABAP development tools and the ABAP programming language in general is SAP Community Network. The team prefers short articles and blogs or, even better, videos and video tutorials, which are ideal for internal rollout of new features. In addition, Twitter is a good channel for news about ABAP from SAP and the SAP mentors. HOW SWM ROLLS OUT NEW SAP TECHNOLOGY The rollout of a new development environment is a big challenge for an organization like SWM. Once the team heard that ABAP in Eclipse was available for their development landscape built on the 7.31 version of SAP NetWeaver, they formed a small work group to evaluate the new IDE and compared it to the ABAP workbench. Currently, five developers serve on this smaller team and are contributing to the rollout of the new IDE. SWM is organizing internal lectures and handson sessions for the knowledge transfer, and it mainly uses an internal wiki to document, share, and discuss development-related knowledge and processes. The software delivery process is very easy with Eclipse, simply involving a zip file of the IDE distributed to the full development team. SWM ENGAGES WITH SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK The rollout team is also engaging with the SAP community to increase its knowledge about ABAP in Eclipse. Steinberg uses social media extensively to interact with the community. SAP Community Network offers the perfect platform for him to get information about news and to discuss with others tips and tricks of the new IDE. Interaction with the SAP development teams via this channel is very easy and beneficial, he comments. He also participates in events sponsored by the German SAP users group DSAG and at SAP d-code conferences (formerly SAP TechEd), and is in close contact with SAP mentors and local SAP developers in the Munich area. Another key factor is the openness of the Eclipse SDK. With the help of the SDK, customers and partners are now enabled to implement add-ons to the ABAP development tools on their own. 6 / 7
MOVING FORWARD The benefits of the ABAP development tools for Eclipse on the current SAP NetWeaver release at SWM are already convincing, and SAP intends to bring even more features to future releases. Looking ahead, the extended feature set available with the latest version of SAP NetWeaver is even more attractive. In combination with the crosstechnology capabilities of the open Eclipse platform, the road map for development tools at SWM is clearly defined. FOR MORE INFORMATION To learn more, please visit the SWM Web site, www.swm.de, and SAP at www.sap.com/pc /tech/application-foundation-security/software /application-server/index.html. And find out more about SAP Community Network at http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/eclipse. Highly valuable is the huge Eclipse community and the fact that now development tools from other vendors can easily be integrated in the SAP development environment. 7 / 7 Studio SAP 29054enUS (14/05)
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