This article appears here with permission from the publisher of SAPinsider, WIS Publishing.

Take Your ABAP

Skills to the Cloud
Develop New Cloud Applications in ABAP
with SAP Cloud Platform ABAP Environment
At SAP TechEd in the fall of 2017, Björn Goerke, SAP’s Chief Technology Officer,
announced that ABAP would become available in SAP Cloud Platform in 2018, and
as of September 2018,1 the new ABAP development and runtime environment — SAP
Cloud Platform ABAP environment — is here. SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment
is a completely new environment for SAP Cloud Platform, comparable to SAP Cloud
Platform for the Neo, Cloud Foundry, and Kubernetes environments.
Anyone familiar with ABAP knows that it is not just a programming language with a
Karl Kessler compiler and runtime — it is an integrated environment based on a primary database
(karl.kessler@sap.com) that contains the ABAP repository and all related ABAP artifacts, such as ABAP classes
joined SAP SE in 1992. and the data definitions based on the core data services (CDS) data modeling infrastruc-
He is the Vice President
ture. SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment not only brings this architectural blue-
of Product Management
ABAP Platform — which print — which is currently the foundation of more than 100,000 productive on-premise
includes SAP NetWeaver installations — to the cloud, it also enables you to bring your existing ABAP develop-
Application Server, the
ment expertise and on-premise assets with you, smoothing the transition to the cloud.
ABAP Workbench, the
Eclipse-based ABAP Moving your ABAP development and execution environment to SAP Cloud
development tools, and Platform allows you to immediately benefit from the latest features of ABAP and SAP
SAP Cloud Platform HANA, as well as the innovations available in all existing SAP Cloud Platform ser-
ABAP environment —
and is responsible for all vices, such as SAP Leonardo with its machine learning, blockchain, and Internet of
rollout activities. Things technologies, which enable new scenarios that are not currently possible in the
on-premise world. It also allows you to delegate all infrastructure, lifecycle manage-
ment, and system operations tasks to the development and operations teams at SAP
and enables you to scale with your business needs rather than making large upfront
investments in hardware and services. In addition, you can take advantage of innova-
tions much faster, since updates are delivered quarterly rather than years apart.
This article prepares SAP customers and partners for this new world by explaining
the basic architecture and mechanics of SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment and,
through practical examples, shows you how to use this new environment for ABAP

1
See “ABAP and the Cloud” in the October-December 2017 issue of SAPinsider (SAPinsiderOnline.com).

SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018

development. It walks through how to set up the
development environment, how to use the develop-
ment tools to create a back-end service, and how to
enable the newly created back-end service for con-
sumption by an SAP Fiori application.
The Architecture of SAP Cloud Platform
ABAP Environment
Figure 1 provides an architectural overview of
SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment. Adminis-
trators (and developers with the appropriate privi-
leges) can launch SAP Cloud Platform cockpit via
their SAP Cloud Platform account and create a new
ABAP instance — that is, a complete ABAP stack
with an underlying SAP HANA database — in the
cloud. The cloud-based ABAP system is then up and
running and can be accessed by the Eclipse-based
ABAP development tools, which are the standard
development tools for SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
environment.
The cloud-based ABAP system is based on the
same ABAP kernel used for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
1808. Its primary purpose is to provide a develop-
ment and runtime environment for SAP Fiori
applications that are decoupled from the digital
core and optimized for SAP HANA using a REST-
ful programming model, a services-based approach,
and a cloud-optimized ABAP language. While SAP
Fiori applications created in the cloud-based ABAP
environment are based on the consumption of
CDS views that are exposed as services through the
OData protocol and presented with corresponding
SAP Fiori elements, simple transactions are also sup-
ported. The ABAP applications connect to back-end
systems through standard protocols such as HTTP
SAP CLOUD
PLATFORM SAP CLOUD
COCKPIT PLATFORM
ABAP
DEVELOPMENT
TOOLS IN
ECLIPSE
SERVICES
ECOSYSTEM
For example:
• User management
• Machine learning
• Internet of Things
GIT CODE
MANAGEMENT
Figure 1 The overall architecture of SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment
SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018
and OData. In the initial version of SAP Cloud
Platform ABAP environment, these applications
can connect to an SAP S/4HANA Cloud back end,
and in planned future versions, access to on-prem-
ise back ends will be enabled through the Cloud
Connector component for SAP Cloud Platform.
It is important to note that with SAP Cloud Plat-
form ABAP environment, SAP Fiori is the only sup-
ported user interface (UI) technology — SAP GUI
and Web GUI are strictly prohibited, since screen
processing is not ideal for the cloud. In addition,
unlike in the on-premise ABAP stack, the ABAP
development tools do not call any embedded SAP
GUI tools in SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environ-
ment. All tool access in SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
environment is done with the native Eclipse plug-ins
available at https://tools.hana.ondemand.com.
SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment is
embedded into the Cloud Foundry environment of
SAP Cloud Platform, which allows ABAP applica-
tions to use other services of SAP Cloud Platform,
such as SAP Leonardo. The traditional change and
transport concept is still in place from a logical per-
spective, meaning that you can develop an ABAP
application in one system and then transport it into
a test or productive system, for example. However,
in contrast to the on-premise world, where trans-
port requests are exported to the central direc-
tory of a landscape (typically under /usr/sap/trans)
and then imported into the target system, in SAP
Cloud Platform ABAP environment, the transport
requests are exported in readable format to a Git
repository. This enables you, for example, to export
the same ABAP artifact in different versions, which
is not possible in the traditional on-premise world.
ABAP PLATFORM
AS A SERVICE BACK-END SYSTEM
For example:
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SIDE-BY-SIDE EXTENSION
with new RESTful ABAP AND • SAP S/4HANA
HTTP SERVICES
programming model:ABAP
NEW RESTful • SAP ERP
PROGRAMMING
• SAP Fiori MODEL • SAP NetWeaver Application
Utilizes:
• Core data services Server ABAP
• SAP Fiori
• Cloud-optimized ABAP language
• Core data services
• Cloud-optimized ABAP language
EXTERNAL HTTP
SERVICE
SAP HANA
With this approach, Git-aware tools that support
continuous integration and delivery can benefit
from the source representation in Git, making the
ABAP world more open to cloud innovations.
So, what does development look like in SAP Cloud
Platform ABAP environment? Let’s take a look.
Setting Up the Environment
To give you an idea of how development works in
SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment, we will
walk through how to develop an ABAP back-end
service for consumption in an SAP Fiori applica-
tion. Before we start our development work, how-
ever, we must set up the development environment
by creating an ABAP instance in SAP Cloud Plat-
form and creating a project in the Eclipse IDE.
Create an ABAP Instance with SAP Cloud
Platform Cockpit
The first task is for an administrator — or a devel-
oper with the appropriate privileges — to create an
ABAP instance. The Service Marketplace within
SAP Cloud Platform cockpit lists all the available
services, including SAP Cloud Platform ABAP envi-
ronment, which is listed as ABAP System. Clicking
on ABAP System displays a list of already active
ABAP instances that you have started in your SAP
Cloud Platform account. You can create a new ABAP
system by clicking on New Instance. In the example,
we have created the instance TechEd App Center.
Create an ABAP Cloud Project in Eclipse
Next, we need to create an SAP Cloud Platform
ABAP environment development project using
the Eclipse IDE. You will find this task fairly easy
Figure 2 The configured connection includes a URL for the ABAP back end that will be used to identify your
back-end connection
SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018
if you are familiar with using the Eclipse-based
ABAP development tools for on-premise ABAP
development, since SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
environment uses the same set of tools.2 Cloud
development is simply carried out in a new Eclipse
project perspective: ABAP Cloud Project.
In the Eclipse IDE, create an ABAP Cloud Proj-
ect by following the menu path New > Project and
selecting the corresponding wizard. Then config-
ure the system connection to the Cloud Foundry
environment for SAP Cloud Platform. First, select
a “region” — that is, where your cloud provider
runs the data center you want to work with. (While
initially only the Amazon Web Services cloud pro-
vider in the Frankfurt region is supported, addi-
tional regions and cloud providers will become
available in the future.) Then enter the credentials
for your SAP Cloud Platform account.
Next specify the instance details, including the
Cloud Foundry organization and space, and select
the ABAP instance to use for the connection from
the drop-down list of available instances that were
displayed in SAP Cloud Platform cockpit. For the
example, we select the instance TechEd App Center.
Log in to your ABAP back end — TechEd App
Center in the example — using your SAP Cloud
Platform credentials. The system responds with a
URL for the ABAP back end, which will be used to
identify your back-end connection (see Figure 2).
You can then name your project (P15_Dev in
the example) and add a favorite package to contain
your local development objects — for the example,
2
Information on the supported Eclipse environment for the
ABAP development tools is available at https://tools.hana.
ondemand.com.
we choose the predefined package ZLOCAL for
local development. Clicking on Finish takes you
to the familiar Project Explorer overview in the
Eclipse IDE workspace, which now includes your
newly created project and the package for local
development. From this point on, your develop-
ment work will be similar to any other project that
uses the Eclipse-based ABAP development tools.
When you next log in, you can select your devel-
opment project by simply logging in to the ABAP
back end — just click on the project name in the
Eclipse IDE and log in with your credentials —
without the need to drill down from the Amazon
Web Services data center in Frankfurt.
Using the Development Tools
With the ABAP Cloud Project configured, we’re
now ready to start our development work. Here,
we’ll create an ABAP back-end service for con-
sumption in an SAP Fiori application using the
well-known flight example to demonstrate the
steps in the development environment. Before
beginning the development tasks, however, it is
important to understand that with SAP Cloud Plat-
form ABAP environment, the ABAP language has
been optimized for cloud operations, meaning that
certain language elements that have been used in
on-premise development are no longer allowed.
To help ensure smooth operations in the cloud,
the Released Objects node in the Project Explorer
navigation tree lists all the whitelisted objects avail-
able for development use in SAP Cloud Platform
Figure 3 The Released Objects node in the Project Explorer navigation tree lists all the whitelisted objects available for
development in SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment
SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018
ABAP environment, including APIs, CDS views,
and dictionary objects (see Figure 3). This list con-
tains important ABAP classes for the ABAP run-
time environment and various dictionary elements.
It is important to note that tables are not included
as whitelisted objects, which means that an ABAP
statement referring to a standard ABAP table will
cause a syntax error. You must use a whitelisted
API to access any underlying tables. This approach
is different from ABAP on premise, where you can
access almost any ABAP repository element, even if
it was never intended for use in custom code.
With SAP managing the cloud-based environ-
ment — and not the customer, as in on-premise
deployments — all upgrades, patches, and hotfix
collections are applied independently of the cus-
tomer’s project at predefined maintenance inter-
vals, which are kept as short as possible to provide
maximum availability of the cloud environment.
For cloud operations, this means that custom code
must strictly adhere to the whitelisted objects,
which are managed in a compatible way so that
the customer can continue with development or
production uninterrupted by maintenance. In an
on-premise environment, a customer would exe-
cute transaction SPAU (Process After Upgrade) to
adjust any custom code to the new SAP repository
version. In cloud environments, this approach is
simply unacceptable.
SAP will extend the whitelist based on customer
and partner demand, but to keep ABAP innova-
tion up to speed, not all legacy frameworks can be
moved to the cloud. This is similar to Java, where
frameworks such as Web Dynpro could not be
moved to SAP Cloud Platform and were instead
replaced with SAP Fiori and SAPUI5.
With these guidelines in mind, let’s now begin
our development work, which starts with creating
a package to contain our development objects.
Create an ABAP Package to Contain the
Development Objects
First, create an ABAP package in your ABAP Cloud
Project (the P15_Dev project in the example) that
will contain all the artifacts for the ABAP back-
end service. In the Project Explorer navigation
tree in the Eclipse IDE workspace, right-click on
the ZLOCAL package you added for local develop-
ment, which will serve as the superpackage for the
new package, and select ABAP Package to start the
wizard. Name the package Z_MYFLIGHTS, add a
description, and specify a package type.
Create a Database Table to Hold the Data
Next, create a database table by right-clicking on
the newly created package (Z_MYFLIGHTS), select-
ing ABAP Repository Object, and choosing Data-
base Table from the list of Dictionary tools. Enter
a name (ZFLIGHTS) and description for the table.
The ZFLIGHTS table now appears in the Project
Explorer navigation tree and is displayed in the table
editor within the Eclipse IDE workspace, which
replaces the former ABAP dictionary transaction
(SE11). Note that with SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
Figure 4 The Z_LOADFLIGHTS class displayed in the editor within the Eclipse IDE workspace
SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018
environment, all ABAP artifacts are represented by
native Eclipse editors within the workspace.
Develop a Console Application to Populate
the Database Table
To spool some data into the new ZFLIGHTS data-
base table, we need to develop a console applica-
tion, which is similar to a traditional ABAP report
in the on-premise world. The console application
is essentially an ABAP class that performs some
actions — in the example, it performs database
insert operations — and writes messages to the
console.
To create the class, right-click on the ABAP pack-
age, select ABAP Class to start the wizard, and then
enter a name (Z_LOADFLIGHTS) and description
for the class. The class is now included in the Proj-
ect Explorer and displayed in the editor within the
Eclipse IDE workspace (see Figure 4). The class
uses the previously defined table ZFLIGHTS and
creates database records from an internal table
called it_flights, which is defined by the data dec-
laration statement. Running this class (by pressing
F9) inserts data into the ZFLIGHTS table.
When developing an application in SAP Cloud
Platform ABAP environment, keep in mind
that statements that violate the previously men-
tioned whitelist, such as dynamic SQL, will raise
a syntax error. When SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
environment has more comprehensive runtime
checks, some of the dynamic capabilities in ABAP
will again be released, but as with the whitelist
approach, the philosophy is to start small and
extend the cloud capabilities step by step.
Define a CDS View to Retrieve Data from the
ABAP Back End
Now that we have a base table for the CDS defi-
nition, we can define a CDS view that retrieves
data from the ABAP back end (the ABAP instance
TechEd App Center specified earlier) — in the
example, it selects an LH flight. To create the CDS
view, right-click on the ABAP package, select ABAP
Repository Object, and choose Data Definition
from the list of Core Data Services tools. Enter a
name (ZLHflights) and description for the view.
The code for the CDS view is now displayed in the
editor within the Eclipse IDE workspace, where the
developer can then define the necessary fields and
the data from the base table is restricted simply by
a corresponding where clause.
Create a Service Definition to Expose the
CDS View
To expose the CDS view through OData, you must
create a service definition — right-click on the ABAP
package, select ABAP Repository Object, and then
choose Service Definition from the list of Business
Services tools. Enter a name (ZFlightservice) and
description. The code for the service definition is
displayed in the editor within the Eclipse IDE work-
space, where the developer can specify the services
to be exposed. While the service definition corre-
sponds roughly to the @odata:publish: true anno-
tation well-known in the on-premise world, with
SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment, you need
to define the nature of your service more precisely
using a service binding.
OData comes in two different versions, which
both support application-to-UI communication
and application-to-application communication. To
enable an application-to-UI communication for
the example, we create a service binding based
on the version 2 specification by right-clicking on
the ABAP package and selecting Service Binding
from the list of Business Services tools. Name the
binding (ZFLIGHTBINDING), provide a descrip-
tion, and associate the newly created flight service
(ZFLIGHTSERVICE).
Next, in the editor pane within the Eclipse
IDE workspace, publish the service by clicking on
Publish Locally, which populates the fields under
SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018
Binding Type Information in the editor pane.
The information includes an executable URL that
shows the metadata of the OData service. A pre-
view functionality is planned for a future version
that will enable you to examine the data provided
by the service independent of a concrete UI client.
Create a Communication Scenario to Provide
Authentication
The final ABAP development task required to make
the service ready for use is to create a communica-
tion scenario. Right-click on the ABAP package,
select ABAP Repository Object, and choose Commu-
nication Scenario from the list of Communication
Management tools. Name the communication sce-
nario (ZFLIGHTCOMM) and provide a description.
Next, in the editor pane within the Eclipse IDE
workspace, specify the authentication and autho-
rization for the communication scenario in the
Inbound Settings on the Inbound tab. For simplic-
ity, we use basic authentication (that is, user name
and password) for the example. The role is assigned
automatically. We then add an inbound service for
the communication scenario (ZFLIGHTBINDING_
IWSG), which is derived from our flight service
binding. The communication scenario can then be
published on the Overview tab in the editor pane,
which adds the service details to the Inbound Ser-
vice fields on the Inbound tab (see Figure 5 on the
next page).
Enabling Access to the ABAP Back End
With the ABAP development steps complete, there
are just two tasks that remain to enable access to
the ABAP back end and make the service ready for
consumption:
■■ An administrator must configure communica-
tion with the service
■■ The developer must create an SAP Fiori template
that consumes the service
It is useful for developers to understand the
mechanics of the administrative tasks described
here — in particular, because the settings contain
information required for creating the SAP Fiori
template.
Configure Communication with the Service
To make the service available for consumption, sev-
eral administrative tasks are required. Instead of
Figure 5 Publish the communication scenario
using the ABAP development tools, the administra-
tor uses SAP Fiori launchpad, which contains tiles
for the administrative tasks. First, the administrator
must configure a communication user that logs on to
the ABAP back end (the TechEd App Center ABAP
instance) and executes the flight service returning
the LH flights. Enter a user name (P15_WEBIDE in
the example), a description, and a password.
Next, to handle the inbound and outbound com-
munication, a communication system must be
defined — in the example, with WEBIDE_BASIC as
the system ID and name — that describes the ABAP
back end. Lastly, a communication arrangement is
defined, named ZFLIGHTCOMM in the example,
that bundles together the communication user and
communication system (see Figure 6). Note that the
communication arrangement contains the URL that
identifies the service (ZFLIGHTBINDING), which
Figure 6 The completed communication arrangement definition
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will be used in the SAP Web IDE project when creat-
ing the SAP Fiori template to consume the service.
Create an SAP Fiori Template to Consume
the Service
The final task is to create an SAP Fiori template that
consumes the service using SAP Web IDE, which is
an SAP Cloud Platform service for the Neo environ-
ment. Remember that SAP Cloud Platform ABAP
environment is a service for the Cloud Foundry envi-
ronment — for this reason, we use the full stack SAP
Web IDE that can access Cloud Foundry services,
which is accessible via SAP Cloud Platform cockpit.
First, in SAP Cloud Platform cockpit, define a
destination that provides access to the ABAP back
end. Specify the destination information, includ-
ing a name (P15_WEBIDE_BASIC in the example),
the URL from the communication arrangement
Figure 7 Define the destination that provides access to the ABAP back end

Figure 8 Specify the service URL, which will display the metadata of the service in the application

definition, and the corresponding communication
user defined previously (see Figure 7).
Next, select New Project from Template on the
start screen of SAP Web IDE. Name the project —
Flights in the example — and specify the service
URL from the communication arrangement defini-
tion that represents the LH flights, which will dis-
play the metadata of your service (see Figure 8).
Specify the OData collection — the CDS view cre-
ated earlier, ZLHflights — and generate the project.
The components of the finished project are shown
in the Project Explorer of SAP Web IDE. From there,
you can launch the application, which retrieves the
data and displays it in a list report template.
Summary
SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment is available
as of September 2018 and is priced in two dimen-
sions: ABAP memory and SAP HANA memory.
The minimal setup is a 16GB ABAP application
server running on a 64GB SAP HANA database,
which is €3,000 per month per customer. Custom-
ers can choose between subscription billing and
pay-per-use billing, similar to other services offered
through SAP Cloud Platform.
With SAP Cloud Platform ABAP environment,
SAP customers and partners have the opportunity
to move their ABAP skills and assets to the cloud.
Cloud operation requires stricter compatibility rules
compared to on-premise ABAP development, but
the benefits are significant and include access to
innovative ABAP capabilities on top of SAP HANA.
The development tools are fully based on the user-
friendly Eclipse IDE, and the development environ-
ment can be used to extend SAP S/4HANA Cloud
as well as recent on-premise installations of SAP
S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite (version 7.0 of
SAP NetWeaver and higher), enabling you to use
your existing ABAP expertise together with cloud
innovation to tap into a new world of opportunity.

SAPinsiderOnline.com | Issue 3 • 2018