About AB4 (The new ABAP editor)

[Former Member]

Hi to all

I guess you all have read

Regards

*--Serdar [url=https://www.sdn.sap.com:443/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.sdn.businesscard.sdnbusinesscard?u=qbk sag jiw=][ BC ][/url]

[Christian_Cohrs · Accepted solution]

Hi Serdar,

there is currently no release date set for SAP GUI 7.0 so far.

The good news is that you can use the AB4 editor with SAP GUI 6.40, starting with patch level 10. However, you need a WebAS 7.0 for this to work.

Best regards,

Christian

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Christian,

I´ve just read the PDF about AB4 Editor that comes with todays SDN Newsletter. The PDF says: "The AB4 Editor interface is optimized to work with the SAP frontend for Win32 com-patible platform versions 4.6c and higher, which support SAP Enjoy Controls technology."

This lets me hope we don´t have to wait for WebAS 7.0, do we?

According to the newsletter the PDF has been created by Alexey Arseniev. As you seem to work for SAP, too, maybe you could verify what is needed to use AB4?

Actually, I´m quite keen on this editor.

Thanks in advance,

Frank

[alexey_arseniev · Accepted solution]

Hello Frank,

The AB4 editor itself can work with basis 4.6 as any other ActiveX control. I have tested my concept together with MiniSAP which comes with Basis 4.6 - and it is working ;). The screenshots in the document created with it. The concept has my version of the editor and ABAP wrapper that host editor and wrap his methods and events.

BUT: to have it heavy integrated into ABAP workbench a lot of base code should be overwritten to support new functions and this is can not be done in old releases.

So as a conclusion: you need to have WAS 7.0 (SAP_BASIS 700 ) to have control working as a standard editor for ABAP. And SAP GUI version higher then 6.40 Patch 10.

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Christian

> Hi Serdar,

>

> there is currently no release date set for SAP GUI

> 7.0 so far.

fair enough.

>

> The good news is that you can use the AB4 editor with

> SAP GUI 6.40, starting with patch level 10. However,

> you need a WebAS 7.0 for this to work.

>

but is there a release date for WAS 7.0?

> Best regards,

> Christian

So, to summarise this for my own benefit, it looks as if there is bascially almost no way that you can use the new editor at the moment. It also would have been good if this was pointed out specifically in the presentation and article on SDN.

Regards,

M

[Christian_Cohrs · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

I agree. This problem was discussed in a blog at /people/bjoern.mielenhausen/blog/2005/04/25/the-new-abap-editor

There is also an OSS note about it, number 843289.

Best regards,

Christian

[alexey_arseniev · Accepted solution]

Hello Michael,

I have updated the article and presentation, and now you can find there more precise information about releases and prerequisites.

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Christian and Alex,

Thanks for your responses. The update of the documents is appreciated.

Kind regards,

Michael

[Former Member]

Hi !

How to get in editor the list of existing classes from repository? (See link below)

http://content.foto.mail.ru/mail/matel/rew/i-15.jpg

[Former Member]

Hi. I am just starting in ABAP programming, and I wonder if there is a possibility to use the Code Editor capabilities (or something similar) with SAPGUI for Java and if there is, where to activate it, because I couldn't find it anywhere.

Thanks in avance for your time and knowledge.

Message was edited by:

Andres Rodriguez Guapacha

[alexey_arseniev]

Hi,

Unfortunately - No. SAPGUI for Java designed to be platform independent, but new Code Editor is an ActiveX control, which can run only on Windows platforms. So it is not possible to integrate it to SAPGUI for Java.

Also, as I know, about any plans to integrate something similar in it :/.

Sorry for negative response

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Former Member]

Don't worry... I was just wondering.

I hope there could be anyone in SAP to push the idea 😛 if the Eclipse Plataform has it, why not SAPGUI? 😛

Thanks for the quick answer!

[Clemenss]

Hi,

reading the pdf about "Fully-Functional Code Editor Control for Win32" I got really excited:

Finally, at least, we'll get back the lost functionality of the past: I really missed Block editing. Some people may have missed line numbering although I didn't.

Starting with the old new edit control I always have a MS Word session opened. Via cut & paste I use Word for block edit/copy and for more complex search & replace. I can see tabs and line breaks, I can search and replace them. This is no really very complex task, but obviously too complex for the development of the 'classic' edit control.

Code completion, syntax highlight and all the other nice features soul be really useful. But I'm afraid that when developers can really use them (all clients on 7.0 or later) they may be kind of outdated.

I do not fully understand why the editor can not be used today as a stand-alone.

regards,

Clemens

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Clemens,

from the description of your work with previous editor I have understand that with new one you will not need MS Word anymore - you can uninstall it ).

Seriously, the block mode, i have implemented, is much more powerful then old one - and I am sure you will be satisfied.

About the releases - the editor is my hobby project, where I can do what ever I want, and all depends on me. But integration of it to SAP systems this is already another level - here is already budget connected, people resources and so on. And also the quality should be proofed much better. So this why it takes so much.. And downport of the editor it is also work, for which budget should be provided...

But maybe if the pressure of the customers will be high it will be downported.

And from another point, if you have a new GUI installed you can always make your own wrapper of the control, to work with a code. But of course this will be not integrated in workbench and will not be supported by SAP.

And as stand-alone version you just don't have a way work with you reports in ABAP server, only with files..

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Clemenss]

Hello Alexey,

thanks a lot for this answer - it really supports my point of view that the products of this company can be so much better when they turn out to be results of hobby projects

I got a pretty new GUI installed (gui640_11-10001615) with access to 4.7 Enterprise.

Still I have no idea how to make my own wrapper of the

control. I would like to do and play around with it on a limited base just to get a glimpse into the future.

Could you give some kind of hint how to access the new control; is it part of the GUI640 level 11 patch?

Thanks for even more enlightenment!

Best regards,

Clemens

> Hello Clemens,

>

> from the description of your work with previous

> editor I have understand that with new one you will

> not need MS Word anymore - you can uninstall it ).

> Seriously, the block mode, i have implemented, is

> much more powerful then old one - and I am sure you

> will be satisfied.

> About the releases - the editor is my hobby project,

> where I can do what ever I want, and all depends on

> me. But integration of it to SAP systems this is

> already another level - here is already budget

> connected, people resources and so on. And also the

> quality should be proofed much better. So this why it

> takes so much.. And downport of the editor it is also

> work, for which budget should be provided...

> But maybe if the pressure of the customers will be

> high it will be downported.

> And from another point, if you have a new GUI

> installed you can always make your own wrapper of the

> control, to work with a code. But of course this will

> be not integrated in workbench and will not be

> supported by SAP.

> And as stand-alone version you just don't have a way

> work with you reports in ABAP server, only with

> files..

>

> Best regards,

> Alexey.

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Clemens,

See you mailbox.

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Former Member]

Hi Alexey,

I have installed R/3 4.6C, NW '04 Patch Level 12 and SAPGUI 640 Patch 11 in a sandbox server for testing.

Can you send me documentation or note about how to wrap the new editor in 46C or NW 04?

Regards

[Satyabrata_Basu]

Hi Alexey,

I have installed SAPGUI640 with pl-11 and now I would like to play with this new ab4 editor.

Can you please send me some hints on how to create wrapper of the control.

Also, how about the Menubar or GUI-status ?

BTW: The feature list in new editor looks so much good. It will definitely answer of a long wait for a good abap editor. Thanks a lot for taking this 'hobby' project

Best regards..

Satyabrata Basu.

[thomas_jung]

Although only a hack, you might try the following:

/people/thomas.jung3/blog/2005/08/03/new-abap-editor-too-good-to-wait-for

It isn't as full featured as something from within SAP (like Alexey) might supply; but does let you play with the editor.

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Thomas,

I have seen you did very good investigations about "downporting" of the AB4. If you are interesting, I can send you my wrapper for the non-SAP version of the control, which I have initially did to show how the editor can work inside SAP system. It is, of course, not a complete solution, and have no integration with workbench, but have more functionality then yours one, and describe basic methods and events of the editor. It is not possible to use it directly (interfaces is different) but you can map methods and event names. They are rather similar.

Best regards,

Alexey.

[thomas_jung]

That would be interesting to see. My email address is in my SDN Business Card or TJUNG at KIMBALL.COM

I had wanted to take the example further but got hung up trying to guess the format/method of working with the Data Provider.

You might be interested to see that I posted another weblog. I was curious as to how much support there would be in the ABAP/SDN community for asking SAP to back-port the Workbench integration into older (pre-WebAS 7.0) releases.

/people/thomas.jung3/blog/2005/08/09/speak-your-voice-new-abap-editor-for-older-releases

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Satyabrata Basu,

I don't have an example wrapper for the control that is delivered with SAP GUI, but you can use example coding from Thomas (see lower). It is rather good, and give you a good starting point. The Menu Bar and GUI-status dependent from you. This is simply fcodes handlers and inside you can send any command to the editor, or call the methods.

For method list see description of the interface of the control and to send command to editor, use method ExecuteCommand. List of the available commands you can find as ID in keymap.xml file.

Best regards,

Alexey.

[Former Member]

Hello Alexey,

what do you think about "posting" your wrapper in SDN? (Maybe it's possible to "publish" it in the download area.)

I think more people are interested in your wrapper than just Thomas.

Regards

Jürgen

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Javier,

I could not provide you tips how to downport of the complete workbench solution to older releases, and this is also not in my responsibility. But to get a quick overview of the prototype you can use an example wrapper from Thomas, it is rather good:

/people/thomas.jung3/blog/2005/08/03/new-abap-editor-too-good-to-wait-for

Best regards,

Alexey.

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Jürgen,

it is not possible to use my wrapper directly. It is a not compatible in level of control interfaces with a one delivered with SAP GUI. So it will be better then someone will adopt it to the SAP version, and then will post.

And I also don't want to post it directly, while this will be official SAP opinion ) (or can be understanded like this by somebody). The wrapper is not a standard SAP thing, it is just example report (not a workbench integration), will be not supported and so on..

Maybe Thomas, then can post his version in download area

Best regards,

Alexey.

[thomas_jung]

I could do that. I think I would want to enhance my example a little further. I can probably have the weblog updated by the end of the day today (North America Time). From my experience, requesting code to the download area takes a few days to get through the approval process; so you will have to give that some time.

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Thomas,

as I somewhen wrote downporting of the changes in workbench with integrated AB4 to older releases is much more complicated then creating separated wrapper application. And will need much more resources, specially budget resources, which are not available for ABAP group. The integration even for 7.1 is still on development, so it is even early to talk about it.

From another side, the downported coding is also should be supported by SAP, and this is also resources.

And... SAP wants people to buy new releases :).

But I am not a member of the ABAP group (I was for three years ABAP developer in APO SCM ) and already several month a C++ developer in SAP GUI, so could not give exact information about availability of the new editor and downporting plans. From that I know - no downporting planned.

But maybe with a pressure from SDN something will change

Best regards,

Alexey.

P.S. Some information about data provider you can find in SAP Help - I have found But there were not too much..

[thomas_jung]

I do realize (and I hope that others do as well) that it will take resources to acomplish such a back-port. I am hoping that pressure from SDN and/or Visibility to customer demand will help SAP make the decision to allocate those resources.

>SAP wants people to buy new releases

I don't doubt that. However you put too much faith in the pull that most developers have within their company. I'm afriad that buzz words like ESA and Visual Modeling (along with golf outings for the CIO) sell a lot more upgrades than real featurs like an enhanced code editor every will.

[Satyabrata_Basu]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your reply. I checked your weblog and it's fantastic. I could make it work. However, I could not find a way to save (activate/execute) the code into the system. I guess that has to come from backend integration with ABAP workbench ?

I'm looking forward to your next posting.

Cheers !!

Sat.

[Satyabrata_Basu]

Hi Alexey,

Thanks. I'm now looking forward to Thomas's next posting and I'm sure it will have more interesting feature incorporated from your wrapper ))

Cheers !!

Sat.

[thomas_jung]

Yes that kind of functionality would have to come from Workbench Integration.

This example is just meant to be a sort of "test-drive" of the new editor functionality. It is not meant to be an actual means of ABAP development.

[Peter_Inotai]

<i>The integration even for 7.1 is still on development, so it is even early to talk about it.</i>

I found it quite interesting that most of us not even dare to dream about having (fun with) WAS 7.00 in the near (or far) future, and SAP is already working on 7.1.

I can't imagine when our company (and most of use) will have at least release 7.00.

Other interesting thing is, that in case of WAS 6.40 there was quite a lot of info available about the new ABAP related tools (even before release date), now there is hardly any info about the new ABAP stuffs in WAS 7.00 except some info about the new editor and WebDynPro for ABAP.

Peter

[gopalkrishna_baliga]

Hi

I am new to ABAP. Can anybody please tell me steps to install new AB4 editor. Where I can download the ActiveX component? pLease help!

I am using SAP6.2

[alexey_arseniev]

Hello Gopalkrishna,

unfortunately AB4 Editor is not supported by you backend - you need to have minimum SAP7.0 to run it as standard editor for ABAP.

Best regards,

Alexey.