ABAP Cloud - Cloudification Repository
What is the Cloudification Repository and how can it help you write future-proof code? More in today's article.
Table of contents
We will look at the topic of ABAP Cloud in more detail, especially next year. In this article we would like to introduce you to a small tool that will make your work easier and help you find the right object.
Introduction
ABAP Cloud is SAP's new development model with which we will expand our SAP systems in the future. It applies to all system landscapes, regardless of whether ABAP Environment, S/4 HANA Cloud in the public or private edition or the classic S/4 on-premise system, which most customers will have. ABAP Cloud comes with many rules, but also tips and tools to help you with implementation. One tool is the Cloudification Repository, which we would like to introduce to you in the following sections.
Cloudification Repository
Where does the name actually come from? Unfortunately, we don't know exactly, but it can be deduced very well. Cloudification could be derived from making the ABAP code cloud-capable. So build it in such a way that it can run in the cloud for the next few years and no longer generate any effort during a transformation later. A repository is a collection, in this case a collection of objects on GitHub. SAP provides a public repository for this purpose:
Under the Source (src) directory you will find various JSON or CSV files that contain information about released objects and a corresponding release.
The objects are divided into different categories, one into objects that have not been released, but which have a successor, i.e. an object that serves as a wrapper or is a new API. Objects that were released directly because they are already cleanly structured and encapsulated. Obsolete objects that can still be used, but no longer necessarily should. And the stable objects, which are not released, are completely new. These are old objects that run stably, are actually no longer adapted, but will never receive a release.
ABAP Test Cockpit
The Cloudification Repository is primarily used in the ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC), where it can be used for testing. The next example comes from the ABAP Environment, where we create an ATC check variant using the ABAP Development Tools.
In the “Usage of Released APIs” test, we can now configure the URL that points to the current APIs, for example. These are then used in the ATC test and information about the objects used is issued.
Successor
A very important piece of information is the successor to an object. When you start developing in ABAP Cloud, you can only use stable APIs released by SAP. There are different ways to get the information here. If you already have a current SAP system, you can simply call up the affected object using the ABAP Development Tools and find the appropriate information in the “Properties” view.
If your system is perhaps too old, but you already want to use the right objects, then you can research the Cloudification Repository, as it already shows the status of tomorrow. The appropriate objects may already exist in older releases but have not yet been released.
CRV
This week we made a small tool called "Cloudification Repository Viewer", or CRV for short, available. This tool evaluates the Cloudification Repository live and prepares the result for output. You have the option to set the appropriate version and filter using the old objects and/or the module. The goal is to allow easier display and search without having to manually crawl the JSON file.
The tool is free and can be used without registration, so you can find the objects of tomorrow even without a modern system. By the way, we used the tool to create our first blog post in the official forum so that the SAP community can use it.
Conclusion
The Cloudification Repository offers various information about the structure of ABAP Cloud and primarily serves as the basis for the ATC. However, you can also use it yourself for research if you don't have a current system available.
