ABAP Test Cockpit

The ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) is ABAP’s new integrated, standard tool for quality checking.ATC is available from EhP2 for SAP Net Weaver 7.0 with support package stack 12. It is very much useful for Developers to deliver high-quality software. We want to be sure that changes in a complex program are safe and without side-effects. But we all know as well that mistakes can happen. So we want to find such mistakes quickly, automatically, and before a development leaves the development system. And we want quality-checking tools that are simple, fast, and automated. The ATC aims to satisfy all of these wishes and make quality checking in ABAP easier and more efficient than ever before:

The ATC is designed by and for developers. It’s integrated directly in all of the ABAP development transactions – two clicks and no interaction away from running. It’s easy to check a program or the entire contents of a package. And the ATC can be set up to check the contents of transport requests automatically at the release of a request.

The ATC streamlines quality checking for ABAP developers. Results are presented to you directly in an easy-to-use, easy- to-filter list. All of the analysis and correction features you need are integrated right into an ATC finding. The ATC Results Browser in transaction SE80, the ABAP Object Navigator, makes it easy to keep track of ATC results – your own or central check results from your Quality Manager.

Robust central quality checking: You can use the ATC for your own individual or team quality checks in your development system. But the ATC also puts central quality checking on a sound basis. At the ATC master system – usually a central quality or test system - quality experts can manage and run large-scale central checks on newly transported development objects or for regression testing. The results of these checks can be replicated to satellite development systems, where developers work. As a developer, you always know exactly which central result is current and active; it’s published to your development system and marked as the current result. You can access findings by various filter and grouping options. From a particular finding you can directly correct and recheck the code. In case of false positives you can apply for an exemption.

In ATC the warnings notified by the syntax check are subdivided into three priorities that are only displayed by the extended program check, however:

Priority 1Errors that apparently will lead to a program termination if the ABAP program is executed. This priority also contains all constructs that should not be used at all because they suggest program errors and very likely lead to incorrect behaviour.

Priority 2This priority refers to all constructs that do not necessarily lead to error behaviour but are obsolete and supposed to be replaced with current constructs, for example. Errors of priority 2 can become errors of priority 1 or syntax errors in future releases.

Priority 3Summarizes all errors whose correction is desirable, but not necessarily required for the current release. However, a tightening of the priority in future releases is not excluded.