How to do System/Update/tRFC debugging in new ABAP debugger?

In case you there is a need to debug some features of SAP ABAP NetWeaver platform like system, update or tRFC debugging it needs to be specifically activated to do so. Normally while a developer enters the ABAP debugger in its menu there were options to activate those kinds of debugging. However, in the newer releases of the SAP ABAP NetWeaver platform those settings are not right there in the menu. They are available under a new umbrella menu called Change Debugger Profile/Settings under Settings menu of the ABAP debugger.

Once you choose this menu, following pop-up is displayed where you can choose the type of the debugging you want to do:

I got used to do an update tasks debugging directly selecting it from the Debugger’s menu. After some time not using it I got confused that this settings was moved to the separate pop up and it took me a little while to find where the activation of update debugging is :-)

Clean ABAP resources

Clean ABAP or Clean ABAP style guide is an initiative launched by SAP to promote the use of modern, object-oriented programming practices in the development of ABAP applications. It is a set of coding standards and best practices that aim to improve the readability and maintainability of ABAP code, while at the same time reducing the risk of potential errors and inconsistencies. It encourages the use of modern object-oriented design patterns and principles, such as encapsulation, abstraction, and separation of concerns. It also encourages the use of more modern syntax, such as using the New ABAP statement and using the new ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) to define and access data.

Below I’m summing up few of resources ABAP developer can use to follow Clean ABAP practice.

 

"Good Example" vs "Bad Example" on ABAP online documentation:

Latest documentation

ABAP 7.51 Modern ABAP

 

ABAP Examples in online documentation

 

Clean ABAP

 

Cheat sheets

 

Golden Rules

 

Best Practice

Book "A Style Guide for Developers" by SAP PRESS.

 

Code Pal for ABAP - tool that provides a set of checks to help adhering to the Clean ABAP

picture credit: DALL·E

Code ABAP in MS Visual Studio Code

Microsoft Visual Studio Code (Code) is popular programmer’s IDE these days. First, it is a free, open source, cross-platform code editor. It includes support for debugging, syntax highlighting, IntelliSense code completion, and embedded Git. The Code also includes built-in tools for web development such as IntelliSense, code snippets, and refactoring. It can be used for both small and large projects, and is a great choice for developers who want to quickly create applications without having to learn a complex language. It is a lightweight code editor that can be used to write, debug, and test code across many different programming languages, including JavaScript, CSS, Node.js, and HTML.

Wait a bit, what about ABAP? Can I use the VS Code to code in the ABAP? It turns out yes you can! It is possible due to “ABAP remote filesystem for visual studio code” (ABAP FS) plugin to the Code written by Marcello Urbani. Let us have a look how to install this extension to develop in ABAP in MS Visual Studio Code.

Install the Code (e.g. from here). I choose a version for MS Windows OS. Notice that you can even installed in MS Windows machines where you do not have an administrator rights granted. Once it is installed open the extension part of it from left side. Here type ABAP remote filesystem for visual studio code to search for this plug. Once it is found click on little blue Install button to get it installed.

There are few more plugins to be installed as they are dependencies to the ABAP one. Thus also install following ones:

·        ABAP by Lars Hvam

·        ABAP CDS language Support by Frederik Hudak

·        Winregistry by Marcello Urbani

Another requirement is to have installed ABAP Development tools for eclipse (ADT) installed in SAP HANA Studio on a machine where you installed the MS Code. You can install the ADT from here https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap.

One more prerequisite is to enable ADT specific service at SAP ABAP server. Once you log in there via SAP GUI run SICF t-code. Navigate to the service: default_host -> sap -> bc -> adt. If the service is not active just activate it via right click: Activate service.

Now you need to setup the ABAP plugin in the Code. In the Code, navigate to ABAP FS extension and click on little Manage icon and then choose Extension Settings. 

Here choose Edit in settings.json.

In the JSON file, provide an input into following fields:

·        SID of ABAP NetWeaver system (3 characters abbreviations)

·        url of ABAP NetWeaver system

·        username in the ABAP NetWeaver system

·        password of above user

·        client of ABAP NetWeaver system

Once this is done press F1 and enter following command:

ABAPfs Connect to an ABAP system

Afterwards, there should be a new icon appearing in left part of yoru CODE IDE called ABAP FS. 

Now you can go to Explorer part of the Code and here you can access ABAP repository objects e.g. under $TMP development class that belong to yoru user. From here, you just click on the ABAP object e.g. program and it gets opened in the Editor.

I faced following issues while setting the plugin up:

·        No ABAP filesystem mounted in current workspace – I forgot to update url part of configuration JSON file for the plugin.

·        Unable to get local issuer certificate - I forgot to put SID of my ABAP system in configuration JSON file for the plugin.

  

More information:

MS Visual Studio Code download page

Plugin wiki

Plugin issues

Plugin installation

ABAP language versions

While SAP is transitioning into a cloud, an ABAP programing language is transitioning itself into towards the cloud as well. A multiple versions of this programming language are popping up. Every version is a restricted in some way while compared to standard ABAP – a Unicode version that was introduced in Basis Release 6.10 (also known as WAS 6.10). Restrictions can be based on merit of what enhancements can be made, what part of it are whitelisted (allowed), how repository objects are used, what rules are followed and so on.

As of Q4 2022 there are following subsets (or variants) of ABAP:

 

1/ Standard ABAP (Unicode) – Introduced in SAP Basis Release 6.10 when the standard SAP ABAP programs were converted to Unicode enabled ones. Unicode compatible ABAP programs fall under stricter syntax rules and provide a clearer programming style. That means that ABAP language constructs that are questionable and prone to error are prohibited. On top of the Unicode enabling there were changes done in areas of ABAP objects, internal tables, Open SQL, and update, ABAP Compiler, ABAP runtime and ABAP tools. This version covers entire ABAP language scope. This is called universal basic version of the ABAP.

2/ "ABAP for Cloud Development" or "ABAP for SAP BTP ABAP environment (formerly SAP Cloud Platform) and SAP S/4HANA Cloud" - Restricted language scope and restricted access to released APIs for developments in the SAP BTP ABAP Environment and for customer developments in the ABAP Platform Cloud. Standard ABAP (Unicode) rules apply here as well but only a very restricted set of language elements are supported and access to external repository objects is also restricted. Furthermore, the developments are implemented in methods and the stricter syntax rules for classes apply automatically. No obsolete language elements are allowed.

3/ ABAP for key users - is designed for secure implementations of enhancements as part of enhancement points by key users provided by SAP. The rules for Standard ABAP (Unicode) apply but only a very restricted set of language elements are supported and access to external repository objects is also restricted. Similarly, to ABAP for Cloud Development, the enhancements are implemented in methods and the stricter syntax rules for classes apply automatically. No obsolete language elements are allowed too. Available to key users to implement extensions using the SAP Fiori extensibility apps Custom Fields and Logic and Custom Business Objects. Key users can use this ABAP variant to implement business logic extensions using a Web-based editor in the SAP Fiori environment.

4/ Static ABAP with limited object use (obsolete) – has a restricted use of repository objects, where all language elements of Standard ABAP (Unicode) except dynamic language elements are allowed.

5/ Standard ABAP with limited object use (obsolete) – has a restricted use of repository objects, where all language elements of Standard ABAP (Unicode) are allowed.

6/ Non-Unicode ABAP (obsolete) – ABAP language as it was defined in SAP release 4.6. Here the Unicode checks are ignored. A program with this language version doesn’t run in Unicode SAP systems. As all currently SAP NetWeaver releases (6.10+) are supporting the Unicode this ABAP version is obsolete.

There is a DDIC domain ABAPVRS that hold values of all the ABAP language versions.

ABAP language versions as seen in classic SAP HANA Studio (eclipse based) IDE:

ABAP language versions as seen in classic SE80 t-code:

To find out what syntax is compatible with what ABAP language version you can use ABAP program DEMO_ABAP_VERSIONS. 

Additionally program ABAP_DOCU_VERSION_WHITELIST is available to provide a list of the repository objects that are allowed for the restricted ABAP language versions.

 

More information:

"ABAP strict" as ABAP language version

ABAP for Key Users

ABAP glossary

Extracting data from SAP BW to MS SQL via Theobald Xtract IS tool

Microsoft stopped to offer an updates on its Connector for SAP BW for MS SQL Server some time ago. See their announcement about it here. Instead, they suggest to use 3^rd party software from Microsoft ISV partners such as a Theobald Xtract IS to act as plug-in for the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) of the MS SQL Server.

It happened that I worked with this software some time ago. At my client, we used it to extract data from SAP BW to MS SQL server. We used Theobald Xtract IS in particular Xtract OHS (Open Hub Service) component. In our case, there was a Process Chain at SAP BW side that was triggered from Xtract IS. The Chain prepared data into Open Hub and the Xtract IS pulled data from the OH to MS SQL.

Here some challenges I faced while deploying integration scenarios:

1. No authorization: In case that SAP BW user that is used for an extraction is not authorized to read the data from the BW source object (OH) there can be following logs spotted at MS SQL side:

Error: 0xC0047062 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, Xtract OHS [8]: Theobald.Extractors.Table.TheoReadTableException: User not allowed to access table /BIC/OH<OH_tech_name>.

at Theobald.Extractors.Table.TheoReadTableExtractor.Run(Action`1 processPackage, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

 

Whereas from above log it is clear that the authorization is an issue there can also below error logs that is not pointing to the authorization being as the issue:

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:42.662+02:00] Xtract IS Version 6.7.5.1

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:42.676+02:00] Xtract Kernel Version 5.1.4.95

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:42.677+02:00] Theobald.Extractors Version 1.20.14.1

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:42.687+02:00] Component is licensed to xxx

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:43.273+02:00] Connected to '<hostname>', system number <xx>

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS: [2022-05-05T11:09:43.284+02:00] Current Windows identity: <user>

Information: 0x3E8 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, XtractIS-OhsExtractorTable: [2022-05-05T11:09:43.301+02:00] Starting process chain '<PROCESS_CHAIN>'...

Error: 0xC0047062 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, Xtract OHS [8]: ERPConnect.ABAPProgramException: RfcInvoke failed(RFC_ABAP_EXCEPTION): FAILED

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwApi.CallFunction(IntPtr client, IntPtr function)

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwClientFunction.CallApi()

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwClientFunction.Execute(String tid, String queue)

   at ERPConnect.RFCFunction.ExecuteImplementation(String tid, String queue)

   at ERPConnect.RFCFunction.Execute()

   at Theobald.Extractors.Ohs.OhsExtractorBase.StartProcessChain()

   at Theobald.Extractors.Ohs.OhsExtractorTable.Run(Action`1 processResult, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger)

   at XtractIS.XtractSourceOHS.PrimeOutput(Int32 outputs, Int32[] outputIDs, PipelineBuffer[] buffers)

   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Pipeline.ManagedComponentHost.HostPrimeOutput(IDTSManagedComponentWrapper100 wrapper, Int32 outputs, Int32[] outputIDs, IDTSBuffer100[] buffers, IntPtr ppBufferWirePacket)

Error: 0xC0047038 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, SSIS.Pipeline: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED.  The PrimeOutput method on Xtract OHS returned error code 0x80131500.  The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing.  There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.

 

Solution is to review what authorization the extraction user at SAP BW side has. Identify what is missing and add those missing authorization objects into a role that user has assigned to. In case SAP BW objects are being extracted, you need to trace the extraction to see what authorization is needed. In case of extraction from SAP tables also following authorization is needed: S_TABU_NAM ACTVT=03; TABLE=ENLFDIR

 

2. Memory exhausting issue: In case that MS SQL loads from multiple OHs in parallel, there can be a memory issues. At SAP BW side there is a following ABAP dump:

Short Text          "connection closed (no data)"

What happened? Error in the ABAP application program.         The current ABAP program "SAPLZ_THEO_READ_TABLE" had to be terminated because it found a statement that could not be executed.

 

And at MS SQL side there is a following error logs:

Error: 0xC0047062 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, Xtract OHS [46]: ERPConnect.ERPException: RfcGetFunctionName failed(RFC_INVALID_HANDLE): RFC_FUNCTION_DESC_HANDLE handle  0544DEA0 was already removed

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwApi.CallFunction(IntPtr client, IntPtr function)

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwClientFunction.CallApi()

   at ERPConnect.NW.NwClientFunction.Execute(String tid, String queue)

   at ERPConnect.RFCFunction.ExecuteImplementation(String tid, String queue)

   at ERPConnect.RFCFunction.Execute()

   at Theobald.Extractors.Table.TheoReadTableExtractor.Run(Action`1 processPackage, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Ohs.OhsExtractorTable.Run(Action`1 processResult, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Theobald.Extractors.Common.ExtractorBase`1.Run(Action`1 processResult, LoggerBase logger)

   at XtractIS.XtractSourceOHS.PrimeOutput(Int32 outputs, Int32[] outputIDs, PipelineBuffer[] buffers)

   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Pipeline.ManagedComponentHost.HostPrimeOutput(IDTSManagedComponentWrapper100 wrapper, Int32 outputs, Int32[] outputIDs, IDTSBuffer100[] buffers, IntPtr ppBufferWirePacket)

Error: 0xC0047038 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN <PROCESS_CHAIN>, SSIS.Pipeline: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED.  The PrimeOutput method on Xtract OHS returned error code 0x80131500.  The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput (). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing.  There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.

Or

Error: 0xC0047038 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN SKU TO MSBI Q4, SSIS.Pipeline: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED.  The PrimeOutput method on Xtract OHS returned error code 0x80131500.  The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The

Error: 0xC0047062 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN SKU TO MSBI Q1, Xtract OHS [46]: Theobald.Extractors.Table.TheoReadTableException: Shared memory ran out of memory. Try setting package size lower.

Error: 0xC0047038 at TRIGGER PROCESS CHAIN SKU TO MSBI Q1, SSIS.Pipeline: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PRIMEOUTPUTFAILED.  The PrimeOutput method on Xtract OHS returned error code 0x80131500.  The component returned a failure code when the pipeline engine called PrimeOutput(). The meaning of the failure code is defined by the component, but the error is fatal and the pipeline stopped executing.  There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.

From the 2^nd error log it is clear that it is related to the memory. Solution is to review setup of the flow at MS SQL. In particular, you need to play around a package size of OHS extraction available in OHS Settings:

3. OPD extraction: There may be the case that purely OHS based extraction will not be stable enough, as there is high data volume to be extracted. Here OPD extractor can be better choice. From my experience, the OPD extractor is more robust as I enjoyed less issues related to memory. Also with respect to setup of the OPD process there is an option to specify a package size available under Advanced settings. Even a default value worked for me well. One drawback of the OPD extractor is that there is no option to run the Process Chain prior data extraction as it is possible via OHS extraction component. Thus, I created flow in which OHS part is to trigger the Chain and OPD part is to load the data to MS SQL itself.

 

4. Version of function module Z_THEO_READ_TABLE: This FM is responsible of extracting the data. Depending on its version, there are multiple options that can be leveraged. As always as it comes to any software being on higher version brings more benefits. You can find what version of the FM you have in its source code. In the top part in comments there is a version mentioned. The version I worked was 2.11 released in Feb of 2022. In case you face extraction issues perhaps quick win can be to upgrade the FM.

Find obsolete t-codes/apps in S/4 systems

Over the time of development of SAP ERP system, there are many t-codes that were rewritten and they replaced older ones for particular functionality. For a reasons of backward compatibility, the old ones are still present in the system. Just they are not supposed to be used any more. There are few options on how to find out whether particular t-code is deprecated transactions or not.

Mostly in SAP S/4 systems there is a table PRGN_CORR2. It stores a mapping between old (column S_TCODE) and new t-code (T_TCODE).

The t-code may be obsolete in case a lock is setup for the particular t-code via SM01_DEV t-code. There is a message “Transaction SQ11 is locked (locked development object) Message no. 00814” displayed in case an attempt to run the locked t-code is made.

In case the t-code is not present in table TSTC (SAP Transaction Codes) then it is not present in the system at all.

Furthermore, there are tables like ABLM_BLACKLIST and SBLM_BLACKLIST that holds an information about blacklisted t-codes, forms, functions, methods, any events, programs.

One more table is USOB_SM that provides an information whether object (t-code, RFC Function Module, TADIR Service, External Service) is either in normal maintenance, automatic maintenance or it is obsolete.

I wondered whether the PRGN_CORR2 table is available in the SAP BW systems. Yes, it is in there! Even it does not store any information related to BW t-codes (RS*). Reason why it is in there is that the table is part of ABAP Role Administration (Profile Generator) functions.

How to read/write/delete from/to aDSO objects

This is a sequel of my older blog that deals with classic DSO objects. This one deals with an aDSO objects. There is a set of SAP standard function modules for reading, writing and deleting data from/to the aDSO objects as well. They can easily be used in custom ABAP code in BW’s transformations.

There are function modules representing APIs for DSO objects under name space RSDRI_* (or RSDRD_*). In case of aDSO objects the API are there under name space RSDSO_*.

 

aDSO type                  Operation       Method / API

Standard                    READ                Open SQL SELECT; RSDRI_INFOPROV_READ

                                    WRITE            RSDSO_WRITE_API; RSDSO_WRITE_API_RFC

ACTIVE       RSDSO_ACTIVATE_REQ_API_RFC - Activates requests in aDSO. Multiple requests can be activated separately or whether or system can activate as many requests as possible at one shot.

                                    DETELE             N/A

Direct Update             READ                Open SQL SELECT

WRITE    RSDSO_DU_WRITE_API; RSDSO_DU_WRITE_API_RFC – Writes data from an itab into active data table of the aDSO. Each API call results in a new request. Database transaction is committed automatically.

DELETE            RSDSO_DU_DELETE_API_RFC - Deletes data from an aDSO. Whole content can be deleted or data can be deleted based on a selective deletion.

CLEANUP          RSDSO_DU_CLEANUP_API_RFC - Changes status of red requests in aDSO to green. Red requests are blocking further data loads thus have to be corrected. Only requests that were loaded via API are considered.

 

FMs ending with *RFC are supposed to be used for remote scenarios whereas other FMs are locally to be used where the aDSO and calling code resides within the same system.

 

Supporting FMs:

RSDSO_DEBUG_API – It enables a user to debug above listed RFC enabled APIs for aDSO.

 

More information:

DSO object APIs

Online docu for aDSO objects API – BW4/HANA

Online docu for aDSO objects API – BW 7.5