ABAP_to_the_Future

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ABAP in Eclipse
Figure 1.7 Eclipse View of ABAP Packages
Say that you want to change one of your Z classes, and you cannot remember its
exact name. Normally, you would go to SE24, type “ZCL_BC*” (as an example),
and open the dropdown. (If you’re anyt hing like me, sometimes you would not
see any result. Then you’d suddenly real ize you were in SE37 by mistake.) The
equivalent action for searching for cu stom objects in Eclipse is to press (CTRL) +
(SHIFT) + (A). A search box appears. You type in the start of your object, and with
every letter that you add the list of possible matches is narrowed (Figure 1.8). The
speed at which Eclipse searches the ABAP repository is far faster than one might
expect, often faster than the same sear ch within the actual SAP system, which
seems like black magic.
Select one of your Z classes, and the sc reen shown in Figure 1.9 appears; hopefully,
it doesn’t look so different from SE80 that you will die of culture shock on
the spot. You will notice that there are various windows in an Eclipse view, and
you can close them or resi ze them and even drag an d drop them all over the
screen. The system will remember the wi ndow layout if you exit Eclipse and
come back later.
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