ABAP Workbench Tools

As an ABAP guy you would spend most of your time on the ABAP workbench. So it’s important for you to know about the tools of ABAP workbench.

The ABAP Workbench is a collection of tools used to develop, test and run ABAP programs. It is a Programming environment GUI in SAP to develop different business applications using ABAP language.

ABAP Workbench Tools - Quick Guide

Tool	Information
Object Navigator	Transaction SE80; Used to navigate around the workbench.
ABAP Editor	Transaction SE38; Here you can create or modify ABAP code and other implementations
Function Builder	Transaction SE37; use to create, test, and administer function modules.
Class Builder	Transaction SE24; for building Class objects
Screen Painter	Transaction SE51; use to design and manage screens and their elements used as Programming interfaces.
Menu Painter	Transaction SE41; for developing the Custom User Accessible menus on your screen interfaces
Message Maintenance	Transaction SE91; for creating standard output messages used within your program
ABAP Dictionary	Transaction SE11; used to create and manage data definitions (tables, structures, views) without redundancies.

Object Navigator

Object Navigator is the central point of entry into ABAP workbench as you can access any object of SAP system through it. In SAP all the Development objects are properly arranged together in an object list under some category such as packages, global class, programs etc. The transaction code to Open Object navigator is SE80.

Components of Object Navigator Interaface

We can choose browsers from Object Navigation area list. The various browsers are:-

1. MIME Repository- Multipurpose Internet Mail Exchange Files Repository-  It displays all the directories with the MIME files which were imported into current system.
2. Repository Browser - It displays repository objects (Please note that all ABAP programs are Objects to SAP) in the form of object list which are organized by selection categories like programs, packages, classes etc. This is the default displayed browser by object navigator.
3. Repository Information System- Unlike Repository browser it displays all the available objects from information system without any search category.
4. Tag Browser displays all the TAGs for web-apps.
5. Transport Organizer- It displays the Transport request sent to it by user based on the request or task number.
6. Test Repository-  Displays results of the test cases after testing repository objects.

    Object Navigator facilitates users to perform the following tasks: 

1. Select a browser and navigate in the object list.
2. Use the tools for development objects . 
3.  Navigate from one window to another window.
4. Perform syntax checks in the integrated window.
5. Open an object in a new session using an Additional dialog box.

 ABAP Editor

SAP has provided Transaction SE38  for ABAP editor. All the reports and includes and other programs are created/edited using this transaction. ABAPpers spend most of their time in the ABAP editor.

Function Builder

Transaction SE37 is used for accessing function modules. Through this we can access all the SAP standard function modules and we can also create our own 'Z' function modules.

Class Builder

Similarly to the function Builder is the class builder which is used for ABAP objects programming. We can access all the SAP standard classes and can as well create our classes using class builder. Transction code SE24 is used for this purpose.

Screen Painter

Screen Painter is mainly used for either creating forms or Dialog Programs. Screen Painter provides us with various tools like Text I/P O/P, box, table wizards etc which could be used to create our own GUI screens for programs. Screen painter is accessible via transaction code SE51.

Menu Painter

Menu Painter is used to design the user interfaces for the programs. Using Menu Painter we can customize the user menu. By default the SAP provides the user with all the available options for all the 'Z' programs we create. Now to change this or limit the user options we create our pf_status using transaction SE41 (Menu Painter) ans set the same PF_STATUS in our program.

Message Maintenance

Messages helps SAP system to communicate with the user. Messages of types Information-I, Error-E, Warning-W, Success-S could be displayed using message classes. To create a message class could be done at transaction- SE91. Then we could use the message class in our reports/Programs.

ABAP Dictionary

ABAP Dictionary is one of the important tools of ABAP Workbench. It is used to create and manage data
definitions without redundancies. ABAP Dictionary always provides the updated information of an object
to all the system components. The presence and role of ABAP Dictionary ensures that data stored in an
SAP system is consistent and secure. ABAP dictionary could be accessed via transaction SE11.