What is New in ABAP Testing and Troubleshooting With SAP NetWeaver 7

8/2/2019 What is New in ABAP Testing and Troubleshooting With SAP NetWeaver 7

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What Is New in ABAP Testing And

Troubleshooting With SAP NetWeaver 7.0

EhP2Posted byOlga Dolinskajainolga.dolinskajaon Apr 13, 2010 11:09:28 AM

SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2 brings you a rich set of new features and enhancements in ABAP

Testing and Troubleshooting tools which will boost the efficiency of the entire ABAP

development.

This blog gives an overview of the major improvements and new tools and features in the

areas of ABAP Testing and Troubleshooting.

1. News in ABAP Debugger

Request-based Debugging of HTTP and RFC requests

If you use external debugging in ABAP - that is, debugging of HTTP and RFC requests which

arrive in your ABAP system - then you have used the user breakpoint for external debugging.

There are, however, situations in which the user breakpoint is not adequate - for example, if arequest is load-balanced to another server than the one you are on or your requesting user is

mapped to another user or is ignored because of a generic user for requests.

For these situations, SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2 introduces a second technique for external

debugging to supplement user breakpoints: request-based debugging (debugging via Terminal

ID). A user breakpoint is now server-independent and active on all application servers of anABAP system. With request-based debugging you can capture any external HTTP or RFC

request for debugging, without regard to the user who submitted the request or the application

server at which the request is processed. The execution of the requests of other users is not

affected, which makes it possible to debug problems in production systems without disruptingnormal operations.
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To activate request-based debugging checkTerminalID checkbox in the debugger settings

(Utilities->Settings->Debugging), apply the settings and set a user breakpoint.

To transmit Terminal ID in case of HTTP requests download SAP HTTP Plug-in for Internet

Explorer from the OSS Note 1041556, start the plug-in and it will start the browser. Start yourapplication and press Start Transaction button on the plug-in. In case of RFC requests sent from

SAP GUI use Ok code "/htid".
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Software Layer Aware Debugging (SLAD)

In the old days of R/3, debugging ABAP business logic was easy. You enter "/h" to start thedebugger or set a breakpoint, and you find yourself right-away in the middle of your application

code. Nowadays, finding your code in the debugger is often not so easy. Business logic now

relies on application frameworks and technical frameworks and infrastructures such as ESI orWeb Dynpro ABAP. It may be hard to find your way to your application logic in the debugger,

since significant amounts of infrastructure code are in the way. Often infrastructure code is

intermingled in your application code, so that even a direct breakpoint doesn't necessarily let youconcentrate only on your code.

SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2 resolves this problem and gives you full control over what you debug

with a new debugging mode: Software Layer Aware Debugging (SLAD). With layer awaredebugging you can debug only relevant parts of ABAP code and hide the rest. Furthermore you

can define layers - for example, the database layer, application layer, or the UI layer - and then

jump from layer to layer instead of running through all of the code with conventional debuggersteps.

It works as following. By using the new transaction SLAD you define specific object sets (orlayers) which should be accessed by debugger and hide the rest of the code. In the SLAD you

select objects into selection sets (your packages, programs, classes, function modules ...) and use

ABAP logical operators (AND, OR,...) to combine them to object sets (layers). Layers arenormal ABAP transportable objects. Then you define your debugger profile (SLAD profile),

which consists of such object sets (layers).


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After you defined your SLAD profile you can start ABAP debugger and activate layer awaredebugging (Configure Debugger Layerbutton). The pop-up appears where you can load your

SLAD profile (or you can define it directly in the pop-up). And the debugger will stop only in

visible layers of your SLAD profile. Use normal debugger steps to debug the code within the

layer. You can also use a new buttonNext Object Setto jump between the layers.
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breakpoints and watchpoints, you can write interactive debugger scripts to investigate typical

error situations (dump analysis, consistency check,...), or analyze and display complex datastructures (think of generic application frameworks!).

A new standalone transaction SAS allows you to maintain scripts and display script results.
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Memory Consumption Analysis

In SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2, ABAP brings you re-worked and greatly expanded memory

analysis capabilities, in both the new ABAP Debugger and in the Memory Inspector (transactionS_MEMORY_INSPECTOR or SMI). Here are the main new features:

Dominator Tree. The new dominator tree (tabDominator Tree) helps to determine thecause when you analyze memory consumption for object groups. The dominator tree isthe keep-alive tree. With the dominator tree you can easily analyze the hierarchy of

references to memory. If you go down the tree, you can determine for which sub-objects

your object is responsible for and which objects would disappear, if it will be freed. Ifyou go up the tree, you can determine the responsible objects, which keep your object

alive. You can also examine additive memory values. The dominator tree is available in

both the new ABAP Debugger and in the Memory Inspector.

Memory Object Explorer. You can press the right mouse button on a node of adominator tree and switch to theMemory Object Explorer. With the new toolMemoryObject Explorer(available only in the new ABAP Debugger under Tools->Memory

Management->Memory Object Explorer) you can browse the object graph of a particular

memory object and display its subordinate and superior objects.
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Memory analysis for Web Dynpro application. Now you can analyze your WebDynpro application for its memory consumption in debugger. With the new tool underMemory Management->Application-Specific Memory Views different Web Dynpro

framework and application views of the memory are presented. Select in the Memory

View dropdown "Application Web Dynpro" and filter out (Filterbutton) everything that

is not Web Dynpro specific.
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More features and improvements

New Web Dynpro Tool helps you to debug Web Dynpro applications quickly andefficiently. With this new tool, you can display and analyze the content of components ofa Web Dynpro application in the new ABAP Debugger. You can display Web Dynpro

Tool by using the desktop buttonNew Tool and choosing Special Tools->Web Dynpro inthe popup window.
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Redesigned Table Tool - Enhanced display of internal tables. The Table Tool lets youview and manipulate the contents of internal tables in the debugger. By using a newcolumns configuration (Columns button on the Table desktop) you can optimize table

display to see the columns you really want to see. Columns configuration lets you quicklyadd content of nested structures and objects attributes to the display of an internal table.You can store your table layout (columns) so that you can re-use it in your next debugger

session. And last but not least the Table tool adds support for secondary keys (the key

used can be toggled in the debugger).

Statement and expression debugging. Now you can debug ABAP statements thatcontain multiple expressions and statements on the same line of code incrementally: one

expression or statement at a time. The new debugger button Step Size allows you to

toggle between statement debugging and normal line debugging. On theAuto tab of thevariable fast display you can analyze return values of single statements.
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Conditional breakpoints and watchpoints. Now it is possible to specify conditions forbreakpoints and watchpoints that you set in debugger. The debugger will stop as soon as

breakpoint or watchpoint is reached and the specified condition is fulfilled. To add acondition to a breakpoint, open the context menu of the breakpoint and choose Create

Condition. A popup will be displayed in which you can enter the condition.
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You can add a condition to a watchpoint when you create it (Create Watchpointbutton)or when you change it on theBreakpoints/Watchpoints tab in the debugger.
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Special breakpoints ABAP has significantly extended the set of available breakpointsthat you can set in the debugger. Click on the Create Breakpointbutton in the debugger,and you will find useful new breakpoints like the following:

o Special breakpoints for Web Dynpro ABAP (you can specify component,controller, or method)

o Breakpoints for simple transformations (ST breakpoints)o Stack change breakpoints (stops only if ABAP and screen stack has changed)o A breakpoint at non-precise decfloat calculation (stops if a non-precise statement

or calculation with decimal floating point numbers takes place)

o Breakpoint at RFC and so on.

Simple transformation debugging. Now you can debug simple transformations (step-by-step execution, variables display, breakpoints).

Enhancement debugging. Now you can visualize enhancements in the stack, skip orexecute enhancement implementations.
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Adoption of functions from the old debugger. In the new ABAP Debugger, you candisplay current generated classic list in debug mode, restart the entire application, use

debugger settings (block sending TRFC, ESI debugging, Shared Objects: debug

automatic area structure, always generate exception object, Control Framework:Automation controller, Always processes requests synchronously, check sorting before

READ BINARY SEARCH).

Miscellaneous. Now there is F4 help for breakpoints on ABAP commands. You can alsoset watchpoints on objects. In the variable fast display a new tab page, Auto, displays the

last return values of methods. Among other new features are these:

o You can change long data objects in the detail view.o There is a new screen tool for analyzing screens (control, properties, layout).o

In the stack tool there is a new setting for displaying the call stack of an internalcall mode.

o There is a new exception tool for displaying and analyzing the last and previousclass-based exceptions.

o The new console tool displays the growing data of serializations from ABAP toXML for CALL TRANSFORMATION and for classic list outputs.

o In the ABAP byte code or ABAP byte code (debug macro) context menus, youcan select what a replacement for a proper macro debugging run can depict.

2. New ABAP Runtime Analysis (SAT)

SAT is the transaction name of the new ABAP Runtime Analysis Tool which replaces the earlier

transactions SE30 and ATRA. As the successor of SE30 and ATRA, SAT can be used for typical

scenarios of ABAP runtime analysis such as performance analysis, program flow analysis ormemory consumption analysis.

SAT has a modern and flexible multi-tool user interface (the same as in the new ABAPdebugger) which can be customized individually. SAT stores measurement results centrally on

the database, which allows analysis of the results from any ABAP server in a multi-server system

. SAT also enables cross-system comparison of measurement results.

SAT offers a rich set of flexible new analysis tools which help to analyze different aspects of a

trace. You can navigate between tools with comfortable user interface features: display specific

trace details or focus on the trace sub-area to analyze it more deeply.

The Call Hierarchy and Hit List tools, which you may know from SE30, continue to be available.But you can also benefit from these new analysis tools:


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Profile Tool checks out the runtime consumption of components, packages, programsand even debugger layers (SLAD)

Processing Blocks Tool displays a tree of processing blocks to get aggregated view onthe call sequence

SAT offers a hotspot analysis to find performance and memory hotspots Call Stack Tool displays the call stack for each item of the Call Hierarchy DB tables Tool identifies time-consuming database statements Times Tool provides more specific time measurement values for call hierarchy events

3. News in ABAP Testing Tools

ABAP Unit

An ABAP Unit Browser that is integrated into the Object Navigator of the ABAP Workbench

allows:
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A structured overview of existing unit tests to be displayed. Several test runs to be started at the same time. Unit tests to be organized in favorites.

When you test favorites, you can also have the code coverage of the tests in the favoritemeasured and displayed.

SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2 also adds the tokens RISK LEVEL and DURATION to the CLASS ...

FOR TESTING statement to replace the pseudo comments "#AU Risk_Level ... and "#AUDuration ..., which were introduced in SAP NetWeaver 7.0 for defining the properties of test

classes.

The class CL_AUNIT_ASSERT is replaced by the new class CL_ABAP_UNIT_ASSERT, and

class CL_CONSTRAINT has been replaced by CL_AUNIT_CONSTRAINT. New methods

have also been added to the new classes. Existing module tests do not have to be converted to thenew classes. However, we recommend that you use only the new classes in new tests.

Coverage Analyzer

The Coverage Analyzer has been extended with these new features:
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Code coverage is now measured at statement level (statement coverage). The coverage of individual conditions of logical expressions is measured (condition

coverage).

The coverage of empty branches is measured.

The coverage of statement blocks executed and not executed is measured in controlstructures (branch coverage).

Code coverage is visualized in different colors in the new ABAP frontend editor. To measure the

coverage of test runs, the Coverage Analyzer has been integrated into ABAP Unit testing.
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Documents

What is New in ABAP Testing and Troubleshooting With SAP NetWeaver 7