Start of Content Area

Background documentation Using the Development and Production Infrastructure  Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

What do we actually call development infrastructure?

We refer to the following as the development infrastructure:

...

      SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI) – this is actually an installation of the SAP NetWeaver usage type Development Infrastructure (DI).

      Development Infrastructure perspective – the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio perspective that you use to work with the NWDI; this is the place where you perform the actual development and where you can configure the entire development specifics. It does not come with the installation of the NWDI, just the names are the same, to show the intention to use them both together.

      Development infrastructure of your choice – any development infrastructure tool(s) you use in your development environment – these are the versioning system, build environment, transporting systems.

How do you use the NWDI in the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 Composition Environment

The SAP NetWeaver 7.0 contains a lot of functionality and requires much more time and resources to install it on your system. On the other hand, the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 Composition Environment (CE) is much more lean, but that also means that you do not get the same set of functionality. With the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE, what you get as the development infrastructure are just the two development infrastructure perspectives in the Developer Studio and the set of command line tools of the NWDI (which again comes with the Developer Studio installation). But if you already have an installation of the SAP NetWeaver 7.0, you do not have to give up all the functionality you have there. You can simply configure the Developer Studio and the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE and go on with development against the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 that you already have.

From the development infrastructure’s point of view, SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE also provides you with the unique opportunity to integrate and work against a development infrastructure that you use on your own – you can integrate a versioning system of your choice, you can have your own build infrastructure and your own transporting systems and processes, and still use the same development perspectives in the Developer Studio. This results in less complexity for the developers in your company, since they will not have to learn to work in an unknown development environment. Or you can use investments that you have already made in versioning systems – instead of having to integrate with and invest a lot of effort into becoming familiar with new technologies that you might not even want, you can simply integrate them in to your SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE.

Overview of the Development Scenarios

In SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE, you use the development configurations to organize the development in a team. The development configuration describes the whole development landscape (for example, which software to develop, which software to use, and which servers or file systems to connect to), and keeps information that can be used to track if a certain part of the software is not up-to-date or has somehow changed.

From a technical point of view, this is a simple file, which you can easily distribute using e-mail and import into a developer’s local Developer Studios and, in this way, you can always keep the development environment consistent.

By using the NWDI provided with the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 installation, you have to follow the principles of the SAP component model. The component model is a set of definitions about how to set up and organize your development in a set of components. The entire development is organized in software components (SCs), which in turn contain a number of development components (DCs). You use the SCs to organize the development landscape and to keep track of the versions of the software you develop. The DCs are used to organize the exact parts of the projects you are developing.

The choice you have to make is to decide which development scenario to follow:

      Standard development – without using the NWDI or following SAP’s component principles.

There are certain situations in which you cannot or do not want to stick to the SAP component model and/or use NWDI. In this case you can:

       Use the Developer Studio as Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and go on with SAP’s specific development without the NWDI. This is possible only in SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE. For example, you can model Visual Composer applications locally without NWDI integration and support.

       Choose to develop without following the SAP component model principles. In this development scenario you only use the Developer Studio as an IDE.

      Development based on the SAP component model, using a remote NWDI installation.

You can choose to develop following the SAP component model and develop against an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 installation, with the full blown NWDI installation and using all NWDI features.

Here you have to ensure that the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE and the SAP NetWeaver 7.0 work together. This development scenario can be very helpful if you already have an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system and also want to work with an SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE.

      Development based on the SAP component model, but without using the NWDI.      

Development Based on the Component Model without the SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure

Here you are developing using software components and development components, following the principles of SAP’s component model development, but without a remote NWDI integration.

Again, there are two options for the development:

...

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

General overview of the development steps without a versioning system

The steps are:

            ...

       1.      Create a development configuration from scratch.

       2.      Import the development configuration into each SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio in the landscape.

       3.      Import the required software components (SCs) and the development components (DCs) contained in the SCs.

       4.      Start the development. If needed, you can go on with creating other development configurations. In the Developer Studio, you can import many different development configurations at the same time.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

General overview of the development steps with your own versioning system

The steps are:

            ...

       1.      Create a development configuration from scratch.

       2.      Import the development configuration into each SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio in the landscape.

       3.      Sync to the up-to-date state of the software from the versioning system you use.

       4.      Start the development.

       5.      Import the changed software back to the versioning system.

This is the point where it is good to build your changes against the other parts of the software. To do that, you can use the command line tool provided with the installation of the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE’s Developer Studio, or again use your own build infrastructure.

       6.      All other developers sync to the updated version in the versioning system.

You are not obliged to use SAP’s versioning or transport or build systems. You do not have an NWDI in this development scenario. Here you can choose even not to use any versioning system at all, just plain files and folders in which to store your source files.

All you have as support for such a development scenario from the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE is the command line tool that can help you to perform some of the tasks that you would normally do with NWDI in an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system, such as build and transport software.

Summary

No matter which approach you choose and prefer, you can use the benefits provided for team-oriented development – the SAP NetWeaver 7.1 CE still provides you with ways and features for using the development configurations.

Use it to align the development environment that each developer in the team is working with. The project manager in the team is either importing an already automatically generated development configuration from the development environment that the team uses or, in case the team is not using such a development environment, he or she can manually generate and maintain one. Then he or she goes to the development workplace of each developer in the team and imports this development configuration.

If the team is working following the SAP component model principles, the project lead can manually import the software components required for the development. And  then development can start.

More Information:

      The Developer Studio comes with two perspectives you can use when developing the software. More information: Working with the Development Infrastructure and Working with the Design Time Repository.

      Using Third Party Development Infrastructure – for details on the development scenario.

      Working with the Serverside Development Infrastructure Client – for information about using the Serverside Development Infrastructure Client (SDIC) tool for managing the development configurations landscape.

End of Content Area