CDS View Building
In general, the data of an application might be distributed across several database tables. Using views you can rearrange the table columns according to application-specific needs. The structure of such a view is defined by specifying the relevant database tables and the set of table fields to be used in the view. As a part of Core Data Services (CDS), the DDL approach supports you as an ABAP developer with a text-based view building capabilities.
The following figure combines the main components of the view building architecture and displays the most important activities that are involved in the view building process. Using a wizard within the Eclipse-based ABAP IDE, you create the DDL source as the suitable development object with which you can use the standard functions of the ABAP Workbench, such as activation or connecting to the Transport Organizer. A CDS entity is defined in the text-based DDL editor. It serves to define the structure of an SQL view and represents a projection onto one or several Dictionary tables or Dictionary views. For each CDS entity that is defined in the DDL source, you can generate - with the activation process - exactly one SQL view in the ABAP Dictionary. An SQL view can then, just like a database view created in the normal way in the ABAP Dictionary, be used in ABAP with Open SQL.
Figure: CDS view building architecture
- Creating DDL Sources
- Editing DDL Source Code
- Adding Authorizations to CDS Entities
- Checking Syntax of DDL Sources
- Activating DDL Sources
- [Optional -] Previewing Data Records
- [Optional -] Deleting DDL Sources
Caution Before deleting a DDL Source, check whether it is still being used by other development objects. To find out if an object is still in use, call the where-used function(Searching Usages (Where-Used)). See also: Deleting Development Objects