ABAP Development Objects

Development objects are the individual parts that are used to build an ABAP application.

The AS ABAP stores the development objects in a repository, which is a part of the system database. For this reason, they are also called repository objects. When the user activates the development objects, the system generates a corresponding runtime version of these objects. The runtime objects are also stored in the repository.

Examples of development objects are:

• ABAP program types such as global classes, interfaces, executable programs, or function groups
• Components of programs such as screens and function modules
• Objects that programs can share: database fields, data elements, program messages, and so on.

ABAP packages are used to group development objects into units that belong together semantically. In addition to organizing the development objects, packages also take care of the link-up of the development objects to the software logistics.

There are two occurrences for the development objects available in the ABAP Repository, namely:

• Main development objects, such as function groups or global ABAP classes
• Subobjects (so-called LIMU objects), such as function modules as part of a function group or class methods as part of a class

A main development object is uniquely determined by the specification of its name and object type whereas for the specification of a subobject the name and type of the main object is required in addition.

In the Eclipse-based IDE, a corresponding ABAP project is required for processing development objects in an AS ABAP.