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An ABAP project plays a mediating role between an ABAP back-end system and the Eclipse-based IDE, and it provides a framework for creating, processing, and testing development objects.

An entry in the SAP Logon represents a system connection to an ABAP system.

Derived from such an SAP Logon entry, an ABAP project always :

  • represents a real system logon and,
  • provides a user-specific view of all the ABAP development objects of the back-end system.

The specification for an ABAP project contains the following items:

  • Project name
  • System data - This includes specifications of the system ID, client, user, and password.
  • Default language - ABAP project-specific preference for predefining the original language of the development objects that are created as well as the language of the messages and UI texts.
    Note

    The default language of an ABAP project cannot be changed.

  • [Optional:] List of the ABAP packages that are listed as favorites within the project.

ABAP projects form a part of a user-specific workspace. They thus define the starting point for all development activities within the new IDE. Several ABAP projects are contained in a workspace. This means that the ABAP developer can work on multiple ABAP systems in one and the same IDE session without having to leave the immediate work environment. This can be very useful whenever, for example, the status of development objects from the original development system is to be compared with the status in the consolidation system.

ABAP projects can only be processed if there is an existing system connection (to the ABAP back end). It is therefore not possible to have read or write access to the content of an ABAP project in offline mode. The connection data for an ABAP system is stored in the workspace.

The structure of an ABAP project is usually displayed in the Project Explorer. The root of an ABAP project contains a list of ABAP packages, which are itemized either under the favorites list (as Favorite Packages) or the System Library node.

Depending on whether you have modified the existing system connection, the following project variants are created and displayed in the Project Explorer:

  1. If you have used the existing system connection: The project references a system connection in the SAP Logon. A decorator is then added to the project icon that reflects the connection to the SAP Logon.
  2. If you have modified the existing system connection: The project is independent from the SAP logon. The project is added without a decorator .