Activating Classes and Interfaces 

Significance of Activation

When you create runtime instances, the system always uses active sources. This is particularly important when you instantiate classes (CREATE OBJECT statement), since this statement always refers to the activated class. All components of the corresponding global class that you want to access in the calling program must be activated explicitly.

Components of Global Classes

All global classes have an entry in table TADIR. The corresponding transport object for a class has the name R3TR CLAS <class name> and contains a number of components, each of them constituting a separate transport unit. Inactive class components are stored in the list of inactive objects of the user.

Global Classes in Table TADIR

The basic data and public components of a class cannot be activated separately.

Only the basic data and public, protected, and private sections of a class affect the status display in the Class Builder. If you activate the entire transport object and then change a method implementation, the status remains active.

Components of Global Interfaces

The transport object for an interface has the name R3TR INTF <interface name>. It contains a single object with the name INTF.

When you activate a class that implements an interface, you must ensure that the interface has already been activated. Otherwise, a syntax error will be returned for the public section.

Status Display in the Class Builder

The status of a class or interface depends on the following characteristics:

●      Runtime relevance (Implemented or Modeled Only)

●      Database status (Revised or Saved)

●      Activation (Active or Inactive)

According to the possible combinations between those characteristics, classes and interfaces can have the following states: