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Background documentationSet Up Your Development Project for the Composite Application Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

Questions Answered
  • When should I set up a product in the IDE?

  • What is the product for? How it is related to a composite application?

  • How do I create new composite applications in the Developer Studio?

  • How can I benefit from the functions in Composite Designer?

Introduction

When using a Java IDE you will usually be working with projects to organize related development objects by task at design time. In addition, the SAP-specific project types are unique in that a project is identified with a development component (DC) in terms of the SAP component model. Composite applications are generally very complex and go beyond this. A complete composite application can be associated with a product from the time of development. A product combines multiple software components into a delivery unit. It can be created and defined by the developer in the Composite Designer, this means directly in the IDE. This results in further benefits. To the extent in which the product now comes to the fore as the development unit, the technical view of the component model now takes on a background role. The developer benefits from a semantic view and need not concern themselves with the technical details of the component model. In addition, the developer always has an overview of all the parts of the composite application and the interdependencies of those parts. This simplifies the situation for the development team because all the developers involved in a product are moving within a consistent metadata framework :

However, how you proceed with the set-up depends on whether the resulting composite application is intended for productive use or just for evaluation.

We can generally distinguish between two approaches:

  • Process-driven, iterative approach (Bottom-Up):

    This approach will usually be used by a business analyst who wants to model a process. All the other components will be added one at a time and are then made available by the developer. In this approach a specific technology is focused on and gradually enhanced by further technologies. The initial step for the development of the composite application arises from the project set-up in which the corresponding development components for the necessary technologies are created in the Developer Studio. You are most likely to use this approach in the evaluation, test, or prototype application stages of development.

  • Product-oriented approach (Top-Down):

    With this approach the architecture, and therefore all the components of a composite application, is at the forefront from the start, not just individual technologies. In this case, the creation of the product determines the initial step in the development of a composite application. All the parts of the composite application are displayed under a common root in the Composite Designer. You will use this approach when your development project should result in a composite application that is productive.

Note Note

If you start out using the Bottom-Up approach, you always have the option of assigning the entities that you have developed to a to product. You can decide to change to the Top-Down approach later, the Composite Designer will support you. For example, you can assign existing DCs to a software component that can then be imported as a whole into a product.

End of the note.
Activities

Set Up the Product in the Composite Designer – Top-Down Approach

To begin the development process, you must first create or import an existing product that allows you to structure and build your composite application according to SAP’s component model, and then finally bundle all the components of the application into one delivery unit.

Set Up the Project – Bottom- Up Approach

If you want to start modelling a process for prototyping or testing purposes, you must first create a corresponding component-based project.