ABAP developers should already be familiar with the ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) tool. These days, many SAP customers have multiple ABAP development system in their landscape, such as ECC, S/4HANA, CRM, MDG, and others. Such landscapes can greatly benefit from a central ATC system where all the code can be checked remotely and consistently.
In a nutshell, a central ATC system can be a “barebones” instance that has nothing but Basis and ABAP in it. Since it’s independent from any other systems, it can be easily upgraded to the highest ABAP version. Thus, even your ECC code could be checked for Cloud-compatibility. Best source of practical information on central ATC is this blog series by SAP Community expert Bärbel Winkler, which I highly recommend reading. (By the way, her content on climate change science is also excellent.)
ATC can be supplemented by the open-source ABAP code check tools, such as ABAP Open Checks and ABAP Lint. The latter is more platform-gnostic and can also be used with VSCode and other tools. Both tools exist thanks to the effort of ABAP Legend Lars Hvam Petersen.
With the increase in security concerns these days, some companies are realizing the need to check for more serious threats than using FOR ALL ENTRIES with an empty table. This can be done with Code Vulnerability Analyzer (CVA), which is explained in great detail in this blog post. It’s important to note that even though CVA runs within ATC, it is a separately licensed SAP product. Why it is not included with SAP ATC for free is the question that SAP customers and user groups should be asking out loud. JP
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