If you use (or intend to use) the SAP BTP ABAP Environment to develop ABAP applications in the cloud and want to establish quality assurance for your cloud-based ABAP developments then you are surely interested in the execution of ABAP test cockpit checks over your ABAP custom code in the cloud.

Learn in this blog, how to use the ABAP test cockpit (ATC) for your developments in the SAP BTP, ABAP environment.

Use default ATC check variant

You do not need to choose an ATC check variant for the execution of an ATC check run. The default ATC check variant (delivered by SAP) will be used automatically by ATC. This default ATC check variant ABAP_CLOUD_DEVELOPMENT_DEFAULT includes all recommended by SAP ATC checks that should be executed to ensure the quality standard for ABAP cloud development, including also the execution of ABAP Unit tests:

How to check your code during development 

During your development process, in order to check your code with ATC, select your custom code package or objects in the ABAP development tools for Eclipse in the Project Explorer and execute ATC run by using the context menu Run As -> ABAP Test Cockpit:

Consequently, the ATC run results will be displayed in the ATC Problems View as usual:

Code Vulnerability Analyzer (CVA) security checks

CVA security checks in the SAP BTP, ABAP environment can be used without any additional license fee. The checks are included in the ATC default check variant ABAP_CLOUD_DEVELOPMENT_DEFAULT under the category Security and will be executed automatically as you run ATC over your code.

How to check your transports during release

You should run ATC checks explicitly in the Transport Organizer before releasing a transport request or task. The releases of transports and tasks containing the ATC findings of priority levels 1 and 2 are blocked automatically by the system, for ATC findings of priority level 3 you will get notification.

You can find more information in the SAP Help Documentation Working with ATC During Transport Release.

How to check the custom code in the system

If you are a quality expert and want to check the custom code in the whole system, you can use Custom Code Migration app with the “Custom code analysis” project type.

Just click the Create button in the Custom Code Migration App and select a custom code analysis project:

Then you can enter the project data and select the ATC check variant. You can check your custom code in the same system (as shown on the screenshot below) as well as the code in remote system (in this case you need to use remote-enabled ATC check variant and enter the connection to your remote system).

Under the Advanced Configuration you can restrict custom code analysis and choose which packages you want to analyze:

After you saved your custom code analysis project, ATC will execute custom code analysis and you can examine your ATC results under the Analysis tab by clicking the Analyze Findings button or by clicking directly on the reported “Number of Findings” in the project:

How to set up your own ATC check variant

For the ATC execution in the SAP BTP, ABAP environment, we currently offer some standard ATC check variants. But surely, you may want to create your own ATC check variants as you can do it in your on-premise SAP systems to bundle ATC checks as it is suitable for your own development use case.

If you want to create your own ATC check variant in SAP BTP, ABAP environment, you can either create it from scratch or copy and change an existing ATC check variant delivered by SAP.

More details in the blog How to create and use your own ATC check variant in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse.

How to implement your own ATC checks

Some of you may not only want to configure the ATC checks delivered by SAP and bundle them to custom ATC check variants but are eager to write own ATC checks.

More details how to do it in the blog How to create your own ATC check in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse.

How to create and handle ATC exemptions

You can create and approve ATC exemptions using ABAP development tools for Eclipse and transport them between different SAP BTP, ABAP environment systems.

More details in the blog How to create and approve ATC exemptions in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse.

How to configure ATC 

If you want to configure the ATC according to your needs for example, set your default ATC check variant, adjust the ATC check messages priorities, set priority levels that block or interrupt transport releases and so on, the SAP Fiori App ABAP Test Cockpit Configurator allows you to maintain ATC configurations for the cloud based on ATC check variants.

More details in the blog How to configure ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) in the cloud.

How to integrate ATC checks into your CI/CD processes

If you use Jenkins as a CI/CD server to control your lifecycle and quality processes you can also set up the ABAP environment pipeline and configure the execution of ATC checks within this pipeline. Find more details in the Daniel’s Mieg blog: https://blogs.sap.com/2020/10/22/ci-cd-tools-for-sap-cloud-platform-abap-environment/.

Please consider that the ATC exemptions that you have defined in your development system will be also considered within the pipeline.

How to export and import ATC objects across on-premise and cloud ABAP systems

We also enabled the export and import scenario via abapGit for ATC related objects. You can use abapGit to import and export ATC check variants, ATC check objects and ATC check categories across your on-premise and cloud ABAP systems.

More details in the blog Export and import ATC objects across on-premise and cloud ABAP systems.