Introduction:
On average, an SAP ABAP developer spends approximately 2 hours understanding the functional specification before beginning the coding process. Depending on the requirement, complexity, and the developer’s experience, he may take a day or two or more.
Over the years, every SAP customer has invested significant effort in custom developments, extensions, testing, and optimizing the code. Imagine if the developer is on vacation or has transitioned to a different project; in such cases, new code changes or updates become a considerable challenge for a new developer to manage.
From my years of SAP ABAP development experience, I have worked on several internal and customer requirements with few to many challenges understanding the code. With the introduction of AI in the current trend, SAP has been one of the front-runners in introducing AI capabilities. Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to SAP Joule for Developers (in short J4D).
“Joule” is the SAP copilot that ABAP developers need for their development tasks. It is uniquely trained on SAP data and processes. Joule’s ABAP developer capabilities combine all the features to support full-stack development with ABAP Cloud. For instance, Joule provides real-time explanations of development objects, streamlining learning and finding answers to questions. Joule is fully integrated in the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse and provides accurate information about currently opened development objects or marked lines of code. Joule is also able to predict and generate subsequent lines of code based on comments, or the code you’re typing. The Joule code prediction takes the ABAP language version of your selected development object into account and suggests ABAP code that fits the respective language version context. Joule can generate ABAP cloud development scenarios, including all required development objects.
Why Joule for ABAP Developers:
The AI capabilities for ABAP are designed to enhance developer productivity by delivering new generative AI-powered assistance for frequent developer tasks. The ABAP AI capabilities utilize a purpose-built large language model (LLM) trained on 250 million lines of ABAP code to deliver the most precise, contextual results for ABAP workloads.
Benefits?
Joule can understand SAP development framework intricacies, anticipate developers’ needs, offer intelligent suggestions, and automate repetitive, mundane tasks like documentation and sample data generation. It can enable developers across pro-code and automation projects to be more productive, creative, and proficient in accelerating apps or extensions for business applications.
Predictive code completion based on context, comments, and project heuristicsCode explanations of core data services (CDS) view entities, classes, interfaces, and functional modulesAI-powered assistance for documentation, best practices, and new conceptsBoost developer productivity
Here is a glimpse of all the Joule for Developers(J4D) capabilities that it offers:
What license is required?
J4D is a part of SAP AI Unit (8019164), – the new Per User Per Month (PUPM) license model released by SAP for all requirements. However, we also have a limited offer with Joule for Developers (8019124) limited promotion, which is valid only until Q2 ‘2026. For more details on the limited option, please refer to the Blogpost and take a look at the SAP Note: 3571857.
Joule for developers ABAP AI capabilities is technically available in SAP BTP ABAP Environment and SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition after the upgrade to release 2502.
After purchasing the license:
SAP BTP ABAP Environment
All development tenants (where this license (8019164) is assigned/activated) in the corresponding SAP BTP Global Account are automatically enabled for the usage of Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities will show up only in one BTP Account where SKU is assigned.
Setup / Architecture diagram?
All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. The use cases in the Accelerate category are managed by SAP. Once the subscription explained above is in place, the configuration part in your system is done automatically by SAP. Finally, update your ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse to the latest version using the link ADT version update to get the Joule integration in the IDE. Developers who shall be allowed to use Joule need the respective authorizations as explained in the documentation.
Use Cases: This documentation explains the ABAP development tools for Eclipse and refers to the range of functions that have been shipped as part of the standard delivery for the following products:
SAP BTP ABAP environment – If the user has ABAP SKU :8011136(Free), 8006181/8006182(Standard). Use current blog steps to setup Joule for developers. ABAP Service Plans-Service Plans and Metering for SAP BTP ABAP environment | SAP Help Portal, Know more-SAP Discovery Center Service – ABAP environmentSAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as of 2502- If the user doesn’t have ABAP SKU as mentioned above, please use S/4 HANA PCE to setup Joule for Developers Setup Guide-Joule for Developer with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition-Setup Guide – SAP Community
Help doc: ABAP Development Tools 2502 GA Doc
Pre-requisite:
SAP BTP (Administrator role within subaccount) Joule Entitlements – please refer to license topicABAP environment-StandardCloud foundrySAP Cloud Identity Services
Discovery center use cases (ABAP): SAP Discovery Center Business AI Features
Roles and Authorizations
To be able to use Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities, your system administrator must assign you to a business role that contains the business catalogue SAP_A4C_BC_DEV_AIQ_PC.
Joule setup via SAP BTP (ABAP Environment).
Create a subaccount in your Global Account in SAP BTP.
Enter a preferred Subaccount name, Select the region as per the Joule supported Data Centre and click on Create.
Help Doc (Data centers):
Entitlements
Under Entitlements: In this section, we add different service plans.
Add service plans: ABAP environment
Add multiple quantities of 1 ABAP_COMPUTE_UNIT, 2 HANA_COMPUTE_UNITS, 1 standard.
We are going to use Cloud Foundry for our Joule developer capability setup. To do so, navigate to your Overview page within your subaccount and click on Enable Cloud Foundry, as shown below:
Create a space where instances can be created and deployed with the required roles.
Know more about roles: About Roles in the Cloud Foundry Environment | SAP Help Portal
Security: Before Joule can assist your developers, trust and identity must be configured correctly. Here’s how to ensure your system knows who’s who and what they’re allowed to do.
Under the security, Maintain Trust Configuration:
Choose the SAP Cloud Identity tenant for users when logging on to applications in this subaccount.
In this screen, please validate if the Cloud Identity Service URL is using the domain model, “*.accounts.cloud.sap” or do you see “*.accounts.ondemand.com”, select the appropriate domain.
Choose domain:
Configure Parameters
Enter the mandatory details: Name, Origin key, Text for user logon.
Configure Trusted Domain in SAP BTP | SAP Help Portal
Instance creation:
Under the space, create an instance of ABAP Environment:
Create a new instance: Enter your instance name
Then, provide the email address (Mandatory) and system description in the parameter section.
Given Joule for developers is only supported in development; without this step, the setup won’t work.
Note: At this point, this will only work if the same user whose email ID was provided under the admin email tries this. This is because additional users in the system haven’t been created.
The instance is created.
Click on the instance, it will redirect to a URL:
Note: At this point, this will only work if the same user whose email ID was provided under the admin email tries this. This is because additional users in the system haven’t been created
Copy the URL: https://********* abap-web.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/ – Here the region is EU, for your setup, the region can be different.
Access Management:
Select Identity and access management from the dropdown:
Here, the User can add/delete the business roles.
Add developer Role (SAP_BR_DEVELOPER) to the user: To access the ABAP developer functionalities.
Once, All the above steps have been incorporated, Goto ABAP Development Tool (latest version)
Create a new ABAP Cloud project:
Paste the URL Copied:
Log on to the ABAP service instance:
Select the Default identity provider/ custom IDP created.
Help doc: How to setup a Customer IDP
After you log in: Success message will appear.
Your project is created.
Joule for developer’s capabilities.
AI-Based Feature
Description
More Information
Joule chat
The Joule chat supports you during the development process. Converse with the Joule chat in natural language, for instance, ask questions or obtain detailed explanations for code snippets or development objects.
For more information, see Chat.
Predictive Code Completion
The predictive code completion enables you to use AI-supported code completion in the ABAP source code editor.
For more information, see Predictive Code Completion.
Explain
The Explain feature enables you to get detailed explanations of selected development objects or lines of source code.
For more information, see Explain.
ABAP Unit
The AI-based ABAP Unit features are specifically designed to assist you in creating and improving your tests more effectively.
For more information, see ABAP Unit.
CDS Test Generation
The CDS test generation supports you in creating ABAP test classes for CDS entities.
For more information, see
Generators
The Generators helps to boost your efficiency in generating unit test class for ABAP CDS entity.
For more information,
see Use CDS Test Class Generator | SAP Help Portal
Please look through the joule guide for more information: Joule Setup
Predictive Code Completion:
In the test class, create a new method like test_validate_customer_success (Positive scenario), try to create method test_validate_customer_failure (Negative scenario).
Press Enter: Application calculates predictive code.
Accept/discard.
In the search toolbar, search for joule:
In the joule pop up window:
Perform different operations:
Pretty printer the test class:
Joule lets the code modularize using pretty printer (Uppercase, Lowercase, spacing).
Adding test cases
Joule helps to give some relevant test cases according to the code functionality.
FAQ’s: ABAP AI Strategy Frequently Asked Questions
Related Content:
Technical Announcement Blog: Joule speaks ABAP! – SAP Community
New landing page for SAP Joule for Developers: https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/joule-for-developers.html
Thank you and regards,
Yash
(AI consultant)
SAP AI RIG Team
Introduction:On average, an SAP ABAP developer spends approximately 2 hours understanding the functional specification before beginning the coding process. Depending on the requirement, complexity, and the developer’s experience, he may take a day or two or more.Over the years, every SAP customer has invested significant effort in custom developments, extensions, testing, and optimizing the code. Imagine if the developer is on vacation or has transitioned to a different project; in such cases, new code changes or updates become a considerable challenge for a new developer to manage.From my years of SAP ABAP development experience, I have worked on several internal and customer requirements with few to many challenges understanding the code. With the introduction of AI in the current trend, SAP has been one of the front-runners in introducing AI capabilities. Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to SAP Joule for Developers (in short J4D).“Joule” is the SAP copilot that ABAP developers need for their development tasks. It is uniquely trained on SAP data and processes. Joule’s ABAP developer capabilities combine all the features to support full-stack development with ABAP Cloud. For instance, Joule provides real-time explanations of development objects, streamlining learning and finding answers to questions. Joule is fully integrated in the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse and provides accurate information about currently opened development objects or marked lines of code. Joule is also able to predict and generate subsequent lines of code based on comments, or the code you’re typing. The Joule code prediction takes the ABAP language version of your selected development object into account and suggests ABAP code that fits the respective language version context. Joule can generate ABAP cloud development scenarios, including all required development objects.Why Joule for ABAP Developers:The AI capabilities for ABAP are designed to enhance developer productivity by delivering new generative AI-powered assistance for frequent developer tasks. The ABAP AI capabilities utilize a purpose-built large language model (LLM) trained on 250 million lines of ABAP code to deliver the most precise, contextual results for ABAP workloads.Benefits?Joule can understand SAP development framework intricacies, anticipate developers’ needs, offer intelligent suggestions, and automate repetitive, mundane tasks like documentation and sample data generation. It can enable developers across pro-code and automation projects to be more productive, creative, and proficient in accelerating apps or extensions for business applications.Predictive code completion based on context, comments, and project heuristicsCode explanations of core data services (CDS) view entities, classes, interfaces, and functional modulesAI-powered assistance for documentation, best practices, and new conceptsBoost developer productivityHere is a glimpse of all the Joule for Developers(J4D) capabilities that it offers: What license is required?J4D is a part of SAP AI Unit (8019164), – the new Per User Per Month (PUPM) license model released by SAP for all requirements. However, we also have a limited offer with Joule for Developers (8019124) limited promotion, which is valid only until Q2 ‘2026. For more details on the limited option, please refer to the Blogpost and take a look at the SAP Note: 3571857.Joule for developers ABAP AI capabilities is technically available in SAP BTP ABAP Environment and SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Public Edition after the upgrade to release 2502.After purchasing the license:SAP BTP ABAP Environment All development tenants (where this license (8019164) is assigned/activated) in the corresponding SAP BTP Global Account are automatically enabled for the usage of Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities will show up only in one BTP Account where SKU is assigned.Setup / Architecture diagram? All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. The use cases in the Accelerate category are managed by SAP. Once the subscription explained above is in place, the configuration part in your system is done automatically by SAP. Finally, update your ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse to the latest version using the link ADT version update to get the Joule integration in the IDE. Developers who shall be allowed to use Joule need the respective authorizations as explained in the documentation.Use Cases: This documentation explains the ABAP development tools for Eclipse and refers to the range of functions that have been shipped as part of the standard delivery for the following products:SAP BTP ABAP environment – If the user has ABAP SKU :8011136(Free), 8006181/8006182(Standard). Use current blog steps to setup Joule for developers. ABAP Service Plans-Service Plans and Metering for SAP BTP ABAP environment | SAP Help Portal, Know more-SAP Discovery Center Service – ABAP environmentSAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as of 2502- If the user doesn’t have ABAP SKU as mentioned above, please use S/4 HANA PCE to setup Joule for Developers Setup Guide-Joule for Developer with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition-Setup Guide – SAP CommunityHelp doc: ABAP Development Tools 2502 GA DocPre-requisite:SAP BTP (Administrator role within subaccount) Joule Entitlements – please refer to license topicABAP environment-StandardCloud foundrySAP Cloud Identity ServicesDiscovery center use cases (ABAP): SAP Discovery Center Business AI FeaturesRoles and AuthorizationsTo be able to use Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities, your system administrator must assign you to a business role that contains the business catalogue SAP_A4C_BC_DEV_AIQ_PC.Joule setup via SAP BTP (ABAP Environment).Create a subaccount in your Global Account in SAP BTP. Enter a preferred Subaccount name, Select the region as per the Joule supported Data Centre and click on Create.Help Doc (Data centers):EntitlementsUnder Entitlements: In this section, we add different service plans.Add service plans: ABAP environmentAdd multiple quantities of 1 ABAP_COMPUTE_UNIT, 2 HANA_COMPUTE_UNITS, 1 standard. We are going to use Cloud Foundry for our Joule developer capability setup. To do so, navigate to your Overview page within your subaccount and click on Enable Cloud Foundry, as shown below: Create a space where instances can be created and deployed with the required roles. Know more about roles: About Roles in the Cloud Foundry Environment | SAP Help Portal Security: Before Joule can assist your developers, trust and identity must be configured correctly. Here’s how to ensure your system knows who’s who and what they’re allowed to do.Under the security, Maintain Trust Configuration:Choose the SAP Cloud Identity tenant for users when logging on to applications in this subaccount.In this screen, please validate if the Cloud Identity Service URL is using the domain model, “*.accounts.cloud.sap” or do you see “*.accounts.ondemand.com”, select the appropriate domain. Choose domain: Configure ParametersEnter the mandatory details: Name, Origin key, Text for user logon. Help Docs: Configure Trusted Domains in Identity Authentication | SAP Help Portal, Configure Trusted Domain in SAP BTP | SAP Help Portal Instance creation:Under the space, create an instance of ABAP Environment: Create a new instance: Enter your instance name Then, provide the email address (Mandatory) and system description in the parameter section.Given Joule for developers is only supported in development; without this step, the setup won’t work. Note: At this point, this will only work if the same user whose email ID was provided under the admin email tries this. This is because additional users in the system haven’t been created.The instance is created. Click on the instance, it will redirect to a URL:Note: At this point, this will only work if the same user whose email ID was provided under the admin email tries this. This is because additional users in the system haven’t been createdCopy the URL: https://********* abap-web.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/ – Here the region is EU, for your setup, the region can be different. Access Management:Select Identity and access management from the dropdown:Here, the User can add/delete the business roles. Add developer Role (SAP_BR_DEVELOPER) to the user: To access the ABAP developer functionalities.Once, All the above steps have been incorporated, Goto ABAP Development Tool (latest version) Create a new ABAP Cloud project: Paste the URL Copied: Log on to the ABAP service instance: Select the Default identity provider/ custom IDP created.Help doc: How to setup a Customer IDPAfter you log in: Success message will appear.Your project is created. Joule for developer’s capabilities.AI-Based FeatureDescriptionMore InformationJoule chatThe Joule chat supports you during the development process. Converse with the Joule chat in natural language, for instance, ask questions or obtain detailed explanations for code snippets or development objects.For more information, see Chat.Predictive Code CompletionThe predictive code completion enables you to use AI-supported code completion in the ABAP source code editor.For more information, see Predictive Code Completion.ExplainThe Explain feature enables you to get detailed explanations of selected development objects or lines of source code.For more information, see Explain.ABAP UnitThe AI-based ABAP Unit features are specifically designed to assist you in creating and improving your tests more effectively.For more information, see ABAP Unit.CDS Test GenerationThe CDS test generation supports you in creating ABAP test classes for CDS entities.For more information, see GeneratorsThe Generators helps to boost your efficiency in generating unit test class for ABAP CDS entity.For more information,see Use CDS Test Class Generator | SAP Help PortalPlease look through the joule guide for more information: Joule SetupPredictive Code Completion:In the test class, create a new method like test_validate_customer_success (Positive scenario), try to create method test_validate_customer_failure (Negative scenario). Press Enter: Application calculates predictive code.Accept/discard. In the search toolbar, search for joule: In the joule pop up window:Perform different operations: Pretty printer the test class:Joule lets the code modularize using pretty printer (Uppercase, Lowercase, spacing). Adding test cases Joule helps to give some relevant test cases according to the code functionality. FAQ’s: ABAP AI Strategy Frequently Asked QuestionsRelated Content:Technical Announcement Blog: Joule speaks ABAP! – SAP CommunityNew landing page for SAP Joule for Developers: https://www.sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence/joule-for-developers.htmlThank you and regards,Yash(AI consultant)SAP AI RIG Team Read More Technology Blog Posts by SAP articles
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