Joule for Developers with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition-Setup Guide

Introduction:

Typically, an SAP ABAP developer spends around two hours analyzing the functional specifications before diving into the actual coding. However, this time can vary significantly depending on the complexity of the requirement and the developer’s level of experience—ranging from a single day to several.

Over time, SAP customers have heavily invested in custom development, system enhancements, rigorous testing, and code optimization. This leads to a common challenge: when a developer goes on leave or transitions to another project, understanding and maintaining their code can become a daunting task for someone new.

Drawing from my own experience in SAP ABAP development, I’ve frequently encountered difficulties in interpreting legacy code—whether developed internally or for customers. In today’s AI-driven landscape, SAP has taken bold steps to integrate artificial intelligence into its development ecosystem. One such innovation is SAP Joule for Developers (J4D).

Joule is more than just a digital assistant—it’s an AI copilot specifically designed to support ABAP developers. What sets Joule apart is that it’s trained on SAP-specific data and processes, making it deeply contextual. It assists throughout the full-stack ABAP Cloud development lifecycle, offering features like real-time explanations of development objects, intuitive code insights, and instant answers to development-related queries.

Integrated directly into the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, Joule offers context-aware support for open development objects and selected lines of code. It also predicts and generates ABAP code in real-time based on your comments or what you’re typing. Importantly, it respects the language version of your development environment, ensuring that the suggestions align with the appropriate ABAP standards.

With Joule, developers can also generate complete ABAP Cloud development scenarios, including all necessary objects—significantly accelerating development and reducing the onboarding curve for new developers.

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

  What license is required?

. 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.

After purchasing the license:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition -ABAP Environment 
License (8019164) is assigned/activated, please be aware that it may take up to 24h after the process finished until all Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities are fully usable

Setup / Architecture diagram?

Joule is a software component, offered as Software-as-a-Service (managed, updated by SAP)​Joule runs technically on the SAP Business Technology Platform​A central, single “productive” tenant of Joule is recommended​It can be instantiated multiple times, while a subaccount translates to a tenant. E.g. in case customers want to have a sandbox installation, or a separated dedicated Joule​Respective tenants of SAP solutions (SAP SFSF, SAP S/4HANA Cloud) will then be “integrated” with a Joule tenant, manual process (“opt-in”)​The Joule UI (Joule Web Client) appears then embedded within a frame within the connected SAP solution​E.g. in case Joule is already set-up for SFSF the S4HANA system can simply be added to it!​A central Joule tenant requires a “unified Identity and Access Management” (same IAS tenant for all connected SAP solutions)​Current limitation: only 1 S/4HANA (Public/Private) tenant can be connected to a Joule tenant

 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).  Refer to Following blog steps to setup Joule for developers: Joule for Developers with SAP BTP ABAP Environment-Setup Guide – SAP Community                                               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 refer to current S/4 HANA PCE Blog to setup Joule for Developers                     

Help doc: ABAP Development Tools 2502 GA Doc

 Pre-requisite:

Please follow the following process to enable Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities in the development instance(s):

Logon to SAP for Me.Under Dashboards, please choose Services & Support.On the tab Service Requests, choose the New Service Request button.The system displays the New Service Request dialog. Choose the radio button Partner & Other Cloud Services.On the service request home page, choose the Create Service Request button.Search for “Toggle Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities” and then open the service request.Use the service request to toggle the Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities and find the actual toggle status therein.

      Please be aware that it may take up to 24h after the process finished until all Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities are fully usable

        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 S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition:

Goto SAP For Me: me.sap.com

Under that go to System & Provisioning tab:

 Under public cloud systems:

Goto system with development system role and SAP S/4 HANA Cloud service:

click on instance, then click on launch URL:

 Your development system looks like:

Goto Identity and access management:

Maintain Business role:

Add SAP_BR_DEVELOPER Role to your user: To access the ABAP developer functionalities.

Copy the URL from the homepage:

Goto ABAP development tools (Latest version):

Click on create new project, Then Select ABAP Cloud Project:

Paste the URL copied from above:

 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 CDS Test Generation.

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).

​ Introduction:Typically, an SAP ABAP developer spends around two hours analyzing the functional specifications before diving into the actual coding. However, this time can vary significantly depending on the complexity of the requirement and the developer’s level of experience—ranging from a single day to several.Over time, SAP customers have heavily invested in custom development, system enhancements, rigorous testing, and code optimization. This leads to a common challenge: when a developer goes on leave or transitions to another project, understanding and maintaining their code can become a daunting task for someone new.Drawing from my own experience in SAP ABAP development, I’ve frequently encountered difficulties in interpreting legacy code—whether developed internally or for customers. In today’s AI-driven landscape, SAP has taken bold steps to integrate artificial intelligence into its development ecosystem. One such innovation is SAP Joule for Developers (J4D).Joule is more than just a digital assistant—it’s an AI copilot specifically designed to support ABAP developers. What sets Joule apart is that it’s trained on SAP-specific data and processes, making it deeply contextual. It assists throughout the full-stack ABAP Cloud development lifecycle, offering features like real-time explanations of development objects, intuitive code insights, and instant answers to development-related queries.Integrated directly into the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, Joule offers context-aware support for open development objects and selected lines of code. It also predicts and generates ABAP code in real-time based on your comments or what you’re typing. Importantly, it respects the language version of your development environment, ensuring that the suggestions align with the appropriate ABAP standards.With Joule, developers can also generate complete ABAP Cloud development scenarios, including all necessary objects—significantly accelerating development and reducing the onboarding curve for new developers.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   What license is required?. 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.After purchasing the license:SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition -ABAP Environment License (8019164) is assigned/activated, please be aware that it may take up to 24h after the process finished until all Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities are fully usableSetup / Architecture diagram? Joule is a software component, offered as Software-as-a-Service (managed, updated by SAP)​Joule runs technically on the SAP Business Technology Platform​A central, single “productive” tenant of Joule is recommended​It can be instantiated multiple times, while a subaccount translates to a tenant. E.g. in case customers want to have a sandbox installation, or a separated dedicated Joule​Respective tenants of SAP solutions (SAP SFSF, SAP S/4HANA Cloud) will then be “integrated” with a Joule tenant, manual process (“opt-in”)​The Joule UI (Joule Web Client) appears then embedded within a frame within the connected SAP solution​E.g. in case Joule is already set-up for SFSF the S4HANA system can simply be added to it!​A central Joule tenant requires a “unified Identity and Access Management” (same IAS tenant for all connected SAP solutions)​Current limitation: only 1 S/4HANA (Public/Private) tenant can be connected to a Joule tenant 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).  Refer to Following blog steps to setup Joule for developers: Joule for Developers with SAP BTP ABAP Environment-Setup Guide – SAP Community                                               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 refer to current S/4 HANA PCE Blog to setup Joule for Developers                     Help doc: ABAP Development Tools 2502 GA Doc Pre-requisite:Please follow the following process to enable Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities in the development instance(s):Logon to SAP for Me.Under Dashboards, please choose Services & Support.On the tab Service Requests, choose the New Service Request button.The system displays the New Service Request dialog. Choose the radio button Partner & Other Cloud Services.On the service request home page, choose the Create Service Request button.Search for “Toggle Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities” and then open the service request.Use the service request to toggle the Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities and find the actual toggle status therein.      Please be aware that it may take up to 24h after the process finished until all Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities are fully usable        Discovery 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 S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition:Goto SAP For Me: me.sap.comUnder that go to System & Provisioning tab:  Under public cloud systems:Goto system with development system role and SAP S/4 HANA Cloud service: click on instance, then click on launch URL: Your development system looks like:Goto Identity and access management:Maintain Business role:Add SAP_BR_DEVELOPER Role to your user: To access the ABAP developer functionalities.  Copy the URL from the homepage: Goto ABAP development tools (Latest version):Click on create new project, Then Select ABAP Cloud Project:Paste the URL copied from above: 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 CDS Test Generation.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 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 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.htmlJoule For Developers Setup for BTP-Joule for Developers Setup for SAP BTP – SAP CommunityThank you and regards,Yash(AI consultant)SAP AI RIG Team    Read More Technology Blog Posts by SAP articles 

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