Semi-automatic custom code adaptation after SAP S/4HANA system conversion

[OlgaDolinskaja]

If you are involved in a SAP HANA system conversion project and take care of the custom code (see also the blog SAP S/4HANA System Conversion – Custom code adaptation process) at a time you will reach the point, where you will need to do functional adaptation for your custom code on your brand new SAP S/4HANA system.

For this purpose, you will run ABAP Test Cockpit with the S4HANA_READINESS check variant on your SAP S/4HANA system and will get a long list of ATC findings which you need to fix.

No doubt, it as a substantial manual effort to look at every ATC finding and adjust your custom code. Besides this, often the most ATC findings are the SAP S/4HANA standard known issues, which could be fixed quickly without dipping into source code analysis, reading SAP Notes for adaptation guidance and so on.

Therefore, in order to minimize your adaptation efforts, we started to offer automatic code adaptations using the Quick Fixes (or Ctrl +1 shortcut) feature of ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse (ADT).

Prerequisites

Client: ABAP Development Tools (ADT) 2.96
Backend: ABAP platform 1809 (AS ABAP 7.53 SP00)

The SAP Note 2436688 - Recommended SAP Notes for using ATC checks "S/4HANA Readiness" must be implemented on your local system.

First Quick Fixes for SAP HANA related issues (SELECT without ORDER BY)

One of the typical functional adaptation use cases during SAP HANA migration is the missing ORDER BY clause in SELECTs before the READ statement. According to the SQL specification, you can not rely on the sort order in SELECT without ORDER BY. This can lead to unexpected behavior when the database is changed (for example to SAP HANA) because the results return in a different order without ORDER BY.

When you check your ABAP code containing such issues with ABAP Test Cockpit in ABAP Development Tools (ADT), you will most probably get a long list of ATC findings in your ATC Problems View at READ.. BINARY SEARCH statements, which were caused by the missing ORDER BY clauses in the previous SELECTs.

 💡 TIP: How to display ATC findings directly in the editor

Go to the top menu Window->Preferences in your Eclipse IDE and under General->Editors->Text Editors choose the following:

After ATC run your ATC findings will be displayed directly in the editor:

If you delete the ATC finding in the Problems View, the finding marker will vanish in the source code.

Now you can correct such issues automatically via ADT Quick Fixes.

 💡 Note: ATC findings that can be fixed with a Quick Fix are displayed with a light bulb icon  

There are two possibilities for applying Quick Fixes.

You can select an ATC finding and choose Quick Fix (or Ctrl + 1 shortcut) in the context menu:


Then select the displayed Quick Fix in the popup and press Finish button:



Recommendation: If there is more than one Quick Fix available for an ATC finding, we recommend to select the first Quick Fix displayed.

Alternatively, you can jump to the affected source code line by double clicking the corresponding ATC finding and choose Quick Fix in the context menu (or Ctrl + 1 shortcut). Double-click the Quick Fix in the popup to apply it to the affected source code line.


That’s it. You can save and activate your source code and rerun ATC.

Further Quick Fixes

Further Quick Fixes for the most prominent SAP S/4HANA simplification use cases which are suitable for automatic adaptations are available with the SAP Note 2738251. These Quick Fixes are applicable for most accesses to database tables VBFA, VBUK, VBUP, KONV, BSEG and usage of VBTYPE data elements in source code. With the SAP Note 2364938  also the QuickFix for some MATNR related findings is available.

NOTE: It depends on the finding in the custom code whether a quick fix can be offered or not.

Here is the overview of the ATC checks and corresponding simplification items, for which the Quick Fixes are currently available:

Check	Simplification Item	Referenced Object
S/4HANA: Field length extensions Checks report the following:	2215852 - Material Number Field Length Extension: Code Adaptations Prerequisite: the material number field length extension is not used in SAP S/4HANA. 2610650 - Amount Field Length Extension: Code Adaptations.  Prerequisite: the amount field length extension is not used in SAP S/4HANA. NOTE: There are currently no quick fixes to adapt calls to function modules or BAPIs which are reported by the check "S/4HANA: Search usages of simplified objects".	for example MATNR
S/4HANA: Search for database operations	2198647 - S/4 HANA: Data Model Changes in SD	VBFA, VBUK, VBUP, VBTYP
	2220005 - S/4 HANA: Data Model Changes in Pricing and Condition Technique	KONV
	2431747 - General Ledger: Incompatible changes in S/4HANA compared to classic ERP releases	BSEG
	2768887 - S4TWL - SD Billing Document Draft	VBFK, VBFP
S/4HANA: Search for usages of simplified objects	2198647 - S/4 HANA: Data Model Changes in SD	VBTYP
S/4HANA: Search for S/4 related syntax errors		VBTYP
Search problematic statements for result of SELECT/OPEN CURSOR without ORDER BY	1912445 - ABAP custom code migration for SAP HANA
S/4HANA: Search for database operations, simplified database tables VBRK and VBRP	2879257 - Reducing findings for VBRK and VBRP in 'S/4HANA: Search for database operations'	VBRK, VBRP

More information can be found in the SAP Note 2866977 "Quick Fixes for SAP S/4HANA custom code checks".

Mass-enabled Quick Fixes

Beyond this the mass-enabled Quick Fixes are now available with ABAP Development Tools 3.0 and ABAP Platform 1809 FPS01, which make it possible to adapt full packages or software components in one shot and in this way drastically reduce your custom code adaptation efforts. You can also get mass-enabled Quick Fixes on SAP S/4HANA 1809 FPS00 by applying the SAP Note 2695592.

To apply mass-enabled Quick Fixes you first either need to execute an ATC run over your code to get a list of ATC findings in the ATC Problems View or if you already have a local ATC result you can take it over from the ATC Result Browser to the ATC Problems View:

After that just select multiple ATC findings in your ATC result and use the context menu Recommended Quick Fixes…:


The wizard with recommended Quick Fixes for your selected ATC findings starts:


If you press Finish button, you apply the Quick Fixes for all your selected ATC findings, for which the Quick Fixes are available, at one shot.

Comments for "old source code" in Quick Fixes 

While applying a Quick Fix now it is possible to add comments to the refactored code containing the "old source code". For more details see the blog Comments for the ADT Quick Fixes.

[matt]

“Relying on the implicit sort order of the database vendor leads to functional incorrectness when you switch the database e.g. to SAP HANA.”

This is not a HANA specific behaviour.

As I’ve often had to point out on questions on the ABAP tag “my data isn’t being returned in the correct ord”, while observed behaviour might initially mislead you, there is no implicit sort order on relational databases. The order in which you get records back is simply undefined – whether you’re using Oracle, HANA or whatever.

[matt]

I would like to suggest an improvement for this quick fix. You see, about 20 years ago, HASHED and SORTED tables were introduced into the ABAP language. Since then, BINARY SEARCH is rarely (if ever) required. Sadly, many programmers are firmly stuck in the last millenium and don't use these "new" constructs.

It would be nice if your quick fix, or the ATC finding, pointed out that better results might be obtained by simply defining the table as HASHED or SORTED. Of course, you are fixing a programmatic issue in a quick way, but the danger is that you're applying a bandaid to a gaping wound...

 

[ThFiedler]

Hi Matthew,

thanks for the Feedback.

You can be sure that the Quick fix described in the blog is only the start of our roadmap. Besides the fixes for functional correctness after S/4HANA conversion we also have Quick fixes for security, performance and other code quality aspects in mind. And we also keep an eye on the modern ABAP and how we can get rid of the old ABAP stuff by using Quick fixes.

I'm sure this blog will help to collect proposals from you ABAPers.

 

Regards,

Thomas.

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Matthew,

it is indeed so, that many implementations of SELECTs without ORDER BY relied on the presumable "sort order" in the underlying database. It was the motive of using SELECTs without an explicit sorting clause. The applications were programmed using the "expected" order in the result set returned by such SELECTs, and switching the DB vendor (SAP HANA is only the example) caused functional incorrectness.

I agree with you, that actually DB vendors don't sort data in tables, they rather implement the way, how the data is fetched by SELECTs on their DBMS, and it can vary from DB vendor to DB vendor.

I changed the text in the blog so it will become more clear.

Regards,

Olga.

[former_member208609]

Hi colleagues,

I understand from the prerequisites the quick fixes can only be used once the conversion occured (ie backend is  SAP S/4HANA 1809)  although, if I am not wrong, these are the fixes which could be done on ERP as a pre-project activity.

If I am right on both statement above, do you foresee a possibility to have those nice tools available  with ERP as a backend so that code can be corrected before the SAP S/4HANA project starts?

Best regards

Renaud

[Deepti]

Hi Olga,

It's a helpful feature for developers, hope to see such features, not only for conversion but for regular development of codes and looking forward to see more features in it.

Regards,

Deepti

[matt]

"Switching the DB vendor (SAP HANA is only the example) caused functional incorrectness."

It's not really a question of vendor implementation - it's a feature of relational databases by design. A programmer who relies on a mythical database sort order has written a broken program.

Generally, records remain in the order they're added. This is particularly visible with internal number ranges. However, a database reorgansiation can completely muck that up - especially if there have been deletions and insertions.

So - here's a reason to switch databases every so often -> you're more likely to see that the sort order is illusory when you migrate data. I'll mention it to my CIO! 😄

[rajeev_jain5]

Hi Olga,

This information is very helpful.I tried to do the same in my system but I am not getting the ATC check option in eclipse. Currently I am using the eclipse IDE version.

Can you please guide me which version of the eclipse we can use so that we can get the ATC check option along with this quick fix option ?.

Thanks and Regards,

Rajeev

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Rajeev,

see "Prerequisites" chapter of this blog.

Regards,

Olga.

[santosh_patil6]

Hi Olga,

Any update on the timeline for release of next set of quick fixes?

Regards,

Santosh

 

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Santosh,

see the updated "What's New" section of the blog.

regards,

Olga.

[freilinger]

Hi olga.dolinskaja ,

thanks for providing the information about the QuickFixes, which is a very nice way how to deal with the custom code from my point of view.

Some of the fixes are realated to a conversion to S/4HANA, and some are related to the conversion to SAP HANA (like e.g. the sort order problem). Is it planned, that the QuickFixes considering SAP HANA are also provided for older releases, like NetWeaver 7.40 or 7.50?

(This would be very suitable for customers, who want to "just" migrate to the HANA database today, before moving to S/4HANA maybe in 2 or 3 years.)

Best regards,

Sebastian

 

 

 

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Sebastian,

no, there are no plans to downport QuickFixes to lower NetWeaver releases.

Regards,

Olga.

 

[freilinger]

Hi Olga,

thanks for the quick answer.

Best regards,

Sebastian

[former_member517243]

Hi,

Very informative and useful blog. I tried this option in 1809 FPS001, after adding notes system started bringing S4H related quick fixes as well. I have a question, I didnt complete remediation but lead till recommendations, will there be somekind of comments added to remediated code? Will there be a dashboard once we are done with quickfixing in mass for reporting? If not is there a way to identify which all objects are remediated by quickfix(not from transport request point of view).

Information on ATC problem view is very feeble. From eclipse if we want to run on all custom packages, how can we do it? Should we ran ATC from GUI, then will result set be available from Eclipse for doing a mass Quick Fix?

Regards

Mohinder

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Mohinder,

thank you for trying out the Quick Fixes and providing feedback.

Regarding adding the comments to remediated code: such functionality in already in our development backlog.

Regarding the dashboard for Quick Fixes and which objects are remediated: you get the preview and dashboard on Quick Fixes using the SAP Fiori App Custom Code Migration and by grouping the ATC findings by Quick Fix filter in the App.

From ADT in Eclipse you can run ATC on several custom packages and then apply the Quick Fixes to the ATC findings in the ATC Problems View. We will also provide the central ATC check run result of the system in ADT, so that you will be able to execute mass Quick Fixes for this ATC result. This feature is also already in our development backlog.

Best regards,

Olga.

[Masoom]

Hi Olga,

Thanks to the brand new article,

I have one doubt, sometimes we write code:

"read table <itab>.... with key fieldx = val1 fieldy = val2 binary search"

where fieldx and fieldy is possible be non-primarykey fields for some scenarios

If table <itab> is not sorted before this read statement, then how the "Quick Fixes" will work in this case?

As I can see in the screenshot below(copied from your article above):

"Table is sorted by the primary key",  while in my code I am using non-primary key fields.



 

Is there any limitation for quick fixes?

 

 

 

 

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Masoom,

actually the ORDER BY... Quick Fix gets applied to the previous SELECT (or OPEN CURSOR) statement (from database table into internal table), before READ statement. So I don't see any limitations here.

Best regards,

Olga.

[gerardo_martingozalo]

Hello Olga,

 

Is it possible doing mass quick fixes in ATC browser viewa without doing a recheck?

 

I mean, only quick fixes are possible in ATC problem view, so we need to do a recheck of all inspections we did in backend ATC central system

 

Thanks and regards.

Gerardo.

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Gerardo,

it is currently not possible to apply quick fixes to ATC central check run result, since ATC central check run result isn't yet available in ADT in Eclipse. But this functionality will come this year.

Regards,

Olga,

[former_member517243]

Hi Olga,

Wanted to understand on patterns on which Quick fixes for S4 and SOH remediations are applied. In recent document of Custom Code Migration Guide FPS02, available fixes mentioned at 4.3.3.1 talks about reference object, this information is good. However, Is there any document which can enlist list type of pattern for each reference object. Eg. A query on BSEG can have a multiple scenarios, will Quick fix applies API for each one of them or a selected few and how its been decided which one should be remediated or a pseudo comment to be used?

 

Thanks in advance.

Regards

Mohinder Singh Chouhan

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Mohinder,

no, there is no such document. But if you try to apply Quick Fixes, you will see in the Quick Fix wizard two compare editors: the source “before” Quick Fix and “after”. You will see the suggested implementation pattern there. You don’t need to apply Quick Fixes, you can just take a look at the patterns.

Regards,

Olga.

[arifuddin_syed]

Hi Olga,

Applied SAP Note 2364938  for the QuickFix for MATNR but unfortunately, the QuickFix option in ADT does not automatically fix the code rather gives an option as "Append pseudo comment '#EC CI_FLDEXT_OK[0002215424]". Please advise on how to automatically fix "MATNR Field Length Extension" See below sample code.

data: lv_matnr type char18,

wa type mara.

select single * from mara into wa where matnr like 'A%'.

lv_matnr = wa-matnr.

write: lv_matnr.

Appreciate your prompt response on this matter.

[schneidermic0]

Hi Arifuddin,

Did you also apply SAP Note "2738251 - Quick Fixes for the S/4HANA Custom Code Checks" (Attention Consider the manual pre and post implementation steps of all dependent notes)? This SAP Note provides the infrastructure for quick fixes related to S/4HANA custom code checks.

Furthermore, most quick fixes only apply if you don't use the long material number (i.e., you keep your material number length <= 18). In order to run the checks for a specific material number length, you can copy the check variant S4HANA_READINESS and specify your desired length of the material number for the check "S/4HANA: Field length extension" in transaction SCI.

I hope this information helps.

Michael

 

[former_member82852]

Hi Olga ,

We have latest ADT 3.4.1 and S/4 Hana 1809 FSP 02 on NW 7.53. I am trying to apply multi-Quick fixes from ATC Problems view in ADT but can't see the option for "Recommended Quick Fixes. Checked the SAP note 2695592 for multi-quick fixes but seems proc status is "Not Relevant" and implementation state is "cannot be implemented. Checked all the objects in the note "Transformations" and they all exist in the system.

Could you please let me know what we might be missing here to get this functionality working?

 

-thanks & regards

Baajeerao Dabhade

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Baajeerao,

are you sure, that you try it correctly? You will get the "Recommended Quick Fixes" proposed in the context menu only if you select some (or all) concrete findings in the ATC Problems View.

Best regards,

Olga.

[former_member82852]

[former_member82852]

[former_member82852]

[former_member82852]

Hi Olga ,

Thanks for quick response.

These are the screen prints of our ADT version , NW&S4 version and also the context menu in ATC problems view where there is no option for "Recommended Quick Fixes" even though I have selected multiple records/findings.

-thanks & regards

Baajeerao Dabhade

 

 

[former_member82852]

Hi Olga ,

Just for additional info the single quick fix does work fine for us as you can see in below screenprint. Problem is the multi-quick fix doesn't work though.

[arifuddin_syed]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your assistance.

As suggested, applied SAP Note 2738251 but unfortunately, the Quick Fix option in ADT does not automatically fix the code for "MATNR fixed length extension" rather again it gives an option as “Append pseudo comment ‘#EC CI_FLDEXT_OK[0002215424]”. Moreover, Quick fix is being applied for the material number length <=18 and the S/4HANA is 1809.

Please advise on how to automatically fix “MATNR Field Length Extension”. Also, does 1909 has the built-in feature for automatic quick fix for MATNR.

Appreciate your prompt response on this matter.

Regards,

Arif

[former_member82852]

Hi Olga ,

Do you have any update on this. We are still not able to use the mass quick fix functionality. The option is not appearing for us on ADT.

-thanks

Baajeerao Dabhade

[robveenman]

I agree with Renaud. S4Hana migration is like swallowing a watermelon. So if we can slice it and eat it in parts we can derisk the migration.
Can someone with knowledge in this area comment on the options or plans for automatic code adaption for ERP?

[ChrisGela]

Hi,

I’m having the same issue. I’ve noticed that that grouping certain items together, I get the option, sometimes not?

working:

Not working:

odd?

Regards,

Chris

[joachimrees1]

I can confirm this behaviour: in AdT ATC Problems-View selection a single line gives the qick-fix option on rightclick; selection more than one line does not!

Eclipse: 2019-12 (4.14.0) and AdT 3.8.4,
Backend: S/4HANA 1909 (initial shipment stack, S4CORE 104 0000; SAP_BASIS 754 0000).

[joachimrees1]

I like the AdT-Quick Fixes in general and it makes sense to have them for ATC-findings as well. The "Append ORDER BY PRIMARY KEY"-example is a very nice one.

But for Field Length Extension Material Number I don't like what is provided:

Like arifuddin.syed mentioned, it just offers to add a pseudo comment, and I don't think that's a good idea.

Would would be right in this case is:

changing

ls_plantext-material = <lfs_change>-matnr.

to

ls_plantext-material_long = <lfs_change>-matnr.

Not sure if a quick-fix could do this, it surly would be nice!

I have read note 2866977 - Quick Fixes for SAP S/4HANA custom code checks, saying "Prerequisites for quick fixes: The material number field length extension is not used in SAP S/4HANA" an michael.schneider  metioned something similar, so I fear this is by design. 😞

Would be nice if we could get Quick Fixes actually fixing things (instead of just hiding them). 😉

best
Joachim

[schneidermic0]

Hi Joachim,

you are right. The pseudo comments are not meant to solve the finding. They shall only be used if you face false positives in the results of S/4HANA custom code checks, and you really want to suppress the finding.

In general, we used the quick fix (aka quick assists) pattern which is common in Eclipse. Not all quick fixes are real fixes (e.g., renaming a variable or a method).

But we agree that it is confusing in the context of the custom code adaptations for SAP S/4HANA. Therefore, we plan to change this behavior in the future and added it to our backlog.

Thank you for your feedback.

Kind regards,
Michael

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Mohinder,

just to let you know: the comments for remediated code are there. See the blog Comments for the ADT Quick Fixes.

Regards,

Olga.

[former_member517243]

Hi Olga, thank you replying. We went live now and system is stable :).  I believe new updates can be used for S4 conversion programs and in an on going program.

One think which quick fix introduced was replacing BSEG table with FAGL* series FMs depending on whether how BSEG was used. 1. Select Single 2. For All entries different FMs but Quick Fix was not replacing BSEG everywhere, which ideally it should and using FAGL* series FM for replacement is also not correct as BSEG and BSEG_ADD( which are used in FM) doesn't store Document type 'U' in it.

Shouldn't a direct replacement of BSEG should be done with ACDOCA?

 

Regards

Mohinder

[rishilal061]

Hi Olga ,

We have ADT tool in place and while doing ATC check using S4HANA_READINESS_1809 check variant we are getting some resulting as shown per screen shot .

So to take it forward we have also implemented 2738251 & 2364938 , after implementing the note  we ran the ADT again using S4HANA_READINESS_1809 check variant and we did not got any ATC finding , screen shot below

 

It would be very helpful if you can help us know what could have gone wrong here .

 

so to verify we again ran ADT again using S4HANA_READINESS_REMOTE check variant and we got some finding which was expected , but when we go ahead for quick fix it always gives us the option to use pseudo comments , screen shot below

 

 

please let us know if we are missing anything for S4HANA_READINESS_1809 or what could gone wrong .

 

please note : we have used same program for above three scenario.

 

Thanks and regards

Rishi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[schneidermic0]

Hi Rishi,

quick fixe cannot be offered for all findings related to VBUK/VBUP or KONV. So maybe this might be the reason here.

Nevertheless, it is strange that you get these differences of findings between check variants S4HANA_READINESS_1809 and S4HANA_READINESS_REMOTE. Would you raise an incident for this so that we can have a look at your system and to clarify the reason?

Thanks and best regards,
Michael

[rishilal061]

Hi Michael ,

Thanks for your reply .

Is there any specific documentation for the quick fixes covered by the tool ?

The reason I am looking for the documentation because

For ex :

I have 2 select statement on KONV

Query 1 : SELECT * FROM konv into TABLE it_konv WHERE KNUMV in s_KNUMV.

for above query I am getting pseudo comments to fix

and

Query 2 : SELECT SINGLE * FROM konv WHERE knumv eq s_knumv
AND kposn eq s_kposn
AND STUNR eq s_stunr
AND ZAEHK eq s_zaehk.

For Query 2 , ADT tool is giving me API method to fix, Also will this API call method will refer to PRCD_ELEMENTS ?

 

If you observe here in query 1 we have “IN” operator in where condition , where as in query 2 we have “EQ” operator .

the concern here is why here ADT tool in not giving fixes for “IN” operator , same for VBUP and VBUK.

 

and sure, I will raise an incident for S4HANA_READINESS_1809.

Also one more thing , what about credit management tables, will those fixes will be offered using ADT ?  As I  could not find any documentation / note for that .

Appreciate  your time .

 

Thanks,

Rishi

[rajsg1202]

Hi Olga,

Is there any way to see the problem statement and recommended quick fixes in the back end system? Where does this information stored?

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Raj,

if you connect you backend system with RFC to the central ATC check system and run S/4HANA readiness checks remotely on it, you will get ATC results there and can navigate to the problematic source code, see also https://blogs.sap.com/2017/02/27/remote-code-analysis-in-atc-for-developers/. But the QuickFixes you get in ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse only on an S/4HANA system (no ERP).

Regards,

Olga.

[rajsg1202]

Hi Olga, Thanks for the reply and this helps me a lot as I was exploring to quick fix options at backend. This is clear that it s not possible.

[former_member497102]

Hi Olga and everyone,

someone know why trying to apply Mass Quick Fixes we get the following message, beyond the object. We try different objects but we always get the same error. MSGV1 MSGV2 is locked against changes error

Error message

Regards,

Magalí

[OlgaDolinskaja]

Hi Magalí,

please open a ticket to SAP if you want to get this investigated.

Regards,

Olga.

[frank_lopez]

Try with SAP Note 2902053 - Downport of quickfix comments/defect correction for quickfixes

This solved that message for me.

[abap_team6]

Hi magal.anglada

When I try to do mass enabled quick fixes, I am also getting the same error. Have you find any solution.

 

Hi Olga,

I have created a ticket for SAP on the same issue.