Architecture and Concepts of the Component Build Service

Purpose

The Component Build Service (CBS) is part of the SAP NetWeaver Java Development Infrastructure. The CBS is used in the development scenarios 2+ and 3 for the central build of the source codes.

Integration

The handling for the developer is embedded into the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio. For the build process, the CBS automatically communicates with the Design Time Repository. For further processing, the CBS communicates with the software logistics from Change Management Service and Transport Control System.

Features

The CBS plays a central role in the realization of the concepts of the SAP NetWeaver Java Development Infrastructure. Above all, it uses the concepts of the SAP component model. It offers the following main functions:

·        Build on request

The central build of changes happens in real-time and on request of the developer. Compared to the nightly build, this procedure considerably reduces the time needed for troubleshooting.

·        Central storage of build results and build tools

CBS offers the build results and the environment required for the build (libraries, generators, build scripts needed for compilation) in a central archive pool. These archives can be downloaded from the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio into the local environment of the developers. For different development configurations, the CBS provides the appropriate versions of the archives.

·        Activation concept

There is a distinction between an inactive and an active state of the development objects. To pass changes from the inactive to the active state, you must activate them. A prerequisite for this is the successful central build of the changed development components. Other development components always use the active state of foreign components; thus they cannot be affected by errors in the inactive state. For more information on the distinction between active and inactive states, see “Working with the Development Infrastructure”.

Other important properties of the CBS:

·        Deliberately building the changed and dependent development components (“incremental build”) by using the Component Model.

·        Predefined build procedure determined by the type of the development component. The developer no longer has to create build files manually.

·        Synchronizing archives/assemblies with source code and used archives.

·        Synchronizing the work of development teams in one central build process

·        Connection of the local development processes to a central test environment, which allows testing of how components integrate into the entire application at an early stage

·        Scalability due to multi-threaded build engines and distribution to several server nodes of an SAP J2EE cluster.