Create Your First CDS View Entity in ABAP Cloud

If you are developing applications in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud or using the RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP), the very first artifact you will create is usually a CDS View Entity.

CDS View Entities are much more than database views. They represent reusable business entities that can be consumed by RAP Business Objects, Fiori applications, OData Services, Embedded Analytics, APIs, and many other SAP technologies.

Throughout this learning series, we will build a production-style CDS View Entity and gradually enhance it with built-in data types, CAST, CASE expressions, string functions, numeric functions, associations, aggregations, conversion functions, and other advanced features.

Instead of creating unrelated examples for every lesson, we will continuously improve the same CDS View Entity so that you understand how real SAP applications evolve over time.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Create a CDS View Entity using Eclipse ADT.
• Understand why SAP introduced DEFINE VIEW ENTITY.
• Select the correct released Interface View.
• Understand every keyword in a CDS View Entity.
• Activate the CDS successfully.
• Preview data directly from ADT.
• Follow SAP Clean Core development principles.

A CDS View Entity is SAP's strategic data modeling artifact for ABAP Cloud and SAP S/4HANA development.

Unlike a traditional SQL View, a CDS View Entity combines business semantics, relationships, calculations, metadata, annotations, and security within a single reusable repository object.

Once created, the same CDS View Entity can be reused by multiple SAP technologies without duplicating business logic.

Earlier versions of ABAP CDS used the DEFINE VIEW syntax, which generated an additional SQL View in the ABAP Dictionary.

SAP later introduced DEFINE VIEW ENTITY, eliminating the need for generated SQL Views and simplifying the CDS repository model.

Today, SAP recommends using DEFINE VIEW ENTITY for all new developments in SAP S/4HANA and ABAP Cloud.

Before creating your first CDS View Entity, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place.

Consistent naming conventions make RAP applications much easier to understand and maintain. SAP recommends using meaningful prefixes for each CDS artifact.

Throughout this learning series we will use ZI_PRODUCT as our primary CDS View Entity and extend it in future lessons.

One of the biggest changes in ABAP Cloud is that developers should no longer access SAP database tables directly.

Instead, SAP exposes released business objects through Interface CDS Views, identified by the prefix I_*.

In this lesson we will build our CDS View Entity using the released Interface View I_Product.

This object exposes Product Master data and is available in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud for application development.

Eclipse ADT provides a wizard that automatically creates a new CDS Data Definition object.

Follow these steps:

1. Open your development package.
2. Right-click the package.
3. Select New → Repository Object.
4. Select Core Data Services → Data Definition.
5. Enter the object name ZI_PRODUCT.
6. Enter a meaningful description.
7. Select the transport request.
8. Finish the wizard.

ADT creates a new CDS Data Definition with a basic template ready for development.

Replace the generated template with the following CDS definition.

@AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #NOT_REQUIRED
@EndUserText.label: 'Product'

define view entity ZI_PRODUCT
  as select from I_Product
{
  key Product,
      ProductType,
      BaseUnit,
      CreationDate
}

Don't worry if some of these keywords are unfamiliar. In the next section, we'll break down every line of this CDS View Entity and understand exactly what it does.

Although our first CDS View Entity contains only a few lines of code, every statement has a specific purpose. Before creating more advanced CDS artifacts, it's important to understand what each keyword means.

@AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #NOT_REQUIRED
@EndUserText.label: 'Product'

The first two lines are CDS annotations. These annotations provide metadata that SAP tools use during design time and runtime.

define view entity ZI_PRODUCT

SAP recommends DEFINE VIEW ENTITY for all new developments because it removes the dependency on generated SQL Views and aligns with the ABAP Cloud programming model.

as select from I_Product

Every CDS View Entity requires one or more data sources.

In this example, our source is the released SAP Interface View I_Product.

key Product

The KEY keyword identifies the business key of the CDS View Entity.

For our Product Master, every product is uniquely identified by the field Product.

Later, when we build RAP Business Objects, these key fields become the unique identifiers used for reading, updating, and deleting business instances.

After completing the implementation, save the object and activate it using Ctrl + F3.

If no syntax errors exist, the CDS View Entity becomes immediately available for consumption.

Once the CDS View Entity is activated, you can verify the result using the built-in Data Preview available in Eclipse ADT.

1. Right-click the CDS View Entity.
2. Select Open With → Data Preview.
3. Execute the preview.

The actual records displayed depend on the Product Master data available in your SAP system.

Both Open SQL and CDS View Entities can retrieve data from SAP HANA, but they serve different purposes.

Open SQL is intended for program-specific data access, whereas CDS View Entities create reusable business models that can be consumed by multiple SAP technologies.