My CDS view self study tutorial - Part 4 how does annotation @OData.publish work

Part1 - how to test odata service generated by CDS view

Part2 - what objects are automatically generate after you activate one CDS view

Part3 - how is view source in Eclipse converted to ABAP view in the backend

Part4 - this blog

In part1 of this tutorial, the old way to create OData service on top of CDS view is introduced.

In SAP Help Generate Service Artifacts From a CDS View a new annotation is described:

@OData.publish: true

Just add this annotation to your CDS view and the odata service is automatically created, no need for you to go to code SEGW any more.

Once activated, the odata service with naming convention "<your CDS view name>_CDS" is available for registration in tcode /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE:

Metadata retrieval test ok:

So the question here is: How does this annotation work? How can we research the service generation process through debugging?

Here below is how I figure it out.

First check what objects have been generated: three additional artifacts are highlighted below.

If I remove the annotation, or change the annotation to @OData.publish: false, and the two are gone:

So it means the annotation @OData.publish: true will trigger table entry insertion for type IWMO, IWSV and CLAS during view activation. Then again I switch on ST05 trace and easily find the ABAP code where the table insertion is done.

Set breakpoint on the code and observe the callstack in the runtime.

The highlighted callstack frames are essential for odata service generation.

Let's have a deep look at stack frame 21:

CL_WB_DDLS_SECOBJ_HNDLR_SINGLE->IF_DDIC_WB_DDLS_SECOBJ_HANDLER~ON_ACTIVATION

It will first identify which objects must be created based on delta state.

For example, if I add @OData.publish: true to an existing CDS view and activate it, the corresponding entry will have flag N ( New ) while other existing annotation has type "U" ( Unchanged ).

Inside this method, if annotation ODATA.PUBLISH is found,

and the annotation value is true, then it is considered that the odata service must be created.

The odata service creation is implemented in CL_SADL_GTK_ODATA_SERVICE_GEN~CREATE_VIA_EXPOSURE below.

Complete callstack: