Model-driven engineering of SAP core data services - the bigER2CDS modeling tool

Abstract

This paper introduces bigER2CDS, a novel model-driven engineering approach and tool support for SAP Core Data Services (CDS). bigER2CDS addresses the need for a higher abstraction level in CDS development, enabling blended, i.e., textual and graphical modeling of CDS Views through a domain-specific modeling language. Based on web technologies and the Language Server Protocol (LSP), we realized a modeling tool for SAP CDS. Our tool supports the hybrid modeling of CDS and the import of existing SAP CDS view entities for analysis and development support. This model-driven approach aims to enable domain experts to develop CDS views, mitigating the need for extensive programming skills. We report on the development of the ER2CDS domain-specific language (DSL) and the implementation of the corresponding bigER2CDS modeling tool. Finally, bigER2CDS is evaluated in the form of a controlled experiment and a case study with domain experts and CDS developers. The results show a high usability score for our tool and a willingness by domain experts and CDS developers to use it. The tool can be freely downloaded from the VS Code marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=BIGModelingTools.er2cds.