Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 User Guide

1. Product overview

Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 is an Eclipse plugin for SAP ABAP developers. It exposes two products that share the same plugin distribution:

Both products share preferences, AI-provider configuration, the indexed codebase used for context, and the SAP connection.

2. Installation & first launch

2.1 Drop-in installation

1. Copy the plugin JAR you received into your Eclipse dropins/ folder, typically:

   C:\Users\<your-user>\eclipse\java-2025-12\eclipse\dropins\

2. Launch Eclipse with the -clean flag the first time so Eclipse picks up the new bundle:

   eclipse.exe -clean

3. On first launch you will be prompted to accept the End User License Agreement. Read & accept.
4. Open Window → Preferences → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 and configure at least one AI provider (see section 3).

2.2 Verifying the install

1. Window → Show View → Other… → expand "Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8". You should see two views: Orient AXLR8 Chat and Orient ACTV8.
2. The Eclipse main toolbar gains two buttons: AXLR8 and ACTV8.
3. The top menu bar gains ♦ Orient AXLR8 and ✦ Orient ACTV8 menus.
4. Right-click in any editor → "♦ Orient AXLR8" submenu appears with all chat capabilities.

3. Preferences (one-time setup)

Open via Window → Preferences → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8.

3.1 AI Provider

The plugin works with multiple AI providers. You only need to configure one to get started — but configuring two gives you automatic fallback if one is rate-limited or unavailable.

3.2 SAP System Connection

Required for: deploy-to-SAP, ATC checks, transport requests, BAPI discovery, natural-language table queries, ST22 dump fetch.

3.3 Codebase Indexing (RAG)

3.4 TSD & FSD generation quality

3.5 AI Output Validation (opt-in)

When enabled, every AI response is checked against your SAP system and workspace before being shown:

• Do referenced ABAP objects actually exist?
• Do referenced fields exist on those objects?
• Do field types match what the AI claims?
• Does the proposed code syntax-check on SAP?
• Would the proposed change be releasable in the current Transport Request?

Each finding is annotated as verified, inferred, or unverified. Default: OFF — turn on if you want extra safety at the cost of slower responses.

4. Orient AXLR8 Chat (main view)

The chat view is the primary user surface. Open via:

• The AXLR8 button on the Eclipse main toolbar, or
• Window → Show View → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 → Orient AXLR8 Chat, or
• Any of the menu commands (most route through the chat view automatically).

4.1 Layout — top to bottom

Header strip

• Logo + title "♦ Orient AXLR8"
• Brand link "OrientCDS Private Limited"

Mode bar

Conversation panel

Read-only display of the back-and-forth between you and the AI. Right-click to copy selected text.

Prompt input

Multi-line text area at the bottom. Enter sends; Shift + Enter adds a newline.

Context row

Action row

• Send — submits the prompt. Same as pressing Enter.
• Stop — cancels an in-flight AI request.

Status bar

Shows the current state — Ready, Thinking…, Streaming…, error messages, etc. — with a progress bar while the AI is working.

5. Chat capabilities — every mode

The mode dropdown picks which capability the AI runs when you click Send. Each mode is purpose-built for a specific job.

6. Orient ACTV8 (code generator)

ACTV8 takes a Functional Specification Document and produces a complete, deployable ABAP solution. Open via:

• The ACTV8 button on the main toolbar, or
• Window → Show View → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 → Orient ACTV8.

6.1 Layout — top to bottom

Header

Logo + title "♦ ✦ Orient ACTV8", brand link, plus a workflow hint: Generate → Review → Accept → TSD → Deploy.

FSD Upload strip

Transport Request strip

Package strip

Main content area

Split between a top input panel and a bottom plan / code / TSD viewer.

Top — requirement input

Bottom — plan + viewer

Per-artifact controls — refine + accept

Code Preview tab — toolbar

Technical Spec (TSD) tab — toolbar

Status bar

Operation status — Planning…, Generating artifact 3 of 12…, Deploy ready — plus a progress bar during generation.

6.2 The full ACTV8 lifecycle

7. Menus & toolbar

7.1 Main toolbar

Two buttons added by the plugin:

• AXLR8 — opens the chat view.
• ACTV8 — opens the code generator.

7.2 ♦ Orient AXLR8 menu (top menu bar)

• Chat
• Task Planner
• (separator)
• Inline Assist
• Generate Unit Tests
• Generate Documentation
• (separator)
• Analyze Program
• Diagnose & Fix
• Optimize Performance
• Run ATC Check
• Refactor → submenu:
  • Smart Refactor
  • Convert to OO ABAP
  • Convert to RAP
  • Convert to SQLScript
• (separator)
• Analyze ST22 Dump
• (separator)
• SELECT Performance Advisor
• Review Transport Request
• BAPI / FM Discovery
• Query Table (Natural Language)

7.3 ✦ Orient ACTV8 menu

Single entry: Orient ACTV8 — opens the code generator.

8. Keyboard shortcuts

8.1 In-view keystrokes

These work in the chat view itself, regardless of Eclipse keybinding settings:

8.2 Adding your own shortcuts

Eclipse lets you bind any registered command to any key combination:

1. Window → Preferences → General → Keys
2. In the filter, type "Orient AXLR8" to list all the plugin's commands
3. Pick a command (e.g. "Diagnose & Fix")
4. Click in the Binding field, press your desired combo (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+D)
5. Pick a "When" context — typically Editing Text for editor commands, In Windows for global ones
6. Apply

If a chosen combination collides with an existing Eclipse binding (for example Ctrl+Shift+R is bound to "Open Resource" by default), Eclipse will displace that binding for the chosen When context.

9. Editor right-click menu

Right-click in any editor (ABAP source, Java, etc.) — a collapsible "♦ Orient AXLR8" submenu appears with all chat capabilities. The selected text (or full file if nothing is selected) is automatically captured and routed to the chosen capability via the chat view.

Works on both standard text editors and SAP ADT-managed editors.

10. RAG (semantic search)

The plugin indexes your workspace's ABAP source code and uses semantic search to find relevant snippets when you ask the AI a question. This dramatically improves quality on questions that reference code outside the active editor.

10.1 What gets indexed

• All ABAP source files in open Eclipse projects (programs, classes, CDS, Behaviour Definitions, Service Definitions, etc.)
• An optional external folder configured in Preferences — useful for abapGit exports of systems your Eclipse can't see directly

10.2 When indexing happens

10.3 Who uses it

• Chat view — when "Use RAG" is checked, every prompt is enriched with retrieved snippets.
• ACTV8 — automatically uses indexed code when generating, so output can reference your existing patterns.
• Analyze Program — auto-injects context for cross-reference quality.

11. Deploying to SAP

Two deploy paths — both go through a pre-deploy review:

11.1 From the chat view (Diagnose & Fix)

When the AI proposes a multi-artifact root-cause fix, click Apply to SAP on the chat view. A review dialog appears with each artifact classified by risk:

• SAFE — additive change, low chance of breaking dependents
• NEEDS_REVIEW — non-obvious change worth a human eye
• HIGH_RISK — destructive shape detected (e.g. method removed, key field dropped)

You can apply only the safe ones, review per artifact, skip the risky ones, or cancel.

11.2 From ACTV8 (full code-generation lifecycle)

After accepting all artifacts in your generation session, click 🚀 Deploy to SAP (or 🤖 Deploy + AI Fix for the auto-fix-loop variant). The same risk-classification review runs first.

11.3 What gets checked before deploy

• Object-exists probe — verifies that referenced ABAP objects actually exist in SAP before the deploy starts.
• Drift detection — if the SAP source changed since the AI was queried (e.g. a colleague pushed an update), the deploy is held back.
• Destructive-change protection — refuses to drop a key field on a populated table, narrow a CHAR field below the longest existing value, or remove an existing method.
• Structural correctness — a CLASS must have IMPLEMENTATION + ENDMETHOD, a CDS view must have a SELECT clause, etc.
• Syntax check on SAP — runs an ABAP syntax check against the live system before activation.

12. Safe-apply behaviour

When you click Apply to Editor, the plugin checks the AI's response before writing it into your editor. If the response looks malformed — for example contains both an "original" and a "corrected" version stacked together, has diff markers, or duplicates the artifact's top-level definition — the apply is refused and the response is opened as a separate preview file in an ABAPAIFixes/ folder so you can review and apply manually.

This protects you from accidentally overwriting good source with a malformed AI output.

13. Technical Spec Documents (TSD)

Triggered from ACTV8 (the Generate TSD button) or from chat Generate Documentation mode.

13.1 Document structure

The TSD is built from a structured template with the following sections:

1. Document Control
2. Executive Summary
3. Solution Architecture
4. Data Model
5. CDS Data Model
6. Behavior Definitions (RAP)
7. Functional Components
8. Service Exposure
9. Authorization
10. Interface Specifications
11. Performance & HANA Optimization
12. Error Handling & Logging
13. Test Scenarios
14. Transport & Deployment
15. Known Limitations
16. References & Glossary

13.2 Code-review checklist

The generated TSD includes a 22-item code-review checklist across five categories — General, Code Alignment, Performance, Error Handling, and Extended Check & Clean-up — with empty Y / N / NA columns for the human reviewer to fill in.

13.3 Sign-off page

A four-role sign-off page is appended at the end: Functional Team Requestor, Developer, Technical Lead, and SAP Tech Lead. Each row has Role / Name / Signature / Date columns ready for human fill-in.

14. License & activation

Every plugin command runs through a license check before executing.

14.1 First launch

If no valid license is configured, every command pops a "License Required" dialog with two buttons:

• Get Free License — opens a short request form (Name, Company, Designation, Email, Country, Source). Submit it and your license file is delivered by email.
• Close — abort.

14.2 License file

Once you receive your license by email, save the file to disk and set its path in Window → Preferences → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 → License File. There is no hardcoded default path — the field starts empty for you to fill in.

14.3 EULA

On first run, the End User License Agreement appears. Accept once and the version is remembered. If the EULA materially changes in a future release, you'll be re-prompted.

15. Capabilities at a glance

16. Troubleshooting

16.1 "License Required" appears on every click

Either the license file path is wrong or the license has expired. Open Preferences → Orient AXLR8 & ACTV8 and check the License File path. Click "Get Free License" on the dialog if you need a new license.

16.2 SAP probe fails / "403" on every request

Open SAP GUI → /nSMICM → Goto → HTTP Plug-In → HTTP Session Manager. Filter by your SAP user. If you see many sessions, delete them or ask basis to restart ICM. The plugin will pause briefly while sessions clear, then retry.

16.3 Apply to Editor button is greyed out

The AI's response didn't include an extractable code block, or the active editor changed since you sent the prompt. Re-send the prompt, or check the ABAPAIFixes/ folder if the plugin opened a preview file there.

16.4 Eclipse won't pick up the new plugin JAR

Launch Eclipse with -clean the first time after replacing the JAR:

eclipse.exe -clean

16.5 RAG context isn't showing up in responses

Three things to check:

1. The "Use RAG" checkbox in the chat view is on.
2. An embedding provider is configured in Preferences — Voyage AI (cloud) or Ollama (local).
3. Indexing has had time to complete after Eclipse start. Watch the bottom-right Eclipse status area for the indexing job to finish.

16.6 ACTV8 deploy keeps failing on activation

Use 🤖 Deploy + AI Fix instead of 🚀 Deploy to SAP. It will feed activation errors back to the AI and retry up to five times automatically.