Themes for ABAP Development Tools

About

An Eclipse IDE plugin, includes Themes for ABAP Development.

This theme plugin is a good start for ABAP developers who did not do any deep customization to the Eclipse IDE so far.

No Java, just stylesheets, only ABAP is supported. This eliminates high maintenance costs of a theming solution, which might fill the Error log or become incompatible / unsupported easily.

Installation

Help Install New Software…

https://attilaberencsi.github.io/abapthemes/update

Usage

Window Preferences

Included themes:

• Paper Work: designed to relieve your eyes and prevent burnout. An alternative to the built-in full white Light theme. Best for summer and bright conditions
• Dark: this is the override of the built-in Dark theme. Select Dark theme to activate. The blueish-greyish colors were changed to greenish and more darker. Best for winter, nights and cloudy days

Compatibility

• Eclipse 2025-06 and upwards
• Windows
• Only ABAP Repository Objects, other languages or objects are not supported (although might work)
• Successfully tested with Plugins
  • abapGit
  • ABAP Favorites
  • ABAP Cleaner
• Compatibility with other Eclipse Theming solutions: No
• View and Editor Folders colors are overridden by the theme (just in case you know what that means, because You manually set them in the configuration pane ). If this tells You nothing, ignore it.

Limitations

Source Code search is implemented by an Overlay control in Eclipse which is of a calculated fixed color, impossible to adjust it directly with a desired background color using stylesheets. Therefore in all themes a workaround is applied to make it somehow consistent and readable now. Other better looking alternatives might come.

To increase contrast, You can change the editor background as described here.

Outlook

In case You’d like to do more finetuning of the Dark theme, check this out for some tricks and tips: ABAP Developer Tools – the Fine Tuning

Test Results

Following non-source code based Workbench Objects were tested successfully.

Type	Name
AOBJ	Archiving Object
APLO	Application Log Object
AUTH	Authorization Field
ENHS	Enhancement Spot
BADI	BAdI
CDBO	Customer Data Browser Object
CFDF	Custom Field
CHDO	Change Document Object
CHKC	ATC Check Category
CHKO	ATC Check
COTA	Communication Target
DDLV	CDS Variant
DESD	Logical External Schema
DEVC	Package
DOBJ	Data Destruction Object
DOMA	Domain
DSFI	Scalar Function Implementation Reference
DTEL	Data Element
DTF1	Date Function
EEEC	Event Consumption Model
ENQU	Lock Object
EVTB	Event Binding
GSMP	Metric Provider
HTTP	HTTP Service
MSAG	Message Class
NONT	SAP Object Node Type
NROB	Number Range Object
NTTA	Note Type Assignment
NTTY	Note Type
PARA	SET/GET Parameter
PINF	ABAP Package Interface
PRAG	ABAP Pragma
RONT	SAP Object Type
SAJC	Application Job Catalog Entry
SAJT	Application Job Template
SCO1	Communication Scenario
SCO2	Inbound Service
SCO3	Outbound Service
SHLP	Search Help
SIA1	Business Catalog
SIA3	Authorization Object Extension
SIA5	Restriction Field
SIA6	IAM App
SIA7	Business Catalog App Assignment
SIA9	IAM Business Role Template Catalog Assignment
SIAD	Business Role Templ.- Launchpad Space Templ. Assignment
SICF	ICF Endpoint
SKTD	Knowledge Transfer Document
SMBC	Business Configuration Maintenance Object
SOD2	API Package Assignment
SPRV	SOAP Provider Model
SRVB	Service Binding
SUSI	Authorization Default (External)
TTYP	Table Type
UIAD	Launchpad App Descriptor Item
UIPG	Launchpad Page Template
UIST	Launchpad Space Template
VIEW	Dictionary View
WDCA	Web Dynpro Application Configuration
WDCC	Web Dynpro Component Configuration
WDCP	Web Dynpro Chip
WDYA	Web Dynpro Application
WDYN	Web Dynpro Component

Submitting Issues

Many objects were tested successfully, but new type of workbench object may arise or new parts can appear.

To start the investigation please Create the issue with title repository object name and description like this: DTEL – Data Element

Please include the following details

• a SAP standard workbench object name to reproduce the issue
• screenshot about the problem
• eclipse version including build version: Help -> About Eclipse IDE
• windows version and build

You can request theme coverage for your plugin, just submit an issue for enhancement in case your utility looks strange using the plugin.

Known Issues

There are known problems using the built-in eclipse Dark Theme with ADT, what You face without using the plugin anyway.

Please do not open issues about them, I’m neither causing them nor in the position to fix those.

Below You find the list about such issues on Windows 11 (>23H2) / Dark color mode. Frankly neither the ADT nor Eclipse Dev teams can be blamed for that, but rather big respect! Things are really complicated in the background. Some parts coming very far from dll files and windows, SWT, custom plugins which trying to catch up with CSS files. At least from GuitHub issues visited w/o being an e4 or Java expert this was the consequence. Not a playground for children 💯👈.

Just an example on a compuer with nvidia Graphics with latest Win 11 version: colored areas are rendered with light colors in Eclipse/ADT, but when we do a screenshot about the issue, the right color is shown in snipping tool 👻. The same theme and styles on different computer with older windows causes no trouble, just to make things more complicated. The boundaries are far away of this little plugin even to analyze and understand it.

Majority of issues is the same, You see unexpected white highlight / background which makes the text hard or impossible to read in few fields / renders white checkboxes / preview or documentation panes are not adjusted to dark theme. Here is the list of them. A best to simply select those fields or sort the table so that they get highlighted and you can read the content.

API Package – SOD1

ATC Check Variant – CHKV

ATC Exemption – CHKE

Authorization Default Values – SUSH

SIA6 – IAM App
Lol, this is a cloud project !

Business Role Template – SIA8

Lock Object – ENQU

Restriction Type – SIA2

Service Consumption Model – SRVC