Host SAPUI5/OpenUI5 bootstrap - Licensing

[GuyF]

Hello All,

We want to start developing SAPUI5/OpenUI5 apps to our customers. Unfortunately, they have older versions of the Fiori Front End Server (FES). At most they have FES 3.0, but some are still on FES 2.0. Upgrading the FES is not feasible at this time.

Due to security considerations, they also cannot use cloud services, so developing on the SAP Cloud Platform is sadly not an option.

We thought about copying the newer versions of the SAPUI5/OpenUI5 bootstrap code and hosting it on-premise. Are there any licensing issues we need to consider?
For example, for SAPUI5, it is my understanding that its license is (among other options) included in the license for the SAP_UI component. However, does that mean that if we have an server with SAP_UI installed, no matter the version, we can use whatever version of the SAPUI5 bootstrap?
For OpenUI5, even though it's open-source, can we copy the code and simply host on-premise, or do we need to get approval from SAP first?

Thank you,
Guy.

[OliverGraeff · Accepted solution]

Hello Guy,

As SAPUI5 is not a separate product, it comes with respective SAP platform stacks like SAP ABAP Platform / SAP NetWeaver, SAP Cloud Platform and others. As long as the SAPUI5 app is running on one of those licensed SAP platforms / stacks, you are covered. Please note that using SAPUI5 via the Akamai-based CDN is included only in a respective license for Cloud products like SAP Cloud Platform. It is not included in on-prem products. See more details in note 2943781.

For OpenUI5 please see the Apache 2.0 license.

Hope thisn helps.

Best regards,
Oliver

[GuyF · Accepted solution]

Hello Oliver,

Thank you for your reply. I just want to verify something, since I didn't fully understand the SAP Note.

The SAPUI5 version available on the SAP NetWeaver systems is (at most) SAPUI5 1.38, which is (or will be very shortly) out of maintenance. My question was whether we can copy the bootstrap from the Akamai-based CDN and host it on-premise, or are we "limited" by the version available on the NetWeaver system.

Thank you,
Guy.

[sergei-u-niq · Accepted solution]

Hello Guy, check the note 2943781 quoted by Oliver - it explains that it is OK (or it is the solution) to use your own CDN from on-premise systems.

[GuyF · Accepted solution]

Hello Sergei,

I understood that we can host the file, but I wanted to know if we can simply copy it from the CDN, or is there a different source for it.

Guy.

[Margot]

Hi Guy,

Reading your follow up questions I wonder what you mean by: "copying the newest ... SAPUI5 bootstrap code and hosting it on-premise".

In principle you cannot copy just one file on premise to be able to use a specific version on premise but you need to install the full UI5 version on your on premise system.

So if you question is, can can just refer in the bootstrap of your UI5 app hosted on an onprem system to a specific SAPUI5 CDN version like this:

<script id="sap-ui-bootstrap"
    type="text/javascript"
    src="https://sapui5.hana.ondemand.com/1.85.0/resources/sap-ui-core.js"
    data-sap-ui-theme="sap_belize"
    data-sap-ui-libs="sap.m">
</script>

The answer is: No, this is not possible (see the note 2943781 Oliver referred to already). You are indeed limited to the version installed on your on-premise system.

What you could do is what Sergei is suggesting - creating your own custom CDN and reference in the bootstrap of your app to this CDN. As mentioned in the note 2943781, the recommendation here is to configure one of your FES systems as source system for your custom CDN. So if one of your onprem systems already have the requested SAPUI5 version, you might consider this one to be used as your central custom CDN.

An alternative could be also OpenUI5 in case your apps do not need any SAPUI5 specific resources (see also the documentation)!!! OpenUI5 can be installed on any web server (the resources can be found on the OpenUI5 Homepage) or bootstrapped from CDN.

Hope this helps,

Margot

[GuyF]

Hi Margot,

Thank you for your answer.

I already know that I cannot refer to the SAPUI5 CDN unless the app is running on the SAP Cloud Platform. What I thought that I could copy the file from https://sapui5.hana.ondemand.com/1.85.0/resources/sap-ui-core.js as the source for the on-premise CDN. However, now I understand that it's not possible.

What we should do (if that is the solution that we would do) in order to setup a CDN is take the relevant runtime version from https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#sapui5. Is that correct?

Guy.

[Margot]

No, as stated on the page the SAPUI5 versions available on the SAP Development Tools page are only allowed to be installed on a personal workstation and not for productive usage. For a productive usage of SAPUI5 you need an official download of SAPUI5 for your specific SAP product.

-Margot

[GuyF]

Thank you Margot.

[TimoStark]

Hi Guy,

I guess you wont really get a guranteed licence advice inside this community.

Still a few remarks..I anyhow understand that you want to build isolated SAPUI5 applications without Fiori Launchpad, correct?

1. Is it maybe an option to simply make a self contained build ( https://sap.github.io/ui5-tooling/pages/CLI/ ) using the new ui5 tooling? This will bundle all relevant scripts from SAPUI5 source code and include it into your application, reducing the dependencies and increasing startup time. At the same time you don't have to host SAPUI5 on your own.
2. If you have to use Fiori-Launchpad, can you simply access a CDN (i understand, that you can't develop on SAP Cloud Platform - but can you maybe retrieve the sources from here?)
3. Regarding OpenUI5: OpenUI5 is licensed under Apache License. I wont give any official adivce here, but generally this license is super open and allows you to do almost anything (have a look on the internet, what apache license allows you to do - you will get a quick answer).

Regards,

Timo

[GuyF]

Hi Timo,

Yes, we want to build a standalone UI5 app without a Fiori launchpad, at least for now.

Regarding the UI5 tooling - I'm not very familiar with it, and I actually thought that you still need to bootstrap it. If the CLI builds a complete app, including the relevant UI5 libraries then this might be a good solution. I'll look into this.

Thank you.