You may have noticed that there is a subtle change in the title of my blog series on SAP Fiori tools. Instead of “release”, it is now “update”. SAP Fiori tools follows the cloud strategy to deliver software updates as quickly as possible into the hands of our customers. We release new functionality every two weeks. This blog series gives me the opportunity to summarize and highlight the key capabilities that were added to SAP Fiori tools. This time, I’ll focus on new innovations including troubleshooting more easily, harnessing the power of flexible programming model, supporting TypeScript, and simplifying the development experience (as always).
In my previous post about SAP Fiori tools 2202, I mentioned that you can expect to see the Guided Answers extension by SAP available in the Visual Studio Code marketplace. Guided Answers helps you troubleshoot the problems you encounter during development. The extension is also now available in all dev spaces in SAP Business Application Studio and has more than 24,000 installs from the Visual Studio Code marketplace since its launch in June 2022.
We have also invested heavily in adding troubleshooting tips for SAP Fiori tools and worked on structuring the topics to improve the user experience. I encourage you to try it as the first step the next time you face a problem. To see it in action, use the command “SAP: Open Guided Answers” in either SAP Business Application Studio or Visual Studio Code, and search for “SAP Fiori tools”.
As always, we welcome your feedback on adding more frequently asked questions or problems when it comes to developing SAP Fiori apps.
In her blog, Stefanie Hager talked about how the flexible programming model makes it easy for you to extend SAP Fiori elements OData V4 applications. She talked about how you can make use of extension points, building blocks, and controller extensions to add custom functionality to standard SAP Fiori elements apps. Stefanie also talked about the flexibility in arranging your pages within your app. In the past few months, we have been working tirelessly to deliver tooling support in SAP Fiori tools to make it easy for you to harness the power of the flexible programming model.
To make use of the flexible programming model when you start your development process, choose the new “Custom Page” template in the Application Generator.
The default option of this template creates a flexible programming model enabled app with a custom page. You can use the Page Editor to configure the page. You can also add a standard object page or additional custom page to your application. Alternatively, you can also create a flexible programming model enabled app without any page, and build your own page flow using the Page Map. This enables you to mix and match, leveraging the out-of-the-box functionalities of the standard page, while having the flexibility to add custom coding to meet the requirements for your application. In addition to supporting extension points such as custom page, the Page Editor now also supports creation of the controller extensions giving you even more flexibility in custom coding.
One of the really cool things about the flexible programming model is the building blocks construct. Building blocks are reusable artifacts that are offered in the SAP Fiori elements runtime to further accelerate your development. We have now delivered our first batch of the building block guides in Guided Development: “Adding a chart building block” and “Add a filter bar building block”.
The mission of SAP Fiori tools is to simplify the developer’s experience and boost efficiency. Choosing a suitable programming language is an important decision when starting a new project. I am pleased to announce the support for TypeScript in SAP Fiori tools. As the first step, we have now added TypeScript as a choice for the basic SAPUI5 Application template. You can find it under the “Configure advanced options” in the “Project Attributes” step in the Application Generator. You can expect this to be supported for other templates in the near future as well as support for TypeScript in the Page Editor when you create the controllers for the custom coding.
When deploying an application to an SAP System, a transport request is needed. We recognize that manual entry involves going to the backend to find the correct transport request. This takes time and is also more error prone. SAP Fiori tools now retrieves the transport requests from the backend so you can simply choose the correct transport requests when creating the deployment configuration.
Additionally, we have also added the ability to migrate existing reuse libraries so you can use SAP Fiori tools for further enhancements and modifications. When you are ready, you can now also use SAP Fiori tools to deploy the reuse libraries to an SAP System.
We continue to work on making annotation easier for SAP Fiori elements OData V4 apps. The Page Editor builds on the collection of supported annotation properties. For example, you can now add analytical chart and contact column using the Page Editor. For a comprehensive overview of the support, check out our documentation.
In the coming months, you can expect that we will continue to deliver more capabilities on the focused topics. Work is underway to make building blocks easier to code with LSP capability to support code completion. We are planning to integrate the Guided Answer extension into various part of SAP Fiori tools to help guide you to the correct answer in the extension when you encounter an error in the tools. We also plan to work with stakeholders such as SAP Business Application Studio to meet your need to solve problems end to end. You can also expect that we will continue to add more simplification support in the Page Editor for flexible programming model and annotations.
If you want to try the latest SAP Fiori tools, please join our TechEd session DT181, “Boost Your Productivity in Developing SAP Fiori Apps”.
Troubleshooting made easier
In my previous post about SAP Fiori tools 2202, I mentioned that you can expect to see the Guided Answers extension by SAP available in the Visual Studio Code marketplace. Guided Answers helps you troubleshoot the problems you encounter during development. The extension is also now available in all dev spaces in SAP Business Application Studio and has more than 24,000 installs from the Visual Studio Code marketplace since its launch in June 2022.
We have also invested heavily in adding troubleshooting tips for SAP Fiori tools and worked on structuring the topics to improve the user experience. I encourage you to try it as the first step the next time you face a problem. To see it in action, use the command “SAP: Open Guided Answers” in either SAP Business Application Studio or Visual Studio Code, and search for “SAP Fiori tools”.
The Guided Answers extension helps you troubleshoot your app
As always, we welcome your feedback on adding more frequently asked questions or problems when it comes to developing SAP Fiori apps.
Harnessing the power of flexible programming model
In her blog, Stefanie Hager talked about how the flexible programming model makes it easy for you to extend SAP Fiori elements OData V4 applications. She talked about how you can make use of extension points, building blocks, and controller extensions to add custom functionality to standard SAP Fiori elements apps. Stefanie also talked about the flexibility in arranging your pages within your app. In the past few months, we have been working tirelessly to deliver tooling support in SAP Fiori tools to make it easy for you to harness the power of the flexible programming model.
To make use of the flexible programming model when you start your development process, choose the new “Custom Page” template in the Application Generator.
Create a new flexible programming model enabled app using SAP Fiori tools
The default option of this template creates a flexible programming model enabled app with a custom page. You can use the Page Editor to configure the page. You can also add a standard object page or additional custom page to your application. Alternatively, you can also create a flexible programming model enabled app without any page, and build your own page flow using the Page Map. This enables you to mix and match, leveraging the out-of-the-box functionalities of the standard page, while having the flexibility to add custom coding to meet the requirements for your application. In addition to supporting extension points such as custom page, the Page Editor now also supports creation of the controller extensions giving you even more flexibility in custom coding.
Use Page Map to configure page flow for your app and create controller extensions
One of the really cool things about the flexible programming model is the building blocks construct. Building blocks are reusable artifacts that are offered in the SAP Fiori elements runtime to further accelerate your development. We have now delivered our first batch of the building block guides in Guided Development: “Adding a chart building block” and “Add a filter bar building block”.
SAP Fiori tools guides you to build code snippets for building blocks
Choice of programming language
The mission of SAP Fiori tools is to simplify the developer’s experience and boost efficiency. Choosing a suitable programming language is an important decision when starting a new project. I am pleased to announce the support for TypeScript in SAP Fiori tools. As the first step, we have now added TypeScript as a choice for the basic SAPUI5 Application template. You can find it under the “Configure advanced options” in the “Project Attributes” step in the Application Generator. You can expect this to be supported for other templates in the near future as well as support for TypeScript in the Page Editor when you create the controllers for the custom coding.
More integrated experience
When deploying an application to an SAP System, a transport request is needed. We recognize that manual entry involves going to the backend to find the correct transport request. This takes time and is also more error prone. SAP Fiori tools now retrieves the transport requests from the backend so you can simply choose the correct transport requests when creating the deployment configuration.
Additionally, we have also added the ability to migrate existing reuse libraries so you can use SAP Fiori tools for further enhancements and modifications. When you are ready, you can now also use SAP Fiori tools to deploy the reuse libraries to an SAP System.
Annotation made simpler
We continue to work on making annotation easier for SAP Fiori elements OData V4 apps. The Page Editor builds on the collection of supported annotation properties. For example, you can now add analytical chart and contact column using the Page Editor. For a comprehensive overview of the support, check out our documentation.
Next Steps: we continue to focus on making flexible programming model easier, more integrated experience, and simplifications.
In the coming months, you can expect that we will continue to deliver more capabilities on the focused topics. Work is underway to make building blocks easier to code with LSP capability to support code completion. We are planning to integrate the Guided Answer extension into various part of SAP Fiori tools to help guide you to the correct answer in the extension when you encounter an error in the tools. We also plan to work with stakeholders such as SAP Business Application Studio to meet your need to solve problems end to end. You can also expect that we will continue to add more simplification support in the Page Editor for flexible programming model and annotations.
If you want to try the latest SAP Fiori tools, please join our TechEd session DT181, “Boost Your Productivity in Developing SAP Fiori Apps”.
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