SAP Fiori and ABAP: How to Build Modern User Interfaces with ABAP

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SAP Fiori is a user interface (UI) technology that provides a consistent and intuitive user experience across different devices and applications. SAP Fiori follows a set of design principles that aim to simplify, personalize, and delight users with a role-based and responsive UI.

ABAP is a programming language for developing applications on SAP systems. ABAP has been evolving over the years to support modern development paradigms such as object-oriented programming, cloud development, and SAP HANA optimization.

In this article, we will explore how SAP Fiori and ABAP can work together to build modern user interfaces with ABAP. 

We will cover the following topics:

  • The ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori
  • The SAP Fiori Tools for ABAP Development
  • The Deployment Options for SAP Fiori Applications in ABAP

The ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori The ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori is the standard development model for creating intrinsically SAP HANA-optimized Fiori applications in SAP S/4HANA1. It supports the development of all types of Fiori applications such as transactional, analytical, search, and planning apps2.

The ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori is based on proven technologies and frameworks such as Core Data Services (CDS), Business Object Processing Framework (BOPF), and SAP Gateway2. It follows a layered architecture that separates the UI logic from the business logic and data access logic.

The main components of the ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori are:

  • CDS Views: CDS views are metadata definitions that describe how data is structured and accessed in an SQL-like syntax. They provide a unified data model that can be consumed by different UI technologies such as OData services or analytical tools.
  • BOPF Objects: BOPF objects are business objects that encapsulate the business logic and behavior of an application. They provide features such as validation, authorization, locking, messaging, state transitions, etc.
  • OData Services: OData services are RESTful web services that expose data and functionality of an application to UI clients. They use CDS views as data sources and BOPF objects as service implementations.

The SAP Fiori Tools for ABAP Development The SAP Fiori Tools are a set of tools that enable developers to create, test, debug, deploy, and extend SAP Fiori applications using various IDEs such as Eclipse or Visual Studio Code3. They include:

  • The UI5 Tooling: The UI5 Tooling is a command-line interface that provides features such as project scaffolding, local testing server, dependency management, code analysis, build tasks etc. It supports both freestyle UI5 projects and managed application projects based on templates.
  • The Application Generator: The Application Generator is a wizard-based tool that helps developers create managed application projects based on predefined templates. It generates all the necessary files and folders according to the selected template type (such as list report or object page).
  • The Extension Generator: The Extension Generator is a wizard-based tool that helps developers extend existing managed application projects by adding new features or modifying existing ones. It generates extension points according to the selected extension type (such as adding new fields or actions).
  • The Annotation Modeler: The Annotation Modeler is a graphical tool that helps developers add or modify annotations in CDS views or OData services. Annotations are metadata elements that provide additional information or instructions to UI clients on how to display or interact with data.
  • The Deployer: The Deployer is a tool that helps developers deploy their UI5 projects to different target platforms such as Cloud Foundry or ABAP server3. It supports both manual deployments via drag-and-drop or automatic deployment via configuration files.

The Deployment Options for SAP Fiori Applications in ABAP There are two main options for deploying SAP Fiori applications in ABAP:

  • Deploying to Cloud Foundry: Cloud Foundry is a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that provides scalable infrastructure and services for running cloud-native applications. Developers can use Cloud Foundry to deploy their UI5 projects using HTML5 repositories or app routers.
  • Deploying to ABAP Server: ABAP server is an on-premise platform that hosts traditional ABAP applications as well as modern cloud-ready applications. Developers can use ABAP server to deploy their UI5 projects using BSP repositories or ICF nodes.

Conclusion In this article, we have learned about how SAP Fiori and ABAP can work together to build modern user interfaces.

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