How much Fiori do ABAP developers need?

Table of contents

• Introduction
• SAP Fiori
• Challenge
• Strategy
• Goal
• Conclusion 

The SAP Learning Roadmap is full of topics and we have already outlined the various roles for the future in our own blog. In this article we will go into the topic of frontend again.

 

Introduction

If we look at the role of the classic ABAP developer, they have carried out all components of the development, regardless of whether this is building the backend logic or designing the UI in the SAP GUI. ALV is still used most frequently, followed by the various controls from SAP GUI development.

However, the role has already changed in recent years and the ABAP developer has not only provided GUI applications but also OData services via SEGW, BOPF or CDS. In some cases, ABAP developers have also developed further in the direction of UI5 and made the first UIs available on a SAP Fiori basis.

 

SAP Fiori

The biggest challenge when learning SAP Fiori is probably not the JavaScript programming language, but rather the UI5 framework. How is an app structured, how does navigation work within the app, how do I set up the UI, which components are there and do I use them in a compliant manner? If we look at the Fiori guidelines, there are many things to consider when it comes to building a Fiori app so that it is close to the SAP standard and not completely freestyle.

That's why a second role quickly emerged alongside the ABAP developer, the SAP Fiori developer. This person is familiar with the UI5 framework and can quickly develop apps that are close to the standard. In most cases, this person can also build the OData service in the backend themselves in order to work independently of the ABAP developer.

 

Challenge

So what is the big challenge? With ABAP Cloud, the ABAP developer loses his front end in development, but is still expected to create and manage complex business objects.

Photo by Mark Fletcher-Brown on Unsplash

 

Strategy

Are we as ABAP developers no longer creating UIs and leaving the development to our Fiori colleagues? How many developers will I need in the future for the back end and how many for the front end? You no longer necessarily have to ask yourself this question. Basically, SAP provides various tools that ABAP developers can use to easily provide Fiori front ends.

Modeling the UI today already begins with the UI annotations when you as a developer set up the projection view for your RAP object. This allows you to design the list, the selection criteria and the object page of the Fiori app before it is actually generated. These UI annotations are required for Fiori Elements. Fiori Elements interprets the annotations and automatically generates an interface for them. This saves you the development of the Fiori Freestyle application and you use the templates that have already been planned by SAP.

Now you will say: "But then I can't customize my UI according to customer requirements!" That's true, but does the button really have to be yellow or pink? Using the pre-planned templates should save a lot of development time. We can present a first prototype with a UI on the same day; during this time the frontend developer's OData may be ready first and the first prototype a few days later. Fiori Elements is primarily intended to save time and standardize templates. You no longer have to worry about where the buttons belong or how the messages are passed on to the UI, Fiori Elements takes care of that for you.

And for the topic of customization, there is the Flexible Programming Model. With this, we can easily adapt Fiori Elements applications with OData v4 and extend them with additional controls without having to resort to freestyle development. The framework gives us various points in the Fiori Elements app that we can extend. The user wants to edit his text with a rich text editor? No problem, the Flexible Programming Model provides handy building blocks that simplify implementation and configuration.

In most cases, you may not want to adapt the UI, but instead want to deploy the app directly. The Tool Bridge can help you with this, and it will continue to be expanded. You will not need a Fiori developer to generate the app and deploy it back into the system.

 

Goal

You can therefore save yourself the question: "How many backend and how many frontend developers will I need in the future?" You need a certain number of ABAP Cloud developers who will take care of development in the future, build business objects with RAP and deploy Fiori Elements applications to the system. In our opinion, the role will grow a little closer together again when it comes to 80-90% of the applications. In some cases, you might need a freestyle application.

Here is a summary of the most important points that you as an ABAP developer should master for frontend development in the future:

• ABAP RESTful Programming Model (RAP)
• OData v4
• Fiori Elements
• Flexible Programming Model

 

Conclusion 

Fiori developers will most likely still be in demand. With RAP and Fiori Elements, ABAP developers will also be able to build frontends again in the future, as they already do for SAP GUI. Fiori Elements is therefore the new SAP GUI for ABAP developers.