What You Need to Know About Developing Fiori Applications

What is SAP Fiori?

SAP Fiori is a user experience solution from SAP that provides a modern, simple user experience for enterprise applications. It is designed to provide users with a consistent, personalized, responsive and simple experience across devices and platforms. The interface solution is designed to be intuitive with an emphasis on a single user action to complete a task. SAP Fiori gives users access to key business applications such as SAP ERP and SAP CRM from any device.

Fiori applications have gained great momentum lately, thanks to their responsive design and customizable nature. Large companies, in particular, are transitioning towards using Fiori together with Hana. But Fiori’s standard applications aren’t exactly one-size-fits-all and many companies’ needs can only be met with customized Fiori applications that need to be developed. It is worth noting, however, that doing so with the standard Fiori development methods may require a great deal of effort, resources and cost. That is why the methods through which Fiori applications are developed in line with a client’s needs must be thoroughly analyzed. In this blog post, I will briefly discuss development methods, their advantages and their disadvantages.

SAP Fiori Concepts and Best Practices

Development Methods

SAP Fiori Elements

SAP Fiori Elements allow making use of standard application features and templates, enabling users to develop Fiori applications in less time and at a lower cost. With this method, the SAPUI5 code is automatically generated in accordance with the defined Metadata and Annotations on CDS. The fact that Odata services are also generated from CDS significantly reduces cost and development time for applications. Fiori Elements also enable features such as saving variants, filtering, grouping and sorting by default. Furthermore, Fiori Elements support mobile devices without the need for additional development. CDS views support Create, Remove, Update, Delete (CRUD) actions through the Business Objects Processing Framework (BOPF); meaning these features are also available with SAP Fiori Elements. This structure allows developing Fiori applications that can generate reports, make analysis, create documents and carry out updates.

Code Structure

Changing Headings

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Adding a Search Filter

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For a more detailed overview of SAP Fiori, check out one of our previous blog posts titled The Evolution of Fiori.

SAPUI5

SAPUI5 allows developing quite flexible Fiori applications and designs. Users looking for different designs and specialized solutions can look into SAPUI5's extensive library.

Code Structure

Filtering

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Sorting and Grouping

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Advantages and Disadvantages

For more information on SAP Fiori and the services we provide, feel free to contact me at cem.bastaci@mdpgroup.com.