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Jul 04, 2012 at 11:21 AM

SAPUI5 vs WDA (or any SAP UI)

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SAPUI5 is relatively new, but already, I see a huge rush towards the new HTML5 enabled technology.

It looks cool, it uses bright colors, you can develop the front-end yourself, it plugs in easily with NW Neo and with Gateway,...

But here's the catch.

Didn't SAP already have a preferred UI technology? Didn't SAP promote WebDynpro for ABAP as the main goto User Interface framework?

When I look at the UI library of SAPUI5, I see a striking resemblance with the WDA element library. There is a big difference in implementation however. In WDA, you would create your components in a declarative approach, whereas in SAPUI5, you code your applications in Javascript (using the MVC principle). Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure @Thomas Jung is keeping a weary eye on the developments around SAPUI5.

I once suggested that the WDA framework should be ported to HTML5 and that it should be possible to create your own UI elements. (I tried once, but the deep deep bowels of the WDA framework are,... difficult to comprehend. It's basically ABAP includes containing Javascript and HTML, but very hard to read, let alone understand.)

On a NW Neo server, it ties in nicely with the Java servlets that allow you to expose data in multiple formats. Handy to expose data as a service, and consume it in your nice looking UI. Could this be yet another kiss of death for WebDynpro Java (Copyright by @Thorsten Franz )

On the other hand, SAPUI5 can also consume services from the ABAP backend via the gateway. It's pretty easy to enable the BOL, or bapi's via gateway (or via generic BSP's, custom REST services, PI,...) and consume them on your SAPUI5 frontend. Could this be the beginning of the end for WDA as well?

Or will both WDA and WDJ evolve to a common front-end implemantation tool-set, based on standardised service layers? (and will the Portal follow?)

Any thoughts?