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Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner

Getting started with SAP River Rapid Development Environment (RDE) – Part 1

While SAPPHIRE NOW is usually more of a business-focused event there sure were some treats announced for the technical people out there, one of them being the new web-based Rapid Application Development tool with the name: SAP River Rapid Development Environment (or RDE, for short – yes, SAP has a tradition for three-letter acronyms…) Some may consider it to be the successor of the never released AppDesigner (here‘s the background story), others may think of it as the big brother of the existing Web IDE that is part of SAP HANA). Be it as it may…

Yaad Oren has done a great job of setting the stage and providing a high-level overview in his respective blog post The Simple Way to Build and Extend SAPUI5 Applications, so in case you want to get up to speed with RDE first please read his post. Me, I’d rather get right at it and walk you through the first steps to get your hands dirty. Let’s do this…

Setting up RDE

Before you can get started you need to subscribe to RDE and configure the required HTTP destination as documented here: SAP River RDE Developer Guide. However, knowing that developers are not widely known to consult the documentation up front I mentioned it explicitly here. (BTW, you do also need to have a registered developer account on our trial landscape to try out this BETA feature. If you do not have an account yet, please register here – it takes no more than 2 minutes!)

Subscribing to RDE

Before you can actually use RDE you have to subscribe to it. For this purpose go to your trial account dashboard and click on the ‘Subscriptions‘ entry on the left-hand navigation menu. Then, click on ‘New Subscription…‘, which will open a pop-up dialog providing you with two choices (see attached screenshot). Select the top entry ‘rde‘  and then click on ‘Create‘.

/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_subscribe_468640.jpg

Now, you should see an ‘rde‘ entry within the list of your subscriptions. Click on it to get to a detailed view. Now, you should see something similar to the following screenshot. (In case you haven’t guessed – the red square symbol indicates that RDE is not yet properly configured!)

/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_not_ready_468641.jpg

In order to fix this we’ll have to create a so-called HTTP destination that provides RDE with a link to the required SAPUI5 distribution. (Sure, that’s a bit tedious and eventually this won’t be necessary anymore once RDE is maturing out of BETA status.)

Maintaining the UI5 destination

In the left-hand navigation menu is an entry called ‘Destinations‘ (which sounds to be the right location to create the needed destination). Let’s click on this entry and maintain the two required HTTP destinations mentioned in the respective chapter of the getting started guide.

/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_http_destinations_468642.jpg

If we now go back to the ‘Subscriptions‘ menu and our ‘RDE’ subscription respectively (as explained above) we should now see a green circle instead of the previous red square. Hooray! Yes, now it’s the time to click on the RDE link…

/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_ready_468643.jpg

GIT settings

The first thing you should once you launch RDE for the first time is to navigate to the ‘Tools‘ menu and then to select the ‘Git settings‘ sub-menu. This will open a pop-up dialog asking for your git settings. Important: Please enter your email address you used to register for your trial account! For the vast majority this should be the same email address used to register for SCN (aka SDN) back in the days. Your ‘Git User Name‘ is your P- or S-user (or for SAP employees or contractors your I/D/C-user ID).

/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_git_settings_468647.jpg

In the upcoming part 2 of this mini series I’ll explain how-to create a simple UI5-based “Hello World” application and get into details about the GIT versioning system and how-to deploy apps to SAP HANA Cloud Platform. The impatient however should be ready to explore on their own following these tutorials on the SAP HANA Academy YouTube channel.

PS: And just for the record… of course, I’ve been among those that never consulted the documentation during my first encounter with RDE and hence learned all the above the hard way. 😉

References

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      50 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Stephen Johannes
      Stephen Johannes

      Wow a real "modern" development environment delivered by SAP.  Looks very promising.

      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch

      Hi,

      Although everything looks fine (destinations are green / OK) when I start RDE (I'm using Chrome) using the URL in the Subscriptions page, I get an empty page.

      Suggestions?

      D.

      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rich,

      hm... no clue. Are you referring to this link?

      /wp-content/uploads/2014/06/rde_link_469026.jpg

      Should work fine! Can you send me your link and eventually the HTML source code of teh page you get? (Did you check the network traffic? Any clues there?)

      BR,

      matthias

      Author's profile photo Jason Scott
      Jason Scott

      The git stuff is still not working for me (and colleagues). In fact in the instructions above you specify to select the Tools -> GIT menu but then you show the dialog that is from the Tools -> Git Settings menu.

      Above you specify to use our p-number username whereas with other conversations I've had and the online help it says to enter your full name here....

      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jason,

      I feel your pain and appreciate your interest. I'm afraid there's a small bug in regards to the Git functionality. AFAIK, the team is working on a fix already... please stay tuned!

      Best regards,

      matthias

      Author's profile photo Christian Fecht
      Christian Fecht

      Hi Jason,

      the sole purpose of the user name and email is to define your identity for Git. They are used with every commit operation and are actually part of the commit itself to identify the author of the commit. So, it does not really matter what values you provide as long as they identify you and are consistently used by you.

      Kind Regards,

      Christian

      Author's profile photo Silke Arians
      Silke Arians

      Hi Christian,

      as far as we know the email address must be the one you entered as email address for your SCN account. If this is not the case, your commit will be rejected because of Invalid Committer when pushing.

      Best regards

      Silke

      Author's profile photo Margot Wollny
      Margot Wollny

      Hi Jason, The issue with "Deploy on HANA Cloud Platform" was fixed.

      Please just assure that your GIT settings are maintained. We are working on proper user notification if this setting is missing. It might be also that you have to create a new project to ensure a proper deploy - sorry for this inconvenience ... and don't be surprised that the "Deploy" remains active during processing. Do not push more often but be patient till the pop-up vanishes. We are also working on this 🙂 .

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi ,

      Tried Creating a Empty SAP UI5 Mobile project and run it. But getting the following Error ""Error.PNG

      I did not modify any code. Generally we get this error when the application is not deployed in server properly.Request your help. Thanks in Advance.

      Author's profile photo Silke Arians
      Silke Arians

      Hi,

      please ensure that you follow all steps in the Getting Started - from the error it seems that rdetesting is not yet subscribed. In chapter Subscribing to the SAP River RDE you see that also rdetesting needs to be subscribed (please keep that name for the subscription).

      Best regards

      Silke

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Arians,

      Thanks a lot solved the problem after rdetesting is subscribed as per the suggestion.

      Kind Regards,

      LakshmiKishore

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      I wonder how SAP River and SAP River RDE are related. On the first glimpse, they look nearly identical, and of course, they share (almost) the same name. However, SAP River seems to be a backend/OData development tool, while SAP River RDE aims to be a template-based WYSIWYG-/Drag&Drop-UI-editor.

      I did not find any official statement or link between the two tools

      Author's profile photo Trond Stroemme
      Trond Stroemme

      This is something I'm also asking. I see no connection between a (backend) RDL model and the RDE environment, as in being able to build your app on an RDL model and have your entities/services automatically generated.

      In RDE, you can easily create an RDL file (as you can create "any" file type), but it does not seem to "do" much. The entities/actions etc. defined in the RDL model cannot be accessed/viewed in RDE.

      Maybe this is being worked on?

      Regards,

      Trond

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi, I've created a RIVER backend application and now want to create a RIVER RDE application for the front-end. How to connect the RIVER RDE to the backend generated OData services?

      Thanks in advance.

      Kind regards,

      Bart

      Author's profile photo Margot Wollny
      Margot Wollny

      Hi Bart,

      Did you configure a destination connecting through the HANA Cloud Connecto for your back-end? If not, please check the following link:

      Connecting Remote Systems

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks very much for your reply Margot. Indeed I already checked this. Actually I don't connect to an ABAP backend system, but HANA with the RDL application. In the guide these steps are applicable for connection to an ABAP system right?

      In the guide: "You can setup HANA cloud connector and establish a connection to  ABAP backend systems"

      I'll check the next also:

      SAP HANA Cloud Platform

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      I would like to know if it is possible to connect to an on premise HANA system through this is setup. As the document mentions only about establishing a connection to ABAP backend system, I am really confused. Could anyone please clarify this?

      What would be the properties parameters that I need to enter while creating the destinations if this is possible?

      Thanks,

      Ajith Cheruvally

      Author's profile photo Lidor Tal
      Lidor Tal

      Hi Ajith,

      To configure on premise HANA system you need to set the RDEUsage property with value ‘river’

      Lidor

      Author's profile photo Richard Hirsch
      Richard Hirsch

      Hi,

      I already created a discussion thread on this topic but it is unfortunately unanswered.

      D.

      Author's profile photo Yariv Zur
      Yariv Zur

      Hi Matthias,

      Thanks for the blog. The title should probably be something like "Documentation for people who don't read documentation"

      I've seen today that instead of "Tools->GIT" (which doesn't do anything for me) there is an entry "Tools->Git Settings" where I can put the mail.

      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Yariv for pointing that out! You're correct... it's "Git settings" indeed. Updated the post accordingly.

      Author's profile photo Marc Augustin
      Marc Augustin

      Hey Matthias,

      thanks for this, looks really good so far

      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      Blog Post Author
      Author's profile photo Stephan Roßbach
      Stephan Roßbach

      Hi,

      I try to follow this tutorial, but clicking the link to RDE directs my to a funny problem: I get redirected to my local computer, for authentication purposes.

      What am I doing wrong?

      Edit: for a better visualization I added an extract of the request sequence.

      /wp-content/uploads/2014/06/sso_484987.png

      Author's profile photo Gerald Sauerwein
      Gerald Sauerwein

      Hello,

      I still encounter a problem setting up the GIT parameters in RDE. After I have created a HTML5 application in the HCP cockpit I try to clone the repository in RDE (File->Git->Clone repository, I use the Git-URL which is given after the HTML5 project is created). And whatever username/PW combination (SCN user, SCN user + trial suffix) I use the result is always the following error:

      Git Error.jpg

      Any ideas on this ?

      Kind regards,

      Gerald Sauerwein

      Author's profile photo Lidor Tal
      Lidor Tal

      Hi Gerald,

      This message appears when the credentials are wrong.

      The user name and password should be your SCN username and password without any modifications.

      Regards,

      Lidor

      Author's profile photo Gerald Sauerwein
      Gerald Sauerwein

      Hi Lidor,

      thanks for your reply. I already had put the River topic to rest because the environment did not work properly for me. I knew that this error was authorization related and I tried many combinations of uname/password. Today I gave it another try - your proposal (SCN uname and PW) did not work - again. Then I tried my e-mail address as uname and the SCN PW - and that was successful 🙂 I do not want to know how my masterdata record at the SAP ID service looks like...

      Anyhow, only the result counts, thanks again for giving me the push back to the topic !

      Kind Regards,

      Gerald.

      Author's profile photo Stephan Roßbach
      Stephan Roßbach

      I noticed that Version 1.0.2 came around,

      but I still encounter my problem:

      /wp-content/uploads/2014/07/saml_assert_499043.png

      For what reason does the RDE service assume that I'm running an identity provider locally?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Maybe you have changed Local Service Provider settings in your HCP account from Default to another one.

      Author's profile photo Stephan Roßbach
      Stephan Roßbach

      Thanks Roman,

      that was my problem. I'm playing around occasionally with the trial account to check out the newest Betaware, and wasn't aware that I changed the Trust settings months ago.

      Kind regards, Stephan

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Matthias,

      Thanks for your post..

      Does SAP has come up with any guidelines or best practices for source code management of River? I know that GIT has the generic best practices, just wondering may be SAP has come up its own best practices.

      Kind regards,

      Muttanna

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      As we were doing some ramp up activities on RIVER RDE ,we found couple of posts from Matthias which were extremely helpful. In this part only he has given reference for "RDE Developer Guide" where there are sections for version controlling.

      http://marketplace.saphana.com/medias/Getting-Started-with-River-RDE-Beta?context=bWFzdGVyfHJvb3R8MjE4NDc0NnxhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9wZGZ8aDBkL2g2NS84Nzk4OTgzMDI4NzY2LnBkZnwwYjRjNzljOWFhNGM2M2IxYjNmMTc2ZDUwZWRjOTU0MmU5NTFiZGM4ZDk5OWI0YTg5ODVhMzM5ZDIwMDQ5ZDky

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      I've created destination as you explain. But when I open rde subscription I get "No destination required" in the part of Referenced Destinations

      Captura.JPG

      Why it could be so?

      Best regards

      Irina

      Author's profile photo Margot Wollny
      Margot Wollny

      Hi Irina,

      This is totally fine. There had been some changes in the SAP River RDE set-up, so ui5dist is no longer needed. That's why it's no longer listed there.

      When you click on the Application URL in view area Active Version you should be able to launch SAP River RDE properly.

      Regards, Margot

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Good day,

      Thank you for a very informative article.

      I have followed you instructions but on creating a new project with River my catalogue drop down is empty. My Reference Destination status is also still red.

      Any suggestions.

      Thanks,

      Daniel

      Author's profile photo Stephan Roßbach
      Stephan Roßbach

      Hi,

      after letting my RDE session expire in Chrome , I now get this curious error:

      /wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cache_buster_538068.png

      Can anyone give me a hint on this?

      Thanks, Stephan

      Author's profile photo Matthias Schmalz
      Matthias Schmalz

      Hi Stephan,

      yesterday we had some technical issues here, but now it is working again.

      Best regards

      Matthias

      Author's profile photo Shyam Sunder
      Shyam Sunder

      Hello Team,

      I have created an extension project in the River RDE internal account and trying to deploy it back to our ABAP UI5 Repository. It throws authorization error for 'Create/Deploy' (Attached is the below snapshot for your reference). Though e tried providing SAP_ALL (for time-being) for the user in R/3 system, it is of no use. Is there a bug while deploying back to UI repository? as Deploying to SAP HANA Cloud works perfectly fine.

      Error_Deploy_MG1.jpg

      Kindly helps us to resolve this error.

      Regrads,

      Shyam Sunder

      Author's profile photo Matthias Schmalz
      Matthias Schmalz

      Hello Shyam,

      the password for logging on to the ABAP system is not necessarily your SAP_ALL pasword. Have you verified it against the ABAP system directly?

      Please open the Chrome developer tools (F12) and retry the upload. Then check the network trace for the failed request and give me the response data.

      Best regards

      Matthias

      Author's profile photo Shyam Sunder
      Shyam Sunder

      Hi Matthias,

      Thank you for your quick help.

      In the meanwhile we detected that RFC authorizations were missing for the user and the deployment functionality is now woring fine.

      Many Thanks.

      Regards,

      Shyam Sunder

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Team,

      I have by mistake press the unsubscribe button for "rde"  into the SAP HANA cloud platform "Subscription" tab. So now i can not able to see any entry for "rde" when i click on "New Subscription".

      Kindly let me know how i can get this back into my HANA cloud trial version.

      Many Thanks,

      Mithun

      Author's profile photo Matthias Schmalz
      Matthias Schmalz

      Hi Mithun,

      due to the renaming to SAP Web IDE the old application name rde has been deprecated and you are no longer able to subscribe to it.

      The new name is webide from provider account sapwebide. This application is meanwhile subscribed to your account automatically.

      Best regards

      Matthias

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Matthias,

      now i can able to enter into the webide....

      Thanks a lot for you helpful reply......

      Regards,

      Mithun

      Author's profile photo Priya Jha
      Priya Jha

      Push code in RDE

      Hi All, Can any one please tell me the steps to push my code using RDE.

      Thanks & Regards,

      Priya

      Author's profile photo raghavendra nookala
      raghavendra nookala

      Hi Matthias,

      I had a problem to consume the gwaas services in sap ui5 applications

      Denise Nepraunig has suggested you for this problem.


      below is the url for my post


      Re: How to consume gaas(HCI OData Provisioning)  services in Web IDE

      please help out to solve this.



      Regards,

      Raghu Nookala

      Author's profile photo Matthias Schmalz
      Matthias Schmalz

      Hi Ragu,

      I am not able to answer this as I have no knowledge about GWAAS. Only the experts can answer. Actually their infrastructure should be able to support app2appSSO but that's a guess.

      Regards Matthias

      Author's profile photo raghavendra nookala
      raghavendra nookala

      Hi Matthias,

           Thanks for response,

                your guess is correct

      Thanks one more time.

      Regards

      Raghu

      Author's profile photo Matthias Steiner
      Matthias Steiner
      Blog Post Author

      Hi raghavendra - truly sorry for not replying earlier, but I've been out on an extended vacation and then all the SCN notifications where at the bottom of my overflowing inbox.

      Fortunately I can see that you have been helped in the meanwhile... kudos to the community & thanks to Vinay.

      Cheers,matthias

      PS: ... and shout-out to Denise for connecting the dots 😉

      Author's profile photo Ramakrishna Koliparthi
      Ramakrishna Koliparthi

      Hi Matthias,

      Subscription.JPGI tried to add subscription, but I am not able to see the application names: rde & rdetesting.

      Author's profile photo Matthias Schmalz
      Matthias Schmalz

      Hi,

      this naming is quite outdated. A year ago RDE has been renamed to SAP Web IDE. You should be able to find this. The testing subscription is no longer needed.

      More information can be found here: SAP Web IDE Developer Guide

      Regards Matthias

      Comments are closed.