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Author's profile photo Ole-Andre Haugen

From Mobile First to SAPGUI HTML5 client with Neptune Application Designer 3.0

In the three years our company Neptune Software has existed a lot has happened in the world of HTML5. The prominent design philosophy of the time was “Mobile first” and the first iPad had been released a year before. Steve Jobs had paralyzed Flash and Silverlight for mobile – effectively crowning HTML5 as the de facto standard for RIA frameworks.

For SAP customers HTML5 support for browsers was limited due to the “Sorry, your browser/program is not supported by Web Dynpro!” message. Smartphones and tablets came out as major players in the consumer market and the rapid replacements of new devices assured HTML5 support way ahead of W3C.

So our product strategy of mobile first was a no-brainer at the time and we started out with jQuery Mobile and Phonegap as our first frameworks for the designer at the same time as John Moy wrote his first blogs on the subject. 

Now, three years later, we are releasing our 3.0 version (keeping our promise of a major release a year) with loads of new functionality. Since even the IE browsers of SAP customers are starting to get to an acceptable level of HTML5 support and SAPUI5 has matured to a premium framework for responsive design we are embracing enterprise desktop usage of HTML5 in a big way. 


Njål Stabell will cover the new application management features in another blog so I will focus on two specific features of the 3.0 release – The Neptune GUI Client and our new HTML5 enhanced application designer.


Our idea for using HTML5 in the SAP GUI is actually a few years old, but is was reignited by Maximilian Schaufler when he visited the inside track in Oslo and had some nifty SSO2 setup to prevent additional login and session handling for the user. As opposed to the Nordic countries we found that SAP customers in the DACH region rarely use portal or NWBC and the majority are primarily using the SAPGUI as client for their SAP systems.


Neptune GUI Client

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The Neptune GUI Client is a configurable and customizable client where the menu is dynamically displayed for the end-user based on Roles in the SAP system. The same menu can also be used in Neptune created mobile hybrid apps giving the users the same functionality no matter which device they connect to their SAP system.


In some ways it can be viewed as an NWBC for the SAP GUI. You can add Neptune Applications, URL’s or even SAP Transactions as items in the Neptune Application Management transaction and limit the access by connecting them to policies based on your SAP roles

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We have added branding functionality to the menu, so that the end customer can be aligned with the company’s design guidelines. Let’s face it – end-users are more loyal to their employers than their software vendors. You can easily change colors and logos for the menu.

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Lastly we have added an easy to use translation tool to be aligned with the easy translation of apps in the general application designer

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The enhanced Application Designer

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For a long time we have been looking into adding a proper editor for HTML5, CSS and JavaScript inside the Application Designer and therefore the SAPGUI. Finally it is here and we think it looks great. You can of course change the theme in the settings if the sublime text look is too colorful for your taste.


The editor comes with Syntax check, autocomplete and also a UI5 helper with all properties and events for the SAPUI5 controls.


A big thanks to Mark Teichmann for assisting us with implementing this feature!

Syntax Check

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Autocomplete

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UI5 helper

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JavaScript Snippets

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Neptune created snippets for fast coding

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CSS

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HTML5

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There are tons of more new features in our 3.0 release and you can find some in Njål Stabell ‘s upcoming Application Management blog but you should also check out our release notes for a list of all of them. Hopefully you will get the chance to test out the new features and remember that developer license are free.


We have planned our release date for 3.0 (November 10th) to be aligned with  SAP TechEd & d-code Berlin where we have a booth to show the new features and do some on-the-spot training if you are interested.

Ole-André Haugen

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      7 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Amazing features André !! particularly the embedded editor with auto-completion feature, that will be awesome for sure 🙂 and with the new layout, JS/SAPUI5 coding will be easier and faster than with the previous release.

      Neptune Application Management with role-oriented menus look very promising as well, I'm eagerly waiting next meetings with the Business to get an even bigger "waouhh effect" from them when I'll do demos of NAM when this new version will be released, thanks a lot guys !!

      Best regards.

      PEB

      Author's profile photo Naga Prakash
      Naga Prakash

      I have been following these since 1 year, amazing features are coming in. Kudos to the team and thank you.

      Thanks,

      Naga

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      What a great work again.

      This tool is more and more fantastic and especially for old grey hair developers.

      Each time Neptune add new functionalities it corresponds exactly to what developer and end users was waiting !!!!! Smart innovation is always here !!!

      The gap between server side and client side world is reduced drastically and it is a real pleasure to use it.

      And i want to thanks all Neptune teams for that.

      Reynald.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      As you know I'm a great fan of Neptune and this blog emphasises what I saw at the SBN conference a couple of weeks ago. Another big leap forward in Neptune usability.

      Excellent work:-)

      Thanks

      Gareth

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Based on the teched and this blog. I took a view on your website. This tool looks amazing.

      Is it easy to get started?

      Cheers, Henk

      Author's profile photo Gunnlaugur Th Einarsson
      Gunnlaugur Th Einarsson

      This is great, a huge step forward!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very Nice tool to do the phonegap, javascript and sapui5 programming in one place.

      Excellence work !!!