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Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt

SAP Cloud Platform Integration finalizes Web Application for Integration Developers

To define and implement a successful UI strategy for a solution/product/service is a complex challenge. Multiple constraints influence the decision process and evolve over time. The list includes

  • customer expectations
  • architecture best practices
  • company strategy
  • ability to execute

When we started to implement our cloud service years ago we acknowledged the customer expectation to offer a browser based environment for integration content discovery, configuration, modeling and monitoring.

However, to maintain a high feature velocity we adopted as intermediate step a dual approach – Web Application (mainly for discovery and configuration) and Eclipse PlugIns (for modeling and monitoring) in parallel. During this phase we invested steadily on the Web Application also for modeling and configuration.

With our progress in the last months we are close to offer a fully enabled Web Application that supports all use cases for Integration Developers. One of the last remaining features is Integration Flow tracing which will be completed in our next monthly deliveries.

Based on the positive customer feedback on our “WebUI only” approach and our implementation progress made we reduce our development investments in Eclipse PlugIns going forward.

This means in detail

  • we discontinue the “Integration Designer” feature for Eclipse by 06-June-2018 in the context of our Eclipse Oxygen adoption (please use the Web Application instead)
  • we restrict the remaining features in Eclipse and encourage Eclipse usage only for the ADK based adapter development use case

You may continue to use your existing Eclipse Neon installations beyond 06-June, but our future development, maintenance & support would be on our Web Application only.

I recommend you to explore the Web Application capabilities if not done yet.

 

Remarks

  1. We currently don’t have plans to move to SAP Web IDE development platform as
    • our development focus is on the Integration Flow modeling environment
    • we plan to extend our offering in Web Application which supports and improves all use cases for an Integration Developer
  2. The ADK based adapter development use case is defined as “create, implement, unit test and deploy your adapter”. No change for these actions in Eclipse. But consumption of the adapter in an Integration Flow will require Web Application usage in future.

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      Author's profile photo Daniel Graversen
      Daniel Graversen

      Hi

      Great to hear that tool is moving well along.

      Author's profile photo Maximiliano Colman
      Maximiliano Colman

      Hi,

      excellent news!

       

      Author's profile photo Gayathri Narayana
      Gayathri Narayana

      Many thanks for sharing our tooling strategy and the way forward!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Useful Info. Lets wait for

      "One of the last remaining features is Integration Flow tracing which will be completed in our next monthly deliveries".

      thanks

      Author's profile photo Morten Wittrock
      Morten Wittrock

      The browser tools just keep getting better. Keep up the good work 😀

       

      Author's profile photo Olegs Veliks
      Olegs Veliks

      Have been switched from Eclipse to Web UI 6 month ago. It’s very comfortable once you get use to it. I’m still missing info about which xsd/wsdl mapping refers to. And maybe zoom out/zoom in possibility within mapping Editor.

      Author's profile photo J. Jansen
      J. Jansen

      Thank you for the update Andreas. This clarifies the way forward regarding developer tools. I like the updates on Web UI so far as well. Do have some suggestions on priority items for your product backlog though (Hint: something to do with testing graphical mappings and being able to view content of queue context 🙂

       

      Regards,

      Jeroen

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Jeroen,

      display mapping queue context as well as productivity improvements during mapping test will be added soon.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Syambabu Allu
      Syambabu Allu

      Hi Team,

      Good move for this.

      Thanks,

      Syam

       

      Author's profile photo Anshul Walia
      Anshul Walia

      Good news, Thanks for sharing ..

      Author's profile photo Holger Himmelmann
      Holger Himmelmann

      Hello Andreas,

      do you plan to implement context menus in the WebUI that list the most relevant functions for a selected object?

      Regards, Holger

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Holger,

      no - we have no plans to add context menues in WebUI.

      But we do offer already speed-buttons in the designer. In line with your objective we plan to rework our palette and will offer action buttons in Q2 2018.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Eng Swee Yeoh
      Eng Swee Yeoh

      Hi Andreas

       

      Thanks for the update. One question - will the Eclipse plugin update site be also decommissioned post June 2018? I have tonnes of content already developed in Eclipse and it will be useful in the future to still be able to open them up in read-only in Eclipse just for reference.

       

      Regards

      Eng Swee

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Eng Swee,

      yes, you may continue to use our Eclipse Neon PlugIns beyond June 2018 to access your existing content via Eclipse.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Tobias Träger
      Tobias Träger

      Hi Andreas,

      Is Ecliplse Neon read only after June, or can it still be used to modify and deploy iflows?

       

      Best Regards

      Tobias

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Tobias,

      Eclipse Neon can still be used to modify and deploy Iflows. However, “our future development, maintenance & support would be on our Web Application only”.

      Best regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      Good morning Andreas,

       

      Could you give source code of plugin to SAP Community to maintain it compatible with servers?

      Like other not supported products did in past.

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Frederico,

      we won't publish our source code but are happy to listen to your concrete feedback on our Web Application. So far you shared only generic statements.

      Thanks and regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      I'm really trying to figure out how you can said web UI is better than a dedicated client but okay, probably you have your reasons but you asked me to put on this thread all we look meanwhile we are trying to use it:

      1. Copy and paste disappears (losing time on repeatedly operations)
      2. If you create objects and sometimes they appears on design but they can't be clicked / removed, just cancel work and start again (losing time)
      3. No GIT / SVN integration, remove save as version and put automatic save as new version with automatic versioning like build level growing
      4. Undo? where is undo?
      5. Drag and drop is slow to be activate and sometimes doesn't works
      6. No improves for xslt transformation with java function calls, only on message mapping, very uncomfortable with big transformations and debug is very hard on it, we use it only for quick transformation and java functions calls.
      7. Please put  scheduling outside workflow, sometimes we need to schedule a quick run or change it without edit / and save it.
      8. Palette is very uncomfortable, leave parts opens like in Eclipse
      9. Xml editor, xslt editor, json editor are improved in Eclipse, on web ui they are not so useful, syntax checking, formatting, find, replace and diff options are slowly or absents.
      10. Channel template removed, so every connection need to be create from scratch, losing time and create more errors on developing / modifying
      11. If you want to debug, test connections and check running you need 3 windows opened.
      12. Tracing must be improved, you can't resolve data problems on huge run with this interface, same problem on eclipse.
      13. Deploying on draft? Can't find production state.
      14. If you want to revert a single resource can you?
      15. Slow slow and slow, can't work with a 5-10 seconds interface
      16. Can't work offline, try to transform this web app in a progressive app. (copy from Microsoft office 365 way)
      17. Why successfactors connector can't see tenant successfactors environment directly from interface instead put all information again?
      18. Why you didn't improve standard channels connector on eclipse instead to spend a lot of time in an old style web application? Improve stability of plugin, or create a stand alone application like Android Studio (Google Developers are different from us)?
      19. Browser compatibility isn't an issue, how to manage errors from interface if interface doesn't work to send you state of program?
      20. Eclipse isn't best I know, but this web interface isn't ready for develop big workflows for integration very complicated solutions.
      21. Put in this web UI, mock data for light runs (like Boomi do)
      22. Put context menu for quick working on  developing.

      Okay these are some simple issues you asked me, for more info let me try to work more than 1 day on this interface.

       

      Federico Bellizia

       

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      23. Multiple selection  / Align are missing

      24. Tracing for debug very awful, I came back to old bad trace system to resolve a problem

      25. XSL errors need to checked on node Tail Log, no logging available on web interface to help us to resolve.

      26. Duplicate resources very slowly, check diff from different versions is very difficult

      27. Run One remove, I can't understand why

      28. Can't copy from another project resources and items directly.

      29. OData adapter problem with paging not resolved (probably less important)

      30. You can't use back button to come back from internal frames, everytime it return to

      everytime I use webUI interface I will add more issues to this thread.

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Eng Swee Yeoh
      Eng Swee Yeoh

      Hi Federico

       

      Wow, long list! I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who's struggling trying to develop complex custom integrations using WebUI.

       

      The single feature that I miss most currently is the missing integration to GitHub. It makes it very hard to perform any decent development work without a proper version management system.

       

      Anyway, the reality is that the Eclipse boat is long gone, whether we like it or not. The way forward would be to provide as much feedback as possible to SAP so that they can move this Web-based tool forward - the following blog provides some contact information on how you can officially send in your feedback.

      https://blogs.sap.com/2018/08/17/q2.2018-quarterly-webinar-from-cloud-platform-integration-recap/

       

      Regards

      Eng Swee

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      Thank for information, I sent my list like a feedback.

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Federico,

      please find my responses below.

      Thanks & regards,

      Andreas


        1. Copy and paste disappears (losing time on repeatedly operations)
          A: We deliver copy / paste for Integration Flows with our 1808 increment (will reach customer systems by 29-Sep), followed by same for resources, mappings & model steps.
        2. If you create objects and sometimes they appears on design but they can’t be clicked / removed, just cancel work and start again (losing time)
          A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
        3. No GIT / SVN integration, remove save as version and put automatic save as new version with automatic versioning like build level growing
          A: We target to deliver GIT integration in Q1 2019.
        4. Undo? where is undo?
          A: Valid feedback. We target to deliver it, schedule to be concluded.
        5. Drag and drop is slow to be activate and sometimes doesn’t works
          A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
        6. No improves for xslt transformation with java function calls, only on message mapping, very uncomfortable with big transformations and debug is very hard on it, we use it only for quick transformation and java functions calls.
          A: We start to support xslt 3.0 with our 1808 increment. Will reach customer systems by 29-Sep.
        7. Please put scheduling outside workflow, sometimes we need to schedule a quick run or change it without edit / and save it.
          A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. You may use our remote API’s to trigger actions from outside the system.
        8. Palette is very uncomfortable, leave parts opens like in Eclipse
          A: Valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
        9. Xml editor, xslt editor, json editor are improved in Eclipse, on web ui they are not so useful, syntax checking, formatting, find, replace and diff options are slowly or absents.
          A: Valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
        10. Channel template removed, so every connection need to be create from scratch, losing time and create more errors on developing / modifying.
          A: Will be addressed via (1).
        11. If you want to debug, test connections and check running you need 3 windows opened.
          A: Correct.
        12. Tracing must be improved, you can’t resolve data problems on huge run with this interface, same problem on eclipse.
          A: We focus all ongoing tracing improvements in our web app. We run a customer engagement initiative to get more detailed feedback. We would like to involve you in this initiative if ok for you.
        13. Deploying on draft? Can’t find production state.
          A: Please provide more details/context on this.
        14. If you want to revert a single resource can you?
          A: Please provide more details/context on this.
        15. Slow slow and slow, can’t work with a 5-10 seconds interface.
          A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
        16. Can’t work offline, try to transform this web app in a progressive app. (copy from Microsoft office 365 way)
          A: Correct, you can’t work offline with our WebUI. We have no plans to transform the web app in a progressive app.
        17. Why successfactors connector can’t see tenant successfactors environment directly from interface instead put all information again?
          A: Please provide more details/context on this.
        18. Why you didn’t improve standard channels connector on eclipse instead to spend a lot of time in an old style web application? Improve stability of plugin, or create a standalone application like Android Studio (Google Developers are different from us)?
          A: Because majority of our end users are Integration Developers appreciating the simplicity of a web app. Consequently we focus all our efforts on our web app.
        19. Browser compatibility isn’t an issue, how to manage errors from interface if interface doesn’t work to send you state of program?
          A: Please provide more details/context on this.
        20. Eclipse isn’t best I know, but this web interface isn’t ready for develop big workflows for integration very complicated solutions.
          A: Thanks for sharing your opinion.
        21. Put in this web UI, mock data for light runs (like Boomi do).
          A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. Still it’s valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
        22. Put context menu for quick working on developing.
          A: Please provide more details/context on this.
        23. Multiple selection / Align are missing
          A: Multiple selection is supported in our web app. Auto-alignment wasn’t supported in Eclipse neither.
        24. Tracing for debug very awful, I came back to old bad trace system to resolve a problem.
          A: Duplicate to (12).
        25. XSL errors need to checked on node Tail Log, no logging available on web interface to help us to resolve.
          A: Alternative is to access the VM log via our web app.
        26. Duplicate resources very slowly, check diff from different versions is very difficult.
          A: Should be simplified with (3) using e.g. GIT tools.
        27. Run One remove, I can’t understand why.
          A: Please provide more details/context on this. We haven’t removed it.
        28. Can’t copy from another project resources and items directly.
          A: We enabled resource copy from other Iflows in the resource view with our 1804 increment (available on customer systems since 09-June)
        29. OData adapter problem with paging not resolved (probably less important)
          A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. Please provide more details/context on this. We don’t get your point.
        30. You can’t use back button to come back from internal frames, every time it return to
          A: Please use our bread crumbs for the time being. We will enable back button support in Q4 2018.
        31. Create an Mobile APP to monitor runs for tenants you have in your S-USER.
          A: Thanks for the proposal. We have no current plans to do so.
      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      We will continue this thread by mail / call.

      We found another problem on imports Externalized variable.

      parameter.prop disappears and some Write variable on storage give me an error :

      2018 09 10 13:50:15#+00#ERROR#com.sap.esb.monitoring.cxf.connection.monitor.impl.CxfConnectionMonitor##anonymous#AvatarThreadLOW69#na#avrhcin#p0XXXtmn#web##na#na#na#na#Component Monitor: CXF-endpoint-IFLMAP-hcisbp failed. Request to worker node failed com.sap.esb.monitoring.cxf.connection.monitor.impl.CxfConnectionException: Request to https://p0XXX-iflmap.hcisbp.eu1.hana.ondemand.com/cxf/index.html returned 401 Reason: Unauthorized

      We resolved it in this way:

      1) remove variable

      2) add variable with {{ITEM_NAME}}

       

       

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      Same here, it's 100% quickly to develope integration on Eclipse.

       

      Author's profile photo Sathish Venkataraman
      Sathish Venkataraman

      Hi All,

       

      Nice to hear that Web UI is progressing well. Are the mapping features (test mapping, display queue) in SAP Process Orchestration included? That would largely help in developing complex mapping. What about groovy scripting? If these features are there then it will be good otherwise we will need eclipse.

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Sathish,

      test mapping & groovy script creation are supported in our Web Application.You find our full documentation here.

      Display queue was not supported in CPI Integration Designer for Eclipse neither but is in development for our Web Application as we speak.

      Best regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Satish,

      meanwhile we delivered the display queue feature. Refer e.g. to this blog.

      Thanks and regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Guoyang Weng
      Guoyang Weng

      Hello all,

      How do you manage the versioning of the development contents in WebUI in Github?

      Observation: Zip is exported from WebUI not the project file.

      Regards,

      Guoyang

      Author's profile photo Rong Wei
      Rong Wei

      It's cool that we can get rid of environment set up, however, the performance of working on Web UI is not satisfying...

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rong,

      do you mind to share your observations in a support ticket at LOD-HCI-PI for detailed assessment?

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      I'm totaly agree with you, web based tools for developing are die of programmers,

      I can't imagine how much time I will spend on webUI interface, we moved to eclipse after 1-2 month of try and try last 2017.

       

      I hope , very hope they are not trying to follow Boomi experience starting from this WebUi, Boomi is totaly different (architecturaly and stability). (not only interface)

      I really need to understand if is possible to limit update of customer server a last Eclipse Neon version.

      I'm disappointed with SAP Decision.

      We will loose  other plugins, (thrid part) and we will totaly limited from internet-line.

       

      *shocked*

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Frederico,

      thanks for your feedback. Unfortunetely it's very generic. I would like to understand your specific concerns. Would appreciate if you take the necessary time and share them e.g. via mail with me.

      You may continue with Eclipse Neon - but we support the designer in our Web Application only.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Federico Bellizia
      Federico Bellizia

      I answered you on other part of this thread, I can't find your email.

       

      Author's profile photo César Fernández González
      César Fernández González

      Can't explain better my feelings about the SAP Decision. My head exploded when I read about removing the eclipse pluggins.

      Web UI is a nightmare for developing complicated iflows. I really hate developing SCPI projects now, web UI is a huge step back for programmers 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

      I now SAP won't change their minds, but I know all developers feel the same.

      Author's profile photo Thomas Zwerg
      Thomas Zwerg

      ​Hi Andreas,

      I' looking for information regarding new CTS+ transport capabilities.

      I'm wondering whether it is possible to transport only a single artifact and not always the whole package.

      I was not able to find any documentation on the level of granularity according to CTS+ transports for SAP Cloud Platform Integration.

      Do you have any further details on this?

      Thank you

      Best Regards

      Thomas

       

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Thomas,

      the current granularity is integration package. Please check our documentation and this blog for details.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Thomas Zwerg
      Thomas Zwerg

      Hi Andreas,

      thank you for your response.

      I already found that post and read the documentation but still hoped there is the possibility to transport a single artifact and not the whole package.

      For change requests and update scenarios we add a new constrain by using CTS+. We cannot work on multiple Changes/ CRs of different IFlows in parallel as all artifacts would be transported. We can only transport once all changes are done.

      Can you confirm my above interpretation? Or am I missing something here?

       

      Thank you and

      Best Regards

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

       

      Hi Thomas,

      I confirm your interpretation.

      Thanks & regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Jens Schwendemann
      Jens Schwendemann

      Hi Andreas,

       

      are there any news on this topic? I, lately, was under the impression that SAP at least acknowledged that fixing granularity to package level

      • either leads so very small packages down to one iFlow per package effectively killing the package concept
      • or would enforce a "release per package" strategy which will enforce a release strategy upon the customer and making it difficult to apply hotfixes e.g. for a single iFlow

      Cheers

      Jens

      Author's profile photo Andreas Quenstedt
      Andreas Quenstedt
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jens,

      yes - we acknowledge the need to support content transport on Integration Flow level. However, execution of the same is not scheduled yet.

      Thanks and regards, Andreas

      Author's profile photo Jens Schwendemann
      Jens Schwendemann

      Thanks Andreas,

      is there stille such a thing (in the Influence Domain) where one could cast votes to specific improvements requests?

      If so I would happily bribe some of my colleagues and acquaintances with sponsoring ☕ for upvoting

      Author's profile photo Philippe Addor
      Philippe Addor

      Hi Andreas

      After the facts that you published here, how can it be that SAP even in 2020 still talks about the Integration Designer in Eclipse in this newly updated document here?: https://help.sap.com/doc/dd250f2e3c2645a8ae327e935071281e/Cloud/en-US/DevGuide_ManageIntContent_External.pdf

      I’m confused…

      Philippe