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
- 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
- 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.
Hi
Great to hear that tool is moving well along.
Hi,
excellent news!
Many thanks for sharing our tooling strategy and the way forward!
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
The browser tools just keep getting better. Keep up the good work 😀
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.
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
Hi Jeroen,
display mapping queue context as well as productivity improvements during mapping test will be added soon.
Thanks & regards, Andreas
Hi Team,
Good move for this.
Thanks,
Syam
Good news, Thanks for sharing ..
Hello Andreas,
do you plan to implement context menus in the WebUI that list the most relevant functions for a selected object?
Regards, Holger
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
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
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
Hi Andreas,
Is Ecliplse Neon read only after June, or can it still be used to modify and deploy iflows?
Best Regards
Tobias
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
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.
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
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:
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
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.
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
Thank for information, I sent my list like a feedback.
Hi Federico,
please find my responses below.
Thanks & regards,
Andreas
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.
A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
A: We target to deliver GIT integration in Q1 2019.
A: Valid feedback. We target to deliver it, schedule to be concluded.
A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
A: We start to support xslt 3.0 with our 1808 increment. Will reach customer systems by 29-Sep.
A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. You may use our remote API’s to trigger actions from outside the system.
A: Valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
A: Valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
A: Will be addressed via (1).
A: Correct.
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.
A: Please provide more details/context on this.
A: Please provide more details/context on this.
A: Please create support ticket with reproducible example.
A: Correct, you can’t work offline with our WebUI. We have no plans to transform the web app in a progressive app.
A: Please provide more details/context on this.
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.
A: Please provide more details/context on this.
A: Thanks for sharing your opinion.
A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. Still it’s valid feedback. Will consider it downstream but it’s not scheduled yet.
A: Please provide more details/context on this.
A: Multiple selection is supported in our web app. Auto-alignment wasn’t supported in Eclipse neither.
A: Duplicate to (12).
A: Alternative is to access the VM log via our web app.
A: Should be simplified with (3) using e.g. GIT tools.
A: Please provide more details/context on this. We haven’t removed it.
A: We enabled resource copy from other Iflows in the resource view with our 1804 increment (available on customer systems since 09-June)
A: Has nothing to do with our UI technology. Please provide more details/context on this. We don’t get your point.
A: Please use our bread crumbs for the time being. We will enable back button support in Q4 2018.
A: Thanks for the proposal. We have no current plans to do so.
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 :
We resolved it in this way:
1) remove variable
2) add variable with {{ITEM_NAME}}
Same here, it's 100% quickly to develope integration on Eclipse.
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
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
Hi Satish,
meanwhile we delivered the display queue feature. Refer e.g. to this blog.
Thanks and regards, Andreas
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
It's cool that we can get rid of environment set up, however, the performance of working on Web UI is not satisfying...
Hi Rong,
do you mind to share your observations in a support ticket at LOD-HCI-PI for detailed assessment?
Thanks & regards, Andreas
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*
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
I answered you on other part of this thread, I can't find your email.
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.
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
Hi Thomas,
the current granularity is integration package. Please check our documentation and this blog for details.
Thanks & regards, Andreas
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
Hi Thomas,
I confirm your interpretation.
Thanks & regards, Andreas
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
Cheers
Jens
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
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
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