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Author's profile photo Fatih Pense

How to Install a VS Code Extension to SAP Business Application Studio

SAP Business Application Studio supports Theia plugins and some VSCode extensions. I have mentioned how to install a Theia plugin here. Basically, there are three options to install a plugin provided by Theia plugin-ext module. In this post, I will document the easiest way to install a VSCode extension.

Prerequisite: You should have the authorization

You should add “Business_Application_Studio_Extension_Deployer” role collection to your account:

Step 1: Obtain the .vsix file

You can download this file from a project’s GitHub releases or from a marketplace.

As Abdel Elghanam mentioned in the comments below best way to download it seems to be https://open-vsx.org/ at the moment.

Step 2: Upload the .vsix file to SAP BAS

Drag the .vsix file from your computer to a directory in SAP Business Application Studio:

The extension is uploading:

Ensure that it is uploaded:

Step 3: Learn the absolute path of the .vsix file

Open up a terminal:

You can run these commands in succession to be sure:

ls
pwd

Note the directory of the file. Prepare and copy the directory to the clipboard in this format:

local-dir:/home/user/projects/

Step 4: Start the deployment

View -> Find Command (or just press F1 or Ctrl+Shift+P)

Search for “deploy” and hit enter:

Paste the directory you have copied and hit enter:

The extension should be installed now!

You can also check the JS console of the browser:

Alternatively you can check the plugins pane (View > Plugins) as Asaf Bruner mentioned in the comments.

What is the easiest way to remove a plugin? Unfortunately, there is no UI option for that yet. You can remove some plugin folders. But since plugins are installed per Dev Space. The easiest way is to create a new Dev Space and move your project.

 

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      Author's profile photo Nabheet Madan
      Nabheet Madan

      Thanks for great post. I was wondering about deployer  & now its clear?

      Author's profile photo Fatih Pense
      Fatih Pense
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you for the feedback Nabheet!

      Basically, there are three options for the deploy command:

      1. Reading plugins from the directory
      2. Using an HTTP URL directly pointing to the plugin file(.vsix or .theia)
      3. Using GitHub releases with a custom scheme

      Theia can't fetch the extension from other marketplaces due to potential licensing issues.

      Another thing to note is that Theia caches plugin installation files under /tmp. If you want to update a plugin you can encounter problems. I would recommend creating a new Dev Space. That is all I know for now. 🙂

      Regards,
      Fatih

       

      Author's profile photo Asaf Bruner
      Asaf Bruner

      Nice post, thanks.

      Also, if you want to make sure that the plugin is installed, you can look for it in the plugins pane (View -> Plugins)

      Author's profile photo Robin Qiu
      Robin Qiu

      Great post, thanks!

       

      I downloaded one plugin from vscode marketplace and tried to install it, but some vscode version issue happened:

      "Activating extension Code Spell Checker failed: The language client requires VS Code version ^1.42.0 but received version 1.41.1."

       

      Do you have any suggestion to upgrade the vscode version?

      Author's profile photo Fatih Pense
      Fatih Pense
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Robin,

      I think SAP manages and updates the Theia version for BAS. Its plugin API may be a few versions behind. I assume there will be similar issues in the future: https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/issues/7243

      I think easiest way is to get an old version of the same extension until BAS is updated. There is a way to get them for VSCode

      Regards,
      Fatih

      Author's profile photo Abdel Elghanam
      Abdel Elghanam

      Hello Fatih Pense ,

       

      GREAT article, i was just about to dive in on how you can do that in Business Application studio, when i came across your PERFECT explanation here.

       

      Quick one: Is there some sort of REPO that you know of that we can search for THEIA supported plugins ?

       

      Cheers Mate,

      Author's profile photo Abdel Elghanam
      Abdel Elghanam

      Hey Fatih Pense ,

       

      Just updating you on what i did, i just opened the gitpod version of THEIA, and browsed through the plugins there ? … and downloaded the XML Tools plugin , so i can format the SAPUI5 XML fies.

       

      https://open-vsx.org/ 

       

      It is working, it’s ALIVe :D.

       

      Cheers Mate,

       

      Author's profile photo Fatih Pense
      Fatih Pense
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Abdel,

      Glad you found the post useful. And thank you for your contribution! open-vsx looks very useful.

      Best,
      Fatih

      Author's profile photo Jagoda Bielawska
      Jagoda Bielawska

      Hello Fatih,

      Thanks for the article. Could you please elaborate on point number 1- obtaining the .vsix file?

      I am still unsure where to search for it.

      I am new to Business Application Studio, sorry if this is something obvious.

      Regards

      Jagoda

      Author's profile photo Fatih Pense
      Fatih Pense
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Jagoda, I think the best way is to use https://open-vsx.org/ as Abdel mentioned above. I will also include this link in the blog post.

      Regards,
      Fatih

      Author's profile photo Jagoda Bielawska
      Jagoda Bielawska

      Hello Fatih,

      Ok, I understand now. Thank you so much! I managed to install my plugin 🙂

      Regards

      Jagoda

      Author's profile photo gobinath palanisamy
      gobinath palanisamy

      Hi I can able see the installed extension but its not showing on left pane