UI5 unified scaffolding: the journey has begun

[vobu]

Remember when we talked about unified UI5 application scaffolding, an Open Source shared tooling approach of SAP, the dev advocate...?

A value-added scenario, that allows @Sap-generators to be used both in easy-ui5 + in VS Code/BAS-extensions? And vice versa, @Sap-tooling to consume community contributions?

That journey has begun - with v0.1.0, the generator-ui5-project within easy-ui5 uses the @sap-ux/fiori-freestyle-writer to scaffold a new UI5 web app.

$> yo easy-ui5 project
(with XML chosen as view type)
will now produce output similar to…

@Sap-ux/fiori-freestyle-writer is a module from the recently announed open source tooling suite "Open UX tools" by SAP - that also powers the fiori-tools extension in VS Code/BAS. Look up to the picture above…see?!?

While looking at the result (a new UI5 web app that just "works") doesn't seem much, the bigger picture in place here is the outcome of tremendous efforts within SAP to pursue a true Open Source tooling approach. While many (npm) modules from the Fiori tools universe were already available under a SAP developer license (or similar), documentation was scarce and re-use in a joint community environment not easily facilitated. The Open UX tools try to change that: "enable community collaboration to jointly promote and facilitate best in class tooling capabilities". This translates to: developing the dev tools in the open, under a public Apache 2.0 license and in a true Open Source fashion.

Where do we go from here?

There'll be more and more packages dropping in to the Open UX repo. We as the UI5 community should monitor that and see what we can integrate into easy-ui5 - I've heard rumours (...!) about a @Sap-ux generic proxy coming, so that might be the opportunity to tame the manifold "UI5 tooling proxy" beast and consolidate all proxies into a single one.

And in turn, we should talk to the nice Open UX folks (Hello, Tobias! 😊) what community-created scaffolding modules might be useful for them. generator-ui5-ts-app comes to mind here immediatley, e.g. to get a modern development experience also into the VS Code Fiori Tools plugins (which are powered by @Sap-ux/*).

Either way, the "unified UI5 scaffolding tool" path is paved.
Let's all, within SAP and the UI5 community, continue to not only talk the talk, but walk that walk.
Boots out!