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Author's profile photo Ian Quigley

Saved SAP Systems in VS Code using SAP Fiori tools

Since the initial launch of the SAP Fiori generator, we have been continually improving and enhancing its features to make life easier for our users who create SAP Fiori applications. One area that we have always wanted to improve was supporting saved SAP systems in Visual Studio Code (VS Code).  In this blog post I will detail the updates we have made in SAP Fiori tools over the past year to allow you more easily work with saved SAP Systems in VS Code.

 

Saving your systems in VS Code ensures you can successfully connect to ABAP on-premise and ABAP systems in SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and will then be able to preview your generated application locally and deploy to that system. It also means it’s easy for you to create a new SAP Fiori application using the existing saved system, without having to re-authenticate each time.

 

When the SAP Fiori generator was initially launched, the only way to save a system in VS Code was to launch the generator and create a new SAP System as part of app generation. Once the Fiori project was successfully created, the new SAP system was saved into the secure storage of your operating system (Keychain on MacOS, Credential Manager on Windows). Whilst this worked, there were some limitations:

 

  • What happens if the authentication details for a saved system changed? You could not update an existing saved system; the only solution available to you was to launch the generator again and create another SAP Fiori application with a new Saved System during generation.

 

  • Similarly, deleting an existing saved system was not supported. Users would have to manually delete the saved system from their operating system secure storage, which was less than ideal.

 

Over the past year, we have introduced a new section into the SAP Fiori panel in VS Code called “SAP Systems”. Initially, this section only allowed you to view any saved systems that you had already created. We have since added the ability to create, edit and delete your systems (all the CRUD operations 😊).

The%20new%20SAP%20SYSTEMS%20panel%20in%20VS%20Code%20allows%20you%20manage%20your%20SAP%20system%20connections

The new SAP SYSTEMS panel in VS Code allows you manage your SAP system connections

 

Users can add SAP Systems for ABAP on-premise or ABAP environments in SAP BTP by providing the associated service key. For more information on how to create a service key, please see Create Service Keys Using the Cockpit.

 

As soon as the systems are added, they are available to be used in the SAP Fiori generator. You can, of course, still use the SAP Fiori generator to create a new system if needed.

Adding%20a%20new%20SAP%20System%20in%20VS%20Code

Adding a new SAP System in VS Code

Existing systems can be updated with new credentials or service keys if needed, so you can be sure that as the ABAP system connection changes, or the authentication details expire, you can easily update these in VS Code and continue to preview your SAP Fiori applications in your development environment.

 

Finally, we’ve added the ability for you to test any existing connection and ensure that it validates and returns catalog services as expected. In addition to informing you that the connection worked, we also detail if OData V2 and/or OData V4 services were available on that system.

 

An%20example%20connection%20test%20where%20only%20OData%20V2%20services%20were%20found%20using%20the%20saved%20SAP%20System

An example connection test where only OData V2 services were found using the saved SAP System

 

Conclusion

Hopefully this blog post has given you an insight into how you can use and maintain your saved SAP systems in VS Code.  With the recent updates allowing you to create and test your saved system connections, you no longer need to rely on the SAP Fiori generator as the only way of adding new saved SAP Systems.  You can find more information on saved SAP Systems here in our Help Portal page.

 

What’s Next?

  • Your feedback is important. Please reach out to us if you have any issues using the SAP Fiori generator with your SAP Systems.
  • You can create incidents with SAP Fiori tools using component “CA-UX-IDE”
  • Feel free to contact myself Ian Quigley or Sushant Priyadarshi (send us an email)
  • If you haven’t already signed up, I would also like to invite you to participate in the SAP Fiori elements and SAP Fiori tools Roundtable, where you can share your experiences with the development team and other SAP Fiori development experts.

 

Have new ideas for SAP saved system?

  • As you now can use the SAP saved systems in VSCode as explained above, I am pretty sure you will have new ideas to enhance it and we are listening.
  • An SAP Mentor suggested that Service Manager should utilize the saved SAP Systems. We are already on it.
  • Do you want to generate an SAP Fiori application from saved SAP systems directly? Do you want to know more service details?
  • Please feel free to provide your feedback/ideas in the comments below.

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      8 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Sascha Weidlich
      Sascha Weidlich

      Hi Ian Quigley ,

      nice to see that this Area is actively maintained. Personally im missing the opportunity to store more User/Password Combinations for the same combination of URL+Client.

      It happens that sometimes in the Development Process I need to see the App with different authorizations from the backend. For this Im using a Testuser, thus it would be awesome to store those credentials as well.

      Best regards,

      Sascha

      Author's profile photo Ian Quigley
      Ian Quigley
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sascha Wiegmann

       

      Thanks for the feedback.  You are quite correct, the URL and client are used as the key for the saved system, and you are not currently permitted to have 2 separate authorisations saved for the one system.

       

      As well as generation, we would have to consider preview and deployment of the application, and which authorisation record to use for the system in this case, which may complicate matters.  But it's very valid feedback, let me take it to the team for consideration.

       

      Best regards,

      Ian

       

      Author's profile photo Thorsten Klingbeil
      Thorsten Klingbeil

      Excellent - thx! - this is very helpful! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

      Would be great to have an overview of all available OData-Services (like in BAS) 🤩

      Author's profile photo Florian Henninger
      Florian Henninger

      Nice one. Because you have asked for 😉

      What I'm missing is that I can use those saved connections when performing an update to my metadata-files.

      There I have always to put my user and password manually. So all information is there.

      The system, user, password... do i don't see the option to use those information or is it a gap... if so, please do the effort to reuse it in this specific situation..

       

       

      Author's profile photo Ian Quigley
      Ian Quigley
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the feedback Florian.

       

      I'm assuming you mean updating your metadata by refreshing using the Fiori Service Manager?  In that case, yes it is not ideal that you have to re-authenticate when you already have the system saved.

       

      But stay tuned, we are making changes and improvements to the Service Manager in upcoming releases :).

       

      Best regards,

      Ian

       

      Author's profile photo Jayanta Choudhuri
      Jayanta Choudhuri

      Hi Ian

      You write "Over the past year, we have introduced a new section into the SAP Fiori panel in VS Code called “SAP Systems”. Initially, this section only allowed you to view any saved systems that you had already created. We have since added the ability to create, edit and delete your systems"

      Cant see any Delete Option in Ctrl+Shift+P

      I deleted 2 entries in windows credential manager
      Realized that URL is the unique key used

      But the 2 entities remained i VSCODE apart for blamked user and password
      I had 5 and still have 5

      Also the name of the system seems case sensitive
      Thius "cen" and "CEN" are 2 different systems
      So in VSCODE system name is unique key not URL

      Regards
      Jayanta

      Author's profile photo Ian Quigley
      Ian Quigley
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jayanta,

       

      Many thanks for the feedback, it's always appreciated.  In order to delete an existing SAP saved system, you need to hover over the saved system in the SAP Saved Systems panel, and a trashcan icon should appear.  From there, you can click on the icon to delete it.  But I take your point, it's probably a little difficult to find and we could do better here.  I'll take that feedback.

       

      By deleting the associated entries in the windows credential manager, you were just deleting the authentication details for a saved system, and not the saved system itself.  The recommended way would be to use the trashcan icon as mentioned.

       

      In terms of the key for the saved system, it should be the url + client (for an ABAP onprem system) that determines the unique key.  I've tried to replicate what you mention regarding "cen" and "CEN", and they are both detected as the same system, you shouldn't be able to save them independently.  Is it possible that you could provide some sample screenshots of the issue?

       

      Best regards,

      Ian

       

      Author's profile photo Jayanta Choudhuri
      Jayanta Choudhuri

      Thanks!!

      I hovered a lot but saw no trashcan anywhere

      As you can see cen and CEN are both there

      Kindly consider a ❌ icon in each row for easy delete spotting

      ___________________________________________________________

      Some debugging led me to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.fioritools\systems.json

      Getting rid of cen & CEN and keeeping CENTOS was a breeze

      OdataV4 was my misadventure - But a learning opportunity
      Please see
      https://blogs.sap.com/2020/10/12/odata-v4-service-catalog/comment-page-1/#comment-673433

      Andre Fisher's very kind and prompt reply was very helpful

      Regards & Thanks
      Jayanta