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 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 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 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.