Learning SAP Build Apps from Basics: Create a Project

Important Update: SAP Build Apps Preview App is now available on App Store. 

Introduction

Let us create our first project in SAP Build Apps.

How do you create your first project in SAP Build Apps?

Access your BTP Subaccount with the pre-requisites met and subscribed to SAP Build Apps. I am using a Free-Tier version.

BTP Subaccount with SAP Build Apps

SAP Discovery Center

From the SAP Build Lobby, you need to click on Create button

Create Project

Click on Build an Application

Build an Application

Click on Web and Mobile Application

Web & Mobile Application

Add “Project Name” and click on Create button

Save Project

Now you see App Builder below with:

• View Canvas in the center
• Left-hand side panel is Component Library
• Right hand side panel is called as Component Properties and
• Top panel is the Global Toolbar
• At bottom, you see the Logic Canvas.

This is the start point for us to create an application.

Components of App Builder

Components of App Builder -cont.

Select the component on the UI canvas. By default, you get a Title and Text Component.

How to edit a component?

Select the component, Title on the UI canvas.

Go to Component Properties and click on the Content property

Change the text to Product

Edit Title Component

Select the Text component and click on the cross mark to delete it. By this way you can delete a component from the view canvas.

Delete Component from Canvas

Go to the Component Library and find the Search Bar component. Drag and drop it on the view canvas below the title.

Search Components: Inserting Search Bar and List Item components

Similarly, go to the Component Library and search for the List Item component. Drag and drop it on the view canvas below the search bar.

Creating a Variable

Let us create an App Variable, which will be used to store the search term. We will call it as “filterText”.

Go to the UI canvas, you see a toggle button for View and Variable. Toggle to variables and select the “App Variable” tab and then click on + icon. Now, select the variable created and change it to filterText.

Add Variable

In the above screenshot, you also see there is a button in the bottom left for Remove from the app, which you can click when you intend to delete the variable.

With this you have successfully completed designing the app structure!

Final Structure of App

Click on the Launch button in the Global Toolbar

Launch App

Press the Open Preview Portal button

Preview

Select your project from the below screen and click on Preview on web

Preview on web

Click on Open button to launch the web preview

Click Open

Final Output looks like this:

Output

Now, let us connect the app to the oData service in my next blog.

Stay tuned!