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Author's profile photo Esmee Xavier

What’s New in SAP Build Apps – Release Highlights April 2023

One of our main goals with SAP Build is to bring these low- and no-code solutions closer together for a fully integrated experience. With that in mind, we’re kicking off a new quarterly blog series to share highlights from the latest feature releases for SAP Build Apps. 

See also release blogs from SAP Build Process Automation and SAP Build Work Zone. 

Release Highlights: 

  • Chart components 
  • Inline Frame (iFrame) component 
  • First new app page renamed from ‘Empty page’ to ‘Home page’ 
  • Improved booster in onboarding process

Chart Components

Creating data visualizations within your app is now easier than ever with the new native view components for Charts. Over the years, we’ve seen some determined developers in the community find their own hacky ways of showing chart images, though it also might have required fetching a new image every time the data was updated. Previously in Build Apps, you could also use the D3.js/Google Charts component, though this required adding in JavaScript, which is certainly not true to no-code. It was also not possible to use the Google Charts component for web apps, whereas the new Chart Components support both web and mobile.

There are four new chart components now available: line chart, bar chart, area chart, and pie chart. They can be found and installed from the Marketplace and dragged directly onto the canvas. All that’s needed is to bring your own data resource and add the desired values, which can be configured in the component properties. 

Chart components come with preset style defaults, though like everything else in Build Apps, can easily be modified and customized to fit with your style preferences, including color, animation, labels, and more. 

iFrame Component

It’s now possible to embed an external website or HTML into an application with the new Inline Frame (iFrame) view component. Previously, you may have used WebView in your mobile apps to capture this capability. The new iFrame component supports web applications and opens up a huge range of possibilities for more customizeable apps. It can be installed from the Marketplace. 

For an exciting use case of the iFrame component, check out Kirill Leventcov’s latest blog: Embed React Components to SAP Build Apps 

‘Empty Page’ renamed to ‘Home Page’

When you create a new app project, the first page of your app is now labeled as ‘Home Page’ by default. Previously, the label was ‘Empty Page,’ but after conducting several user experience studies over the last year, we found that the name was confusing, especially for first-time users. The new name is a small but hopefully helpful UX improvement for Build Apps.

New and improved Build Apps Booster 

We have updated and improved the Build Apps Booster that lets you get started and run SAP Build Apps! Previously, it was required to configure the subaccount and create a custom IAS tenant separately when setting up your BTP account. With the new Booster, these steps are already included and make the entire onboarding process faster and smoother.

We’ve updated the steps in the blog SAP Build Apps Free Tier Individual Access as well as the instructional video. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need support! 

Also check out the recent webinar: SAP Build Apps Onboarding Journey

📚 Want to learn more about Build Apps? Find out how you can build apps, automations, and sites without professional coding skills to easily digitalize your daily work by exploring SAP’s free learning content on SAP Build. It is designed for business users who want to rapidly develop software using little or no code at all, working only with visual programming tools and drag-and-drop components. Check out even more role-based learning resources and opportunities to get certified in one place on SAP Learning site.


Let us know what you think of the new features and keep an eye on our roadmap for more updates. We’re happy to connect if you need any assistance with getting started!

👉 For the full list of releases, see the documentation: What’s New for SAP Build Apps

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      Author's profile photo RAJESH SHARMA
      RAJESH SHARMA

      Esmee, thanks for a nice informative blog

      Author's profile photo Raoul Shiro
      Raoul Shiro

      Thank you,

      I am very excited about the Chart components no longer requiring coding.

      On another subject, is there any update to  sap note 3300760 - 500 Internal Server Error: Build Apps connection to the backend On-premise system fails

      Currently SAP does not support a connection from the SAP Build Apps to the on-premise systems.

      Most of SAP Customers are running SAP on-premise systems, and eagerly waiting for SAP to close that gap .... The API MAnagement workaround suggested by SAP, is not practical ,especially without any specific guidance provided.

       

      Author's profile photo Esmee Xavier
      Esmee Xavier
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Raoul! Thank you for the feedback. We delivered the on-premise connectivity last week and it should be working by now. We'll shortly update the support note that you referenced.

      Author's profile photo Venkat Vyza
      Venkat Vyza

      Hello Esmee Xavier ,

      Thank you for updating on this SAP Note.

      By the way, I tried to open this note to see the details of the solution and getting the below error message. 

                       "You are not entitled for SAP Note/KBA 3300760. The target audience for the SAP                                Note/KBA you were trying to reach does not fit to your profile"

       

      I don't think it's related to my authorizations I could access it last month and my colleagues also getting the same error.

      Could you please check?

      UPDATE: This note is archived by SAP as the solution was provided.

       

      Thank you

      Venkat Vyza

       

      Author's profile photo Harsh Chawla
      Harsh Chawla

      Hi Esmee Xavier,
      Thanks for summarizing the highlights.
      Can you help differentiate between "Key User Extensibility" and SAP Build? I see some use case overlap between these two offerings from SAP.

      Author's profile photo Esmee Xavier
      Esmee Xavier
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Harsh, thanks for the comment. There are similarities with using the low-code/no-code approach, though "Key User Extensibility" generally applies to only S/4HANA solutions, whereas SAP Build covers a wider range of possible use cases.

      Author's profile photo Julien Quester-Semeon
      Julien Quester-Semeon

      Great stuff.

      Can I get an "I Love Build" sticker or t-shirt? 🙂