Navigating UI5 Version Updates: Say Goodbye to Tedious Changelog Reviews with this App

Update: Added “Whats new“, linkable versions and RSS Feed. More info below

When updating UI5 versions, one often faces the challenge of determining the changes that have taken place. Particularly when updating the On-Premise versions of the S/4HANA version, the transition typically progresses from one maintenance version to the next. This could potentially mean skipping 12 minor versions with each version having a lot of fixes and new features.

For individual minor versions, one can access the changelog. However, when there are multiple versions, compiling the changes quickly becomes confusing and tedious. Even though relevant APIs are rarely deprecated, it’s essential to monitor them. An overview exists in the documentation, but it still requires to analyze each minor version.

I’ve encountered this problem multiple times and often thought to myself creating a UI5 app since the data is readily available as JSON files.

Inspired by a new question in the SAP Community, I took the initiative to host a mini-hackathon with myself. With significant assistance from ChatGPT, I developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The Solution: Comparing SAPUI5 Versions

Available at: https://marianfoo.github.io/ui5-lib-diff/

With this tool, users can select two specific SAPUI5 versions.
The fixes, features, and deprecated APIs that have changed between the two chosen versions are displayed.
This is based on the same JSON files utilized in the documentation. GitHub Actions fetch these files, and they are then processed for the UI, making it easily consumable. When two different UI5 versions are chosen, the changes are compiled and displayed in real-time.
The data is also automatically fetched every day, so the it stays always up to date.
All data for each version and library including fixes, new features and deprecated APIs are saved into the json file “consolidated.json” which the UI is based on (Attention! The file is over 3MB in size).

More Features

What’s new

It is also possible to compare the data sets that are displayed under “What’s new.”
Here, overall changes and major modifications are documented.
The data is coming from the “What’s new Viewer”.

Link Directly Version Comparisons

Additionally, it’s possible to directly link the comparison between versions in the API changes and the “What’s New.” like:

https://marianfoo.github.io/ui5-lib-diff/?sap-debug=true&versionTo=1.108.13&versionFrom=1.117.0#/whatsnew

or

https://marianfoo.github.io/ui5-lib-diff/?sap-debug=true&versionTo=1.108.13&versionFrom=1.117.0

RSS Feed XML

For those who do not always want to check the website, you can also integrate the RSS feed:
https://marianfoo.github.io/ui5-lib-diff/rss_feed.xml

Seeking Feedback

This is just the initial version, meant to offer a potential solution. I’d appreciate feedback on its utility. Please let me know if such a solution benefits you, if you’ve faced similar challenges, or if there are aspects of the application that can be improved.

Links

• Application: https://marianfoo.github.io/ui5-lib-diff/
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/marianfoo/ui5-lib-diff
• Parsed Data: https://github.com/marianfoo/ui5-lib-diff/tree/main/de.marianzeis.ui5libdiff/webapp/data