Technical Articles
Extending legacy Fiori apps in BAS
It is finally possible to extend Fiori apps in BAS! Don’t get me wrong, extending using adaptation project is already possible for a while now. Unfortunately, this does not work for legacy applications like Leave Request for example. This was only possible using Web IDE until recently. Many have been asked about it this:
- https://answers.sap.com/questions/13184906/how-to-extend-a-standard-fiori-app-in-sap-business.html
- https://answers.sap.com/questions/13406845/extension-of-a-standard-fiori-app-in-sap-business.html
SAP Notes provided Web IDE as a workaround: https://me.sap.com/notes/0003339102
Nevertheless, it is finally possible to extend legacy applications from in BAS! 🥳
Although this has been explained in the SAP Help documentation and SAP released a note that refers to this documentation, I still was a bit confused on how to get started. It wasn’t immediately clear to me that you have to start from an Adaptation Project (maybe I had to read the documentation better) and I had to search to get to the extension menu.
SAP Note: https://me.sap.com/notes/0003007179
In this blog post I want to make everyone aware that it is now possible in BAS and enrich the documentation with some screenshots to get started:
- Open the commend panel (ctrl+alt+p) => Run “Open Template Wizard”
- Select “Adaptation Project”
- Choose “ABAP” as a target environment
- Provide a project name and app title, the namespace is a combination of “customer.” and the project name
- Connect to your system just like you would do for creating an new Fiori app. Once connected, select the application you want to extend. In the past, this would give an error in case of legacy applications that it is not possible to create an adaptation project for it. Now, it will just continue by asking for the system version, Safe Mode and one new additional option that asks confirmation to create an extension project. This last option allows you to create extensions project like you did in the past in Web IDE:
Once the extension project is generated, you can start creating extensions.
- Right click on “.extconfig.json” and click on “Create Extension” (at the bottom)
- If it doesn’t appear from the first time, try refreshing your browser
- This gives you back the extension menu we all know from in Web IDE 😊
Happy extending!
Hi Wouter,
excellent, thanks for pointing out this new feature, which is important for many customers. As you mentioned both, extension projects and adaptation projects, I want to add some details on the difference, as they are not the same:
Adaptation projects are one of the capabilities of SAPUI5 flexibility, which lets developers, key users and end users adapt/extend SAPUI5 applications. Adaptation projects are the go-to solution for developer adaptation in SAPUI5 and are the 'next-generation' extension projects. Using the concepts of SAPUI5 flexibility, adaptation projects offer many more possibilities, such as extending SAP Fiori elements applications or extending apps without pre-defined extension points.
As you point out, few legacy applications do not support adaptation projects yet. (FYI: The prerequisites are given in Create an Adaptation Project, the technical prerequisites for the respective apps are described in SAPUI5 Flexibility: Enable Your App for UI Adaptation.) For those legacy apps extension projects can be used, just as you show here.
Thanks again, Oliver
Thanks for clarifying Oliver! But, shouldn't the tile in the SAP Business Application Studio called "Adaptation or Extension Project" then - as it acts as an entry door to either one?
Thank you Olivier for this very well explanation!
Thanks for posting about this new feature
Thanks for sharing Oliver
Much needed feature in BAS, extending freestyle Fiori apps was missing in BAS for long time.
Regards
Sandip
Hello Wouter Lemaire,
I am trying to extend custom html5 app with cloud foundry as target environment but getting "No adaptable business service found in the MTA".
Regards,
Yogeshwaran S
Error