How to learn SAPUI5 (2024 edition)

[Clement]

How to learn SAPUI5 (2024 edition)

Three months ago, I was hired as a Fiori developer, and I had to learn quickly about this environment. The openSAP platform that was the reference for learning SAP will close in July 2024. In this short blog, I'm going to present you with the best recent resources I've been able to find for making effective progress on FIORI and SAPUI5.

Learning journey Developing SAPUI5 Application

An essential resource for effective training in SAP Fiori is the learning journey entitled Developing SAPUI5 Applications. This learning journey is extremely comprehensive, guiding you step by step through the world of SAP Fiori, with a solid theoretical foundation. 

It also includes numerous practical exercises in Business Application Studio, SAP's cloud IDE. As you complete these exercises, you'll have the opportunity to make your own modifications, enabling you to become even more familiar with a SAPUI5 framework. In addition, this learning journey covers advanced concepts, showing you how to test your components or make extensions to your applications. 

By following this series of lessons, you will not only acquire in-depth, practical skills, but also prepare effectively for SAP Fiori Application Developer certification, as most exam questions are covered during this journey. All in all, this course enables you to progress in a structured way and validate your skills with a recognized certification.

More advanced technical tutorials

It's also essential to mention the tutorials on developers.sap.com when discussing SAP Fiori training. This site offers an in-depth, well-structured technical approach to learning SAPUI5 and mastering the ins and outs of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). 

The tutorials are carefully crafted and split into small tasks and assignments, making learning rewarding and progressive. Setting up your BTP environment, including configuring the trial account and its services, is particularly well covered in the assignments on offer. In addition, the assignment to configure the Business Application Studio proves to be an invaluable resource for those wishing to create SAPUI5 applications efficiently and in line with best practices. 

Thanks to these missions, you can gain a solid practical understanding while earning badges for your achievements, adding a fun and motivating dimension to your training path.

Explore the UI5 library

A site that will quickly become one of your favorites is the UI5 documentation site. It's a veritable goldmine for anyone wishing to learn about SAP Fiori and master SAPUI5. 

The UI5 documentation site offers a wide range of resources, from quick-start guides to detailed tutorials, code examples and complete APIs. The SAPUI5 SDK (Software Development Kit) is particularly valuable, providing essential tools and libraries for developing SAP Fiori applications. 

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, you'll find clear, up-to-date information on every component, as well as practical advice on how to optimize your applications. By exploring this site frequently, you'll be able to enhance your skills and stay at the forefront of the latest innovations and best practices in SAPUI5 development.

Follow SAP guidelines

SAP Fiori Guidelines provide SAP's design guidelines and standards, ensuring that your applications deliver a consistent user experience, whether they're destined for the Web, iOS or Android. 

By following these principles, you can ensure that your applications fit seamlessly into the SAP ecosystem and meet user expectations in terms of ergonomics, navigation and aesthetics. 

Furthermore, complying with SAP Fiori guidelines helps you take advantage of best practices in user interface design, which can improve efficiency and end-user satisfaction.

Get familiar with the debugger

One thing that has helped me considerably to progress in Fiori development is the ability to use the browser's debugger. I use the Chrome debugger, enhanced by the UI5 Inspector extension. This extension is extremely useful, as it makes it easy to find your UI5 XML elements, view associated bindings and inspect the properties, models and contexts of UI5 elements, which makes debugging and optimizing your applications much easier.

Mastering the debugger's Network tab is also crucial. This tab allows you to check whether requests to the back-end are being correctly executed and whether the required data is being received. If you encounter a problem, you can quickly identify whether it's due to a badly formulated request, an incorrect response or some other network issue.

Finally, the most powerful aspect of the debugger is the ability to set breakpoints in your controllers. By setting breakpoints, you can examine the state of your application at specific times, inspect variables and check data in contexts and models. This enables you to understand precisely how data flows through your application, and to diagnose and resolve problems more effectively.

In short, mastering these debugging tools is essential for any Fiori developer wishing to create robust, high-performance applications.

Additional resources to explore !

To complete your Fiori training, I recommend you to follow the SAP conferences and lives available on the SAPdevs YouTube channel. This channel is packed with informative content, from hands-on tutorials to presentations of the latest news and best practices in SAP Fiori development. These videos are not only informative, but also keep you up to date with developments in the SAP ecosystem.

The SAP Community (right here) is an essential resource for all SAP Fiori developers. This community platform enables developers to share experiences, ask questions and find answers to specific code problems. You'll also find a multitude of blogs and articles covering various theoretical and practical aspects of SAP development. Participating in this community can help you solve technical challenges, expand your knowledge and get inspired by the solutions found by other developers. By combining these resources, you can enhance your understanding and skills in Fiori.

To conclude

I hope these tips and resources help you on your journey to mastering SAP Fiori. Application development can be both exciting and rewarding, so have fun coding and exploring all the possibilities this technology has to offer. Don't forget that the SAP developer community is vast and always ready to share knowledge. If you have any other links, tips or experiences to share, don't hesitate to post them in the comments. Together, we can learn and grow faster. Happy coding to all !