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You probably heard the announcement of SAP Business Application Studio in the SAP Business Application Studio Info Blog - the new SAP Cloud Platform service on the Cloud Foundry environment which offers a development environment for business applications, and read It’s time to try out SAP Business Application Studio.
SAP Business Application Studio (AppStudio) provides a tailor-made development environment (aka dev space - you can read about dev spaces in this blog) for specific development scenarios. With each of these scenarios, you can develop different types of applications. It is based on standard development paradigms and tools, as well as open source tools such as: Theia, Yeoman, LSP, GitHub, Docker, and Kubernetes.
The openness of the development environment provides you the ultimate flexibility, allowing you to use standard tools during development. Additionally, you can customize your dev space by installing any CLI tool, reuse existing VS Code extensions, or by adding new functionality using extensions.
In this blog, I would like to introduce the SAP Business Application Studio IDE, focused on the basic features, and share how you can personalize your work environment. We, in AppStudio, care about your productivity and want to simplify the way you work. If you are curious about how we leverage your development experience, read about our SAP Business Application Studio - Productivity Tools.
AppStudio uses the Eclipse Theia open source platform to develop its multi-language Cloud IDE that runs in the browser. Theia embraces many of the design decisions and even directly supports VS Code extensions.
Opening the integrated terminal allows you to access the underlying system. You can create multiple terminals open to different locations and easily navigate between them. The terminal is a convenient tool because you don't need to switch windows or change the state of an existing terminal to perform a quick command-line task.
From the terminal, you can use almost every tool, including running maven or using npm. You can create new projects or modules, build applications, and deploy applications.
The Command Palette is an interactive window that provides access to all the SAP Business Application Studio functionality, including keyboard shortcuts for the most common operations. You can open files, execute editor commands, connect to the Cloud Foundry environment, and launch the AppStudio productivity tools, such as 'Create new project from template', 'Consume SAP Services', and many more. You can reach the command palette from the top menu by selecting View > Find command or use ⇧⌘P in Mac or F1 in Windows to bring it up.
The File Explorer is used to browse, open, and manage the files and folders in your project. You can ‘Create’, ‘Delete’, and ‘Rename’ files and folders, move files and folders with drag and drop, and use the context menu to explore all options.
AppStudio works very well with other tools that you might use. For example, if you want to run a command-line tool in the context of the folder you currently have open in AppStudio, right-click the folder and select Open in Code Editor or Open in Terminal.
You can select multiple files in the File Explorer, open those files in editors, or select Compare With Each Other from the context menu to quickly diff two files.
SAP Business Application Studio provides extensive search and replace capabilities within your workspace using the Search view or from the find input box (Ctrl+F). We support regular expressions, matches, include and exclude terms, grouping conditions, ranges, and more. The search results are grouped into files containing the search term, with an indication of the hits in each file and its location. Expand a file to see a preview of all the hits within that file. Then, single-click on one of the hits to view it in the editor.
SAP Business Application Studio enables you to connect and interact with the Git control system, letting you connect and interact with remote Git repositories.
SAP Business Application Studio provides a graphical user interface for executing Git commands and managing your source control and versioning. You can also manually perform other Git commands from the terminal.
The Debug view in AppStudio allows you to see your project's variables, handle watches, view elements in the Call stack view, and manage your breakpoints. You can use the Debug toolbar to control your debugging flow, for example, Continue / Pause, Step Over, Step into or out, Restart, and Stop.
The debug status bar helps you change the active launch configuration and start debugging without needing to open the Debug view, and you can use the Debug Console panel to view the logs during a debugging session.
The Outline view displays a symbol tree structure of the file that is currently active in the editor area, it shows the elements, classes, fields, and methods. It also includes an input box which finds or filters symbols as you type. The contents of the Outline view are editor-specific.
The Problems view displays a list of the problems in your project. When you double-click the icon for a problem, the editor for the associated resource automatically opens and highlights the line containing the problem. By default, the Problems view will order your problems by severity.
In SAP Business Application Studio, you will find out-of-the-box support for "code completion", "content assist", and "code hinting" for JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, HTML, CSS, and more, depending on the dev space you created. Just type a character, and if the language service knows possible completions, a suggestion will pop up. If you continue typing characters, the list of members (variables, methods, etc.) is filtered to only include members containing your typed characters.
You can also see the 'quick info' for each method by either pressing ⌃Space or clicking the info icon.
You can open several editors and place them in the editor area for side-by-side editing. To open more than one editor, drag the editor's tab to the preferred location in the editor area. Drag the editor's edge to resize it.
SAP Business Application Studio provides two different setting scopes: User Settings that apply globally to any instance you open, and Workspace Settings that apply when the workspace is open. Workplace Settings are specific to a project and can be shared across developers.
You can search and discover settings using the search bar, customize your editor by language, specify an executable that AppStudio will run to perform certain operations, view the default values in the Settings editor, and more.
If you want to personalize your theme, SAP Business Application Studio supports dark themes, light themes, and high contrast themes. You can choose your preferred color theme from the Settings menu.
To open the User Settings, select File > Settings > Open preferences from the menu bar.
Now it’s time to develop your first application on AppStudio!
If you already have an application, you can clone it from your Git repository or follow the instructions for Migrating Fiori Application from SAP Web IDE to SAP Business Application Studio or Migrating Your CAP Applications from SAP Web IDE to SAP Business Application Studio.
Otherwise, you can create a new app from a template using our Application wizard.
To keep track of the progress in SAP Business Application Studio, subscribe to the Business Application Studio newsletter.
I hope you'll enjoy developing apps with SAP Business Application Studio! 🙂
SAP Business Application Studio (AppStudio) provides a tailor-made development environment (aka dev space - you can read about dev spaces in this blog) for specific development scenarios. With each of these scenarios, you can develop different types of applications. It is based on standard development paradigms and tools, as well as open source tools such as: Theia, Yeoman, LSP, GitHub, Docker, and Kubernetes.
The openness of the development environment provides you the ultimate flexibility, allowing you to use standard tools during development. Additionally, you can customize your dev space by installing any CLI tool, reuse existing VS Code extensions, or by adding new functionality using extensions.
In this blog, I would like to introduce the SAP Business Application Studio IDE, focused on the basic features, and share how you can personalize your work environment. We, in AppStudio, care about your productivity and want to simplify the way you work. If you are curious about how we leverage your development experience, read about our SAP Business Application Studio - Productivity Tools.
Let's start with the basic IDE capabilities
AppStudio uses the Eclipse Theia open source platform to develop its multi-language Cloud IDE that runs in the browser. Theia embraces many of the design decisions and even directly supports VS Code extensions.
SAP Business Application Studio IDE
Terminal
Opening the integrated terminal allows you to access the underlying system. You can create multiple terminals open to different locations and easily navigate between them. The terminal is a convenient tool because you don't need to switch windows or change the state of an existing terminal to perform a quick command-line task.
From the terminal, you can use almost every tool, including running maven or using npm. You can create new projects or modules, build applications, and deploy applications.
SAP Business Application Studio: Terminal
Command Palette
The Command Palette is an interactive window that provides access to all the SAP Business Application Studio functionality, including keyboard shortcuts for the most common operations. You can open files, execute editor commands, connect to the Cloud Foundry environment, and launch the AppStudio productivity tools, such as 'Create new project from template', 'Consume SAP Services', and many more. You can reach the command palette from the top menu by selecting View > Find command or use ⇧⌘P in Mac or F1 in Windows to bring it up.
SAP Business Application Studio: Command Palette
File Explorer
The File Explorer is used to browse, open, and manage the files and folders in your project. You can ‘Create’, ‘Delete’, and ‘Rename’ files and folders, move files and folders with drag and drop, and use the context menu to explore all options.
AppStudio works very well with other tools that you might use. For example, if you want to run a command-line tool in the context of the folder you currently have open in AppStudio, right-click the folder and select Open in Code Editor or Open in Terminal.
You can select multiple files in the File Explorer, open those files in editors, or select Compare With Each Other from the context menu to quickly diff two files.
SAP Business Application Studio: File Explorer - compare files
Search
SAP Business Application Studio provides extensive search and replace capabilities within your workspace using the Search view or from the find input box (Ctrl+F). We support regular expressions, matches, include and exclude terms, grouping conditions, ranges, and more. The search results are grouped into files containing the search term, with an indication of the hits in each file and its location. Expand a file to see a preview of all the hits within that file. Then, single-click on one of the hits to view it in the editor.
SAP Business Application Studio: Search view
Git
SAP Business Application Studio enables you to connect and interact with the Git control system, letting you connect and interact with remote Git repositories.
SAP Business Application Studio provides a graphical user interface for executing Git commands and managing your source control and versioning. You can also manually perform other Git commands from the terminal.
SAP Business Application Studio: Git view
Debug
The Debug view in AppStudio allows you to see your project's variables, handle watches, view elements in the Call stack view, and manage your breakpoints. You can use the Debug toolbar to control your debugging flow, for example, Continue / Pause, Step Over, Step into or out, Restart, and Stop.
The debug status bar helps you change the active launch configuration and start debugging without needing to open the Debug view, and you can use the Debug Console panel to view the logs during a debugging session.
SAP Business Application Studio: Debug view
Outline
The Outline view displays a symbol tree structure of the file that is currently active in the editor area, it shows the elements, classes, fields, and methods. It also includes an input box which finds or filters symbols as you type. The contents of the Outline view are editor-specific.
SAP Business Application Studio: Outline view
Problems View
The Problems view displays a list of the problems in your project. When you double-click the icon for a problem, the editor for the associated resource automatically opens and highlights the line containing the problem. By default, the Problems view will order your problems by severity.
SAP Business Application Studio: Problems View
Code completion
In SAP Business Application Studio, you will find out-of-the-box support for "code completion", "content assist", and "code hinting" for JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, HTML, CSS, and more, depending on the dev space you created. Just type a character, and if the language service knows possible completions, a suggestion will pop up. If you continue typing characters, the list of members (variables, methods, etc.) is filtered to only include members containing your typed characters.
You can also see the 'quick info' for each method by either pressing ⌃Space or clicking the info icon.
SAP Business Application Studio: Code completion
Dynamic layout
You can open several editors and place them in the editor area for side-by-side editing. To open more than one editor, drag the editor's tab to the preferred location in the editor area. Drag the editor's edge to resize it.
SAP Business Application Studio: Dynamic layout
User and Workspace Settings
SAP Business Application Studio provides two different setting scopes: User Settings that apply globally to any instance you open, and Workspace Settings that apply when the workspace is open. Workplace Settings are specific to a project and can be shared across developers.
You can search and discover settings using the search bar, customize your editor by language, specify an executable that AppStudio will run to perform certain operations, view the default values in the Settings editor, and more.
If you want to personalize your theme, SAP Business Application Studio supports dark themes, light themes, and high contrast themes. You can choose your preferred color theme from the Settings menu.
To open the User Settings, select File > Settings > Open preferences from the menu bar.
SAP Business Application Studio: User and Workspace Settings
Now it’s time to develop your first application on AppStudio!
If you already have an application, you can clone it from your Git repository or follow the instructions for Migrating Fiori Application from SAP Web IDE to SAP Business Application Studio or Migrating Your CAP Applications from SAP Web IDE to SAP Business Application Studio.
Otherwise, you can create a new app from a template using our Application wizard.
To keep track of the progress in SAP Business Application Studio, subscribe to the Business Application Studio newsletter.
I hope you'll enjoy developing apps with SAP Business Application Studio! 🙂
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