Bootstrapping SAPUI5

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Load and initialize the SAPUI5 library to use SAPUI5 features

Bootstrapping

Standard Bootstrap File

To use SAPUI5, you must load and initialize the SAPUI5 library.

The figure, Bootstrapping SAPUI5, shows a typical bootstrap script tag used to load the sap-ui-core.js file. When this script tag is included in a page, the SAPUI5 runtime will automatically be initialized as soon as the script is loaded and executed by the browser.

Note
If you run your application standalone, the bootstrap script is added to your HTML page. In an SAP Fiori launchpad environment, the launchpad executes the bootstrap and no additional HTML page is needed to display the application.

SAPUI5 provides several bootstrap files for different use cases. sap-ui-core.js is the standard bootstrap file, which is recommended to use for typical use cases. It already contains jQuery, jquery-ui-position and only the minimum required parts of the core library (sap.ui.core).

Load Options

SAPUI5 can either be loaded locally with a relative path from an SAP Web server (see the figure, Bootstrapping SAPUI5) or externally from a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

You can point to a specific version in a CDN, which allows you to select a fixed version for bootstrapping. To do this, assign a versioned URL like the following to the src attribute in the bootstrap script:

Code snippet
https://ui5.sap.com/1.96.16/resources/sap-ui-core.js
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The segment of the URL after the host name is used to specify the desired version.

Alternatively, you can use the default version of the SAPUI5 libraries which has the following generic URL:

Code snippet
https://ui5.sap.com/resources/sap-ui-core.js
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Caution
The default version is constantly being upgraded and this might have an impact on the stability of your application. Use this version for testing purposes only.

Configuration Options

The SAPUI5 runtime can be configured using so-called configuration options. The complete list of configuration options available in SAPUI5 can be found in the API Reference in the Demo Kit under sap.ui.core.Configuration.

SAPUI5 supports different possibilities to provide values for the available configuration options. Among other things, configuration options can be set via the bootstrap script tag. For this purpose, attributes are added to the script tag whose names are composed of the name of the respective configuration option and the prefix data-sap-ui-.

Let's look at some of these configuration options.

Application Script

The bootstrap script can be followed by an application script that is used to implement the SAPUI5 application. In the application script, controls such as buttons or input UI elements can be created.

Watch the video to learn how to add a Text UI element to the HTML page via an application script.

Bootstrap SAPUI5

Business Scenario

In the last exercise, you output Hello World via a <div> tag on an HTML page, for which SAPUI5 has not yet been used. In this exercise, you will now load SAPUI5 into the browser and initialize it. Then you will display Hello World on the HTML page using the SAPUI5 UI element sap.m.Text.

Template:Git Repository: https://github.com/SAP-samples/sapui5-development-learning-journey.git, Branch: sol/1_hello_world
Model solution:Git Repository: https://github.com/SAP-samples/sapui5-development-learning-journey.git, Branch: sol/2_bootstrapping

Task 1: Add a Bootstrap Script

Steps

  1. Make sure that the index.html file is open in the editor.

    1. To open the index.html file in the editor, proceed as follows: In the Explorer view of the SAP Business Application Studio, double-click webapp → index.html in the project structure of the sapui5-development-learning-journey project.

  2. Add the following <script> tag as a child to the <head> tag to load and initialize SAPUI5:

    Code snippet
    <script
  id="sap-ui-bootstrap"
  src="resources/sap-ui-core.js"
  data-sap-ui-theme="sap_fiori_3"
  data-sap-ui-libs="sap.m"
  data-sap-ui-compatVersion="edge"
></script>
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    Note

    The src attribute of the <script> tag tells the browser where to find the SAPUI5 core library – it initializes the SAPUI5 runtime and loads additional resources, such as the sap.m library that is specified in the data-sap-ui-libs attribute and that contains the UI controls needed for the application.

    In addition, sap_fiori_3 is set as default theme and the compatibility version is defined as edge to make use of the most recent functionality of SAPUI5.

    1. Make sure that the index.html page now looks like this:

Task 2: Add a Text UI Element

Steps

  1. Delete the Hello World <div> tag you created in the previous exercise from the <body> of the HTML page.

    1. The <body> of the HTML page should now be empty again:

      Code snippet
      <body>
</body>
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  2. Add the class="sapUiBody" and id="content" attributes to the <body> tag.

    Note

    The class sapUiBody adds additional theme-dependent styles for displaying SAPUI5 apps.

    1. The <body> tag should now look like this:

      Code snippet
      <body class="sapUiBody" id="content">
</body>
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  3. Now create a sap.m.Text UI element with the text Hello Word and place it in the <body> of the HTML page using the id of the <body>. For this purpose, create the following <script> tag as another child of the <head> tag directly behind the bootstrap script created above:

    Code snippet
    <script>
  var oText = new sap.m.Text({text: "Hello World"});
  oText.placeAt("content");
</script>
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    1. The <head> and <body> of the HTML page should now look like this:

  4. Test run your application by starting it from the SAP Business Application Studio.

    1. Right-click on any subfolder in your sapui5-development-learning-journey project and select Preview Application from the context menu that appears.

    2. Select the npm script named start-noflp in the dialog that appears.

      Result

      The application now displays in a new tab.
      Hint
      If the application does not appear in a new tab, please check your pop-up blocker settings.

    3. In the opened application, check if the Hello World text of the sap.m.Text UI element is displayed on the HTML page.

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