Implement a Custom Shell Plug-in in the SAP BTP ABAP Environment

The shell plug-in will be deployed to the local ZLOCAL software component in your SAP BTP ABAP Environment. For this reason, you need to create a local package in ADT.

1. Access ABAP Developer Tool in Eclipse and connect to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment.

2. Right click on your SAP BTP ABAP Environment and click on New > ABAP Package:

   

3. Input a name and a description for your package. Make sure that the Package Type is Development. Click on Next.

   

   For the scope of this tutorial, the package name is Z_PLUGIN_###. You can use this name or choose your own package name. But make sure that your package name starts with Z. Take note of the name of the package you just created, you will need it in a later step. You can also mark the Add to favorite package option, so the package will be automatically added to your favorites and it will be easier to find later on.

4. In the Software Component field input ZLOCAL. Click on Next.

   

5. Click on Finish. The package will be created.

   

The shell plug-in will be deployed to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment as an SAP Fiori component. As components are not fully supported yet by SAP Fiori tools but are structurally very similar to SAP Fiori applications, you can make use of some SAP Fiori tools for applications. First you need to create an empty SAP Fiori Application in Business Application Studio.

1. In your SAP BTP Subaccount, navigate to the Instances and Subscriptions tab in the left panel. In the Subscriptions tab, click on the SAP Business Application Studio link to access your instance of the SAP Business Application Studio.

   

2. Click on Create Dev Space button in the top right corner, input a Dev Space name, for example <YOUR_USERNAME>_SAP_Fiori (1) and select the application type SAP Fiori (2). Click on Create Dev Space (3).

   

3. It might take a couple of minutes that the status of the new dev space switches from STARTING to RUNNING. Once it is running, click on its name to access it.

   

4. In the Get Started tab click on Start Project from Template. Select the SAP Fiori generator project type template (1) and click on Start (2).

   

   If the Get Started tab is missing, enter >Fiori: Open Application Generator into the search bar and click the found result.

5. Select Basic Fiori application template (1) and click on Next (2).

   

6. Data Source and Service Selection: In the Data source dropdown menu, select None and click on Next.

   

7. Entity Selection: In the View name field, choose a view name and click on Next.

   

   For the scope of this tutorial the view name is plugin_view. You can use this name or choose a different name. If you choose a different view name, make sure to keep it consistent throughout the rest of the tutorial. While developing a SAP Fiori Application it is good practice to add the suffix _view to the name of your view.

8. Project Attributes: Input a Module name, an Application title and a Description of your choice. Select the Add deployment configuration option and the Add FLP configuration option. Click on Next.

   

   Ensure that Use Virtual Endpoints for Local Preview remains set to No.

9. Deployment Configuration: In the Please choose the target dropdown menu, select ABAP. In the Destinations dropdown menu, select the destination that points towards your SAP BTP ABAP Environment. Input for example z_plugin_### as name for the SAPUI5 ABAP Repository and a Deployment description. In the Package field, input the name of the package that you created in ABAP Development Tool in Eclipse in the previous step. Click on Next.

   

   Once the destination and package name have been entered, the system verifies whether the package is local. If this is the case, the Transport Request field is automatically disabled.

10. Fiori Launchpad Configuration: In the Semantic Object field input Shell### and in the Action field input plugin. Input a Title of your choice. Click on Finish. The project folder will be generated.

    

    Make sure to input the fields with the correct cases: Shell must start with an upper case and plugin must start with a lower case.

The application project is automatically initialized with several basic folders, files and configurations which are not correct for a component project. To create a shell plug-in of type component and deploy it, you need to change some of these initial configurations.

1. In Business Application Studio, open the folder of the project you just created and navigate to the webapp folder. Double click on the manifest.json file to open it.

   

2. In the manifest.json file, modify the following configurations:

   • Under the "sap.app" configuration adjust the "type" property value to "component".
   • Under the "crossNavigation" configuration remove the "title": "{{flpTitle}}" property and add the property "hideLauncher": true.
   • Remove the blocks for the "routing" configuration and the "rootView" definition.
   • At the end of the file, behind the second last }, insert the following code snippet: ,"sap.flp": {"type": "plugin"}.

   At the end your mainfest.json file should look like the following (certain properties are project-dependent and might therefore have different values for you. For this reason, you should use this code snippet as a guide, and manually adjust your mainfest.json file (rather than simply copy and paste this code snippet)):

   JSON Copy

       {
           "_version": "1.58.0",
           "sap.app": {
           "id": "zplugin###",
           "type": "component",
           "i18n": "i18n/i18n.properties",
           "applicationVersion": {
               "version": "0.0.1"
           },
           "title": "{{appTitle}}",
           "description": "{{appDescription}}",
           "resources": "resources.json",
           "sourceTemplate": {
               "id": "@sap/generator-fiori:basic",
               "version": "1.11.4",
               "toolsId": "ca6d90b1-7c62-441c-8145-fa747953cc5c"
           },
           "crossNavigation": {
               "inbounds": {
               "Shell000-plugin": {
                   "hideLauncher": true,
                   "semanticObject": "Shell000",
                   "action": "plugin",
                   "signature": {
                   "parameters": {},
                   "additionalParameters": "allowed"
                   }
               }
           }
           }
           },
           "sap.ui": {
           "technology": "UI5",
           "icons": {
               "icon": "",
               "favIcon": "",
               "phone": "",
               "phone@2": "",
               "tablet": "",
               "tablet@2": ""
           },
           "deviceTypes": {
               "desktop": true,
               "tablet": true,
               "phone": true
           }
           },
           "sap.ui5": {
           "flexEnabled": true,
           "dependencies": {
               "minUI5Version": "1.120.1",
               "libs": {
               "sap.m": {},
               "sap.ui.core": {},
               "sap.f": {},
               "sap.suite.ui.generic.template": {},
               "sap.ui.comp": {},
               "sap.ui.generic.app": {},
               "sap.ui.table": {},
               "sap.ushell": {}
               }
           },
           "contentDensities": {
               "compact": true,
               "cozy": true
           },
           "models": {
               "i18n": {
               "type": "sap.ui.model.resource.ResourceModel",
               "settings": {
                   "bundleName": "zplugin###.i18n.i18n"
               }
               }
           },
           "resources": {
               "css": [
               {
                   "uri": "css/style.css"
               }
               ]
           }
           },
           "sap.flp":{
           "type": "plugin"
           }
       }

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3. Delete the controller folder (This is a sub-folder of the webapp folder) with all its content.

   

4. Delete all the content in your view folder (This is a sub-folder of the webapp folder). Do not delete the view folder itself, you will need it in a later step.

   

5. Open the Component.js file in the webapp folder. You should use this code snippet as a guide, and manually adjust your Component.js file (rather than simply copy and paste this code snippet):

   JavaScript Copy

   sap.ui.define([
           "sap/ui/core/UIComponent"
           "zplugin000/model/models"
       ],
       function (UIComponent, models) {
           "use strict";
   
           return UIComponent.extend("zplugin###.Component", {
               metadata: {
                   manifest: "json"
               },
   
               /**
               * The component is initialized by UI5 automatically during the startup of the app and calls the init method once.
               * @public
               * @override
               */
               init: function () {
                   // call the base component's init function
                   UIComponent.prototype.init.apply(this, arguments);
   
                   var oRenderer = sap.ushell.Container.getRenderer();
                   var oEntry = {
                       title: "Personalized shell plug-in",
                       icon: "sap-icon://role",
                       value: function () {
                           return jQuery.Deferred().resolve("Plug-in example");
                       },
                       content: function () {
                           return jQuery.Deferred().resolve(new sap.m.Text("plugin-text", {text: ""}));
                       },
                       onSave: function () {
                           return jQuery.Deferred().resolve();
                       }
                   };
                   oRenderer.addUserPreferencesEntry(oEntry);
               }
           });
       }
   );

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   In line 8, the "zplugin###.Component" is taken from the name of your project. If you chose a different project name in the previous step, make sure to substitute the zplugin### with the correct project name. The name of your project can be found in the manifest.json file under the "sap.app">"id" property.

Your basic SAPUI5 Component can be previewed before it is deployed. Using the preview functionality is good practice before deploying a user interface, to make sure that it looks as intended and functionalities work as desired.

1. In Business Application Studio, In the Storyboard tab right click on your UI Application and click on Open Application Info.

   

   The Storyboard tab can always be opened from the Search bar by typing the command > Open Storyboard.

2. In the Application Info view, select the Preview Application tile.

   

3. Select start fiori-run. This will prompt a new terminal window which will run the start fiori-run command. This can take up to a few seconds. Once it is done, a preview of your application will open up in a new browser window.

   

4. In the preview of your component, click on the user icon in the top-right corner and open the settings. Your shell plug-in is listed in the user’s settings dialog.

   

   

The shell plug-in is currently empty. You will implement it in a later tutorial.

You can now deploy your SAPUI5 Component on with a basic (empty) shell plug-in to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment.

1. In Business Application Studio, in the Application Info view, click on the Deploy tile:

   

   In case the Deploy tile is not visible in the Application Info, right-click the ui5-deploy.yaml file, select Open in Integrated Terminal, and execute the command npm run deploy.

2. The deployment process will begin. You will be prompted to confirm the deployment by typing Y. Once the SAPUI5 Application is successfully deployed to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment, the terminal will return the status: Deployment Successful. You can now close the terminal window.

The deployment process can take up to a few minutes.

3. After a successful deployment, your software package in ABAP Developer Tool in Eclipse will be automatically enhanced by a BSP Application, a Launchpad App Descriptor Item and SICF Node.

   

Now that your basic shell plug-in has been successfully deployed to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment as part of a SAPUI5 Application, you need to assign the application to a Business Catalog. To do this, you first need to create an IAM App, which points to your deployed SAPUI5 Application. (You will assign the IAM App to a Business Catalog in a later step).

1. Access ABAP Developer Tool in Eclipse and connect to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment.

2. Right click on your package and select New > Other ABAP repository object.

   

3. In the search bar, search for IAM App and click on it.

   

4. Enter a name and a description for the IAM app. Keep External App as the App Type.

   

5. Click on Next, then on Finish.

6. In the newly created IAM App, enter the name of your Launchpad App Descriptor Item in the corresponding field (1) and save ( File > Save). Then click on Publish Locally (3).

   

   Publishing the IAM App can take up to a couple of minutes. You can keep track of the process in the lower right corner of the ABAP Developer Tool in Eclipse.

Now that you have created the IAM App, you can create a Business Catalog and assign the IAM App to it.

1. In the IAM App, click on the link Create a new Business Catalog and assign the App to it.

   

2. Enter a name and description.

   

3. Click on Next, then click on Finish.

4. A new window will automatically pop up prompting you to create the Business Catalog App Assignment. Click on Next, then on Finish.

   

5. The generated IAM App, IAM App to Catalog Assignment and IAM Business Catalog will appear in your project folder.

6. Double click on the IAM Business Catalog file to open it. Click on Publish Locally.

   

Publishing the Business Catalog can take up to a minute. You can keep track of the process in the lower right corner of the ABAP Developer Tool in Eclipse. Make note of your Business Catalog ID, you will need it in a later step.

Now you need to create a Business Role in your SAP BTP ABAP Environment and then assign the Business Catalog to it. Any user in your SAP BTP ABAP Environment with this Business Role will have access to the shell plug-in.

1. Access the Fiori Launchpad of your SAP BTP ABAP Environment.

2. Search for the Maintain Business Roles application and open it.

   

3. In the lower right corner, click on New. Enter a Business Role ID and a description. Click on Create. The Business Role will be created and will open automatically.

   

4. In the Assigned Business Catalogs tab, click on ‘Add’ to add your Business Catalog.

   

   Search for your Business Catalog, select it and click on OK.

   

5. In the Assigned Business Users tab, click on Add.

   

   Search for your user name, select it and click OK.

6. In the General Role Details tab, change the value for the Write, Read, Value Help attribute to Unrestricted. Then click on Save.

   

You have successfully created an empty shell plug-in and deployed it to your SAP BTP ABAP Environment as part of a SAPUI5 Application. You have setup the IAM App, the Business Catalog and the Business Role. Any user with this Business Role will now see the shell plug-in in the user settings dialog: click on the user icon in the top right corner, and click on Settings.

You might have to refresh the webpage for the shell plug-in to appear in the Settings.

In the next tutorial, you will learn how to enrich your shell plug-in making use of OData Services.