"How to create a CAP project. How to add a domain model. How to create services. How to add data to your database."

"What do I need before I start?"

"You\u0026rsquo;ve configured the SAP Business Application Studio. Follow the steps in the Set Up SAP Business Application Studio for Development tutorial that is part of the Develop a Full-Stack CAP Application Following SAP BTP Developer’s Guide tutorial group.\nOUT OF MAINTENANCE\nThis tutorial is no longer maintained. For an up-to-date version and support with any issues, refer to the Develop a Full-Stack CAP Application Following the SAP BTP Developer\u0026rsquo;s Guide mission in the SAP Discovery Center.\n"

Build a CAP Application

This guide is a step-by-step walkthrough to build a CAP Node.js or Java application.

🎓beginner ⏱30 min SAP Cloud Application Programming Model Beginner Sapui5 Java Node Js SAP Business Technology Platform SAP Fiori 0/5

Overview

🎓 beginner ⏱ 30 min. SAP Cloud Application Programming ModelBeginnerSapui5JavaNode JsSAP Business Technology PlatformSAP Fiori

You will learn

✔How to create a CAP project.
✔How to add a domain model.
✔How to create services.
✔How to add data to your database.

S Svetoslav Pandeliev July 24, 2026

Created by January 4, 2024

Contributors

Prerequisites

You’ve configured the SAP Business Application Studio. Follow the steps in the Set Up SAP Business Application Studio for Development tutorial that is part of the Develop a Full-Stack CAP Application Following SAP BTP Developer’s Guide tutorial group.

OUT OF MAINTENANCE
This tutorial is no longer maintained. For an up-to-date version and support with any issues, refer to the Develop a Full-Stack CAP Application Following the SAP BTP Developer’s Guide mission in the SAP Discovery Center.

Steps

Open all Close all

Step 1 Create a CAP project

—

You can create a CAP project in either Node.js or Java. You have to choose one way or the other and follow through. The tabs Node.js and Java provide detailed steps for each alternative way.

In SAP Business Application Studio, go to your IncidentManagement dev space.
Make sure the IncidentManagement dev space is in status RUNNING.
Choose the burger menu and choose Terminal → New Terminal.
Terminal
Navigate to the projects folder from the root directory.
Shell
```
cd projects
```
Your main interaction is through the cds command. It’s used to build, run, and debug your CAP application. You can also use cds to enrich your application with additional capabilities such as messaging, multitenancy, or cloud integration. You can learn more about the tool’s capabilities in Command Line Interface (CLI).
Create a new project using cds init.
Shell
```
cds init --add nodejs incident-management
```
This command creates a folder incident-management with your newly created CAP project.
Choose the Explorer icon and then choose Open Folder. Type /home/user/projects/ in the field and select incident-management. Choose OK to open the project in SAP Business Application Studio.
Open SAP Business Application Studio folder
You can also use the Cmd+Shift+E (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+E (Windows/Linux) key combination to quickly navigate to the Explorer.
While you’re in the incident-management folder, choose the burger menu and then choose Terminal → New Terminal.
Install dependencies with the following command:
Shell
```
npm install
```
Start a CAP server:
Shell
```
cds watch
```
The CAP server serves all the CAP sources from your project. It also “watches” all the files in your projects and conveniently restarts whenever you save a file. Changes you’ve made are immediately served without you having to run the command again. In this newly created project the CAP server tells you that there are no models or service definitions yet that it can serve.
Here is the output that you get:
Shell
```
cds serve all --with-mocks --in-memory?
live reload enabled for browsers

___________________________

No models found in db/,srv/,app/,schema,services.
Waiting for some to arrive...
```

In SAP Business Application Studio, go to your IncidentManagement dev space.
Make sure the IncidentManagement dev space is in status RUNNING.
Choose the burger menu and choose Terminal → New Terminal.
Terminal
Navigate to the projects folder from the root directory.
Shell
```
cd projects
```
Your main interaction is through the cds command. It’s used to build, run, and debug your CAP application. You can also use cds to enrich your application with additional capabilities such as messaging, multitenancy, or cloud integration. You can learn more about the tool’s capabilities in Command Line Interface (CLI).
Create a new project using cds init.
Shell
```
cds init incident-management --add java
```
This command creates a folder incident-management with your newly created CAP Java project.
Choose the Explorer icon and then choose Open Folder. Type /home/user/projects/ in the field and select incident-management. Choose OK to open the project in SAP Business Application Studio.
Open SAP Business Application Studio folder
You can also use the Cmd+Shift+E (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+E (Windows/Linux) key combination to quickly navigate to the Explorer.
While you’re in the incident-management folder, choose the burger menu and then choose Terminal → New Terminal.
Navigate to the srv folder.
Shell
```
cd srv
```

Run the following command to start a CAP Java server:

Shell

mvn cds:watch

The CAP server serves all the CAP sources from your project. It also “watches” all the files in your projects and conveniently restarts whenever you save a file. Changes you’ve made are immediately served without you having to run the command again. In this newly created project the CAP server tells you that there are no models or service definitions yet that it can serve.

Here is the output that you get:

Shell
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] --------------------< customer:incident-management >--------------------
[INFO] Building incident-management 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO]   from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- cds-maven-plugin:3.4.1:watch (default-cli) @ incident-management ---

[INFO] CdsMojo: building project [/home/user/projects/incident-management], clean [true]
cds-dk [8.4.1], cds [8.4.1], compiler [5.4.2], home [/home/user/projects/incident-management/node_modules/@sap/cds-dk/node_modules/@sap/cds]

{
  build: {
    target: '.',
      tasks: [
        { for: 'java', src: 'srv', options: { model: ['db', 'srv'] }}
      ]
  }
}


no CDS model found for [java] build task [/home/user/projects/incident-management/srv] - nothing to be done

The CAP server also prints a message BUILD FAILURE stating that the build has failed. After this message, the CAP server waits for any changes on the filesystem and tries a rebuild. So, let’s go on and add a domain model.

Step 2 Add a domain model

In the db folder, create a new schema.cds file.

Paste the following code snippet in the schema.cds file.

CDS
using {
  cuid,
  managed,
  sap.common.CodeList
} from '@sap/cds/common';

namespace sap.capire.incidents;

/**
* Incidents created by Customers.
*/
entity Incidents : cuid, managed {
  customer     : Association to Customers;
  title        : String @title: 'Title';
  urgency      : Association to Urgency default 'M';
  status       : Association to Status default 'N';
  conversation : Composition of many {
                   key ID        : UUID;
                       timestamp : type of managed : createdAt;
                       author    : type of managed : createdBy;
                       message   : String;
                 };
}

/**
* Customers entitled to create support Incidents.
*/
entity Customers : managed {
  key ID           : String;
      firstName    : String;
      lastName     : String;
      name         : String = trim(firstName || ' ' || lastName);
      email        : EMailAddress;
      phone        : PhoneNumber;
      incidents    : Association to many Incidents
                       on incidents.customer = $self;
      creditCardNo : String(16) @assert.format: '^[1-9]\d{15}$';
      addresses    : Composition of many Addresses
                       on addresses.customer = $self;
}

entity Addresses : cuid, managed {
  customer      : Association to Customers;
  city          : String;
  postCode      : String;
  streetAddress : String;
}

entity Status : CodeList {
  key code        : String enum {
        new = 'N';
        assigned = 'A';
        in_process = 'I';
        on_hold = 'H';
        resolved = 'R';
        closed = 'C';
      };
      criticality : Integer;
}

entity Urgency : CodeList {
  key code : String enum {
        high = 'H';
        medium = 'M';
        low = 'L';
      };
}

type EMailAddress : String;
type PhoneNumber  : String;

What happens here?
The provided CDS code snippet defines several entities and their relationships.
The Incidents entity represents incidents created by customers, with fields for customer, title, urgency, status, and a composition of many conversations. Each conversation has an ID, timestamp, author, and message.
The Customers entity represents customers who can create support incidents. It includes fields for ID, first name, last name, e-mail, phone, credit card number, and a composition of many addresses. The name field is calculated from the firstName and lastName fields. Elements can be specified with a calculation expression, in which you can refer to other elements of the same entity. These calculated elements are used for convenience. For more information, see Calculated Elements.
The Addresses entity represents the addresses of customers, with fields for customer, city, postcode, and street address.
The Status and Urgency entities represent the status and urgency of incidents, respectively. Both are of type CodeList and include a code field with a set of predefined values.
The EMailAddress and PhoneNumber are defined as types of String.
The code also includes the use of cuid and managed from @sap/cds/common, which are common features for defining entities in CDS. The cuid feature provides a unique identifier for an entity, while managed adds common administrative fields such as createdAt and createdBy.

As soon as you paste the code in your newly created file, the CAP server that is still running reacts immediately with a new output:

Shell

[cds] - loaded model from 2 file(s):

  db/schema.cds
  <path-to>/node_modules/@sap/cds/common.cds

[cds] - connect using bindings from: { registry: '~/.cds-services.json' }
[cds] - connect to db > sqlite { url: ':memory:' }
/> successfully deployed to in-memory database.

This output means that the CAP server detected the changes in schema.cds and automatically created an in-memory SQLite database when restarting the server process. However, the CAP server also prints this message:

Shell
No service definitions found in loaded models.
Waiting for some to arrive...

Step 3 Create services

It’s a good practice in CAP to create single-purposed services. Therefore, let’s define a ProcessorService that support engineers use to process incidents created by customers. Let’s also define an AdminService that administrators use to perform admin activities such as analyzing audit logs.

To create the services’ definition:

In the srv folder, create a new services.cds file.

Paste the following code snippet in the services.cds file:

CDS

using {sap.capire.incidents as my} from '../db/schema';

/**
 * Service used by support personell, i.e. the incidents' 'processors'.
 */
service ProcessorService {
    entity Incidents as projection on my.Incidents;

    @readonly
    entity Customers as projection on my.Customers;
}

/**
 * Service used by administrators to manage customers and incidents.
 */
service AdminService {
    entity Customers as projection on my.Customers;
    entity Incidents as projection on my.Incidents;
}

This time, the CAP server reacted with additional output:

Shell
[cds] - serving ProcessorService { path: '/odata/v4/processor' }
[cds] - serving AdminService { path: '/odata/v4/admin' }

[cds] - server listening on { url: 'http://localhost:4004' }
[cds] - [ terminate with ^C ]

As you can see in the log output, the new file created two generic service providers: ProcessorService that serves requests on the /odata/v4/processor endpoint and AdminService that serves requests on the /odata/v4/admin endpoint. If you open the link http://localhost:4004 from SAP Business Application Studio in your browser, you see the generic index.html page:

You have to stop the CAP server with Ctrl + C and start it again with the cds watch command.

In the srv folder, create a new services.cds file.

Paste the following code snippet in the services.cds file:

CDS

using { sap.capire.incidents as my } from '../db/schema';

/**
 * Service used by support personell, i.e. the incidents' 'processors'.
 */
service ProcessorService { 
    entity Incidents as projection on my.Incidents;

    @readonly
    entity Customers as projection on my.Customers;
}

/**
 * Service used by administrators to manage customers and incidents.
 */
service AdminService {
    entity Customers as projection on my.Customers;
    entity Incidents as projection on my.Incidents;
    }

This time, the CAP server reacted with additional output:

Shell
2024-12-06T14:02:29.740Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.services.impl.ServiceCatalogImpl   : Registered service AdminService
2024-12-06T14:02:29.742Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.services.impl.ServiceCatalogImpl   : Registered service ProcessorService
2024-12-06T14:02:29.743Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] .s.c.r.CdsRuntimeBeanDefinitionRegistrar : Auto-configuration of DataSource beans is explicitly disabled.
2024-12-06T14:02:30.161Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat initialized with port 8080 (http)
2024-12-06T14:02:30.175Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Starting service [Tomcat]
2024-12-06T14:02:30.175Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine    : Starting Servlet engine: [Apache Tomcat/10.1.31]
2024-12-06T14:02:30.199Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext
2024-12-06T14:02:30.199Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] w.s.c.ServletWebServerApplicationContext : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 944 ms
2024-12-06T14:02:30.217Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Starting...
2024-12-06T14:02:30.339Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool        : HikariPool-1 - Added connection conn0: url=jdbc:h2:mem:ef5eb10f-0fc9-413e-9358-0c9e2365c3aa user=SA
2024-12-06T14:02:30.340Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Start completed.
2024-12-06T14:02:30.348Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.a.h2.H2ConsoleAutoConfiguration    : H2 console available at '/h2-console'. Database available at 'jdbc:h2:mem:ef5eb10f-0fc9-413e-9358-0c9e2365c3aa'
2024-12-06T14:02:30.388Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.f.s.c.adapter.AdapterBeanFactory   : Servlet CdsODataV4Servlet mapped to /odata/v4
2024-12-06T14:02:30.391Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.f.s.c.adapter.AdapterBeanFactory   : Servlet IndexPageServlet mapped to /
2024-12-06T14:02:30.393Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.f.s.c.adapter.AdapterBeanFactory   : Servlet CdsFioriPreviewServlet mapped to /$fiori-preview
2024-12-06T14:02:30.573Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.services.impl.ServiceCatalogImpl   : Registered service PersistenceService$Default
2024-12-06T14:02:30.614Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] .s.c.a.o.v.m.p.EdmxProviderConfiguration : Initialized Default EDMX V4 Provider
2024-12-06T14:02:30.619Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] .s.c.a.o.v.m.p.EdmxProviderConfiguration : Initialized Default EDMX I18n Provider
2024-12-06T14:02:30.650Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.sap.cds.services.impl.utils.BuildInfo  : git.commit.id: 9d82be78fe5d02e889632e16057953cbfc609d5b
2024-12-06T14:02:30.650Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.sap.cds.services.impl.utils.BuildInfo  : maven.version: 3.4.1
2024-12-06T14:02:30.689Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.d.a.OptionalLiveReloadServer       : LiveReload server is running on port 35729
2024-12-06T14:02:30.703Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat started on port 8080 (http) with context path '/'
2024-12-06T14:02:30.709Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.incident_management.Application        : Started Application in 1.725 seconds (process running for 2.035)

You can see in the log output, the new file created two generic service providers: ProcessorService and AdminService.

In the bottom right of your SAP Business Application Studio window, look for the popup A service is listening to port 8080.
Choose Open in a New Tab.
Open in a new tab
You see the generic index.html page:
index.html

You need to stop the CAP server with Ctrl + C and start it again with the mvn cds:watch command.

Step 4 Generate comma-separated values (CSV) templates

Since we already have an SQLite in-memory database that was automatically created in the previous step, let’s now fill it with initial data.

Run the following command in the incident-management root folder of your project:
Shell
```
cds add data
```

Check the output.

Shell
Adding feature 'data'...
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Addresses.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Customers.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.conversation.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Status.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Status.texts.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.csv
Creating db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.texts.csv

Successfully added features to your project.

You can find the generated CSV templates within the db folder, in a newly created data folder.

Step 5 Fill in the initial data

Important distinction between initial data and test data
You need to distinguish between (real) initial data meant for production (configuration, code lists) and test data meant for development and testing purposes only. For more information, see Initial vs Test Data.

Replace the respective generated CSV templates with the following content:

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Addresses.csv:

CSV

ID,customer_ID,city,postCode,streetAddress
17e00347-dc7e-4ca9-9c5d-06ccef69f064,1004155,Rome,00164,Piazza Adriana
d8e797d9-6507-4aaa-b43f-5d2301df5135,1004161,Munich,80809,Olympia Park
ff13d2fa-e00f-4ee5-951c-3303f490777b,1004100,Walldorf,69190,Dietmar-Hopp-Allee

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Customers.csv:

CSV

ID,firstName,lastName,email,phone
1004155,Daniel,Watts,daniel.watts@demo.com,+39-555-123
1004161,Stormy,Weathers,stormy.weathers@demo.com,+49-020-022
1004100,Sunny,Sunshine,sunny.sunshine@demo.com,+49-555-789

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.conversation.csv:

CSV

ID,up__ID,timestamp,author,message
2b23bb4b-4ac7-4a24-ac02-aa10cabd842c,3b23bb4b-4ac7-4a24-ac02-aa10cabd842c,1995-12-17T03:24:00Z,Harry John,Can you please check if battery connections are fine?
2b23bb4b-4ac7-4a24-ac02-aa10cabd843c,3a4ede72-244a-4f5f-8efa-b17e032d01ee,1995-12-18T04:24:00Z,Emily Elizabeth,Can you please check if there are any loose connections?
9583f982-d7df-4aad-ab26-301d4a157cd7,3583f982-d7df-4aad-ab26-301d4a157cd7,2022-09-04T12:00:00Z,Sunny Sunshine,Please check why the solar panel is broken.
9583f982-d7df-4aad-ab26-301d4a158cd7,3ccf474c-3881-44b7-99fb-59a2a4668418,2022-09-04T13:00:00Z,Bradley Flowers,What exactly is wrong?

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.csv:

CSV

ID,customer_ID,title,urgency_code,status_code
3b23bb4b-4ac7-4a24-ac02-aa10cabd842c,1004155,Inverter not functional,H,C
3a4ede72-244a-4f5f-8efa-b17e032d01ee,1004161,No current on a sunny day,H,N
3ccf474c-3881-44b7-99fb-59a2a4668418,1004161,Strange noise when switching off Inverter,M,N
3583f982-d7df-4aad-ab26-301d4a157cd7,1004100,Solar panel broken,H,I

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Status.csv:

CSV

code,descr,criticality
N,New,3
A,Assigned,2
I,In Process,2
H,On Hold,3
R,Resolved,2
C,Closed,4

db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.csv:
CSV
```
code,descr
H,High
M,Medium
L,Low
```
Notice that cds add data created eight files, while we’re adding data to just six of them. We’re leaving the files sap.capire.incidents-Status.texts.csv and sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.texts.csv empty because they hold translated text that are filled once the application is localized and translations are created.

Upon detecting these new files, the CAP server prints a message stating that the content of the files has been filled into the database automatically:

Shell
[cds] - connect to db > sqlite { database: ':memory:' }
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Addresses.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Customers.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.conversation.csv
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Status.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Status.texts.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.csv 
  > init from db\data\sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.texts.csv 
/> successfully deployed to in-memory database.

Make sure that your CAP server is still running. You can start it with cds watch.

Now that the database is filled with some initial data, you can send complex OData queries served by the built-in generic service providers. With the generic index.html page opened in your browser, paste the following queries at the end of the current URL and check the result:

/odata/v4/processor/Incidents
Incidents
/odata/v4/processor/Customers?$select=firstName&$expand=incidents
Incidents per customer

Shell
2024-12-06T14:12:46.228Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Incidents.conversation from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.conversation.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.229Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Incidents from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Incidents.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.230Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Customers from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Customers.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.231Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Status from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Status.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.232Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Addresses from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Addresses.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.233Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.s.c.s.impl.persistence.CsvDataLoader   : Filling sap.capire.incidents.Urgency from ../db/data/sap.capire.incidents-Urgency.csv
2024-12-06T14:12:46.244Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.d.a.OptionalLiveReloadServer       : LiveReload server is running on port 35729
2024-12-06T14:12:46.249Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat started on port 8080 (http) with context path '/'
2024-12-06T14:12:46.250Z  INFO 10998 --- [  restartedMain] c.incident_management.Application        : Started Application in 0.211 seconds (process running for 617.577)

Make sure that your CAP server is still running. You can start it with mvn cds:watch.

/odata/v4/ProcessorService/Incidents
Incidents
/odata/v4/ProcessorService/Customers?$select=firstName&$expand=incidents
Incidents per customer

When you revisit the Incidents or the Customers endpoint, you see unformatted data instead of the nicely formatted output from above.
No JSON Viewer
However, unformatted data doesn’t mean you’ve made a mistake in the tutorial. Rather, this is the correct output without any formatting. If you’d like to see a formatted output in your browser, you can add an extension to your browser. Here are a few exemplary JSON formatters for different browsers:
Chrome
Microsoft Edge
Safari

Resources

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Steps

1. Create a CAP project

2. Add a domain model

3. Create services

4. Generate comma-separated values (CSV) templates

5. Fill in the initial data

Build a CAP Application

Overview

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Prerequisites

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Steps

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