SAP Fiori Elements accelerates app development by providing metadata-driven templates that follow SAP Fiori design principles, ensuring consistent and efficient user experiences. However, there are scenarios where the out-of-the-box Fiori Elements components might not fulfill all UI requirements. To overcome this, developers often seek to integrate third-party UI5 libraries to enhance the user interface with custom controls, visualizations, or functionality.
This article explores how to effectively integrate SAP Fiori Elements with third-party UI5 libraries, balancing extensibility with maintainability and adhering to SAP best practices.
While Fiori Elements offers predefined templates like List Report, Object Page, and Analytical List Page, sometimes you need:
Integrating third-party libraries enables enhanced flexibility without sacrificing the benefits of Fiori Elements.
Fiori Elements provides extension mechanisms allowing insertion of custom UI fragments or controls:
Example:
<ExtensionPoint name="BeforeSection" >
<core:Fragment fragmentName="my.namespace.CustomChart" type="XML" />
</ExtensionPoint>
This lets you add third-party visualizations like charts or maps without altering core app structure.
Create a custom XML fragment containing third-party UI5 controls and integrate it via Fiori Elements extensions.
Example with a community chart library:
<mvc:View
xmlns:mvc="sap.ui.core.mvc"
xmlns:chartLib="third.party.chart.namespace"
controllerName="my.namespace.controller">
<chartLib:CustomChart id="myChart" width="100%" height="400px" />
</mvc:View>
Bind this fragment in your Fiori Elements app extension point.
manifest.jsonRegister external UI5 libraries in the manifest.json under sap.ui5/resources or sap.ui5/dependencies to ensure proper loading:
"sap.ui5": {
"dependencies": {
"libs": {
"third.party.library": {}
}
},
"resources": {
"css": [
{
"uri": "third.party.library/resources/css/custom.css"
}
]
}
}
This approach ensures libraries and their resources are available to the app.
For large third-party libraries, use asynchronous module loading (AMD) to optimize performance and only load components when needed.
An Object Page in a Fiori Elements app requires a heatmap visualization unavailable in standard SAP controls. The developer:
manifest.json.The result is a seamless blend of Fiori Elements standard UI and advanced custom visualization.
Integrating SAP Fiori Elements with third-party UI5 libraries enhances flexibility, enabling tailored and rich user experiences beyond standard templates. By leveraging Fiori Elements extension points, proper resource management, and adhering to SAP design principles, developers can safely and effectively incorporate external UI5 controls.
This integration approach strikes a balance between the power of metadata-driven UI generation and the need for specialized functionalities, helping organizations deliver highly usable, performant, and visually appealing Fiori apps.