SAP HANA Live provides real-time operational reporting capabilities by exposing business data through OData services built on top of CDS views and other HANA artifacts. To deliver intuitive and interactive user experiences, SAPUI5 applications are often employed as the front-end technology. Connecting SAPUI5 applications to OData services is essential for enabling seamless data consumption, manipulation, and visualization directly from live transactional data.
This article outlines the fundamental concepts, methods, and best practices for connecting SAPUI5 applications to OData services within the SAP HANA Live context.
OData (Open Data Protocol) is a standardized REST-based protocol designed to enable CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on data exposed as resources over the web. In SAP environments, OData services are commonly generated from CDS views, SAP Gateway, or SAP HANA XS services, allowing external applications to consume SAP data in a structured and standardized way.
SAPUI5 is SAP’s JavaScript UI framework designed for building responsive and enterprise-ready web applications. By connecting SAPUI5 apps to OData services, developers can:
In SAP HANA Live, CDS views are annotated to expose them as OData services:
@OData.publish: true annotation in CDS view definitions to generate OData services automatically.Example annotation:
@OData.publish: true
define view ZSalesOrders as select from sales_order { ... }
In your SAPUI5 app, configure the OData model to consume the published service:
var oModel = new sap.ui.model.odata.v2.ODataModel("/sap/opu/odata/sap/ZSALESORDERS_SRV/");
sap.ui.getCore().setModel(oModel);
/sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/.Once the OData model is set, bind UI controls (e.g., tables, lists, charts) to the data entities exposed by the service:
<Table items="{/SalesOrderSet}">
<columns>
<Column><Text text="Order ID"/></Column>
<Column><Text text="Customer"/></Column>
<Column><Text text="Amount"/></Column>
</columns>
<items>
<ColumnListItem>
<cells>
<Text text="{OrderID}"/>
<Text text="{CustomerName}"/>
<Text text="{Amount}"/>
</cells>
</ColumnListItem>
</items>
</Table>
This binding automatically fetches data and renders it on the UI.
SAPUI5 supports OData query options to enable filtering, sorting, and pagination at the service level:
oTable.getBinding("items").filter(new sap.ui.model.Filter("Amount", sap.ui.model.FilterOperator.GT, 1000));
oTable.getBinding("items").sort(new sap.ui.model.Sorter("OrderDate", true));
These operations generate optimized requests to the OData service, improving performance and user experience.
For scenarios requiring data updates, SAPUI5 supports create, update, and delete operations through the ODataModel API:
oModel.update("/SalesOrderSet('12345')", { Status: "Shipped" }, {
success: function() { sap.m.MessageToast.show("Update successful"); },
error: function() { sap.m.MessageToast.show("Update failed"); }
});
This allows real-time transactional changes, adhering to SAP's backend validation and authorization.
Connecting SAPUI5 applications to OData services is a fundamental skill in the SAP HANA Live environment, enabling rich, real-time, and enterprise-grade user interfaces. By leveraging CDS views as OData providers and SAPUI5’s robust data binding mechanisms, developers can build scalable, responsive applications that empower business users with instant insights and actionable data.
This integration not only enhances user experience but also aligns with SAP’s strategy of intelligent enterprise architecture, combining powerful back-end capabilities with flexible front-end technologies.