Creating visually appealing and user-friendly enterprise applications is a critical aspect of SAPUI5 development. While SAPUI5 offers a rich set of pre-built UI controls with consistent look and feel, the power of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) allows developers to customize and enhance the styling of applications beyond default themes. Understanding how SAPUI5 integrates with CSS is essential for building modern, responsive, and branded user interfaces.
SAPUI5 uses a modular CSS architecture that follows industry best practices, leveraging standard CSS along with SAP-specific theming tools. The framework supports:
SAPUI5 controls come with built-in CSS classes and properties that define their appearance. These styles are part of the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines, ensuring consistency and usability. However, developers can customize or override these styles to meet specific design requirements.
SAPUI5 offers standard themes such as SAP Belize or SAP Quartz. These themes provide:
Themes are loaded automatically based on application configuration but can be switched dynamically if needed.
You can include your own CSS files in the SAPUI5 project to apply custom styles.
Example: Including a custom CSS file
In your Component.js or manifest.json, include:
jQuery.sap.includeStyleSheet("css/customStyles.css");
Or in manifest.json:
"resources": {
"css": [
{
"uri": "css/customStyles.css"
}
]
}
In customStyles.css, you might add:
.myCustomButton {
background-color: #007cc0;
color: white;
border-radius: 5px;
}
Apply this CSS class to a control:
<Button text="Custom Styled Button" class="myCustomButton" />
While less common, SAPUI5 controls support setting inline CSS styles programmatically.
var oButton = new sap.m.Button({
text: "Inline Styled Button"
});
oButton.addStyleClass("sapUiMediumMargin");
oButton.getDomRef().style.backgroundColor = "#e60000";
Note: Direct DOM manipulation is generally discouraged because SAPUI5 manages DOM lifecycle internally.
SAPUI5 is built for responsiveness, but CSS plays a key role in refining layouts for devices.
Example: Media query for mobile
@media (max-width: 600px) {
.myCustomButton {
width: 100%;
font-size: 18px;
}
}
This adjusts the button style for small screens, enhancing usability on smartphones.
Styling SAPUI5 applications with CSS unlocks the full potential of UI customization, allowing developers to create tailored, attractive, and responsive enterprise apps. By combining SAPUI5’s powerful UI controls and theming infrastructure with standard CSS techniques, developers can meet business branding requirements and improve user experience while maintaining consistency and scalability.
Mastering SAPUI5 styling with CSS is a crucial skill for any SAP UI5 developer looking to deliver next-level enterprise applications.