Styling plays a critical role in building SAP UI5 applications that are not only functional but also visually appealing, consistent, and aligned with SAP Fiori design principles. Proper styling ensures a seamless user experience, consistent branding, and responsive layouts across devices.
This article outlines the best practices for styling SAP UI5 applications to help developers create maintainable, scalable, and performant UI5 apps with clean and consistent user interfaces.
SAP UI5 is built around the SAP Fiori Design System, which provides clear guidelines on colors, typography, spacing, icons, and UI patterns.
Best Practices:
SAP UI5 supports theming through the Theme Designer and CSS variables:
Wherever possible, use XML view attributes and control properties to set styling:
<Button
text="Submit"
type="Emphasized"
width="150px"
design="Bold"
/>
type, design, width, and height to customize appearance without CSS.Sometimes, custom CSS is necessary to meet specific design needs.
Best Practices:
.css or .less files linked to components or views.!important as it breaks cascading and maintainability.SAP UI5 provides numerous utility CSS classes and layout controls for alignment and spacing:
sap.m.FlexBox, sap.m.HBox, sap.m.VBox, sap.ui.layout.Grid for responsive and flexible layouts.sapUiTinyMargin, sapUiSmallMarginBegin for consistent margins and paddings.SAP UI5 apps must support multiple screen sizes and devices.
Best Practices:
sap.m controls that are responsive by design.%, em, rem) where possible.If custom branding is required:
Modern SAP UI5 apps should support accessibility options:
Inline styling (e.g., setting style attributes in XML or JS code) should be avoided because:
Use CSS classes or control properties instead.
Proper styling in SAP UI5 is a blend of leveraging SAP Fiori design principles, using UI5’s built-in controls and classes, and applying custom styles carefully when necessary. Adhering to these best practices ensures visually consistent, responsive, and maintainable SAP UI5 applications that deliver excellent user experiences aligned with SAP’s UX standards.
If you want, I can help you create sample themes or style snippets for your SAP UI5 project — just let me know!