In today’s cloud-centric enterprise landscape, building scalable and modular applications is critical. The Multi-Target Application (MTA) approach by SAP provides a powerful framework to develop and deploy composite applications that consist of multiple interdependent modules (like UI, services, database, and more). This enables efficient management, development, and deployment of complex applications on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
This article provides a comprehensive guide to implementing MTA development and deployment using SAP Web IDE, covering key concepts, development steps, and deployment best practices.
An MTA is a packaged solution consisting of multiple deployable modules — such as SAPUI5 frontend apps, Node.js or Java backends, and database artifacts — that are managed and deployed together. MTAs allow you to:
SAP Web IDE (particularly SAP Business Application Studio, the successor of Web IDE Full-Stack) provides an integrated cloud development environment with support for:
This scaffolds the basic MTA structure including:
mta.yaml: The descriptor file defining modules, resources, and dependencies.app for SAPUI5, srv for Node.js or Java backend.Create and develop each module inside the MTA project:
app.srv folder.Make sure each module has its own configuration files like package.json for Node.js or pom.xml for Java.
mta.yamlThe mta.yaml is the core descriptor that defines:
Example snippet:
ID: my.mta.project
_schema-version: "3.2"
version: 1.0.0
modules:
- name: ui_module
type: html5
path: app
requires:
- name: uaa_service
- name: srv_module
type: nodejs
path: srv
requires:
- name: hdi_container
resources:
- name: uaa_service
type: org.cloudfoundry.managed-service
parameters:
service: xsuaa
service-plan: application
- name: hdi_container
type: org.cloudfoundry.managed-service
parameters:
service: hana
service-plan: hdi-shared
mbt build
This generates an .mtar file — the deployable archive containing all modules and metadata.
cf deploy mta_archives/my.mta.project_1.0.0.mtar
mta.yaml..mtar.mta.yaml and source code under Git.cf local or sandbox environments.Implementing MTA development and deployment via SAP Web IDE streamlines the lifecycle of complex SAP applications by providing a modular, maintainable, and scalable architecture. This approach aligns perfectly with cloud-native principles and SAP Business Technology Platform standards.
By mastering MTA projects, SAP developers can deliver composite solutions that integrate UI, business logic, and data seamlessly while benefiting from SAP’s cloud infrastructure.