SER at SAP event: UI5con 2019

Some 400 participants attended this year's UI5con at the German SAP headquarters in St. Leon-Rot. The one-day event was all about the UI5 technology behind SAP Fiori. In addition to many insightful presentations focusing on topics such as Fiori 3, the upgrade of the UI stack, UI5 evolution and UI5 web components, we were particularly excited by the opportunity to exchange information with the SAP developers. As a long-time certified SAP partner, we place great value on maintaining close contact with them to integrate SAP’s latest technical innovations in the Doxis roadmap.

UI5con is a community event that connects all UI5 enthusiasts: It provides a common platform for getting to know each other, discussing innovations, and finding new solutions. Through presentations, discussions, hands-on sessions and networking, participants from all over the world met up again this year to share their passion for UI5.

The event was opened by Frederic Berg, Vice President of SAP Cloud Platform UI Core Services, who gave a one-hour keynote presentation. The focus was on Fiori 3, the upgrade of the UI stack, UI5 evolution and the UI5 web components, which were examined further in presentations later in the day.

SAP Fiori 3 is the new design scheme of SAP. The aim is to implement it seamlessly across all SAP products to provide a consistent look and feel. In addition to the new "Quartz" theme with a fresh, modern look and feel, the layout of the SAP Fiori launchpad has also been redesigned. The focus here is on the SAP CoPilot. This is a personalized, digital assistant designed to support users through machine learning.

The UI5 web components are independent, reusable UI elements that comply with the UI5 design scheme. They provide a number of features that allow users to extend standard HTML vocabulary with custom HTML elements. The objective is to provide all SAP products with a consistent design scheme.

The UI5 framework and UI components have become more complex over time. Due to metadata-driven controls as well as auto-generated apps from Fiori Elements, an inconsistent framework developed. The goal of upgrading the UI stack is to improve the architecture of the UI components in order to provide users with the best possible runtime behavior, performance and user experience.

Through direct exchange with UI5 developers on site, we were able to gain many ideas and insights for the integration of Doxis and SAP Fiori. The range of information and details about aligning SAP Fiori and UI5 technology will help us focus our products and services on the new SAP platform and fully exploit its technical capabilities. The close collaboration will also enable us to actively influence the design of the public interfaces of SAP Fiori. This is particularly important for the design of future versions of Doxis SmartBridge for SAP and Doxis InvoiceMaster Control for SAP, as we continue to seamlessly integrate Doxis and SAP. This ensures SAP users will be able to get all the relevant information from SAP and Doxis at any time in the up-to-date context of their work.