ABAP_to_the_Future

13
SAPUI5
13.6 Importing SAPUI5 Applications to SAP ERP
It’s possible that throughout this chapte r you’ve been horrified by the idea of
developing in Eclipse, where the files are stored on your local computer, as
opposed to in the SAP ABAP repository, which is where everything you normally
develop lives.
The good news is that it is in fact possible to move your new SAPUI5 application
inside the SAP system, where it can join the repository object club. Technically,
how this is done is that the SAPUI5 runtime leverages the BSP framework to store
the SAPUI5 artifacts on the ABAP server . BSP applications look a bit like HTML
pages with other programming languages inside them, and by usage of the mime
repository and a special ICF handler, the SAPUI5 application can be stored in such
a way that it looks like a BSP application, even if it isn’t one really—like those
insects that disguise themselves as bees to get inside the hive and steal the honey.
This section explains how to store SAPU I5 applications in SAP ERP for releases
both prior to and after 7.31. The section ends by discussing how to test SAPUI5
applications from within SAP ERP.
13.6.1 Storing the Application in Releases Lower than 7.31
For releases below 7.31, you cannot directly move an SAPUI5 application definition
into the SAP ERP system. However, the good news is that SAP Note 1793771
provides a workaround, giving you an ABAP report to upload and download files.
After about SP 3 for release 7.02, this report is available as standard in the SAP
ERP system and is called /UI5/UI5_REPOSITORY_LOAD (the irony here is that this
standard SAP report supplied to upload SAPUI5 applications contains an awful lot
of WRITE statements).
To get started with the process of movingyour SAPUI5 application definition into
the ABAP system, select your main monste r node in Eclipse, right-click on it,
choose Export, select File System, and the whole application structure will be
saved in a folder on your local machine. Next, go to SE38 and run program /UI5/
UI5_REPOSITORY_LOAD; there is no transaction code.
The screen shown in Figure 13.42 appears. Be careful here; the length of the input
box might make you think you can have a really long name, but only 12 charac-
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