Release and Maintenance Strategy for SAPUI5 on SAP Cloud Platform

If you want to run SAPUI5 web applications or Fiori apps in your Fiori launchpad on SAP Cloud Platform you always have to define one SAPUI5 library version for your apps or launchpad.

You have several options: SAPUI5 custom versions, which are not supported by SAP, or supported SAPUI5 versions, which are either in maintenance phase or innovation phase.

Planned new SAPUI5 innovation, maintenance versions on SAP Cloud Platform are delivered in typical release and update cycles and have a typical life time, during they are supported.

SAPUI5 versions, which are no longer supported are “custom versions”, which still are available, but are not recommended for productive use.

(Remark: Planned or future release dates and version numbers reflect the current planning and can be changed any time.)

SAPUI5 versions

SAPUI5 is a web browser client library to build Fiori apps and provides everything you need to build enterprise-ready web apps. It comes with all main SAP platforms, such as SAP Cloud Platform, but can also be used outside the SAP ecosystem because a large part of SAPUI5 had been open sourced with OpenUI5. SAPUI5 is based on JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 and runs in a browser on different devices (mobile, tablet or desktop PC). Business data from the SAP backend or SAP Cloud Platform data services are typically accessed using the OData model.

You always must define one SAPUI5 library version to run your SAPUI5 apps with.

You can either specify a specific SAPUI5 version (https://ui5.sap.com/1.42.6/resources/sap-ui-core.js) or the default version (https://ui5.sap.com/resources/sap-ui-core.js), which is the newest available released version, either Maintenance or Innovation version. If you reference a specific version, this can be also a custom version, which will be not supported by SAP. For more information, see “Bootstrapping from Content Delivery Network”.

The default version is constantly being upgraded and this might have an impact on the stability of your application. Use this version for testing purposes only.

SAPUI5 via Content Delivery Network

Since 2015, SAPUI5 running on SAP Cloud Platform (https://ui5.sap.com/) is also delivered via Akamai. Instead of fetching the SAPUI5 runtime, SDK and documentation from SAP Cloud Platform, the end user will now retrieve them from the closest to him Akamai server. (see SAP blog SAPUI5 is now delivered via Akamai CDN).

For more information, see SAPUI5 product page or SAPUI5 SDK.

Release and Maintenance Strategy for SAPUI5 on SAP Cloud Platform

SAPUI5 provides innovations on a regular basis through “innovation versions” during the innovation phase, which typically has an one year cycle and is delivered on a quarterly basis on SAP Cloud Platform.

Only the last available SAPUI5 innovation version is supported during innovation phase. Changes for this version are delivered via patches.

The last innovation version of the innovation cycle, which receives new features and enhanced functionality, is also the first maintenance version of the maintenance phase, which typically lasts 2 years, even though one or several higher SAPUI5 version are already available.

Maintenance version has a fixed minor version number, updates for this version are delivered via maintenance version patches.

All other SAPUI5 versions are no longer maintained and there will be no patches containing fixes.

For the versioning schema of SAPUI5, see versioning of SAPUI5.

SAPUI5 maintenance versions overview

For an overview about SAPUI5 versions available on SAP Cloud Platform, see https://sapui5.hana.ondemand.com/versionoverview.html

The most important versions are these:

Version Phase                  Planned End of Maintenance

1.48.*    Innovation         Q4/2017 (innovation version only)

1.44.*    Maintenance    Q4/2019 (contains Fiori theme Belize)

1.38.*    Maintenance    Q4/2018

1.28.*   Maintenance    Q4/2017

Other Versions are out of maintenance.

SAP recommends to implement a SAPUI5 version with Maintenance Phase “Maintenance” in your productive system in order to avoid disruption as these versions are maintained for an extended period. SAPUI5 versions with Maintenance Phase “Innovation” are only in maintenance for a shorter period of time. SAPUI5 versions with Maintenance Phase “Out of maintenance” should not be used in productive systems.

Configuring SAPUI5 version in SAP Cloud Platform Portal

SAP Cloud Platform Portal includes the SAP Fiori Launchpad Sites. The SAP Fiori launchpad provides access to SAP Fiori apps via a single, intuitive interface, while the Cloud Portal is typically used for free-style, custom-built design.

The SAP Fiori launchpad configuration cockpit is a browser-based tool used by administrators to create and maintain content for SAP Fiori launchpads.

Configuring the SAPUI5 version for Fiori Launchpad apps: In the Launchpad “Site settings”, you define the SAPUI5 runtime version from the list of available SAPUI5 versions, whereof you must choose one version per Launchpad site.

Select one of the available SAPUI5 versions to use for the runtime:

• Innovation (or Latest Supported Version)- A version that is updated according to SAPUI5 releases. This is the default.
• Maintenance – A version that uses the same SAPUI5 release for a predefined period of time.
• Custom – You can select a specific SAPUI5 version, in the range between the official maintenance version and the latest innovation version delivered with SAP Fiori launchpad.

Note: Using a custom SAPUI5 version is not recommended for productive use, because SAP does not provide support for custom versions.

Upgrading to a new version of SAPUI5

For more information about what you have to consider when upgrading to a new version of SAPUI5, see UI5 online documentation section “Upgrading“.

Additional Information

SAP Cloud Platform

SAP Cloud Platform is SAP´S agile platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for digital transformation, with comprehensive application development services and capabilities.

SAP Cloud Platform supports different programming languages and models, such as SAPUI5, a UI technology that provides everything you need to build enterprise-ready web apps. For more information, see https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/CP/Cloud/en-US.

SAP Fiori Apps and Fiori Cloud

SAP Fiori apps are built with SAPUI5 and follow the SAP Fiori design guidelines to ensure consistent design and a high level of design quality.

SAP Fiori Apps require front-end components, available on SAP Cloud Platform, and typically need on premise back-end components providing the data.

The SAP Fiori App product version must be released for the implemented backend product version and for the front-end server product version.

For a list of available Fiori apps on SAP Fiori Cloud, see SAP Fiori apps reference library in the section “available via SAP Fiori Cloud”.

For more information about SAP Fiori in general, see  https://help.sap.com/fiori and SAP Fiori Cloud https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_FIORI_CLOUD_ALL.

Release and Maintenance Strategy for Cloud Solutions

For the SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy for Cloud Solutions, which do not include SAP Cloud Platform, see also Release and Maintenance Strategy on SAP Support Portal,

https://support.sap.com/en/release-upgrade-maintenance.html

section Learn more about the SAP Release and Maintenance Strategy

https://support.sap.com/content/dam/support/en_us/library/ssp/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-strategy/sap-release-and-maintenance-strategy-new.pdf

Chapter Release and Maintenance Strategy for Cloud Solutions.