Author: Swapnil Samel, SAP UI5/ABAP Consultant at TJC Group
SAP® Build Apps is SAP’s offering in the low-code/no-code space. TJC Group developers have put together a series of videos that show how to create an app with SAP® Build Apps in just a few hours, without writing a single line of code. Watch this video to get a glimpse of the Sales Order Display app for ELSA by TJC.
If you want to learn more, scroll down to watch two technical videos that demonstrate, in further detail, how to create an app in SAP® Build Apps from scratch.
Technical insights SAP® Build Apps video demo
How to create an application from scratch for ELSA by TJC – Part 1
In this video, we will show you the steps to follow to create an application with SAP Build Apps from scratch. You’ll learn how to set up the navigation, how to connect the data and personalise the theme, how to work on the UI Canva using your own components or those from the marketplace, etc. Watch the demo now!
How to create an application from scratch for ELSA by TJC – Part 2
Now that you are familiar with SAP BUILD, it’s time to get the ball rolling. Watch this video to know how to access SAP Build Apps from SAP BTP Cockpit.
We will also show how we’ve created a Sales Order Display app for ELSA using SAP Build Apps and ELSA RESTAPI. Enterprise Legacy System Application (ELSA) is a legacy system decommissioning solution developed by TJC Group and built on SAP BTP.
With just a few hours of work, our developers created an application for ELSA to visualise Sales order details with SAP BUILD Apps without writing a single line of code. By using the drag-and-drop menu, it is possible to quickly and seamlessly build the application with the provided components in SAP Build Apps.
After that, the data is accessed through the ELSA REST API. Commonly referred to as a RESTful API, a REST API is an application programming interface (API or web API) that conforms to the constraints of the REST architectural style and allows for interaction with RESTful web services.
Enterprise Legacy System Applications (ELSA)
ELSA is a system decommissioning solution designed to store and access legacy data at any time, from any source, through a single platform. Built on SAP BTP, ELSA allows users to visualize all decommissioned systems (SAP and non-SAP) through the legacy systems directory application. It’s worth noting that the data displayed on the Sales Order Display app can be stored either on ELSA or the SAP S4/HANA system, as shown in the video.
SAP Build Apps, a low-code/no-code solution
SAP Build Apps is a user-centric design and prototyping tool developed by SAP to help businesses create and test user-friendly, interactive prototypes for applications and software interfaces. It is designed to streamline the design process and improve user experience by allowing designers and developers to quickly create and iterate on designs based on user feedback.
Use cases of low-code / no-code
Imagine you are on the go and want to find the details of a specific sales order. Just pop out your mobile phone or tablet, open TJC Group Sales Order display application and type the sales order number. In a few seconds, all the details will appear on the screen. Importantly, in case some fields were originally masked on ELSA, the information would also be hidden on the Sales Order display application.
We can think of many more use cases where SAP BUILD App or Microsoft PowerApps can be handy for creating small apps on SAP Systems. I.e.: visualisation of invoices or delivery notes, purchase order display, different types of reports, etc.
As a rule of thumb:
- Low-Code is ideal for complex applications that require some custom coding but can benefit from pre-built components. Often used in business process automation, CRM systems, and more.
- No-Code is best suited for simpler applications like data dashboards, simple mobile apps, and basic workflow automation.
Conclusion
Low-code/no-code platforms have become increasingly popular. They provide a cost-effective and quick way to develop applications tailored to fit business requirements at a lower cost, rather than developing them from scratch or using off-the-shelf software. Low-code solutions also make software development easy, even if you aren’t an expert programmer. However, they don’t replace the need for talented developers. Instead, professional developers can also benefit from the low-code platforms. TJC Group developers have proven this point by testing SAP Build Apps.
We did the same experiment with Microsoft Power Apps, another popular low-code/no-code Platform. Here is the result: Unveiling Microsoft Powerapps integration with SAP Legacy Data
References
SAP. SAP Build Apps. URL: https://www.sap.com/uk/products/technology-platform/low-code-app-builder.html
