This tag 'sapui5' covers both the proprietary (SAPUI5) and the open source (OpenUI5) versions of the framework. When asking about Fiori elements, consider adding [odata] and [sap-fiori] tags accordingly.
SAPUI5 is a frontend JavaScript framework by SAP SE for building enterprise-grade web applications with a rich and modern user interface.
There are two flavors:
- OpenUI51, the open source version (Apache License 2.0)
- SAPUI5, the proprietary version built on top of OpenUI5
Both have the same technical core mechanisms and are collectively referred to as UI5.2
OpenUI5 provides many features to enable creating and extending state-of-the-art user interfaces. It supports and offers:
- Modern CSS allowing applications to adapt their themes to company's branding
- Extensibility concepts at framework and application level
- Internationalization (i18n)
- Over 300 controls3 (More in SAPUI5) that are responsive, localized, and accessible already
- Drag and drop
- Consistent "SAP Fiori" design language and the award-winning "72" font which are both based on extensive UX research and industry standards
- Well-known software design patterns but not limited to: MV*, publish-subscribe, and OOP
- Low-code / no-code features for end users to quickly generate or modify existing applications
- Data layer standards: OData (V2 and V4), FHIR, and GraphQL (experimental)
- Accessibility standards: ADA, European Commission, BITV, VPAT, WCAG 2.1, and ARIA 1.1
- Enhanced keyboard navigation and shortcuts for power users out of the box
- Backward compatibility since release 1.0.0
- Strict Content Security Policy (CSP) Level 2
- Unit, integration, and e2e testing - safeguarding robustness of the framework and applications
- Tooling: dedicated UI5 CLI, growing number of community-driven build tooling tasks and middlewares, and scaffolding projects based on documented best-practices
- TypeScript definitions based on ECMAScript module system
- Integration with ui5-webcomponents and other web components in addition to existing UI5 controls
UI5 does not support:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), IE mode in Microsoft Edge, and the legacy EdgeHTML engine.
Cf. list of browsers and platforms supported by UI5. - Server-side rendering currently.
1 OpenUI5, which is a JS framework, is NOT related to "Open UI" which is a standardization initiative. []
2 The number "5" in UI5 does NOT represent the version of the framework. UI5 is semantic versioned.
3 UI components extended from sap.ui.core.Control, excluding deprecated and experimental controls.
Other resources
- OpenUI5 "Get Started" tutorial
- OpenUI5 nightly version
- OpenUI5 public GitHub repository
- SAPUI5 in SAP Community
- SAPUI5 roadmap (SAP Community account required)