Front-End Technologies to be Considered When Developing Apps for the SAP Portal

• May 23, 2011
• No Comments

The Sweetlets developing team discussed the advantages and disadvantages of front-end technologies. The result was a comparison matrix which we thought might also be interesting to anyone doing in-house developments for the SAP Portal.

Chart Explanation

To clarify the chart and evaluation process, we awarded the most compatible frontend technology with 2 points (represented in green); the so-so or ok with 1 point (represented in yellow); and the least compatible frontend technology for developing within the SAP Portal received 0 points (represented in red).

We do not consider this evaluation as complete, but felt it might be useful to our readers.

The Problem

When developing web applications, more and more different technologies can be leveraged. In the past it was almost all HTML and JavaScript together with images and CSS to develop user interfaces.

Problems arise because different browsers and their support of JavaScript vary from browser to browser (even different browser versions).

Nowadays, more ready to use frameworks are available (But don’t forget that these frameworks also suffer the challenges of different browsers and versions).

Background

A wide variety of consulting projects with extensive use of many different technologies has provided us with numerous tools in which we continuously add to our tool belt.

Our consulting projects allow for a higher degree of flexibility due to our client’s different infrastructures. Yet in our Sweetlets product line we are bound to certain other aspects such as multiple clients with different SAP Portal versions and so on.

Within the Sweetlets decision making process, we always took into consideration any new possibilities which exist on the market.

Three years ago we decided to use Adobe Flex because we felt that it was an extremely powerful in creating end-user friendly and complex applications – while also supporting almost any browser and version. Since Apple iPhone and iPad is revolutionizing the business world and more and more people use these new devices with their SAP Portal, we have had to rethink using Adobe Flex and review other technologies which are being supported.

Below here you can see more detailed findings on these various front-end technologies to be considered when developing apps for the SAP Portal. We have been concentrating on Adobe Flex, jQuery, extJs (Sencha), SAP WebDynpro. However, there might be other frameworks like Google AWT, Yahoo… which we have just not yet considered.

If you have anything to add to this evaluation or any insight, please let us know.

Cross platform:

• Adobe Flex needs a Flash Plugin to be installed at the browser. In most cases this is already available and Adobe likes to stress that they have a very fast adoption of new versions in the market. It does not run on iOS (iPhone, iPad).
• WebDynpro does not support all plattforms and browsers.

Cross-browser:

• jQuery and extJs have problems with some browsers, especially with some versions like IE7. Web Dynpro does not support all browsers.

Portal theme support:

• It is pretty difficult to reuse the existing portal theme in Adobe Flex applications. Also in jQuery and extJs some efforts are needed to reflect those CSS information.

Charting capabilities:

• This is probably one of the strongest benefits when using Flex! Charting!

• Also the latest version of ExtJS comes with powerful charting capabilities.

RIA capabilities:

• Any of the discussed front-end technologies provide tools to build rich internet applications (RIA).
• Adobe Flex has probably the most advanced controls, but also ExtJS provides pretty nice controls e.g. data grids with sort option, tree controls.

License costs:

• When you use the portal, there is no additional license required for WebDynpro.
• Also jQuery can be used for free, whilst the comfortable development environment from Adobe requires additional licensing as well as a commercial use of ExtJS.

Ease of development:

• Within the limits discussed above, all discussed front-end technologies are pretty mature and comfortable to use.

Ease of support:

• WebDynpro is not independent from the portal version that you use.
• After an update of the portal, you may reuse the same code base, but need to recompile the applications. This requires regular updates of the software and if an issue occurs, it may always be due to the version differences.

Adjustable by client:

• It’s quite difficult to load a Flex RIA with a custom style sheet.
• In general the code of HTML based front-ends is available to the user in clear text, whilst the Flex source code is pre-compiled, when it is delivered to a client.
• In contrast to jQuery the latest versions of ExtJS come with integrated charting and grid functionalities, so it’s only one theme that needs to be adjusted to the client needs.
• WebDynpro can easily be adjusted using the portal theme. More advanced customizations are often quite difficult.

Bottom line

Do your homework and evaluate. It is up to you which front-end technology may be best to use when developing apps for your SAP Portal, but do hope this assessment helped.

And once again, if you have any additional insight to add to this evaluation, please let us know. Your comments are welcome.

Good luck.

---

• ← Previous
• → Next

---