Updates from the team – March 2023

It’s been a while but thank you for being patient with us despite your concerns!

To see what’s planned, visit the official SAP Build Apps roadmap. For released items, please see our changelog.


Performance of the design time

Why are we working on this?

  • Performance is important and especially with heavy composite component use, Composer performance will slow down

Development status:

  • First round of fixes was released and this improved performance significantly
  • Added recovery for unsaved changes
  • Working on further changes that will improve performance

3rd party plugins support

Why are we working on this?

  • With plugins, you can utilize custom code in your app, by encapsulating a React library or React Native plugin into new native view components and flow functions

Development status:

  • Currently on hold due to other critical requirements taking priority, planned to finish by Q4/2023

Integrations AKA Data section revamp

Why are we working on this?

  • Instead of each data resource being configured in isolation, the concept of an integration allows things like base URL and common headers to be configured only once per system/API being integrated to.
  • OData and REST API endpoints will be easier to manage (alongside SAP BTP Destinations in the BTP Edition)

Development status:

  • UI is released in SAP Build Apps (coming to community edition later)
  • Integrations for SAP BTP destinations and SAP Build Apps Visual Cloud Functions are released in Enterprise edition
  • Development is ongoing for other SAP integrations
  • Development is ongoing for simplifying the configuration of other integrations

App templates (SAP Build Apps to begin with)

Why are we working on this?

  • To reduce the time of initial development and to improve first-time user experience
  • App templates will allow you to start your project from a template or look at examples that showcase functionality

Development status:

  • Working on making templates available on SAP Lobby store for SAP Build Apps

Marketplace UI improvements

Why are we working on this?

  • We are rolling out a new version of marketplace UI, which will take the whole screen and have better usability
  • The new UI will allow you to discover the latest additions to marketplace more easily

Development status:

  • Done and released

Build Service UI re-work

Why are we working on this?

  • The current Build Service UI does not have good UX

Development status:

  • Design ongoing

New components

iFrame primitive (for “WebView support for web”)

  • Published and available

Charts primitives

  • Area, bar, line chart are going out soon, pie chart coming with next runtime release

Custom navigation components

  • Responsive web navigation components that show menu items or a hamburger menu depending on the screen size
  • Development done, waiting for new styling

Visual Cloud Functions (SAP Build Apps only)

Why are we working on this?

Development status

  • First version released and available

Continuous improvements being worked on:

General SAP AppGyver Preview app and runtime improvements

Released fixes

  • Navigating back has been improved for “Preview PDF” and Video Player flow functions
  • Data variables refresh when application is in background
  • Initial render index for Recycler View was fixed
  • Application crash fixes for Android

Upcoming

  • Composite component internal property change events not firing fixed
  • Android safe area with notch problem fixed
  • Binding problems with checkboxes and input fields in nested repeats fixed

Note that we can’t give out specific timelines on any upcoming features!

I’ll be aiming for the next community update for end of April or early May.

5 Likes

Will the custom navigation feature allow dynamically toggle navigation items visibility? Or it’s only for responsiveness with the hamburguer icon?

Hmm, if you build the logic to toggle navigation items visibility, you can already do that now by building your own custom navigation component :thinking: We have a short guide on how to do that here.

1 Like

The ability to encapsulate React / React Native libraries sounds like an update that will make AG a serious powerhouse! Looking forward to this! Coming back after a year break - new company with some prototyping needs made me come back. Looking forward to potentially using background gps capabilities with this

2 Likes

Would templates be something we could create and share with others too, and would this just be for the whole app or would it work for individual pages?

At the beginning templates from SAP Lobby will only be made by us. However, users will be able to export and import applications and as such apps could be shared by sharing the imported and exported files. And at some point we would seek to have the possibility for users to submit a template for review to be published to others as well.

1 Like

Hi

Any ETA for Android safe area with notch problem please?

1 Like

Doesn’t that mean support for advert-serving and YouTube videos, hypothetically?

Either way, I’m getting the much dreaded “Missing Comp” with numbers in a yellow text box that I’ve seen others mention when I try to test this. I guess not today. :slight_smile: Not sure if I should post an issue on the tracker over that or if AG already knows.

2 Likes

iFrame primitive doesn’t work from day one. The one thing i was waiting for over a year doesn’t work. Missing comp error in a yellow box and red border. Usually these colors (yellow backgroung and red border) are used for debugging lol.

1 Like