Skip to content

What's New

This page provides a list of notable new features and enhancements to the mobile back-end tools for each release, starting with the latest.

What's New in Release 2005

Moving to SAP Business Application Studio

We have combined the functionality of the Visual Studio Code extension with the CSDL Graphical Modeler available in SAP Web IDE Full-Stack and the combined functionality is now available in SAP Business Application Studio. In the upcoming releases, we will discontinue the service in the Neo environment, which includes SAP Web IDE Full-Stack.

Note

In SAP Business Application Studio, the default editor is different from the one embedded into the CSDL editor. Therefore, editor features such as cut, copy, paste, and file change markers are not well integrated. For extensive manual editing of the CSDL file, it is recommended to open the standard code editor in SAP Business Application Studio instead of the editor embedded into the CSDL editor. For simple changes and quickly locating code, you can continue using the editor embedded into the CSDL editor.

What's New in Release 1907

Annotation Context Menu

In the Detail table, annotations are displayed like properties, except that they have a different encode. Each annotation row has a button that, when pressed, opens a context-specific menu providing additional annotation-related features:

  • View in source: The modeler switches to source code view and the selection is selected.
  • Delete: The annotation is deleted.
  • Edit: The Edit annotation dialog is displayed.

Annotation context menu

Edit Annotation Dialog

An annotation may be comprised of values and/or additional annotations, meaning that annotations often follow a tree structure. The Edit annotations dialog visualizes the tree and allows you to edit it.

The tree is displayed in a tree table. Every row consists of an annotation or value. If the value is of Boolean type, the value is displayed as a checkbox for you to choose true (checked) or false (unchecked). Other data types are displayed as text. If you input invalid data, the text will revert to its previous state and an error message is displayed.

The three buttons above the tree table allow you to:

  • Add item: Add an annotation or value using a drop-down menu.
  • Delete item: Delete the selected annotation or value.
  • Edit: Edit the value in a multi-line text editor. The editor also validates the input.

The buttons are enabled or disabled depending on what you have selected within the Edit annotation dialog.

Edit annotation dialog

What's New in Release 1905

Code Editor Validation

In a previous release, a code editor was added to the graphical modeler to allow you to edit the CSDL model directly. When you switched back to the graphical modeler, the changes would automatically be reflected in the diagrams. The code editor component now supports validation. In other words, before switching back to the graphical editor, the content in the code editor is validated. If the changes contain XML or CSDL errors, the code editor remains displayed and the errors are highlighted. If you hover your mouse over the error marks, the error details are displayed.

Code editor validation

Highlight the Selected Entity

To better illustrate the relationship between one entity and others, the following visual model is provided:

Highlight the selected entity

Support Annotations in Mobile Back-End Tools Graphical Modeler

Display and Edit Annotations

Annotation for different levels of objects can be displayed as normal attributes in the Detail table. If the annotation values are of primitive types, you can edit the value directly in the table.

Display and edit annotations

Add Annotations to Different Levels of Objects

You are now able to add new annotations to objects in the model:

  1. Right-click the object (an entity type for example) and click Add annotation. The Add annotation dialog is displayed.

    Annotation level

  2. You can select annotation terms from various vocabularies and add more vocabularies to the model.

    Annotation dialog

Automatically Adding TrackChanges Annotation to the CSDL Model

When a CSDL model is loaded into the modeler, the model is checked as to whether it has the TrackChanges annotation. If the model does not, the modeler will automatically add the annotation.

What's New in Release 1903

In this release, the user interface has been reorganized and simplified. All buttons are moved to the top of the designer, although their functionality remains the same. At the top of the right-side child window, only the search bar remains. This is used to search/filter the child table and helps you to find entities in large sets. Items in the child table may be any level of objects, such as entity types, properties, etc. If you click on an item, it will be selected in the diagram.

Graphical editor enhancements

Functions of the Buttons

Functions of the buttons

Contextual Menus

Some functionality can now be accessed via context menus. For example:

Contextual menus

Code Editor

In this release we have added a code editor to the graphical modeler. Clicking the left-most button on top of the designer switches the display to an XML editor, displaying the source file of the CSDL model. To switch back to the graphical modeler, click (toggle) the button again.

Switch editor

The XML editor looks like the following:

XML editor

Changes made in either the graphical modeler or XML editor are automatically synchronized without the need to explicitly save the file.

View in Source

In the graphical modeler, you may now right-click any level of object. The context menu provides a View in source option. Clicking this option:

  1. Switches the display to the XML editor.
  2. Highlights the source definition of the right-clicked object.

View in source

XML source

Features Released in 2018

The table below provides an overview of the features shipped in our first release.

Feature Description
Persistency of layout information When a CSDL (Common Schema Definition Language) document is closed, its layout information is saved, including view box, symbol position, and shrinking state. When a CSDL document is opened, the layout information is loaded and applied.
Undo and Redo Edits to the CSDL model can be undone and redone using either the keyboard shortcut or the Web IDE menu.
Pop-up menu When a diagram is right-clicked, a context menu for the object is displayed.
Symbol shrinking and expansion Symbols can be shrunk and expanded via the top-right button of the Entity Type.
Filter child table When the child table (on the right side) contains a long list of properties, you can filter your list to shorten it. The results are updated dynamically as you type.
Collapse all / Expand all By pressing the "shrinking all" or "expanding all" button, you can collapse and expand all symbols. You can find these options in the Graphical Modeling Toolbar menu bar.
Full view When a diagram is large, some parts may be out of view. To see the full view, press Show all.
Auto layout If you make an error in your layout, you can press the Auto layout button.
Focus view If the current diagram displays entities, the child table displays their names as hyperlinks. When you click one of these links, the diagram will only show this entity and its direct neighbors (entities connected to this one with navigation). To return to the original view, press Clear Focus.
Finding information within large data models By combining some of these features, it is easier for you to find information within large data models. For example, if you want to find out the relationships between entities, you can:
  1. Press the Filter button in the properties (child table) and search for your entity.
  2. When you see the property that you have filtered on, select it.
  3. Select the Shrink all button.
  4. Click the Auto layout button.
Icons update The icon set has been updated and improved.

Last update: November 18, 2021