Updated: October 5, 2022

Introduction to SAP Fiori Elements

Intro

SAP Fiori elements (formerly known as smart templates) provide a framework for generating UIs at runtime based on metadata annotations and predefined templates for the most used application patterns. The goals are to ensure design consistency, keep apps up to date with evolving design guidelines, and reduce the amount of frontend code for building SAP Fiori apps.

SAP Fiori elements use annotations that add semantics and structures to the data provided by the user.

SAP Fiori elements are part of the SAPUI5 delivery.

Currently Available

The following floorplans are currently available with SAP Fiori elements (in full screen):

Where applicable, SAP Fiori elements also provide draft handling, non-draft, and global edit flow functionalities, as well as message handling.

SAP Fiori elements – The production line for UIs
SAP Fiori elements – The production line for UIs

Responsiveness

The responsiveness of SAP Fiori elements depends on the responsiveness of the controls used.

SAP Fiori elements generally use priority annotation on fields and actions to control responsiveness. This annotation supports the values high, medium, and low. Annotating actions with a priority level helps to control the overflow behavior of the toolbar. In the responsive table, the priorities also define the pop-in behavior of columns.

Behavior and Interaction

The behavior and interaction generally follows the guidelines for the respective floorplan or concept. If the guideline offers choices, SAP Fiori elements implement the most generic option or, where possible, provide different options to choose from. Deviations from the guidelines are sometimes necessary due to current technical limitations, which are listed on the respective pages. These limitations are usually short term and will be solved in future releases.

SAP Fiori elements contain a certain amount of default text, which can be overridden by the app development team if necessary. One such example is standard message texts.

The templates offer breakout scenarios at page level, where it’s possible to add, remove, or replace whole pages, and at section/control level on the object page. See the object page article for more details.

Resources

Want to dive deeper? Follow the links below to find out more about related controls, the SAPUI5 implementation, and the visual design.

Elements and Controls

Implementation

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