SAP Community - DJ Adams

Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 3

2024-01-26T16:53:04.373000+01:00

In this episode 3 of our series, we continue to explore the basics of CAP with Node.js. We pick up where we left off last time, and investigate starting up a basic CAP server with cds watch to discover the amazing features that it gives us. Everyone welcome, especially beginners, come and join us for friendly chat and curiosity-driven learning-by-doing!

If you want to develop along with this new series, you may want to check out "Developing CAP in containers - three ways" which will help you get started: https://qmacro.org/blog/posts/2024/01/15/developing-cap-in-containers-three-ways/

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 1

2024-01-29T09:54:37.815000+01:00

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

Capire (CAP docu): https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/
Presence on the Fediverse: https://hachyderm.io/@qmacro
Battlestation 2024: https://qmacro.org/blog/posts/2024/01/09/battlestation-2024/
Bret Fisher Docker and DevOps: https://www.youtube.com/@BretFisher
SAP Business Application Studio and Code - OSS: https://blogs.sap.com/2022/11/15/sap-business-application-studio-now-powered-by-code-oss/

Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 4

2024-02-02T14:50:17.818000+01:00

In this episode 4 of our series, we continue to explore the basics of CAP with Node.js, digging deeper into cds watch and how we can manage our CDS definitions. Everyone welcome, especially beginners, come and join us for friendly chat and curiosity-driven learning-by-doing!

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 3

2024-02-02T15:58:44.690000+01:00

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

This week's SAP Developer News, brought to you by the Developer Advocates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYDlgVh8IgI
The container image definition and dev container instructions for our "CAP Back To Basics" (CAPB2B) work https://github.com/qmacro/capb2b
The @Sap/cds-dk package on NPM https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sap/cds-dk (now at 7.6.0)
CAP release info on Capire https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/releases/ including Jan 2024 for 7.6.0 https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/releases/jan24
The ESLint plugin for CAP https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sap/eslint-plugin-cds (installed via cds add lint)
The CDS Lint Rules https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/tools/lint/rules including the specific "no dollar prefixed names" rule https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/tools/lint/rules#no-dollar-prefixed-names
VS Code Save / Auto Save settings https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics#_save-auto-save
DWIM (Do What I Mean) and Perl: https://blogs.perl.org/users/buddy_burden/2014/02/perl-and-me-part-10-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-dwim.html
Simon Peyton Jones https://simon.peytonjones.org/
Exploring Verse, Haskell, Language Design and Teaching (with Simon Peyton Jones) (where he says "desugars") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgam9XUHs0 also available as a podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy56ZW5jYXN0ci5jb20vZi9vU24xaTMxNi5yc3M/episode/ZjM2NzgwZDAtYWVjNC00N2QwLWJlYjMtNjg5ZWMzNjk2NTEy
Remy Sharp and nodemon: https://remysharp.com/2014/01/20/nodemon-1-0
Apache httpd and the tradition of the index.html default: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/getting-started.html#content
Capire's "Hello World!" section which has the "say" service definition with the "hello" function https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/get-started/hello-world
OData V4 and CAP talk, which includes a section on actions and functions https://github.com/qmacro/odata-v4-and-cap
Protocol annotations (such as @rest) and serving services https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/node.js/cds-serve#protocol
Release notes from Jun 2023 describing the change to default service paths (why there's now an /odata/v4 prefix) https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/releases/archive/2023/jun23#changed-default-service-path
The safety (no side effects) and idempotency of HTTP GET https://restfulapi.net/idempotent-rest-apis/
The @impl annotation https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/node.js/core-services#specified-by-impl-annotation-or-impl-configuration

Successful double CodeJam in Wroclaw and Warsaw

2024-02-08T12:26:33.730000+01:00

I'm at Warsaw airport on my journey home after a great few days in Poland. My first flight is already delayed so I have a bit of time at the gate to write up some notes.

I arrived in Wroclaw, in the west of Poland, on Sunday, and met up with my good friend, Developer Advocate colleague, local resident and fellow beer and food enthusiast Witalij Rudnicki, where we visited the 100 Bridges Brewery. What a great start!

Wroclaw

On the following day (Monday) I arrived at the Capgemini offices in Wroclaw, greeted by Dominik in a room that was perfect for a day of learning and networking. It was a full house, not surprising given the CodeJam topic, which was the SAP Cloud Application Programming Model ("CAP" to us humans). It's such a fascinating and very capable framework, built with love, enthusiasm and skill, which is evident in both its philosophy and its codebase.

If you're interested in checking out the content of the CAP CodeJam that I ran, it's available publicly (like all our other CodeJams) on GitHub: Service Integration with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model.

There were plenty of refreshments, including that classic developer fuel, pizza, which we devoured half way through the exercises

Warsaw

The next day was a travel day, where Witalij drove us the almost 400km to Warsaw, in time to do a couple of cool things that evening. After checking into our respective hotels, we headed to the Apple Museum. Such a wonderful exhibition of Apple memorabilia, from a private collector, it was fascinating to look at everything from a replica of the original Apple I, through the classic Apple II range, and all the way through to today. I spotted an Apple III which is the computer that features in the super Hands-on SAP Dev stickers designed and produced by the great Ronnie Sletta.

What made this an even better experience was that the museum was hosted inside a renovated factory from an older industrial era, and there were lots of factory artifacts preserved. Inside this factory was also a great beer place which was the location for an SAP Stammtisch that Witalij had also organised. Cheers!

And then the following day, we all met up at the KMD Poland offices for another CodeJam, on the same topic. Again, it was a full house, over a different but equally great room layout, and just like Wroclaw on Monday, the participants worked hard on the exercises, got to know each other, asked great questions and contributed valuable opinions too. The key ingredients to a successful CodeJam, I'd say.

Wrapping up

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this trip for me was being looked after by Witalij. He showed me some great places, helped me find and experience some great food - traditional Polish food and indeed Georgian cuisine too. He even helped me find my way around both cities, and see some sights.

If you're interested in hosting a CodeJam, head on over to this blog post: So, You Want to Host a CodeJam! Everything you need to know, and I'll perhaps see you at the next one!

Originally published on qmacro.org

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 4

2024-02-09T11:17:07.827000+01:00

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

This week's SAP Developer News, a special edition for International Day of Women and Girls in Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny0a0OQjtOU
Canal route planning https://canalplan.uk/index.html
(Capire) CAP January 2024 release notes https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/releases/jan24
The Open Telemetry plugin https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cap-js/telemetry
International Day of Women and Girls in Science https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day/
February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 1 https://community.sap.com/t5/application-development-discussions/february-developer-challenge-cap-plugins-week-1/m-p/13597835
Best of cap-js https://bestofcapjs.org/
TripPin - New OData V4 Sample Service https://www.odata.org/blog/trippin-new-odata-v4-sample-service/
The configuration which includes the definition of extensions installed inside our dev container https://github.com/qmacro/capb2b/blob/main/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
SAP CDS Language Support extension for VS Code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=SAPSE.vscode-cds
(Capire) Providing Initial Data https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/guides/databases#providing-initial-data
(Capire) CAP is Open and Opinionated - Zero Lock-In https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/about/#open-and-opinionated
(Capire) Use cds add data https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/guides/databases#use-cds-add-data
David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Ruby on Rails) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Heinemeier_Hansson
CDS database service for Postgres https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cap-js/postgres
Douglas Adams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams
Iain Banks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks
module.exports in Node.js https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#moduleexports
The DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) software development principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_repeat_yourself
(Capire) Common Types and Aspects https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/cds/common

Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 5

2024-02-09T13:47:28.775000+01:00

In this episode, we look more into basic CDS service and entity definitions, and dig into aspects, types, and start looking at relating entities. Everyone welcome, especially beginners, come and join us for friendly chat and curiosity-driven learning-by-doing!

🇩🇪 Service integration with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (St Leon-Rot, DE)

2024-02-11T16:35:30.816000+01:00

This SAP CodeJam introduces attendees to service integration with the SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP). Specifically, the Node.js flavor of CAP is used.

During this event, you'll become acquainted with how external services can be integrated and consumed from within a CAP project. In working through the exercises you'll also become comfortable with various facilities that CDS offers for declaring, relating and exposing entities, and familiar with how the SAP Cloud SDK covers connectivity and destinations, supporting such integration scenarios with CAP.

This is an in-person event only (not virtual) and is planned for Mon 03 Jun 2024 in St Leon-Rot, Germany. It is part of the Code Connect 2024 event that is running for most of the week. The event will be at the SAP Campus in St Leon-Rot. Note that the exact campus building is yet to be confirmed.

The instructor is Developer Advocate DJ Adams.

There are essential prerequisites that must be completed by every attendee, before arriving at the event location. They are documented here: https://github.com/SAP-samples/cap-service-integration-codejam/blob/main/prerequisites.md.

If you wish to attend, please indicate that using the "I'm attending" facility on this page.

For more information on SAP CodeJam events, to ask questions, and to chat with your fellow attendees, head over to the SAP CodeJam group.

Re: Utilizing REST Client (VSCode Extension) with Certificate Authentication

2024-02-12T09:55:16.002000+01:00

Nice blog post!

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 1

2024-02-14T15:44:43.812000+01:00

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 2

2024-02-14T15:52:18.300000+01:00

For the bonus part:

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 2

2024-02-15T15:34:43.065000+01:00

Searching GitHub is a good skill to master! There's so much great material on CAP and everything there, that being able to pinpoint something or fish out an example of how to do something that the one that can wield search effectively has an advantage over those that can't. Plus you need to recognise and sift through CAP code examples to find the solution, so that's CAP specific! 🙂

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 2

2024-02-15T15:40:39.802000+01:00

If I may be so bold and offer a bit of a clue to those looking to complete the bonus part of this week's task. The search facility on GitHub is fantastic, and with the help of search modifiers, you can narrow in on what you're looking for with ease.

The base search is at https://github.com/search and the query language includes parameters that allow you to specific the context of your search. For example, you might want to set the `org` to `SAP-samples` and the `type` to `code`, and perhaps the `path` to something else, while looking for the things that @thomas_jung hinted at in the bonus description 🙂

You should end up with a very specific URL that you can GET in your browser, and there are (at the time of writing) only two results, both of which have code that you can use.

Good luck!

Opening files from the terminal in BAS dev spaces

2024-02-15T18:02:26.696000+01:00

In the comments to episode 4 of our back to basics series of live stream episodes on CAP, on the Hands-on SAP Dev show, there was a question on my use of code in VS Code, which, when invoked in the terminal (e.g. code services.cds) opens the file directly in a VS Code editor window, like this:

The question was about code being recognised in SAP Business Application Studio (BAS) dev spaces.

Basically, while code is not a command that's available in dev spaces, there's a BAS-specific command basctl which has a couple of options, one of which is --open. Here are some examples, taken from the usage text:

Examples
  $ basctl --open http://sap.com
  $ basctl --open http://localhost:8082/tmp
  $ basctl --open file:///home/user/projects/proj1/myfile.txt
  $ basctl --open /myfile.txt
  $ basctl --open ./myfolder/myfile.txt

So while there isn't a code command, you can use basctl --open to get something similar. I say similar, because for some reason I cannot yet fathom (my small brain, again) it opens the file in a new column. Anyway, here's what it looks like in action:

(I've asked internally about this behaviour, and will update this blog post with anything I find out.)

The nice thing about what basctl offers perhaps is the ability to invoke framework commands, via an additional --command option, like this: basctl --command workbench.action.openSettings.

The question also asked about my use of tree, and noted its lack of availability in BAS dev spaces. This is simple to address, if not entirely straightforward. I got tree working in my dev space, as you can see:

I did this by copying in a tree binary (and ensuring the execution bit was set). Where did I get that tree binary from? Well, first, I looked what the architecture of the dev spaces was, via uname (I've added whitespace for readability):

user: user $ uname -a
Linux workspaces-ws-nvzxc-deployment-9f9b9b656-sfdh5
5.15.135-gardenlinux-cloud-amd64 
SMP Debian 5.15.135-0gardenlinux1 (2023-10-12)
x86_64 GNU/Linux

I also checked what distribution the environment was based on:

user: user $ cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux 12 \n \l

Basically, it's Debian 12 on x86_64 architecture. Classic. So then I created a quick container from a Debian 12 based container image, via a codespace that I spun up for the purpose, and copied the tree binary out of there to my local filesystem, like this:

gh codespace cp 'remote:/usr/bin/tree' .

I then copied that binary to the dev space by dragging it into the Explorer window, and then set the execution bit with chmod +x $HOME/tree.

Job done!

(Originally published on qmacro.org)

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 5

2024-02-16T14:35:46.519000+01:00

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

This week's SAP Developer News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwuuWkWk_Lk
This week's task in this month's Developer Challenge on CAP plugins https://community.sap.com/t5/application-development-discussions/february-developer-challenge-cap-plugins-week-2/td-p/13605065
Back to basics with SAP CAP Node.js playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6RpkC85SLQBHPdfHQ0Ry2TMdsT-muECx
Opening files from the terminal in BAS dev spaces https://qmacro.org/blog/posts/2024/02/15/opening-files-from-the-terminal-in-bas-dev-spaces/
(Capire) Common Types and Aspects https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/cds/common
The expression "Turtles all the way down" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
(Capire) Parsing and Compiling Models https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/node.js/cds-compile
Abstract syntax trees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree
OData operations (a V2 related document but still relevant) https://www.odata.org/documentation/odata-version-2-0/operations/
DDL (Data Definition Language) https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/radfws/9.6.1?topic=scripts-generating-ddl
Vim emulation for Visual Studio Code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscodevim.vim
REST Client for VS Code https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=humao.rest-client
PR that removes Dockerfile and defines everything for our dev container in devcontainer.json https://github.com/qmacro/capb2b/pull/1
Exercise 11 of the Service integration with CAP CodeJam https://github.com/SAP-samples/cap-service-integration-codejam/tree/main/exercises/11-associate-local-remote-entities
The REST Client instructions in test.http, demonstrating the QUERY, READ, CREATE and DELETE OData operations and showing the CAP server handles default all behaviour for us! https://github.com/qmacro/capb2b/blob/main/test.http

Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 6

2024-02-16T14:45:49.657000+01:00

In this episode, we head back to our CDS definitions, stare at the cuid aspect and what it implies, and then start improving our Books and Authors entity definitions. Everyone welcome, especially beginners, come and join us for friendly chat and curiosity-driven learning-by-doing!

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 3

2024-02-22T13:13:44.700000+01:00

Main task: showing change tracking of the Books entity's title element:

Bonus: showing change tracking of the Books entity's author element, but ensuring that the value of the name element from the Association to Authors is shown, rather than just the ID from the managed association's foreign key field (author_ID):

Re: February Developer Challenge - CAP Plugins: Week 3

2024-02-22T13:18:26.405000+01:00

OK folks, so how many of you here went for the beautiful approach that CAP offers, moreover _encourages_, which is the ability to separate concerns?

In other words, who annotated the definitions in `db/schema.cds` directly, and who created a separate new CDS file and used the `annotate` directive (https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/cds/cdl#the-annotate-directive)? @thomas_jung @ajmaradiaga and I would love to know!

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 6

2024-02-23T10:51:45.912000+01:00

Hi there - this is not the right place to ask a question - please head over to Technology Q&A and ask there, tagging it with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model too. Please also make sure you supply more detail - as it stands, it would be quite hard to give you an answer anyway. Good luck!

Re: Back to basics with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) - part 6

2024-02-23T11:39:11.690000+01:00

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

This week's SAP Developer News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHPTbdgvvFk
SAP CodeTalk playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6RpkC85SLQB4SrWDL_VpeZnDJ1pcLRpA
Edge Integration Cell playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6RpkC85SLQAy8g4peerZFjOu9Hxf4TyZ
February Developer Challenge on CAP plugins, week 3 https://community.sap.com/t5/application-development-discussions/february-developer-challenge-cap-plugins-week-3/td-p/13614397
The small repo accompanying this series, now containing `test.http` https://github.com/qmacro/capb2b
(Capire) Aspect `cuid` https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/cds/common#aspect-cuid
RFC Request For Comments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments
Atom Publishing Protocol RFC5023 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5023
HTTP 1.1 RFC2616 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5023
UUID RFC4122 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4122
Nomenclature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature
(Capire) Domain Modeling - Prefer Canonic Keys https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/guides/domain-modeling#prefer-canonic-keys
(Capire) Built-in Types https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/cds/types#built-in-types
Crypto: randomUUID() method in Node.js https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Crypto/randomUUID
Bash "here strings" with `<<<` https://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/x17837.html
(Capire) SQLite - Persistent Databases https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/guides/databases-sqlite#persistent-databases
The @cap-js/sqlite package on NPM https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cap-js/sqlite
(Capire) cds.utils - Method: uuid() https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/node.js/cds-utils#uuid
(Capire) Tools - cds repl https://cap.cloud.sap/docs/tools/#cds-repl