April Release
Fewer Views in Database beta
New option cds.sql.transitive_localized_views: false allows to skip generating transitive localized views. For example, use it like that in your package.json or in your .cdsrc.json:
{ "cds": {
"sql": {
"transitive_localized_views": false
}
}}Java: false as default
In CAP Java, transitive localized views are never used. Hence the default value is false and you automatically benefit from fewer views.
Node.js: Only with new database services
In CAP Node.js, transitive localized views can only be disabled when using new database services. For compatibility with old database services the default value is still true, but will be changed to false in the future.
What are transitive localized views?
As explained in the Localized Data guide, localized views are created for entities with localized data, recursively. This also includes entities which don't have localized elements on its own, but only associations to such. For example:
entity Books { ...
title : localized String; // has own localized data
}
entity Authors { ...
books : Association to many Books;
}Without cds.sql.transitive_localized_views: false, a localized view is created for Authors as well, because it has an association to Books which has localized data. This is what we call a transitive localized view.
Dry-run in your project...
For example when running this in cap/sflight:
cds_sql_transitive__localized__views=true cds \* -2 sql | grep -c VIEW
cds_sql_transitive__localized__views=false cds \* -2 sql | grep -c VIEWset cds_sql_transitive__localized__views=true
cds * -2 sql | find /C "VIEW"
set cds_sql_transitive__localized__views=false
cds * -2 sql | find /C "VIEW"This should print out some numbers, showing that the number of views created in the database is reduced from 80 to 55, like this:
80
55Speeds up database upgrades
This option can significantly reduce the number of views in your database, which can speed up database upgrades significantly, especially using SAP HANA.
Expressions as Annotation Values beta
The handling of expressions as annotation values has been significantly enhanced.
Propagation
When annotations are propagated in views/projections or along type references, the compiler now automatically adapts references in expression-like annotation values, if necessary.
Example:
entity E {
@Common.Text: (text)
code : Integer;
text : String;
}
entity P as projection on E {
code,
text as descr
}When propagated to element code of projection P, the annotation is automatically rewritten to @Common.Text: (descr) due to the renaming of text to descr.
Note the syntax
Expression-like annotation values need to be enclosed in parentheses. It's still possible to provide a reference as an annotation value without parentheses, but such references are not adapted.
References in OData Annotations
When the CDS model is flattened for OData generation, references in expression-like annotation values are automatically adapted.
Example:
type Price {
@Measures.ISOCurrency: (currency)
amount : Decimal;
currency : String(3);
}
service S {
entity Product {
key id : Integer;
name : String;
price : Price;
}
}The resulting annotation in EDMX correctly references the flattened element:
<Annotations Target="S.Product/price_amount">
<Annotation Term="Measures.ISOCurrency" Path="price_currency"/>
</Annotations>Restrictions concerning the foreign key elements of managed associations
Usually an annotation assigned to a managed association is copied to the foreign key elements of the association. This is not done for annotations with expression values. That means, it's currently not possible to use expression-valued annotations for annotating foreign keys of a managed association.
In an expression-valued annotation, it's not possible to reference the foreign key element of a managed association.
Expressions in OData Annotations
Expressions in OData annotations are automatically translated to the corresponding EDMX syntax. You can now simply write the following:
service S {
@UI.LineItem : [{
Value: (status),
Criticality: ( status = 'O' ? 2 : ( status = 'A' ? 3 : 0 ) )
}]
entity Order {
key id : Integer;
status : String;
}
}Previously, you'd have needed to write the following expression:
Criticality : { $edmJson: { $If: [{$Eq: [{ $Path: 'status'}, 'O']}, 2,
{ $If: [{$Eq: [{ $Path: 'status'}, 'A']}, 3, 0] }] } }Node.js
INSERT w/ Streams and Subselects
With new database services (SAP HANA, PostgreSQL and SQLite) you can now specify streams and subselect queries as arguments to INSERT.entries(), for example:
Using a stream instead of reading and parsing full JSONs or alike into memory:
let streamed = fs.createReadStream('books.json')
await INSERT.into(Books) .entries (streamed)Using a subselect query to copy within the database:
await INSERT.into(Books) .entries (SELECT.from(Products))Learn more about INSERT.entries()
Recommendation
Prefer using streams and subselects whenever possible. Streams significantly reduce memory consumption and increase scalability. Subselects delegate all read/writes to the database.
Java
Enhanced Index Page
The Index Page has been enhanced in this release. It now lists links to all web applications contained in the app folder, which are now served automatically as well. In addition it comes with SAP Fiori preview links for entities with UI annotations and has a renewed stylesheet:
Secure by Default
A bunch of CAP Java features are available for development scenarios only:
- Index Page
- Mock user authentication
- ...
To make sure these features are deactivated automatically in production mode, you can now tell the CAP runtime which Spring profile should be interpreted as productive:
cds.environment.production.profile: cloudNote that the Java buildpack chooses the cloud profile by default.
SAP Java Buildpack 2
You can now choose to deploy CAP Java by means of SAP Java Buildpack version 2 (sap_java_buildpack_jakarta) which brings sapmachine 17 and 21 in offline mode:
parameters:
buildpack: sap_java_buildpack_jakarta
properties:
JBP_CONFIG_COMPONENTS: "jres: ['com.sap.xs.java.buildpack.jre.SAPMachineJRE']"
JBP_CONFIG_SAP_MACHINE_JRE: '{ version: 21.+ }'Learn more about SAP Java buildpack usage
Full-Fleged Sample Project
cds add sample now generates a full-fledged CAP Java application with bookshop entities that can be modified by mock users in a UI. In contrast, the result of cds add tiny-sample exposes the bookshop only as OData API.
Tools
Shell Completion for CDS Commands beta
You can now easily enable shell completion in your shell for all cds commands like build, compile, and for cds itself.
Simply run the following command to install it once:
cds add completionAfter that, you have to source or restart your shell and you're good to go to use tab key for completion:
Currently, bash, zsh, Git Bash and PowerShell are supported.
Test Data Generation beta
In VS Code, test data for your application model is now available at your fingertips:
With the new commands Generate Model Data as JSON / CSV, select a CDS entity in the pick list, and then test data is inserted at the cursor position in the active text editor. This may include:
- plain
.csvand.jsonfiles used for initial data deployment - test
.js/.tsfiles .httpfiles used for manual tests with the REST Client
You can then modify the data as you wish potentially using AI tools.
Under the hood, this feature uses the cds add data CLI like this:
cds add data --records 2 --content-type csv --filter BooksWhich will create 2 CSV records with test data for all entities matching Books and store it in db/data by default. Run cds add data --help to see all options.
Learn more about test data generation
HTTP Requests Generation beta
The new Generate HTTP Requests command in VS Code allows you to quickly generate sample HTTP requests for your services and entities, including sample data, authentication and endpoint information. You can execute the created request data with the REST Client in .http files.
Under the hood, the extension uses the cds add http CLI command as follows:
cds add http --filter AuthorsThis creates .http files with sample read and write requests for all services that include the Authors entity.
To add authentication and a CloudFoundry endpoint, use the --for-app <app name> option.
Learn more about request generation
CDS Syntax Highlighting in VS Code Markdown Editor
The CDS language is now highlighted in cds code fences in the markdown editor of VS Code:
This is useful for all you authors that write about CAP and the CDS language.
The markdown preview in VS Code does not highlight CDS though. This remains to be tackled in a future release.
Learn more about highlighting code in markdown
Playground for CDS ESLint Rules
You can now try each of the available ESLint rules for CDS in a playground environment. This can help you better understand what the rule is supposed to do.
See this example from the auth-valid-restrict-where rule with the Open in Playground link:
service CatalogService {
// invalid `where` expression, the equality operator is `=`
@(restrict: [{ grant: 'READ', to: 'Viewer', where: 'CreatedBy === $user' }])
entity ListOfBooks as projection on Books;
...
}ESLint 9 Support
CAP's ESLint plugin @sap/eslint-plugin-cds has reached a new major version 3 which is now compatible with the new ESLint major version 9.
This means that you can do the following:
- Adjust your
@sap/eslint-plugin-cdsdependencies from^2to^3. - Consult the ESLint 9 migration guide for more information. Especially the notes about the new 'flat' configuration format are helpful to migrate your ESLint config files.
- Use both,
cds lintandeslint, clients for your project as before.
The cds add lint facet now creates ESLint 9 configuration for new projects.
In the upcoming major release of CAP Node.js, the cds lint client will use ESLint 9 by default.
Binding Shared Service Instances on Cloud Foundry
You can now bind to a shared service instance on Cloud Foundry just like any other service instance. For example, if you have access to a shared redis-cache service instance:
cds bind messaging --to redis-cacheLearn more about binding shared service instances
Overwrite Cloud Service Credentials
You can easily overwrite service credential values with local binding information. For example, you might need extra information to connect to a Cloud Foundry service via an SSH tunnel:
cds bind service --to my-service --credentials '{ "proxy_host": "localhost" }'Before, you had to use a default-env.json file with the entire credential details locally.
Learn more about overwriting cloud service credentials
CAP Operator Plugin
The CAP Operator manages and automates the lifecycle operations involved in running multitenant CAP applications on Kubernetes (K8s) clusters. If you deploy an application using the CAP Operator, you must manually define the custom resources for the application in a helm chart, which needs time and deep knowledge of helm concepts.
This is where the CAP Operator plugin is very useful, as it provides an easy way to generate such a helm chart, which can be easily modified.
Learn more about how to add and consume the CAP Operator plugin in our documentation.