March 2025

Welcome to the March 2025 release of CAP. Find the most noteworthy news and changes in the following sections.

• Prepare for Major Release
• CDS Language & Compiler
  • New Parser
  • Actions in Composition of Aspects
• Node.js
  • Recursive Hierarchies and Fiori Tree Table Support beta
• Java
  • Log CDS Configuration
  • Miscellaneous
• Multitenancy
  • Extension Drafts beta
• Tools
  • Deployment With cds up beta
  • Initial Type Generation With cds watch
  • Ad-hoc SAP HANA Deployment on Kyma

Prepare for Major Release

Along with new features, the next major release CDS 9 will contain some changes that you'll need to react on. For the items listed below, you can do this already now, which eases the transition. You can't use the mentioned deprecated functions with the CDS 9 release. The corresponding compatibility flags won't be respected any longer.

• Migrate ESLint Configuration
• Add Test Support Package
• Switch on the new CDS parser.
• Upgrade to @sap/xssec 4. --> remove compat flag
• Switch on OData containment.
• Adapt to changed behavior when processing @restrict.where checks.
• Adopt @cap-js database services now.
• Switch on the new protocol adapters. --> remove compat flag
• Switch on lean draft. --> remove compat flag

CDS Language & Compiler

New Parser

Switch over to the new parser already now. Set option cds.cdsc.newparser: true in your private ~/.cdsrc.json to switch on the new parser on your local machine. Switch it on in your project's development and test pipelines. If that's successful, use it in production.

Actions in Composition of Aspects

Actions and functions of a CDS aspect are now available in the generated child entity when defining a composition of aspect.

In this example, the compiler-generated child entity Orders.items has an action close:

aspect Item {
  key id : String;
} actions {
  action close(); 
};

entity Orders {
  key id : String;
  items: Composition of Item; 
};

Learn more about the composition of aspects.

Node.js

Recursive Hierarchies and Fiori Tree Table Support beta

CAP Node.js now supports Recursive Hierarchies with OData v4 on SAP HANA Cloud, allowing to serve read requests for the SAP Fiori Tree Table, including sort, filter, and search on hierarchical data.

You can try it out in our bookshop sample for SAP Fiori. Simply run

• cds deploy -2 hana --production
• cds watch --profile hybrid

The Browse Genres app as well as the value help for Genres in the Manage Books app use the SAP Fiori Tree Table.

Java

Log CDS Configuration

Upon start-up, you can now get an overview of the configured CDS properties. Turn on by setting the log level for com.sap.cds.properties to DEBUG in the application.yaml file:

srv/src/main/resources/application.yaml

logging:
  level:
    com.sap.cds.properties: DEBUG

Sample output:

... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.dataSource.autoConfig.enabled': 'false' (default: 'true')
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.dataSource.embedded': 'true' (default: 'false')
...  WARN ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.authorization.emptyAttributeValuesAreRestricted': 'false' (default: 'true', deprecated, not documented)
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.mock.users.admin.name': 'admin'
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.mock.users.admin.password': '***' (sensitive)
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.mock.users.admin.roles[0]': 'admin'
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.mock.users.admin.roles[1]': 'cds.Developer'
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.security.mock.users.admin.attributes.businessPartner[0]': '10401010'
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.odataV4.endpoint.path': '/api' (default: '/odata/v4')
... DEBUG ... com.sap.cds.properties : 'cds.errors.defaultTranslations.enabled': 'true' (default: 'false')

Miscellaneous

• Subscription dependencies for portal and html5-apps-repo are automatically created if the corresponding service is bound to the CAP Java application.
• The result of the execution of a CqnUpsert statement now provides an entity reference to the upserted entity via the Row.ref() method.

Multitenancy

Extension Drafts beta

The API PUT /-/cds/extensibility/Extensions/<id> can now be used to upload extensions as drafts. This allows to trigger the upload, validation, and activation of extensions separately.

Example:

PUT /-/cds/extensibility/Extensions/isbn-extension HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "csn": ["using my.bookshop.Books from '_base/db/data-model';
           extend my.bookshop.Books with { Z_ISBN: String };"],
  "i18n": [{ "name": "i18n.properties", "content": "Books_stock=Stock" },
           { "name": "i18n_de.properties", "content": "Books_stock=Bestand" }],
  "status": 1 // draft = 1, activation = 2
}

This request adds an extension with ID isbn-extension as draft. It will not be publicly visible and necessary changes are not deployed to the database.

POST /-/cds/extensibility/validate HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "ID": "isbn-extension"
}

This request validates the extension with ID isbn-extension.

POST /-/cds/extensibility/Extensions/activate HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "ID": "isbn-extension",
  "status": 2 // target status 2 = activation
}

This request promotes the extension with ID isbn-extension to status 2, making it visible to everyone and applying any necessary changes to the database. Note that 2 is the default value for status, so it can be omitted if the goal is to make extensions publicly visible.

Please note: status was level in the first version of the API.

Tools

Deployment With cds up beta

Given you have fulfilled the prerequisites for Cloud Foundry or Kyma deployments, a new command allows for a simpler way to build and deploy CAP applications:

cds up

This deploys your CAP app to Cloud Foundry by default.

Essentially, this command automates the following steps...

# Depending on your deployment method...
cds add mta # Cloud Foundry
cds add helm,containerize # Kubernetes

# Installing app dependencies, e.g.
npm i app/browse
npm i app/admin-books

# If project is multitenant
npm i --package-lock-only mtx/sidecar

# If package-lock.json doesn't exist
npm i --package-lock-only

# Final assembly and deployment...

### Cloud Foundry
mbt build -t gen --mtar mta.tar
cf deploy gen/mta.tar -f

### Kyma/Kubernetes, e.g.
ctz containerize.yaml --log --push
helm upgrade --install bookshop ./gen/chart --wait --wait-for-jobs --set-file xsuaa.jsonParameters=xs-security.json
kubectl rollout status deployment bookshop-srv --timeout=8m
kubectl rollout status deployment bookshop-approuter --timeout=8m
kubectl rollout status deployment bookshop-sidecar --timeout=8m

For Kyma (Kubernetes), simply run:

cds up --to k8s

Initial Type Generation With cds watch

cds-typer is now run once by cds watch. This is useful for newly cloned projects to generate the model types initially. For example, model imports like this no longer error out at startup:

srv/cat-service.js

const { Books } = require('#cds-models/sap/capire/bookshop')

Manual invocations, like npx cds-typer, are no longer needed for this local scenario but still relevant for CI workflows, though.

Ad-hoc SAP HANA Deployment on Kyma

cds deploy --to hana is now also supported for Kubernetes:

cds deploy --to hana:<binding or secret name> --on k8s

Omitting the binding or secret name creates a new HDI container and binding called <appName>-db-binding.