Draft handling
Letting a user edit a record over several requests before it becomes real — saving unfinished changes, locking, and activating a completed draft.
Overview
Letting a user edit a record over several requests before it becomes real — draft activation, locking, and the semantics Fiori elements expects.
Node.js →
@sap/cds Runs the draft lifecycle for draft-enabled entities — activation, discard and locking — without custom handlers. Since CAP Node.js 10.0 a request that carries no draft notation addresses active data, and draft locks are still enforced against direct updates, deletes and conflicting edits.
Java →
com.sap.cds:cds-services-bom Runs the SAP Fiori draft lifecycle for draft-enabled entities, merging active and draft data on read and triggering the ACTIVE_READ and DRAFT_READ events that let custom handlers override either side.
Not covered: It stops at one editor at a time. Locking is exclusive by design, so collaborative editing — several people in the same draft — is a separate problem the community has taken on.
Built into @sap/cds and com.sap.cds:cds-services-bom
Artifacts
Content
Group by10 of 10 pieces
Piece, what it offers
What's new with draft handling in RAP?What's new with draft handling in RAP?An ABAP-day session at Devtoberfest 2026 on two additions to draft handling in RAP: collaborative draft, where two users work on the same draft instance and a field is locked only while the other is in it, and draft scope, where editing an instance of one draft-enabled business object puts the related instances of a dependent one into draft as well. Andre Fischer shows what each costs in the behaviour definition and projection, the draft query view and its DCL that collaborative draft needs over a table-based business object, and the CDS table entities that remove both the draft query view and the persistence table, with their current restrictions in ABAP analytics and extensibility; the from-scratch generator in ADT grows a checkbox for them. Both demos run against the DMO flight scenario of SAP-samples/abap-platform-refscen-flight, and the last part hides the draft-related features of an OData V4 app in its manifest, which the session gives as the reason a simple create-update-delete app no longer needs a V2 service binding.published 2026-09-21
CAP Foundry: Engineering SAP CAP Applications from Business Intent with Guardrailed AICAP Foundry: Engineering SAP CAP Applications from Business Intent with Guardrailed AICAP Foundry is a prototype that generates a CAP Node.js project with SAP Fiori elements from a written business requirement, discovering the actual data shape from a chosen source — SQLite, a configured SAP HANA HDI container, offline EDMX, live OData through the SAP Destination service, or approved SAP BTP ABAP objects — instead of inventing one. The generated application can carry a Fiori draft lifecycle with optimistic concurrency via ETags and annotation-driven Fiori elements list and object screens, localized independently of the underlying service contract. Attachments can be added with upload, download and delete, gated on a malware-scan status, and the generated project still has to compile, build and pass its generated tests before the run is accepted.Shahid, published 2026-08-20
Reading Between the Lines: Under-Documented Fiori Elements Capabilities in SAPUI5 1.149Reading Between the Lines: Under-Documented Fiori Elements Capabilities in SAPUI5 1.149Reads SAPUI5 1.149's framework source, not its release notes, to show Fiori Elements shifting side-effect refresh, AI field placeholders and multi-user drafting from controller extensions into what the backing service annotates. Event-driven SideEffects push over a WebSocket channel through @cap-js-community/websocket, while Draft handling gains ABAP RAP's live field locking on CAP Node.js through Sören Leibach's own cap-collaborative-draft plugin. Both rest on Fiori annotations such as Common.SideEffects and CollaborativeDraft.enabled, which the frontend reads rather than requiring a manifest flag.published 2026-07-09
Show 7 more
Custom Handlers for Entities in SAP CAPCustom Handlers for Entities in SAP CAPWritten from the moment of not knowing: a two-level composition with drafts, the Fiori elements UI working perfectly, and no idea which handlers are actually needed. What comes out is the action lifecycle laid out as a reference — NEW, EDIT, PATCH and the rest — with a matrix saying which handler fires for which, which is the thing the documentation leaves you to assemble.xavisanse, published 2026-02-20
A simple example of a SAP RAP Application based on Legacy API without UUID keysA simple example of a SAP RAP Application based on Legacy API without UUID keysWalks through building a managed RAP business object over the Flight Reference Scenario's Travel and Booking entities with unmanaged save and late numbering, so CRUD operations route through the legacy /DMO/FLIGHT_TRAVEL_CREATE, _UPDATE and _DELETE function modules instead of generated persistence, a worked case of ABAP's transactional model. Covers the ADJUST_NUMBERS and SAVE_MODIFIED saver methods that map preliminary draft keys to the legacy-assigned travel and booking IDs, and a GetDefaultsForBookings action that proposes the next booking ID during draft handling.cseijas, published 2025-09-01
Keep the Core Clean with Rizing CDSXKeep the Core Clean with Rizing CDSXJhodel Cailan recounts hitting a wall where neither RAP nor CAP supported more than a non-draft OData V2 service for the side-by-side extensibility scenario he wanted, and built Rizing CDSX (@rizing/cds-extension) to add draft handling over a shadow persistence entity that mirrors a remote, cds import-ed service. He walks through the @cdsx.api annotation that proxies the entity, bootstrapping the module from cds.on('bootstrap') in server.js, and testing the result through a generated Fiori elements app backed by an OData V4 draft service.published 2023-05-07
How to ensure that users can efficiently enter data in SAP Fiori elements applicationsHow to ensure that users can efficiently enter data in SAP Fiori elements applicationsGuidance for draft-enabled Fiori Elements applications aimed at the user who spends their day in them: entering data quickly and by keyboard, on a slow network, without the round trips a draft-backed form can otherwise impose. Written from the design side rather than the implementation side, which is the half most CAP writing about drafts leaves out.published 2022-12-05
Messaging System for Transferring Error, Warning, and Information Messages from OData V4 Services to HTTP Client ApplicationsMessaging System for Transferring Error, Warning, and Information Messages from OData V4 Services to HTTP Client ApplicationsGetting a message out of a CAP service and onto a Fiori elements object page in a draft scenario — errors, warnings and information, each of which the UI treats differently. Co-written with one of the people on the OData side, and it spends its length on the message container rather than on the handler that fills it.arley-triana-morin, published 2022-08-11
Messaging System for Transferring Error, Warning, and Information Messages from OData V4 Services to HTTP Client Applications
OData changed in @cap-js-community/odata-v2-adapter 1.10.0, 2023-04-05. Affects A recipe, Runnable code.
Extend SAP SuccessFactors on SAP BTP with CAP - Create the CAP ServiceExtend SAP SuccessFactors on SAP BTP with CAP - Create the CAP ServiceWalks through writing a service definition in SAP Business Application Studio that projects entities from an existing CDS model: one entity gets @odata.draft.enabled because Fiori Elements only shows CRUD actions on a draft-enabled entity, and a read-only projection of an already-imported SuccessFactors OData entity fails with the generic handlers because the call is delegated to the remote service, so a custom handler is needed. Running cds watch then serves the entities, drafts and $metadata at the declared service path.published 2022-03-23
UI5ers Buzz #56: New full-stack UI5 sample app featuring CAP + OData V4 + draft modeUI5ers Buzz #56: New full-stack UI5 sample app featuring CAP + OData V4 + draft modeA sample app published as code rather than described — SAPUI5 over a CAP service with OData V4 and draft mode — and the note that it was built on what the team learned from an application written in March 2020 to help the German Foreign Office repatriate citizens. That provenance is unusual and worth keeping.AndreasKunz, published 2020-11-06
Keep the Core Clean with Rizing CDSXKeep the Core Clean with Rizing CDSXJhodel Cailan recounts hitting a wall where neither RAP nor CAP supported more than a non-draft OData V2 service for the side-by-side extensibility scenario he wanted, and built Rizing CDSX (@rizing/cds-extension) to add draft handling over a shadow persistence entity that mirrors a remote, cds import-ed service. He walks through the @cdsx.api annotation that proxies the entity, bootstrapping the module from cds.on('bootstrap') in server.js, and testing the result through a generated Fiori elements app backed by an OData V4 draft service.published 2023-05-07
Seen working
ArtifactSignalsLast activity
Samples
bookshop-demobookshop-demoSimple CDS bookshop — the reference model most CAP explanations build on.independent, cap
Neither the package manifest nor the repository tree declares a licence.
bookshop-demo
Last pushLast commitLatest release1.1.2,
cap-defaultvalue-functioncap-defaultvalue-functionCommon.DefaultValuesFunction pointed at a service function: getDefaultValues() selects the highest existing ID and returns that plus one, leaving the second key element to the user.independent, cap
cap-defaultvalue-function
Last pushLast commit
cap-fe-masseditcap-fe-masseditA sample that switches on mass edit in a Fiori elements list report over CAP with enableMassEdit in manifest.json, against a draft-enabled Books entity with a status code list.independent, cap
cap-fe-massedit
Last pushLast commit
cap-java-draft-composition-deletecap-java-draft-composition-deleteDraft cancel on composition items turned into a flag update instead of a cascading physical delete, with the handler reading the incoming CQN so both delete paths behave the same.independent, cap
Neither the package manifest nor the repository tree declares a licence.
cap-java-draft-composition-delete
Last pushLast commit
fiori-inline-editfiori-inline-editList report inline edit on a draft-enabled service, pinned to @sap/cds 9.9.1 and SAPUI5 1.136.7 — whether a save message appears, and whether value help works inside an edited cell.independent, cap
Neither the package manifest nor the repository tree declares a licence.
fiori-inline-edit
Last pushLast commit
SAP-samples/ui5-cap-event-appSAP-samples/ui5-cap-event-appAn event-attendee registration app that pairs a freestyle SAPUI5 end-user UI and a Fiori elements admin UI over one Node.js CAP backend, built to show OData V4 draft handling end to end.sap official, cap
SAP-samples/ui5-cap-event-app
Last pushLast commit
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