Open source toolkit by SAP for development of enterprise-ready web applications
OpenUI5 is a JavaScript application framework designed to build cross-platform, responsive, enterprise-ready applications.[1] It is an open-source project maintained by SAP SE available under the Apache 2.0 license and open to contributions.[2]
OpenUI5's core is based on JavaScript, jQuery, and LESS. The library's feature set includes model–view–controller patterns, data binding, its own UI-element library, and internationalisation support.[1]
History
The team that started the project in 2009, that eventually lead to OpenUI5 was tasked with creating a new user interface (UI) for SAP applications. Objectives included a framework that was flexible, extensible, modern, and would provide a consistent look and feel across SAP applications. In addition to this, at the time SAP's main UI framework was tightly coupled to its backend technology, becoming a bottleneck to UI improvements.[3]
The library was open sourced in December 2013, after being used in production at SAP for several years.[4] In October 2014, the team started accepting contributions via GitHub.[2]
Commercial status
All OpenUI5 components are completely free, and there are no paid "premium" or "commercial" widgets:
OpenUI5 is best described as a one-stop-shop toolkit. It has everything you need to build web applications, while leaving enough flexibility to extend. And by the way, it's the only one that gives you full functionality for free. While other popular toolkits come as a free trial with paid versions for full functionality, OpenUI5 comes as a complete product by itself – no upsells, no paid premium.[5]
— OpenUI5 Frequently Asked Questions
