I’ve been using SAP Business Application Studio for quite some time now and I’m really a big fan! No more hassling around with local setups, dependencies, plugins, … this really simplified my life as a developer.

I’m using quite some different computers so, having your developer environment available anywhere anytime out-of-the-box is just a dream come true.

There was however one small annoyance, working in a web browser. As a developer I tend to have quite some open tabs & windows for documentation purposes. In one of my tabs I have Business Application Studio running, but quickly switching between tabs / windows didn’t feel right. It always felt like I had to search through all my open tabs and windows to find my Business Application Studio tab again.

I was very pleased to see this being addressed by this roadmap item.

SAP Business Application Studio remote development extension

Well here’s some great news! It’s now possible to access Business Application Studio workspaces directly from your local Visual Studio Code installation!

Setting up remote access to Business Application Studio

In your local Visual Studio Code installation, navigate to extensions and look for “SAP Business Application Studio toolkit”. Install the extension with the “Install” button.

Install Business Application Studio Toolkit extension

Once the installation is finished, you’ll find a new activated extension in the sidebar for “Business Application Studio Desktop Client”. Open the extension and click the “Connect your landscape” button.

Connecting to your SAP Business Application Studio landscape

Visual Studio Code will ask for your Business Application Studio landscape URL. Enter the URL to your landscape (which you can find in the SAP BTP Cockpit) and press enter.

Entering your SAP Business Application Studio landscape URL

Once the landscape is added, you can login to your landscape by clicking the login button. A browser window will be opened to provide your credentials.

Logging into your SAP Business Application Studio landscape

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a list of your dev spaces. In this list you can start / stop dev spaces by clicking the buttons next to the dev space.

Starting your dev space

After starting your dev space, you’ll see a new button has appeared which you can use to open up your dev space.

Connecting to your dev space

And it’s as easy as that! You’re now working directly in your remote dev space! (you’ll see the dev space you’re connected to in the lower left corner, marked in green)

Start working in your dev space from Visual Studio Code!

Wrap-up

For me personally this is game changer, I’m really happy to be able to use my local Visual Studio Code installation to connect to SAP Business Application Studio! Installation of the SAP Business Application toolkit is straight forward and there’s a minimal amount of configuration needed to get you started!

Big thanks to the SAP Business Application Studio team to add this feature to the toolset!