Message

Showing messages is an everyday task for ABAP developers. The functions below cover the most common cases.

Message Toast

For brief notifications like success confirmations, use the message toast:

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.
  client->message_toast_display( `this is a message` ).
ENDMETHOD.

Message Box

When the user needs to acknowledge the message, show a message box they must close:

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.
  client->message_box_display( `this is a message` ).
ENDMETHOD.

For error messages, change the type:

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.
  client->message_box_display(
    text = `This is an error message`
    type = `error` ).
ENDMETHOD.

SY, BAPIRET, CX_ROOT

You can pass common message structures, objects, and variables straight to these functions:

SY

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.

  MESSAGE ID `NET` TYPE `I` NUMBER `001` INTO DATA(lv_dummy).
  client->message_box_display( sy ).

ENDMETHOD.

BAPIRET

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.

  DATA lt_bapiret TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF bapiret2.
  CALL FUNCTION `BAPI_USER_GET_DETAIL`
    EXPORTING
      username = sy-uname
    TABLES
      return   = lt_bapiret.
  client->message_box_display( lt_bapiret ).

ENDMETHOD.

CX_ROOT

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.

  TRY.
    DATA(lv_val) = 1 / 0.
  CATCH cx_root INTO DATA(lx).
    client->message_box_display( lx ).
  ENDTRY.

ENDMETHOD.

The framework accepts other inputs too — pass your message structure and the message box shows it.

Client Method or Global Object?

Both of the calls above have a second form, and the two answer different questions.

client->message_toast_display( ) and client->message_box_display( ) are the ABAP side. Hand them what the app already holds — a text, a BAPIRET2 table, a log, an exception, a structure, a whole table — and they work out the severity, the title and the rendering themselves, as the section above shows. What they take as parameters is what an ABAP app decides: the data, the kind of box, the buttons as a string_table, and the backend event raised when the box closes.

A plain UI5 option — where a toast docks, how wide the box is, which icon it carries — is not an ABAP decision, and it is set on the control instead. The whitelisted global call reaches sap.m.MessageToast and sap.m.MessageBox directly, and its last argument is the option object of that API 1:1:

METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.

  " the display method IS the box type
  client->follow_up_action(
    val   = client->cs_event-control_global
    t_arg = VALUE #( ( `MESSAGE_BOX` )
                     ( `error` )
                     ( `Not saved.` )
                     ( `{"contentWidth":"30rem","icon":"WARNING"}` ) ) ).

ENDMETHOD.

An argument that starts with a brace travels as real JSON, so the options arrive as an object rather than as a string that looks like one. Both ways end in the same frontend code: onClose stays a backend event name on either path, and the details of a box are expanded on either path.

The UI5 options — where a toast docks, a box's icon, width or text direction — are set this way and only this way; the parameter list on Deprecations is the one to check when an older app does not compile.

The global call has one more property the client method cannot have: it can be wired into the view, where it runs without a round-trip at all. Extra arguments fill the {0}, {1} placeholders of the text, so a button can say what was pressed without asking the backend:

)->tag( `Button`
    )->a( n = `text`  v = `Save`
    )->a( n = `press` v = client->follow_up_action(
                              val   = client->cs_event-control_global
                              t_arg = VALUE #( ( `MESSAGE_TOAST` )
                                               ( `show` )
                                               ( `{0} was pressed` )
                                               ( `${$source>/text}` ) ) ) )

See Frontend Actions for the other global objects this call reaches.

The Parameters of message_box_display( )

Parameter	What it does
text	what to show — TYPE any: a text, a message structure or table (BAPIRET2, T100, RAP, symsg, a log object, an exception), an HTML string, a business table, a nested structure, an object, a number. Messages are recognized first and set severity and title themselves; several become one box typed by the most severe. The one case that shows nothing is complex data that is initial — an empty message table stays silent
type	the kind of box, which decides icon and default title: information (the default), warning, error, success, confirm, alert or show
title	the title bar text; the type's own title when empty
actions	the buttons, as sap.m.MessageBox.Action names (OK, CANCEL, YES, NO, ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, CLOSE, DELETE) or as free texts. Not supplied, UI5's default for the type applies — OK for information and success, CLOSE for error, OK and CANCEL for confirm — so an onclose handler should not expect OK alone
onclose	a backend event name raised when the box closes; the action the user pressed arrives as the first event argument, get_event_arg( ), so one handler tells DELETE from CANCEL
emphasizedaction	the one of the actions rendered as the emphasized button
initialfocus	the action (or control id) that has the focus when the box opens
details	a further text (or JSON) shown below the message, already unfolded — the box's Show details link is hidden
styleclass	one or more CSS classes added to the box

A confirmation is therefore one call and one branch:

ELSEIF client->check_on_event( `DELETE` ).
  client->message_box_display(
      text             = `Delete this entry?`
      type             = `confirm`
      actions          = VALUE #( ( `DELETE` ) ( `CANCEL` ) )
      emphasizedaction = `DELETE`
      onclose          = `DELETE_CONFIRMED` ).

ELSEIF client->check_on_event( `DELETE_CONFIRMED` ).
  IF client->get_event_arg( ) = `DELETE`.
    delete_entry( ).
  ENDIF.

Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_382 opens a box of every type with the same onclose and shows the answer in a toast.

message_toast_display( )

Three parameters: text, duration — the milliseconds the toast stays, UI5's default is 3000 — and onclose, a backend event name raised when it has gone. Everything else about the toast is the control's and goes through the global call above, which also composes its text on the client.

All of Them in One App

The fragments above are each one call. Press Run to see the whole family in a single app:

CLASS zcl_sample_message DEFINITION PUBLIC.

  PUBLIC SECTION.
    INTERFACES z2ui5_if_app.

  PROTECTED SECTION.
  PRIVATE SECTION.
ENDCLASS.

CLASS zcl_sample_message IMPLEMENTATION.
  METHOD z2ui5_if_app~main.

    IF client->check_on_navigated( ).
      DATA(view) = z2ui5_cl_ui5_view_builder=>factory(
          )->ele( n = `View` ns = `mvc`
              )->a( n = `xmlns`     v = `sap.m`
              )->a( n = `xmlns:mvc` v = `sap.ui.core.mvc`

              )->ele( `Page`
                  )->a( n = `title` v = `Messages`

                  )->tag( `Button`
                      )->a( n = `text`  v = `toast`
                      )->a( n = `press` v = client->_event( `TOAST` )
                  )->tag( `Button`
                      )->a( n = `text`  v = `box`
                      )->a( n = `press` v = client->_event( `BOX` )
                  )->tag( `Button`
                      )->a( n = `text`  v = `from an exception`
                      )->a( n = `press` v = client->_event( `EXC` ) ).

      client->view_display( view->stringify( ) ).

    ELSEIF client->check_on_event( `TOAST` ).
      client->message_toast_display( `this is a message` ).

    ELSEIF client->check_on_event( `BOX` ).
      client->message_box_display( text = `This is an error message`
                                   type = `error` ).

    ELSEIF client->check_on_event( `EXC` ).
      TRY.
          DATA(lv_val) = 1 / 0.
        CATCH cx_root INTO DATA(lx).
          client->message_box_display( lx ).
      ENDTRY.

    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.
ENDCLASS.

More Than One Message at a Time

The message box shows one message — but it also takes a whole set of them. Pass a BAPI return table, a message log or the result of a validation run and the framework flattens it into the lines the box shows; see Logging for the sources it reads.

For something richer than a list of lines — a sortable table with severities and long texts — build the view from the same data, or take the ready-made message dialog from the popups add-on.

Improvements

These message functions evolve all the time. Open an issue if you hit errors or incompatibilities, or submit a PR to extend them.

Working Samples

Complete apps from the sample catalog that use what this page describes. Each is a single class in abap2UI5/samples unless its row names another of the three sample repositories — pull that repository with abapGit and start the class with ?app_start=<class>.

Sample	Class
MessageToast via the Global Object (A)	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_381
MessageBox, Types and Custom Actions	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_382
MessageBox from SY, BAPIRET2 or Exception	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_008
MessageView and MessagePopover (A)	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_452
Message Model and MessageManager (C)	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_467
MessagePopover URL Policy (A)	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_474
MessageBox for Any Data	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_502
MessageBox via the Global Object (A)	Z2UI5_CL_SMP_APP_512