Deprecated Controls
abap2UI5 sends plain UI5 XML to the browser, so every control the UI5 runtime knows will render — including the ones SAP has deprecated. Nothing in the framework stops you from using them.
That makes deprecation a question you have to answer yourself while building the view. A deprecated control still works today, but it receives no new features, may behave inconsistently with newer themes, and disappears without replacement once SAP removes it — which has already happened (the Belize themes were removed in 1.136).
The authoritative, always-current list is the UI5 deprecation index. Check it whenever you pick a control you have not used before. The sections below collect the cases that come up most often in abap2UI5 apps.
Whole Libraries to Avoid
Do not use any control from these libraries — they are deprecated in their entirety:
| Library | Deprecated since | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
sap.ui.commons.* — Accordion, Button, CheckBox, ComboBox, DatePicker, Dialog, FileUploader, Label, Link, Menu, Panel, RadioButton, SearchField, Slider, TextArea, TextField, TextView, ToggleButton, Toolbar, Tree, Form, SimpleForm, AbsoluteLayout, BorderLayout, MatrixLayout, HorizontalLayout, VerticalLayout, … (entire library) | 1.38 | sap.m + sap.ui.layout |
sap.viz.ui5.* legacy charts — Bar, Bubble, Bullet, Column, Combination, Donut, Heatmap, Line, Pie, Scatter, StackedColumn, Treemap, Waterfall, … | 1.32 | sap.viz.ui5.controls.VizFrame |
sap.ui.commons is the one to watch out for: several control names exist in both sap.ui.commons and sap.m (Button, Label, Dialog, Panel, …). Copying XML from an old tutorial or an older SAP sample often drags the deprecated namespace along with it.
Individual Deprecated Controls
| Control | Deprecated since | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
sap.m.MultiEditField | 1.120 | — |
sap.f.Avatar | 1.73 | sap.m.Avatar |
sap.ui.core.XMLComposite | 1.88 | Custom controls |
sap.ui.core.mvc.HTMLView | 1.108 | XMLView |
sap.ui.core.mvc.JSONView | 1.120 | XMLView |
sap.ui.core.mvc.JSView | 1.90 | Typed views |
sap.ui.core.mvc.TemplateView | 1.56 | XMLView |
sap.ui.core.tmpl.TemplateControl | 1.56 | — |
sap.ui.table.ColumnHeader | 1.120 | sap.ui.table.Column |
sap.ui.table.TableHelper | 1.118 | — |
sap.f.routing.Router / Target / TargetHandler / Targets | 1.56 | sap.m.routing.* (async) |
sap.tnt.IToolHeader (interface) | 1.135 | Any control as ToolPage header |
Deprecated Enums and Types
These show up as property values rather than as controls, which makes them easy to miss — the view renders, the value is simply ignored or falls back to a default:
sap.m.ValueCSSColor,DateTimeInputType(useDatePicker/TimePicker),ListHeaderDesign,ListMode.SingleSelect(1.143 →SingleSelectLeft),FrameType.TwoThirds/Auto, the misspelledPlacementType.*Prefered*variantssap.f.AvatarShape/AvatarSize/AvatarType/AvatarColor/AvatarImageFitType/IllustratedMessageType/IllustratedMessageSize/DynamicPageTitleArea— use thesap.m.*equivalentssap.ui.layout.BlockBackgroundType.Mixed,form.GridElementCells,SimpleFormLayout.ResponsiveLayout,SimpleFormLayout.GridLayout,cssgrid.CSSGridGapShortHand,GridHelpersap.ui.table.NavigationMode,SortOrder(usesap.ui.core.SortOrder),VisibleRowCountMode(use therowModeaggregation),TreeAutoExpandMode,ResetAllModesap.ui.core.MessageType(usemodule:sap/ui/core/message/MessageType)sap.ui.unified.ContentSwitcherAnimation(1.147 — concept discarded)
Other Deprecated Items
- Analysis Path Framework (APF) — deprecated 1.140
sap.m.PDFViewer.sourceValidationFailed()— deprecated 1.141- The declarative
data-sap-ui-typeattribute — deprecated 1.120, use XML views - Belize, Blue Crystal, and Blue Crystal HCB themes — removed in 1.136, use Horizon → Theme
Avatar — mind the namespace
z2ui5_cl_xml_view->avatar( ) passes the ns parameter straight through to the XML element. Leave it empty so the element resolves to sap.m.Avatar via the view's default xmlns:
view->avatar( src = `sap-icon://person-placeholder` ). " → <Avatar> = sap.m.AvatarNever pass ns = 'f' — that produces <f:Avatar>, which is the deprecated sap.f.Avatar.
avatar_group( ) and avatar_group_item( ) are different: they hardcode ns = 'f' internally and are correct that way, because those controls still live in sap.f.
Next Steps
- Definition — how the XML view is built and where to look controls up
- Cheat Sheet — the rules that matter most, on one page