Get Started with SAP Cloud SDK for JavaScript

Personally, we are fans of TypeScript and recommend using it for most applications. However, if you prefer using plain JavaScript, we recommend looking at step 4.

The main differences you will notice between TypeScript and JavaScript are the type annotations and module definitions - ES6 modules in TypeScript vs. commonJS modules in JavaScript. To migrate a TypeScript file to JavaScript, you only need to change the file extension from .ts to .js, remove all type annotations and change the imports and exports.

To create an application that already contains all the files and configuration you need to use the SAP Cloud SDK for JavaScript, you can use SDK’s command line interface (CLI). To get the CLI, run the following command:

npm install -g @sap-cloud-sdk/cli

This will install the CLI globally on your machine, allowing you to use it anywhere.
Now you can create a new project by running the CLI’s init command:

sap-cloud-sdk init my-sdk-project

Since the target folder is empty, the CLI will ask you whether a new nest.js project should be initialized. Answer with y and subsequently accept the suggested project name. The CLI will already install all the necessary dependencies for the project, so this might take a minute. If everything worked correctly, you should see output like this:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| ✅ Init finished successfully.                                |
|                                                               |
| 🚀 Next steps:                                                |
| - Run the application locally (`npm run start:dev`)           |
| - Deploy your application (`npm run deploy`)                  |
|                                                               |
| 🔨 Consider setting up Jenkins to continuously build your app |
| Use `sap-cloud-sdk add-cx-server` to create the setup script  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

To run the application locally, simply run the following command:

npm run start:dev

Go to http://localhost:3000 and you should get a ‘Hello, World!’ in response. Before continuing with the next tutorial, open src/main.ts and switch the port from 3000 to 8080. The corresponding line should then look like this:

await app.listen(process.env.PORT || 8080);

Since nest was started in watch mode, it should detect this change and restart the server.

If you already have an existing project that you want to start using the SAP Cloud SDK for JavaScript in, the SDK’s command line interface (CLI) allows you to add the necessary configuration in a single step. If you haven’t done so already, start by installing the CLI with the following command:

npm install -g @sap-cloud-sdk/cli

Then navigate to your project and execute the CLI’s init command:

cd <path/to/your/project>
sap-cloud-sdk init

Most importantly, the will add the necessary dependencies to your project, along with a set of scripts that allow you to use the SAP Cloud SDK’s Continuous Delivery Toolkit.