SAP IS : Boost Your Productivity with SAP CPI Helper Extension for SAP BTP Integration Suite

 

If you're working with SAP BTP Integration Suite (IS)—especially with Cloud Integration (formerly CPI)—you probably know how powerful the web UI is, but also how tedious some repetitive tasks can become. That’s where the SAP CPI Helper browser extension comes in as a true game-changer for integration developers.

In this blog, we’ll explore what the SAP CPI Helper Extension is, why it’s useful, and how it can streamline your daily integration tasks.

What is the SAP CPI Helper Extension?

The SAP CPI Helper Extension is a free and open-source browser plugin (available for Chrome and Edge) designed to enhance the developer experience in SAP Cloud Integration. It overlays helpful features directly into the Cloud Integration web UI, offering shortcuts, UI improvements, and analysis tools that SAP doesn’t natively provide.

Originally created by the open-source SAP community, this tool is not officially supported by SAP, but it’s widely trusted and appreciated by thousands of CPI developers around the world.

Key Features

Here are some of the most helpful features that the extension brings:

🔍 Message Monitoring Enhancements

• Quickly filter messages by status (success, failed, processing).
• Jump directly to the message payload or error trace.
• Easy access to logs, message headers, and body content without endless clicking.

💡 Trace Viewer Enhancements

• Improved display of trace steps with clear visibility of headers and content.
• Navigate through flow steps more easily.
• Export message traces for documentation or debugging.

🚀 Runtime Performance Tools

• Compare runtimes for different integration flows.
• Analyze execution durations and identify performance bottlenecks.

🛠️ Design Time Utilities

• Add comments to flow steps.
• Visual enhancements to integration flow diagrams.
• Hover tips and UI tweaks that save time during development.

Why Should You Use It?

If you're spending hours inside the Integration Suite's Web UI, this extension can significantly improve your workflow:

• Save Time: Navigate message traces, logs, and iFlows faster.
• Debug Easier: View detailed runtime data without deep-diving into multiple screens.
• Improve Visibility: Get a better picture of how your flows are executing.
• Avoid Frustration: Reduce repetitive clicks and hard-to-find errors.

Some of the simple but useful features are there, like you can set your preferences at each environment level. For example, in my case I have set the theme different for each environments. 

Dev:

Test:

When working on a Specific iFlow, you can see all the runs at one place and have easy shortcuts available to see the log viewer, trace etc..

How to Install It

For Chrome:

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store.
2. Search for “SAP CPI Helper”.
3. Click “Add to Chrome”.

For Edge:

1. Go to the Edge Add-ons Store.
2. Search for “SAP CPI Helper”.
3. Click “Get” to install.

After installation, just open your SAP BTP Integration Suite tenant and the helper will automatically activate.

Important Note on Security

The extension is open-source and widely used, but it does interact with your tenant’s UI. Always ensure you install it from trusted sources. For corporate environments, consult with your IT/security team before installation.

You can also inspect the source code yourself on GitHub.

Final Thoughts

The SAP CPI Helper Extension is one of those tools that, once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it. Whether you’re debugging, testing, or just browsing through artifacts in SAP BTP Integration Suite, this browser extension will make your life easier.

If you're an integration developer looking to level up your productivity, give it a try!

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

SAP IS: How to upload Known Host Keys to SAP BTP IS for SFTP Connectivity.

  In this blog I will explain how to create a known host file into SAP BTP IS and also how to update an already deployed known hosts file in SAP IS.

Assumption

You have already received the known host key file from the target server where you want to connect.

Create a Known hosts file in SAP IS.

• Login to SAP BTP IS

• Select Monitor --> Integration and APIs --> Manage Security --> Security Material

• Click on Upload --> Known Hosts (SSH)

• 
  Choose the file and click on 'Deploy'.

• 
  The host keys should be uploaded  now. You should be able to see the below. You can clock on the download icon to download the file and verify.

You can no do your SFTP connectivity testing now.

Update a Known hosts file.

If you want to update the known hosts key file or add new entries to the file, you need to download the file first and update/add the entry in the downloaded file. 

Then follow the above steps to upload again.

Note:- If don't download the file and make changes in that file, you will basically override what was there and it could cause issues

Reference:

Known Hosts File

Deploying an SSH Known Hosts Artifact

Maintaining the Known Hosts File for SFTP Connectivity

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

SAP IS: How to convert the SSH key to p12 format for loading into SAP IS Key Store

SAP IS: How to convert the SSH key to p12 format for loading into SAP IS Key Store.

You can refer the below link to see how to generate the SSH Key pair

SAP IS: How to create an SSH Key pair for SFTP Connection

Download portable cygwin from Portable Cygwin

Once downloaded, you need to uncomment the entries in the cygwin-portable-config.bat and add 'openssl' also to the CYGWN_PACKAGES variable.

Now execute the file cygwin-portable-setup.cmd. This will create a set of folders under the main folder.

You can also install cygwin by following  Setting Up Cygwin/X

Now, you need to follow the below steps to convert the SSH key to p12 format.

1. Copy the generated SSH key into a folder where cygwin can access. In my case I created a folder under Data/admin/aj and copied my ssh key into that folder.

2. Run the file cygwin-portable-terminal.cmd  as administrator

3. Use OpenSSL package commands to create X.509 certificate

openssl req -new -x509 -days 7300 -key ./aj/ajohny_ssh_new.pem -out ./aj/ajohny_ssh_new.x509

Enter the Pass Phrase for the SSH Key (If you have entered pass phrase when generating the key)

Enter the below details when asked: (You can leave it blank as well if you want)

1. Country Name

2. State

3. Locality Name

4. Organization Name

5. Organizational Unit Name

6. Common Name

7. Email Address

Now you can see the certificate is created.

3. Now create the p12 file from the certificate created above

openssl pkcs12 -export -in ./aj/ajohny_ssh.x509 -inkey ./aj/ajohny_ssh.pem -out ./aj/ajohny_ssh.p12

Enter the Pass Phrase for the SSH Key (If you have entered pass phrase when generating the key)

Enter the export password for the p12 file.

Reference : The KEY to unlock the "KEY GENERATION" mystery - SFTP/SSH

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

SAP IS: How to create an SSH Key pair for SFTP Connection

I am adding the steps to generate the SSK Key Pair in my SAP blog, because I had to use this in my SAP Implementation. 

We had to generate the SSH Keys to load into SAP IS for doing SFTP connection.  We had to convert these ssh keys into .p12 format, but the steps for the conversion will be in my next blog. I will update this blog with the link to that once I have it ready.

Update : SAP IS: How to convert the SSH key to p12 format for loading into SAP IS Key Store

1. Download PuTTYgen and install it in your machine.

   You can download it from Download PuTTY: latest release (0.83) or PuTTYgen

2. Open PuTTYgen and choose the Type of Key you want to generate under the Parameters Section. Also specify the Number of bits.

   

   

3. Click on Generate button and move the mouse randomly in the blank area, until the key is generated.

   

   

4. When done, specify the passphrase if you want a passphrase to the key. Adding a passphrase adds an extra security to your private key. 

    

   

5. You can save the private key using the 'Save Private key' button or using the menu Conversions--> Export OpenSSH Key.

6. You can save the public key using the 'Save Public key' button or copy from the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file" box in PuTTYgen.

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

ABAP : Deep Link not working after SSO Authentication

In our organization, we have a need to provide a link to the "Display Credit Exposure" page  in SAP Fiori App,  in one of our custom application.

We have got the Deep Link in below format:

https://<host>:<port>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=123&sap-language=EN#BusinessPartner-displayCreditExposure?BusinessPartner=12345

The above Deep Link works fine if the user is already logged in to the application. But if the user is not already logged in to SAP, it will ask for authentication, but after the authentication, it is getting redirected to the Home Page as below:

https://<host>:<port>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=123&sap-language=EN#Shell-home

Our expectation was that even if the user is not logged in , it should take us to the Display Credit Exposure page after the SSO authentication.

Cause:

The main issue was the intent (#SemanticObject-Action) part of the URL was not getting passed on the re-direction.

Solution:

We followed the below SAP KBA's and the functionality started working fine.

2598498 - Fiori intents in HTTP URL do not work using SAML 2.0 authentication

The below note which is mentioned in the above KBA has the correction instructions and explains what configurations need to be done on SAML and Service Provider Side.

2051210 - Fragments in HTTP URLS are not handled after SAML 2.0 authentication

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

SAP IS : "There is no Developer Hub associated with the apiportal yet" error when publishing a product in SAP Integration Suite

When following the SAP Integration Suite tutorial (Developing with SAP Integration Suite), in the lesson Managing API's --> Creating a Product, you will need to publish the product.

When trying to publish the product, I was getting an error saying  "There is no Developer Hub associated with the apiportal yet". If you are getting the same error, please read further to get the root cause.

Root Cause: In my case Developer Hub was not enabled, while the Manage API's capability was added to the Integration Suite.

Solution: Enable the Developer Hub and Set up.

Go back to the Manage Capabilities section and Edit the API Management Capability.

Once the Developer Hub is added, it will look like below:

Now lets try to publish the product.

But now getting a different error

This is because the Developer Hub is not setup.

In order to setup the Developer Hub, Choose and click the top-right side navigation bread crumbs  'Explore our eco System' icon and select  'Developer Hub'.

Once you select that, a new tab will open and shows that the devloper hub is setup. 

Now, lets try to publish the product again.

Now you can see that the product is published successfully.

Hope this is useful for someone.

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.

SAP IS: "Configure" menu not visible in SAP Integration Suite when using trial account

This is my first blog on SAP. I just started learning SAP only. So, please excuse me if I am doing something in a wrong way.

When I was going through the SAP Learning Developing with SAP Integration Suite, the tutorial says 

1. Log on to your API Portal within your Integration Suite as already shown several times.

2. Navigate to Configure → APIs.  

But the Configure option was not visible in the left side menu.

This solution to get that menu (this is what I did :)) , is to click on Settings → APIs. 

   

Once you click on that, your account will be provisioned and the configure menu will be available.

Hope this helps someone who wonders how to get this option. (Probably there might be some step I missed :))

Feel free to point out if anything is missing/wrong in this blog.