The UI development toolkit for HTML5 (SAPUI5) is a library and a framework, which is

designed to enable developers to easily create and extend state-of-the-art user interfaces.
SAPUI5 is based on HTML5 and bases on the jQuery library. It supports CSS3, which allows
you to adapt themes to your company's branding in an effective manner. SAPUI5 is Open
AJAX-compliant and can be used together with other standard JavaScript libraries. The
client-side rendering library provides a rich set of controls. You can extend the existing
controls, or develop new custom controls.
The UI development tools are part of SAPUI5. They are a set of eclipse-based tools and
editors, which support you in developing applications. Wizards help you to create application
projects and views according to the model view controller concept. It also provides additional
features, such as JavaScript code completion and the In-place application preview. The
SAPUI5 ABAP team provider functionality supports you in developing on an ABAP backend
system.
A Web application, which has been developed by using the SAPUI5 framework, can run on
the following platforms:

SAP NetWeaver ABAP Server

SAP NetWeaver Java Server

SAP NetWeaver Cloud

Open Source Java Application Server

Static Open Source Web Server

SAPUI5 is a state-of-the-art client-side rendering framework that:

... provides RIA-style AJAX features
... supports the SAP product standards
... offers an extensibility concept
... allows theming and customer branding
... comes with a rich set of controls for building desktop as well as mobile applications
... introduces controls that work on all form factors
... provides a lightweight model-view-controller (MVC) concept, componentization and data
binding
... has out-of-the-box support for the OData protocol
... implements advanced caching and resource handling mechanisms
... allows on-the-fly creation of new controls
... provides an Eclipse based design environment for development of SAPUI5 applications
... is release independent with very few dependencies to other components

SAPUI5 vs Webdynpro ABAP

Frame work

SAPUI5
Light weight , application
loads faster

Rendering
Architecture
Ease of Development

Client-side
MVC
Outside SAP(Free from
SAP and can be
developed on any IDE)

Screen look n feel

Much brighter
appearance and more
interactive
Desktop & Mobile

Cross-Platform

Media enablement

Graphical
Representation

Front-end
Development

Database operations

Coding limitations

Data Integrity

Data Enablement

Open AJAX-compliant, so
media enablement is
interactive and simpler in
development
It has new tag Canvas, SVG
which is helpful in animation
or graphical representation
(Chart, Flow Diagram, etc.,)
Independent of SAP
editor,
Can be developed from
wide range of IDEs and
supports latest tools like
HTML5, CSS, Java script
and Odata.
Until unless we have
proper Gateway
Services /Interfaces we
cannot operate on Data.
Other than ABAP we need
to work with HTML5, CSS
and JavaScript ( in case
of ABAPers)
Not much data integrity
as it can be accessed
from any device without
much authorization.
XML based, so data will
be available globally

WDA
Heavy weight ,
application loads lot
slower
Server-side
MVC
Within SAP(Development
tools and editors are
integrated into the SAP
GUI)
Closely resembles SAP
standard screens
SAP GUI and all Browsers
but cannot be deployed
independently on
mobile / handheld
devices.
Needs effort for media
enablement and has to
rely on additional tools.
Limited Graphical
Capabilities

Must be developed within

sap

We can directly operate

on Data using like
Selects.
Only ABAP, so code
implementation is easy

Without proper
authorizations data
cannot be accessed
easily from out side
environment
Not xml enabled