SAP Community - User Experience

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Upgrade Faster – Managing app lifecycle impacts on users

2024-03-05T04:01:52.255000+01:00

Latest Updates:

March 2024 - Some clarifications added following feedback. Some terminology has been clarified. The marking of superseded apps as Available with Successor has been adjusted to reflect that this is a soft stage and not used in every case. Some use cases that can influence the duration of an app in available with successor status have been listed. Also note that for SAP S/4HANA, app lifecycle can change as part of a major release or as part of a Feature Pack Stack.

Every SAP S/4HANA (and SAP S/4HANA Cloud) release upgrade involves change – and mostly that’s a good thing, so long as you can roll with the changes. Each new release brings new innovations such as new apps, new processes, new features, new intelligent experiences (such as generative AI), better tools, and better performance.

Hint: SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud are product suites. Apps are listed by product suite in the SAP Fiori apps reference library

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the product suite used by solution SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
SAP S/4HANA is the product suite used by solutions SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA on-premise.

To make space for the new, you may need to let go of the old. Replace the horse with the automobile. Replace the newspaper with the television. Replace the record player with the CD with the DVD with the Blu-ray with the iPod with the Spotify playlist.

Like hardware, software apps have a lifecycle. For consumer apps like Facebook and X, new versions of apps are usually forced upon you, and you just have to deal with it. In the SaaS world, where your business needs to keep running 24x7, you get a little more notice and guidance.

With SAP S/4HANA (and SAP S/4HANA Cloud), whenever you upgrade your release, you may need to replace your current apps with their successors. The app lifecycle determines when a successor app is available, and when you should stop using the predecessor app. That is:

By marking an app as deprecated SAP gives formal notice of the intent to make the app obsolete in a future release.
You must move to the recommended successor.
You can move as early as the successor becomes available, or as late as the predecessor app becomes obsolete.

Hint: In this context apps includes all UI technologies supported by the SAP Fiori launchpad i.e. SAP Fiori apps, ABAP Web Dynpro applications, Web Client Ui apps, and SAP GUI Transactions. Lifecycle changes in classic Ui apps such as SAP GUI transactions, are typically announced as deprecated or obsolete as part of Simplifications. You can use the SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA Upgrades to find simplifications relevant to your usage or search the Simplification Database.

IMPORTANT: It’s not just apps that may need to be replaced, you may also need to move to successor features, successor tools, and so on. Refer to the section in this blog post: Other types of UX changes you may encounter during upgrades.

Understanding the app lifecycle saves you time when:

planning your upgrade
executing your upgrade
deciding what new opportunities to explore post-upgrade
managing the change impacts on business users

In this blog post you will learn:

Stages in the app lifecycle
Choosing the right time to move to the successor
How app lifecycle changes impact SAP S/4HANA release upgrades
Other types of UX changes you may encounter during upgrades
Tips for managing change impacts on business users

You may have already noticed the deprecated mentions in the SAP Fiori apps library, in the What’s New Viewer for SAP S/4HANA, and in the RASD (Release Assessment and Scope Dependency tool) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Just in case you haven’t, take a look at the final section:

Where to find information on app lifecycle changes

IMPORTANT: For SAP S/4HANA, app lifecycle changes are usually announced as part of a major release. For example, SAP S/4HANA 2023. However, app lifecycle changes can also be announced as part of a Feature Pack Stack release. For example, from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02.

Stages in the app lifecycle

The 4 main stages are:

Available
(Optional) Available with successor, i.e. superseded
Deprecated
Obsolete

These stages are easy to understand. If your app is:

Available – This means the app is currently available for use.
Available with successor – The app is still available for use, however a successor app has been introduced. You should consider moving to the successor. "Available with successor" is a soft stage, which is not always used. Available with successor is used to highlight that a new and better app is available. You are invited to take early advantage of this innovation.
Deprecated – This means the app still exists; however, SAP no longer recommends its use, and it will be deleted from the SAP Fiori launchpad in an upcoming release. You are recommended to move to the successor as soon as possible.
Obsolete – This means the app must not be used. Usually, the app has been deleted and no longer exists. You must move to the successor.

Hint: These stages apply to the app regardless of how the app is accessed, including:

via SAP Start or SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition,
via SAP Fiori launchpad,
via SAP Business Client or SAP Logon.

As soon as the successor app is available you can shift to the from the predecessor to the successor app.

When the app is superseded, it’s optional to move to the successor
When the app is deprecated, it’s recommended to move to the successor
When the app is made obsolete, it’s mandatory to move to the successor

You can see in the diagram below a summary of these stages.

Hint: Occasionally an app may have minor changes applied by a new release, such as new features added to the floorplan to download tables to Excel, PDF, and Google Sheets, or new features to add related apps for simpler navigation. These minor changes are part of the app history and are not considered a change in lifecycle stage. Similarly, the launchpad app descriptor item (i.e. target mapping and tiles) of an app, may occasionally be moved to a new launchpad catalog or its parameters may be changed. Changes in launchpad catalog organization are not considered a lifecycle change for the app itself.

Hint: When an app is superseded:

The app may be replaced one or more successors. For example, split to different apps for different use cases.
The app may also have no successors, i.e. is no longer required.

For each app, these lifecycle stages usually occur across several releases.

An app may be available for a long time before it moves to the other stages.
Once an app has a successor it may move quite quickly to other stages.
For example an app marked as "available with successor" in one release, may be marked as deprecated in the next release.
Officially, for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, there is a period of at least six months between the initial announcement of an app's deprecation and its deletion. Refer to Deprecation Process for Apps (SAP S/4HANA Cloud).
For SAP S/4HANA the typical time between available, deprecated, and obsolete phases can be much longer.
However, with SAP S/4HANA upgrades the more distance between your current release and target upgrade release, the more deprecated and obsolete apps you are likely to encounter as part of your upgrade. Refer to Prepare the SAP Fiori Upgrade (SAP S/4HANA)

IMPORTANT: There are some additional use cases to be aware of for the “available with successor” status that may influence how long the app may stay in this stage. Refer to the app documentation and related SAP Notes for the app where needed.

An app can go from available to deprecated without passing through "available with successor". For example, SAP GUI transactions may be deprecated as part of Simplifications.
An app's functionality may be split out to multiple successors, which may be introduced in different releases. This can extend the time in which the app remains in "available with successor" status.
The status “available with successor” may be used to indicate a recommended alternative when you are using an advanced solution capability. For example the apps F1592 Asset Master Worklist and F1684 Manage Fixed Assets are superseded by F3425 Manage Fixed Assets (new) when you are using Universal Parallel Accounting. This can extend the time in which the app remains in "available with successor" status.

Examples of app lifecycle stages

For example, app F0842 Manage Purchase Orders was:

Available from SAP S/4HANA 1511
Superseded with release SAP S/4HANA 1709 with the introduction of app F0842A Manage Purchase Orders (Version 2)
Deprecated with SAP S/4HANA 1909
Obsolete from SAP S/4HANA 2020. That is, the app was deleted from the solution.

Of course you may encounter the app at any lifecycle stage.

For example, the app F0717 Manage Journal Entries:

Was available from the beginning of SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA 1511,
Was superseded from SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2308 and SAP S/4HANA 2023.
- The successor app is F0717A Manage Journal Entries – New Version.
- Refer to Unboxing the New Manage Journal Entries App

Is deprecated from SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402.
- It has not yet been deprecated in SAP S/4HANA, but this is expected to happen in an upcoming release.
A decision has not yet been made when the predecessor app will be made obsolete.
- Hint: This is normal. With very popular apps, the product owner may allow a little more time for customers to transition to the new app.

So at the time of writing (March 2024), you have some choices on when to move from F0717 Manage Journal Entries (old version) to F0717A Manage Journal Entries (new version):

You can choose to move to the successor early (from SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2308 or SAP S/4HANA 2023).
- This is explained in the What’s New Viewer for SAP S/4HANA Additional Version of Manage Journal Entries
You can wait to move to the successor when recommended (from SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402)
You can must move to the successor when F0717 becomes obsolete.

Choosing the right time to move to the successor

Consider which adopter profile suits your needs.

If you wish, you can use a different adopter profile for high-risk heavily used apps versus low-risk apps that you have only deployed to a few users.

Adopter Profiles:

Innovation Adopter – Moves when a successor app becomes available
- Pros – You get the new business value improvements of the successor app early as possible. You have time to evaluate and move at leisure post-upgrade.
- Considerations – Consider giving early feedback to SAP. You have time to ask for improvements if there’s anything you would like added or changed.

Conservative Adopter – Moves when app is deprecated
- Pros – You avoid commercial support issues, such as SAP Incidents being redirected to Consulting.
- Considerations – If it’s too complex to move during upgrade, for example because of extensions you want to apply, you still have time to transition to the new app post-upgrade.

Forced Adopter – Moves when app is made obsolete
- Considerations - You must move as part of upgrade. You accept the time pressure risk – you may have to make business decisions and complex changes in a rush. You risk not being able to apply adaptations or extensions you need for your processes.

You can see the adopter profiles summarized below, mapped against the journey from F0717 Manage Journal Entries to F0717A Manage Journal Entries - New Version:

How app lifecycle changes impact SAP S/4HANA release upgrades

Once you understand the app lifecycle, you can more easily manage release upgrades.

Release upgrades are your opportunity to take on new innovations and increase the business value of your solution. That said, with any release upgrade your business users are likely to expect a little disruption. With every release upgrade your aim should be to:

When planning your upgrade, mass evaluate app lifecycle changes using upgrade tools such as SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA Upgrades or the SAP Fiori Upgrade Impact Analysis
During release upgrades, minimize unnecessary disruption now and later for business users by focussing on mandatory changes and easy moves to successor apps.
Post-upgrade is the ideal time to evaluate new opportunities, such as introducing new apps, to review interesting existing apps you are not yet using, and to make more complex moves to successor apps.

For each app lifecycle stage, there are some considerations to keep in mind.

Obsolete apps:

Must be replaced during release upgrade, as they no longer exist.
SAP-delivered business role templates are automatically updated.
You must replace the app in any custom business roles.

Deprecated apps:

Where you can do so easily, speed up and simply future upgrades by moving your custom business roles to successor apps during release upgrade.
Replacing deprecated apps before they become obsolete avoids disruption later and gives you extra time to manage the move to the successor.
Post-upgrade is the right time to execute more complex must-change shifts to successor apps. For example, where you need to re-evaluate and re-apply extensions before you can adjust your custom business roles.

Superseded apps ("Available with successor"):

Where you can, exploring successor apps during post-upgrade when they are first superseded can avoid difficult “but how” discussions when they are made deprecated/obsolete.
- There is time to raise queries about app behaviour and extension options.
- If you wish, you can make the successor and predecessor versions available in the same custom business role, to encourage your users to try out the successor app.

App changes:

Changes to existing apps are usually minor, or part of the app’s floorplan. Most changes are automatically applied during upgrade. These can typically be reviewed during regression testing.

New available apps:

New available apps can be evaluated post-upgrade. It’s worth using the mass evaluation upgrade tools to capture a list of new apps. Having a ready-to-use list of new apps eases reviewing the new apps later.

When you are ready to change your custom business roles you can use the appropriate tools.

For SAP S/4HANA Cloud you can use the app F6955 Manage Business Role Changes after Upgrade.
For SAP S/4HANA you can use the Launchpad Content Manager to apply quick fix changes. Refer to: SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – How to fix Changed and Outdated Catalogs.

In summary for each type of app change there is a matching upgrade impact:

Type of App Change	Upgrade Impact
Existing app is obsolete	Must replace during upgrade
Existing app is deprecated	Replace during upgrade, if possible. If not, aim to move to the successor post-upgrade.
Existing app is superseded	Evaluate the successor app post-upgrade, consider moving before next upgrade
Existing app has changes	Automatically applied during upgrade
New app made available	Evaluate post-upgrade

Other types of UX changes you may encounter during upgrades

You should be aware of other UX changes that can impact your upgrade. Mostly you need to be aware of these changes, and make sure affected business users are also aware of these. In some cases, you may need to adjust regression tests.

The most important changes and their impact are summarized in the table below, along with a selection of examples from SAP S/4HANA 2023 and SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402.

The Upgrade Priority indicates whether you:

Must prepare for the impact during your upgrade
Can defer to post-upgrade evaluation and move to the changed UX

A particular watchpoint are changes to CDS Views, which may impact custom analytics built on these views. Refer to Deprecated and Decommissioned CDS Views (SAP S/4HANA) and Deprecated and Decommissioned CDS Views (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

The most important of these are covered in major release announcements such as

Type of Change

Priority for Upgrade

Examples

Launchpad feature changes

Must prepare – mandatory features

Can defer to post-upgrade - optional features

Mandatory - Time Zone Handling Enhanced (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

Optional - New launchpad features such as System Info Bar (SAP S/4HANA)

Changes in floorplans, such as List Report, Analytical List Page, Overview Page, Smart Business KPI Report, etc.

Must prepare – mandatory features

Can defer to post-upgrade - optional features

Mandatory – New Copy Button for Copying to Clipboard (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

Optional - Share to Microsoft Teams(SAP S/4HANA Cloud) and Integrate Microsoft Teams (SAP S/4HANA)

Business role changes

• New business roles

• Changed business roles, i.e. changes in business catalogs

Can defer to post-upgrade - New SAP business role templates

Must prepare – Changes to existing SAP business role templates

IMPORTANT: You can minimize mandatory changes by creating custom business roles

Mandatory - Change of Business Roles in Retail (SAP S/4HANA)

Optional – new business role Master Data Specialist - Maintenance Management (SAP_BR_MD_SPECIALIST_EAM). Refer to Business Role Template for Master Data (SAP S/4HANA)

CDS Views changes

• New CDS Views released

• CDS Views can be changed, deprecated, or decommissioned (i.e. deleted)

Can defer to post-upgrade – New CDS Views, CDS View deprecations

Must prepare - CDS View changes + decommissioned CDS Views

Mandatory – Adjust custom analytics using the changed/deprecated CDS View as soon as possible.

Refer to Deprecated and Successor CDS Views for Collateral Management (SAP S/4HANA)

Authorization/ Restriction changes

Must prepare – Changes to authorizations/restrictions affecting existing apps

Mandatory - IAM: Restriction Type "Functional Area" (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

Mandatory - Authorization Object for Maintenance Plans (SAP S/4HANA)

Extensibility and Administration tooling changes, including Key User Extensibility changes

Must prepare – changed, deprecated, and obsolete tools in use

Can defer to post-upgrade – new tools

Mandatory – Launchpad Designer features deprecated (SAP S/4HANA). If you have created custom technical catalogs using the Launchpad Designer, use the new tool Migration of Technical Catalogs to move them to the Launchpad app manager.

Optional - New: Review Booklet Designer in the "Manage KPIs and Reports" App (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

Tips for managing impacts on business users

Few people like surprises – even welcome surprises! Involving your business appropriately in release changes avoids confusion and helps you manage expectations.

You will usually want to work with your business stakeholders, for example you might ask them to recommend which business users should be involved in evaluating the successor apps and app changes.

For general app changes, it’s usually sufficient for the business user to take a look and see if any change management is necessary.

For successor apps:

Make sure users are aware that a successor app exists.
Work with the more pro-innovation / pro-active users to review the successor app.
Verify the SAP-delivered context-sensitive help (accessed via the help “?” icon) for the successor app is sufficient for your needs. Optionally, adjust the help content in SAP Enable Now.
Discuss when to move to the successor app with your business stakeholders.
When applying changes, make sure changes to business roles are clear. If you are going to have the predecessor app and successor app available at the same time, make sure they are marked on the tile.

Hint: In SAP-delivered business role templates, deprecated apps may no longer be available by default on the SAP Fiori launchpad.

In which case, you can find it in the app finder until it's deleted.
Alternatively, the app tile may be changed to add a text to show the app is deprecated.

Example below of the SAP delivered business role General Ledger Accountant in SAP S/4HANA 2023 (and SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2308), where Manage Journal Entries is superseded. Both the predecessor and successor have been made available and the tiles marked as “New Version Recommended” and “Old Version” to clarify successor and predecessor.

Where to find information on successor apps

You can find information on the lifecycle stage of apps in many of the usual SAP resources, such as:

Release Assessment Scope Dependency (RASD) tool for SAP S/4HANA Cloud
What’s New Viewer for SAP S/4HANA for SAP S/4HANA

In the What’s New Viewer adjust the type to find obsolete (deleted) and deprecated changes between your current SAP S/4HANA release and your upgrade target SAP S/4HANA release.

For mass evaluation of all your current apps in SAP S/4HANA you can also use either of these tools:

SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades when you are ready to plan your upgrade.
- Refer to New Check for App Availability in SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades
SAP Fiori Upgrade Impact Analysis at any time
- Refer to SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Upgrade Impact Analysis

IMPORTANT: These tools cover lifecycle changes in all UI technologies supported by SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, including SAP Fiori apps, Web Dynpro ABAP apps, WebClient UI apps, and SAP GUI transactions. Custom apps can be submitted to the review and will be flagged as “unknown apps”.

These tools are mostly driven by the details in the SAP Fiori apps library.

In the SAP Fiori apps reference library apps are available by default.

When an app is deprecated, you may see a message “Deprecated for selected release version” as shown below for app F1662 Operational Supplier Evaluation.

When an app is obsolete, you will not be able to select that version. For example, F1662 was made obsolete in SAP S/4HANA 2022. You cannot select the release SAP S/4HANA 2022 for that app.

You can find the successor app listed in the Related Apps tab. For example you can find that the successor app is F1662A Operational Supplier Evaluation (Version 2).

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Other helpful links:

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
Follow SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA for more blogs and updates
Ask a Question about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG and Customer Care team.

Listening closely to create the User Experience of the Future

2024-03-05T18:37:06.337000+01:00

Great User Experience prioritizes the needs and preferences of the user. This is why at SAP we take every opportunity to listen to and learn from our users. Feedback is essential for us to drive product design and development, foster innovation, validate design decisions, and enhance customer satisfaction. Ultimately, it is all about delivering great User Experience and the benchmark for this is changing every day. And we are up to keep the pace! Learn how we engage with our users to leapfrog their experience with our products.

Listening to learn

We are committed to listening to, and learning from, our users via multiple channels and formats. Our flagship program to collect feedback is the SAP User Feedback Day which brings together our user researchers, product teams and customers to talk openly about what they are using today and discuss ideas and possible opportunities for the future versions of our SAP products. We know that building and maintaining close relationships with our customers and end users is essential for transforming their product experience to meet their current and future requirements. During the SAP User Feedback Day on February 21, 2024 in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, SAP experts met eight European customers from a variety of industries such as Professional Services, High Tech, Industrial Manufacturing, Utilities, Consumer Products, Retail and Travel and Transportation.

Alex Lingg, Head of Cloud ERP User Experience, opening SAP User Feedback Day in St. Leon-Rot

The day was kicked off by a talk about the what, the why and the how behind User Research including an overview of the different methods like User Interviews, A/B comparisons, prototype methods, etc. User Research always intends to find out what users do, need, think, and want. End users from customers from the above industries then had the chance to give feedback on apps and scenarios they are using on a daily basis as we provided them with different use cases from our product portfolio for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and Digital Supply Chain (DSC).

In eight small group User Research sessions, SAP experts and customers were able to cover a variety of common end-to-end scenarios in Enterprise Resource Planning and Digital Supply Chain:

Enterprise Resource Planning	Digital Supply Chain
Quote to Cash (Q2C) Produce and Sell Standard Products (PSSP) Engineer Products & Systems (EPS)	Integrated Business Planning (IBP) Digital Manufacturing Cloud

Our User Researchers and end users engaged in all of the above topics by choosing distinct User Research methods with the best fit for their use cases: Interviews and observation, moderated discussions, formative usability testing and validation exercises.

Understanding that our users want to be successful in their daily business, we do everything to support them by providing efficient tools they love to work with. The quality and the value of the products we deliver must be at their maximum potential to cater to our customers' needs and expectations. During our dedicated User Research sessions, vivid and constructive discussions in small groups really helped to get to the essence and allowed users to share their opinions on our products openly – creating a relationship of trust to foster improvements and innovation.

Close collaboration between SAP experts and customers to collect in-depths product feedback

“Location, energy and topics were wonderful. I loved to see customers in active, engaged and constructive discussions.” (SAP)

“It was very interesting to have this exchange with SAP. We were finally able to give direct feedback about the systems we are using, and we were heard! I’m curious to see how we can continue the collaboration. I’m leaving with a positive feeling.” (Customer)

Embracing the journey and building the future together

Meeting our customers in one room is always extremely rewarding. Not only for us, but also for our customers as we are all part of a joint learning journey to help them run better today so that they can grow and evolve tomorrow. To get them excited about what is coming next and share some more information on trending topics, we offered our customers five innovation booths to immerse into what they could be using in the future:

Talking to our customers should never be a one-off event and we are committed to stay in close contact and implement improvements wherever feasible. Feedback is an invaluable source of insights actively shaping our products, enhancing user satisfaction, and creating high value for our customers. It serves as a compass for continuous improvement in line with user needs and expectations. Everything we do is influenced by the facts we gather and analyze. This allows us to make informed decisions and to create great products – all based on direct and unfiltered feedback from our users. We are excited to build the future together!

SAP Fiori elements and Lufthansa @ DSAG Technologietage 2024

2024-03-06T10:04:31.186000+01:00

I recently had the opportunity to attend the DSAG Technologietage 2024 event (German SAP user group), and I must say it was a truly positive experience. Not only did I have the chance to connect with partners and customers, but I also had the privilege of giving a talk alongside our friends from Lufthansa on how they use SAP Fiori elements & tools.

SAP Fiori elements framework has revolutionized the way businesses approach scalable UX solutions, providing pre-built floorplans/building blocks and tools that enable developers to quickly create beautiful and intuitive SAP applications. At the event, we had the opportunity to showcase how SAP Fiori elements has transformed the user experience at Lufthansa. The feature showcase and how Lufthansa is using it was one of the highlights of the presentation and we extended that message with future feature innovations and our latest Flexible Programming Model enhancements.

Collaborating with Lufthansa on this talk was a great journey. It was inspiring to see how they have leveraged SAP Fiori elements to streamline their business processes and improve productivity across their organization. By sharing their success stories and best practices, we were able to provide valuable insights to attendees who were eager to learn how they could implement SAP Fiori elements within their own organizations.

One of the highlights of the event was the opportunity to engage with attendees during our talk and in the subsequent Q&A session. Beyond our presentation, the DSAG Technologietage event offered a wealth of knowledge and networking opportunities. From insightful keynote speeches to informative hands-on sessions (also our own), there was no shortage of valuable content for attendees to absorb.

Overall, my experience at DSAG Technologietage 2024 was overwhelmingly positive. Collaborating with Lufthansa on our SAP Fiori elements talk was one of the highlights of the event, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share our insights with attendees. I look forward to attending future DSAG events and continuing to collaborate with our customers to drive innovation in the SAP ecosystem.

Merging Spaces and Pages

2024-03-11T20:43:13.115000+01:00

Co-authors: Ruth Groene, Sylvia Strack

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2302 SAP has already shipped predefined spaces and pages that merged with each other on the SAP Fiori launchpad.

Merging is now also available for customers with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402, SAP S/4HANA 2023 Private Edition FPS01 and SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01.

Merging gives you much more flexibility for your spaces and pages.

How can merging help?

Merging can help to avoid duplication of apps, spaces, or pages for the user.
In addition, merging can be used to enrich the content of spaces and pages. Here are some examples:
- Extend a space by one or multiple additional pages.
- Extend a page by the sections and apps of another page. You can use merging to enhance custom spaces, but you can also use merging to combine predefined spaces and pages from SAP with your custom spaces and pages.

Merging can happen between two or more spaces and/or two or more pages.

Defining and resolving

Merging is defined at design time by administrators. At runtime the actual merging takes place for the individual business user.

Want to dig into more details of where and how?
…then, please continue reading below.

Administrators at design time

Administrators define which spaces or pages should be merged.
The General Data section of the apps Manage Launchpad Spaces and Manage Launchpad Pages respectively have been enhanced by the Merge ID.
The Merge ID is used to define which spaces or pages are to be merged.
- It is possible to merge two or more spaces or two or more pages respectively.
- A Merge ID can be a random name, or it can also be the ID of a space or a page with which to be merged. The ID of that space or page will then become the merge ID for the spaces or pages that are to be merged.
- It is good practice to start your own Merge IDs with ‘Z’. You should not use the prefix ‘SAP’ in the IDs for your own merge processes. This could lead to unwanted merging effects.
In the same General Data section, we can find the sort priority. The lower the value is, the more important the space turns. This means, spaces with lower sort priority, i.e. spaces that appear more to the left in the space menu, take the lead.

Let’s go through some more tangible examples now…

Starting point for our 3 examples:

The three examples that we describe next, are based on spaces a user sees in the own space menu, and that are derived from the assigned business roles. In our specific case without merging, we have the following situation: the two spaces Customer Returns and Billing are shown in the menu with their corresponding content, in our example one page per space:

Graph: User sees one space for Customer Returns and one Space for Billing before any merge is performed.

Example 1: Merging Spaces

Since the tasks in the two spaces above are somehow related it is preferable to bring the content closer together in a more concise way for the business user, so that only one space appears on the menu including the pages of each original space. To achieve this, we can merge the two spaces together.

How does the administrator define this?

From the General Data section of the Manage Launchpad Spaces app:
The administrator enters the same Merge ID into each of the spaces to be merged and considers or adapts the sort priority accordingly.
Please note this differs in case of merging a custom space with a predefined space: Predefined spaces cannot be changed, so the predefined space has to stay as it is. In this case, you only enter the merge ID into the custom space and you have to use the existing merge ID of the predefined space as merge ID. If the merge ID of the predefined space is empty, use its space ID.

Graph: Both spaces are assigned the same Merge ID. In addition, the space for Billing shows has a lower value of sort priority and thus, takes the lead and determines the title of the merged space as well as the sequence of how the single pages will be merged.

What does the user see?

At runtime the user sees one space with the title Billing (from the leading Space) with the two pages Billing Processes and Customer Returns in this sequence due to the sort priority value mentioned before.

Graph: The graph shows the result the user sees after merging at runtime. Since the Billing space has the lower sort priority value, it determines the title of the merged space and the sequence of the pages (1st Billing, 2nd Customer Returns).

Example 2: Merging Pages

In this example we aim to combine two pages, so that the sections of each of the original pages appear together merged on one page. This can be done, for example to bring together apps that are related to a specific process or enrich the process with a relevant flavor.

Please note, if you merge pages only on page level, the resulting merged page at runtime will appear in the specific merged way (with merged title and merged sequence of sections and apps) in all spaces where the pages that are merged are assigned to.

How does the administrator define this?

From the General Data section of the Manage Launchpad Pages app:

The administrator enters the same Merge ID into each of the pages to be merged. The sequence of the page sections is determined by the sort priority of the space a page is assigned to.

Please note: this differs in case of merging a custom page with a predefined page: Predefined pages cannot be changed, so the predefined space has to stay as it is. In this case, you only enter the merge ID into the custom page and you have to use the existing merge ID of the predefined page as merge ID. If the merge ID of the predefined page is empty, use its page ID.

Sections from different pages which have the same title will automatically be merged together as one section on the target page. Please keep in mind that if you specifically want to merge two dedicated sections with each other, that their translations in the target language(s) need to be the same.

Graph: Both Pages are assigned the same merge ID.

What does the user see?

At runtime the user sees one merged page with the sequence of sections and apps that is defined by the sorting priority of the corresponding spaces the original pages belong to.
Please note: At runtime, this merged page will replace the original pages in all spaces that contain one or more of the original pages.
That means that the user will only see the merged page and not the original one(s).

A note on Personalization: The merge ID is used as ID of the merged page and user personalization is stored for this ID. If the merge ID is identical to one of the page IDs, user personalization for that page is visible for the pages with this ID. Otherwise the personalization for the original pages is not taken into account in the merged page.

Graph: At runtime the merged page appears in all spaces where the original pages belong to, replacing them.

Example 3: Combine Merging of Spaces and Pages

In this example we aim to combine all in one. That means we aim to merge content of pages and of spaces at the same time. Our result is a single page within a single space with content merged accordingly.

How does the administrator define this?

From the General Data section of the Manage Launchpad Spaces app:
The administrator enters the merge ID in all of the spaces as described in example 1 and then performs the merging of pages as shown in example 2. All spaces have one common merge ID and all pages have one common merge ID. (We recommend that the merge ID for the spaces are different from the merge ID for the pages to avoid confusion.)

In the merged spaces and pages, the sort priorities of the spaces determine the title of the merged space and the sequence of pages and page sections.

You can check the screenshots presented above for the administrator in examples 1 and 2.

What does the user see?

At runtime the user sees one merged space with one merged page. The merged page shows the sequence of sections and apps that is defined by the sorting priority of the corresponding spaces the original pages belong to.

Graph: At runtime one space appears with one merged page

Important Note:

Our examples showed merging between custom spaces and custom pages. However, you can also merge your custom spaces with predefined spaces.

Also, we depicted the examples by merging two entities: two spaces and / or two pages.
However, you can also merge more than two. This applies again to the merging between spaces only, pages only, or spaces and pages.

Stay tuned for more!

Further Documentation:
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Merging Spaces | SAP Help Portal

SAP S/4HANA Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA: Merging Spaces | SAP Help Portal

Further Blogs:

SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition:

SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition / SAP S/4HANA:

Info Package: Making the Move from Launchpad Group... - SAP Community

User Experience Advances with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 (Private Cloud and On-Premise)

2024-03-12T12:04:04.613000+01:00

The new proactive “My Home” page is now available via Feature Pack Stack 1 (FPS01) for SAP S/4HANA 2023. This release also allows customers to merge spaces and pages for a better user experience, and provides further cool ways to collaborate with Microsoft Teams. Beyond that, we’ve included further improvements in the user experience, including updates to the Horizon visual theme. Last but not least, SAP Start can now be integrated to the private cloud, and you can get an outlook on our plans for integrating Joule.

This post gives you an overview of user experience innovations relevant for SAP S/4HANA since the initial release last October: innovations which came with FPS01 as well as relevant design and technology updates.

If you haven’t already seen it, have a look at this post for the overview of what came with the initial 2023 release:

SAP User Experience Update: What’s New for SAP S/4HANA 2023 (Private Cloud and On-Premise).

To see how good SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, now looks across all the main product areas I thoroughly recommend that you have a look at the online Product Tour.

New My Home Page now available

We have delivered as we had promised in October: the intuitive and powerful new My Home product home page with SAP S/4HANA 2023 Cloud Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA 2023 (on-premise) is available now. This builds on the spaces and pages functionality of the SAP Fiori launchpad, so if you have not yet moved from the launchpad’s classic home page, which uses groups, now is the time to get started!

Figure 1 shows the main features of this new start page, and the subsequent four-minute video lets you watch it in action: how to use it, as well as how to personalize it. My Home benefits from extensive feedback from users of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, where it was first introduced over a year ago, and which has had three updates since then.

Figure 1: The new My Home product home page.

The new My Home is an easy-to-use product home page that supports business users in their everyday tasks and optimizes their work environment significantly. It orchestrates information, tasks, and applications so that you can access exactly what you need to get your job done with speed and agility.

Combining items from the ‘My Inbox’ and ‘My Situations’ SAP Fiori apps, it enables you to access and manage your to-dos and favorite pages and apps. Insights offer a particularly powerful capability: users can personalize which insight cards they want to have on the My Home page, by choosing from cards in their overview page apps, or by creating cards directly from SAP Fiori elements list report applications. In addition, the news section allows administrators to provide users with important news, and users can personalize the selection of topics.

The details matter if you want to provide a great user experience: Figure 2 shows how user feedback has led us to provide an option to refresh all the Insight Tiles with one click. We provide the same option for refreshing all the Insight Cards with one click too.

Figure 2: My Home offers a menu for managing sections, pages, and insight cards directly next to the respective title, with a one-click refresh option for everything within an insight section.

Another feature which we added based on user feedback, which is shown right at the end of the video below, is the option for users to share their personalized My Home definition with colleagues, by exporting to a file, which each colleague can then import. This means that a key user could define an optimum My Home for their work and share with all the other colleagues in the team who have the same roles.

Video 1: Look at the new My Home product home page, and how users can personalize it to their needs.

Note that the above video is taken from an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 system, which includes one feature which is not yet available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, nor for SAP S/4HANA: support for direct collaboration with creators of tasks via Microsoft Teams chats or calls, described further below in the Collaboration section. We do however plan to provide this in Q4/2024. [Please note that, as with all such forward-looking statements, our plans are subject to change, but we hope to deliver as planned].

You can read more about My Home in the documentation:

Documentation: My Home in SAP S/4HANA.

Merging Spaces and Pages in the SAP Fiori Launchpad

Beyond the new My Home page, we also give customers the means to improve the user experience of the other SAP Fiori launchpad spaces and pages: customers can choose to merge spaces, pages and even sections – those from SAP as well as custom ones.

Why would you want to do that? Basically, if a user has a few spaces which don’t contain many pages, or pages which don’t have many sections, you can optimize their navigation by merging them. Users then have fewer navigation options and see more applications at a glance on one page. Also, in some cases users can end up with pages or sections with the same name, so it would make sense for users to have these merged into just one page or section.

The layout is automatically adjusted, so this can be done with low effort. Figure 3 shows an example, where two spaces (“Billing” and “Customer Returns”), each with only one page, have been merged into one space (“Billing”), and where the two pages have been merged into one page. The two sections “Customer Returns” and “Flexible Analysis” from the “Customer Returns” page are automatically added behind the section “Billing Documents and Billing Document Requests” from the “Billing” page.

Figure 3: Merging spaces and pages.

More information is available here:

Merging Spaces and Pages.
Documentation: Merging Spaces.

Composite Roles supported by Apps for Managing Spaces and Pages

Now, the Manage Launchpad Pages and the Manage Launchpad Spaces apps support composite roles. These are roles defined in SAP S/4HANA (private cloud and on-premise) which are comprised of multiple single roles.

This means that administrators who are using Manage Launchpad Pages to define pages for users with a composite role now see all the catalogs and tiles assigned to all of the single roles contained in the composite role. As a result, maintainenance is far less error-prone than before, where they had to select from the list of all tiles in all catalogs, rather than being shown the relevant subset.

Collaboration: New Capabilities with Microsoft Teams

Share as Card with Microsoft Teams Collaborative Stage View

You can already share a link to an application in a Microsoft Teams chat, but now you can go a step further and share the application as a card in the chat. When the recipient opens the card by clicking on the “open” button, the shared application is opened within Microsoft Teams as a new chat window, which Microsoft calls the collaborative stage view. Users can work with the application and chat with colleagues in the same chat window. Figures 4, 5 and 6 show some of these steps, but to get the best impression, watch this recording from an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 system, which provides the same functionality:

Video: Collaborative ERP: Share as Card based on Collaborative Stage View (1:49).

Figure 4: Share as Card – showing how the user Jim selects this for his sales order.

Figure 5: Share as Card – this is what it looks like for the recipient, Alice, after Jim shared the card and later added in the chat “Hey Alice, can you please remove the delivery block? It’s urgent! Thanks.”

Figure 6: Share as Card – after Alice clicked on “Open” in the card, she sees the application in the Microsoft Teams collaborative stage view, next to the chat. In this example, she has already interacted with the app in-place and removed the delivery block, and is about to send off her reply in the chat to Jim.

Planned: Initiate a Chat Directly from a Contact Card on the UI

Wherever a person’s name or e-mail address is shown with an assigned contact card, we plan to allow users to directly start a Microsoft Teams chat or call with that person. Figure 7 shows an example from the new My Home page, showing how you will be able to immediately start a chat, video call or voice call with the person, in this case the creator of the task; you can also see an example in the above My Home video. As mentioned above, we plan to provide this feature in Q4/2024. [Please note that, as with all such forward-looking statements, our plans are subject to change].

Figure 7 (preview): Chat, start a video call or a voice-only call with the creator of a task, via Microsoft Teams (planned for Q4/2024).

Improvements in Details

Below I’ve chosen some of the highlights which come with FPS01. To see all the new features, look at the documentation:

What’s New Viewer ABAP Platform (User Experience)

Copy and Paste in SAPUI5 Tables

Users can easily select areas in SAPUI5-based tables now and copy the contents from the clipboard and then paste into other applications, such as an e-mail or a spreadsheet. The copy action can be triggered by a new button added to the table, as demonstrated in Figure 8, or via the keyboard.

Figure 8: Copy and Paste from SAPUI5 tables.

Sorting in Tables by Name, Not Just by ID

In tables, we often show the ID and the name of an entity in one column, as “ID (Name)”, rather than in two separate columns. With this release, the table sorting feature offers you the option to sort by name and not just by ID. Technically, this is a feature of the Smart Table in SAPUI5.

Figure 9: Table columns can now be sorted by name in addition to ID. In this example, the Company Code column contains values with ID “0001” and name “SAP DEMO Company”; you can now sort by either of these.

Enhanced Type Ahead for (Multi) Combo Boxes

When entering data in the system, users want to do this as quickly as possible. Being able to very quickly select an entry from a drop-down combo box or multi-combo box helps a lot, and we have now made this easier by selecting all entries which have a match anywhere with what you have typed – and not just matching the first letters. Figure 10 shows two examples for the field Credit Check Rule: the entry is selected which matches the input somewhere – and the part which matches is highlighted in bold text.

Figure 10: Enhanced type ahead functionality for combo boxes and multi-combo boxes.

Save as Tile Supports Dynamic Date Ranges

You can now create dynamic tiles for your selected SAP Fiori launchpad pages which include dynamic date ranges in the selection. Figure 11 shows an example where the date range “This Year (01.01.2023 – 31.12.2023)” has been used to filter the list. From there, the user has called up the “Save as Tile” feature, resulting in a tile which always shows the values for “This Year”.

Figure 11: Save as Tile supports dynamic date ranges.

Calendar Week Handling in User Settings

Users can now choose how they want dates to be displayed in calendars, for example when choosing a date via value-help. In addition to using the default format from your system, you can now select between ISO_8601 format, Middle Eastern and Western Traditional, as you can see in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Calendar week handling via the SAP Fiori launchpad user settings.

User ID Displayed in User Settings

I’m glad to say that we now support one of our main customer requests: users can see their technical user ID in the SAP Fiori launchpad settings section, on the tab User Account. This helps in cases where support is needed, since the technical ID is logged rather than the user’s name.

Select All in Tables

Users can now select all the visible entries in a list report, using the select all checkbox in the table header. Since users might think that all entries in the database have been selected, when in fact only the entries which have been loaded to the UI are selected, a warning pop-up is shown – as you can see in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Select all enabled by default for list reports.

Further Improvements

I would also like to mention these improvements to tables:

Creation rows in tables indicate to users immediately if mandatory values are missing.
Creation rows in tables allow developers to disable fields which should not be open for entering data due to missing entries in other fields.

UI Design News

Design Improvements to the Horizon Visual Theme for SAP Fiori

Another area where we have been listening to user feedback is our current Horizon visual theme, which we first introduced two years ago to offer you a fresh and modern SAP Fiori experience and to help you get your job done faster, more intuitively, and with better outcomes. Taking your feedback to heart, we’ve improved a number of details such as:

Improved contrast;
White input fields instead of gray;
Clearly identifiable buttons;
Reduced header size;
And more.

Figure 14 summarizes most of these updates in one example UI. You can read more about this and look at more detailed examples in my blog post from September, where I gave an outlook on these planned improvements, which have now become available:

Improvements Coming to the Horizon Visual Theme for SAP Fiori

Figure 14: A summary of the updates to the Horizon visual theme, using the Flexible Column Layout pattern as an example to show what it used to look like before the update and what it now looks like after the update.

Web Design Guidelines for SAP Fiori Updated: GenAI and SAP Web Components

We have revamped the design guidelines for SAP Fiori for web, with a first set of guidelines in the new subsection for designing for Generative AI in the Designing Intelligent Systems section. It covers:

We are releasing this early version of our generative AI design guidelines to share our discoveries early on with our broader SAP and UX community. The design guidelines in this section will evolve iteratively based on research, input from the community, and feedback from stakeholders.

Coming soon:

Designing Safety into Generative AI
Designing Sustainable Generative AI Experiences
Designing Effective AI Prompts

In 2H2023 we also provided a beta release of a new section UI Elements – SAP Web Components, where you can interact directly with each web component, since they have been embedded into the respective guideline page.

Mobile News

We have enhanced the design of SAP Mobile Start, which can now also run on Apple Vision Pro, as well as enhancing the mobile design system. Find out more in these blog posts:

SAP Start with SAP S/4HANA 2023 Cloud Private Edition

The purpose of SAP Start is to bring together all truly relevant business information for each user in one central place in their web browser, and also to provide the one place to go to start your SAP applications in the cloud, no matter which product you want to use. SAP Start:

Gives you quick access to all your applications via the simple yet powerful search field;
Proactively informs you about your to-dos from all products which are connected to the SAP Task Center;
Gives you key insights via insight cards from products connected to SAP Start,
Assists you with Joule, your copilot for working with SAP.

As a result: SAP Start will be the best place to start, to simplify your access to multiple SAP cloud products.

Now, with FPS01, you can integrate SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 with SAP Start. To find out more, have a look at the documentation:

What about Joule?

Using natural language to ask for something is… natural! In other words: a very powerful way to interact with systems. With Joule, we are using the power of GenAI to give you a copilot for your interactions with SAP. It is generally available already today with SAP Start as well as with SAP SuccessFactors, providing an initial set of capabilities, and is available for selected customers of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 via an Early Adopter Care program. You can find out more about how it is being used in these products here:

SAP UX Innovations in Public Cloud Products, Joule, AI, Entry Points, Apple Vision Pro and more.

What about Joule for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition? Although the next release is planned for 2025, we do plan to incrementally start integrating Joule with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2023 in the course of this year – so keep your eyes peeled for updates about this! [Please note that, as with all such forward-looking statements, our plans are subject to change, but we hope to deliver as planned].

If you’d like to get an idea of what this might look like, have a look at what we are working on for the Early Adopter Care program for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. This presentation explains the three types of patterns (Navigational, Transactional and Informational) as well as providing an overview of our AI approach in general and a high-level description of the Joule technology stack:

PDF download link: Joule, the AI copilot in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

This video shows examples of using Joule with all three interaction patterns:

Video: Joule in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition - Early Adopter Care in 2402.

Final Words

Do keep posting your experiences and recommendations yourself in the SAP Community, with the SAP Fiori and/or the User Experience tag! In case you are wondering how to get a list of the most recent blog posts on SAP Fiori and User Experience in our new SAP Community, use these links:

For general information on design at SAP and SAP Fiori, check out:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.1: Final What's New & Product Assistance available

2024-03-14T15:12:58.087000+01:00

With immediate effect, the final What's New information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.1 is now available. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is based on the technical product SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

To access the Final What’s New information, please use the What’s New Viewer.

For further formats and languages of the What's New information, as well as prefiltered views, please use the following SAP S/4HANA Cloud Help Portal page.

In addition, the final Product Assistance (aka Application Help) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.1 is available. Please use the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Help Portal page to access the Product Assistance in multiple languages.

For you as a customers, we recommend to also use the Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool.

The Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool provides you with a personalized and tailored view on What’s New information based on the activated and used scope within your system. The information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.1 will be available in RASD within the next few days. A valid Customer S-user ID is required for login. We recommend to use RASD to prepare for upgrades and updates of your system and to focus on the new and changed features that are relevant for you as a customer.

User Experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: New Microlearning Available

2024-03-14T15:25:42.119000+01:00

Find out what’s new: Our new blog post series allows our customers, partners, and colleagues a special heads-up on newly available microlearnings.

This new microlearning by Seyba Elik, a Business Process Senior Consultant with focus on Digital Supply Chain, Cloud Success Services is now available on: Advanced Intercompany Sales Value Chain Analysis for SAP S/4HANA Cloud - openSAP Microlearning

In this microlearning, you will learn about the involvements of advanced intercompany sales processes. The session delves into the end-to-end workflow, beginning with the significance of the initiating document, Sales Order 2. Through a detailed demonstration, you'll gain insights into key elements such as transit plants, pricing determination, and movement types. Additionally, the Value Chain Monitor app is introduced, offering a comprehensive tool for tracking and managing the sales process. The session concludes with essential prerequisites and configuration tips, ensuring a thorough understanding of the advanced intercompany sales landscape.

Watch this comprehensive microlearning now!

Stay tuned as more microlearnings are coming soon! New microlearnings will continuously be published in this overview and on microlearning.opensap.com.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enablement Assets

Inside SAP S/4HANA Cloud

There is no customer success without project success and product success! Leverage the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA Cloud experts, partners, and customers, sharing their SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation project best practices and lessons learned – anywhere, anytime. In this podcast, we give you all ingredients to get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA Cloud project a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

Your Voice Matters

You want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud topics? We have just the right place for you! Join our interactive community where we bring together customers, partners, and SAP experts with a clear mission: To engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore the ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and to connect with experts who will guide you through your journey to the intelligent, sustainable enterprise.

For more Information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:

Read up on the highlights of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 release here
Interested in an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 update on the intelligent ERP? Read all about it here
Watch the replays of our exclusive SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 Early Release Series here
Explore the ready-to-run cloud ERP here
Watch our SAP S/4HANA Cloud product update videos on YouTube here
Find out how to switch from groups to spaces and pages here
Become an early adopter for Joule in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition here
Check out the SAP Activate Roadmap for early adopters here
Review the PPL content here
Find best practices on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition here
Check out what’s new here
Find help here
Read the feature scope description here

Demystifying Common Questions: A Quick Dive into SAP Companion, SAP Enable Now and More

2024-03-20T21:39:38.245000+01:00

Let's start with one of the usual questions- ‘Why is the help icon not visible on the UI and how can I solve this?’ The visibility of the help icon could be impacted by such issues as your system configuration or specific permissions. Your help icon might not be visible if SAP Companion parameters are not set appropriately. To resolve this, check your SAP Companion integration settings and ensure correct permissions are granted. Also, the guide available on our help portal provides detailed steps to follow when configuring your UI.

Moving on to what seems to be puzzling a lot of our users – the distinction between SAP Companion and SAP Enable Now. The image below shows the difference and overlap between the two.

SAP Companion is essentially a tool that delivers contextual help and learning content directly in your application. Its purpose is to facilitate a smooth SAP experience, making it easier to navigate the system and perform tasks. SAP Companion is a component of SAP Enable Now, available within your SAP cloud application to deliver standard embedded content.

SAP Enable Now is a comprehensive application for creating and deploying training materials and user assistance content. It can be used across various platforms, and supports multiple formats such as simulations, guides, and e-learning modules. In short, while SAP Companion is a tool for guidance within the application, SAP Enable Now is a content creation platform for training and user assistance. SAP Enable Now delivers many more features and functions, like

Business process model integration
Translation and versioning
Authoring of eLearnings and Simulations
etc.

Now, let's tackle licensing. A valid question we often get from customers is – 'Do I need a separate license for SAP Companion?' The answer is “not if you only consume the embedded learning SAP delivers with the application Companion is used in”. Any usage of the content delivered and maintained by SAP is included in your solution license.

Wondering which embedded learning and help content is available for which solutions? We’ve got a list for you on the SAP Help Portal.

Once you want to start creating your own custom content, you will require an SAP Enable Now license. SAP Enable Now is part of the SAP software portfolio and therefore requires a valid SAP software license. Check out sap.com to find out more.

Can you use SAP Enable Now in both SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud? Absolutely! SAP Enable Now supports multiple platforms and integrates quite seamlessly with both SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Finally, 'How do I configure the in-app help in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA?' You can turn to the SAP Help Portal page for SAP Enable Now, which provides step-by-step instructions in the SAP Companion Integration Guide for Embedded Content. Use this to help you set up the embedded learning content that comes with your solution and the SAP Companion Integration Guide for any additional scenarios like custom content from your own SAP Enable Now tenant. To find out exactly how to set up SAP Companion for SAP S/4HANA, please see the Installation Guide for SAP S/4HANA.

To summarize, SAP is dedicated to facilitating a seamless user experience for all customers. We hope that this blog post has clarified some of the common queries within the SAP community. Always remember, the SAP Community is your go-to place for information. Keep exploring, keep learning, and keep posting those insightful questions!

SAP Mobile Start V1.11 - Release Update

2024-03-25T09:47:10.630000+01:00

With the latest release of SAP Mobile Start, you get some nice features for end users, and also for administrators. Further more, we support a new language: Turkish.

Before we go into the new app features, I want to mention a new content type that we support with SAP Mobile Start: SAP Analytics Cloud KPIs as monitoring tiles and widgets. Now, you can see your SAP Analytics Cloud business KPIs in SAP Mobile Start as well. The KPIs are shown on the respective tile or widget, and you can easily navigate to the details (analytical story) by tapping on them. Based on the configuration, analytical stories can be opened within the native SAP Analytics Cloud app or within the embedded web view of SAP Mobile Start.

SAP Mobile Start – SAP Analytics Cloud KPIs

Please check my latest blog Content is Key – SAP Mobile Start now supports SAP Analytics Cloud KPIs on Tiles & Widgets.

Now, let´s have a look at the new features. With the latest release, you can now search/ filter the list of your to-dos for faster access to the respective tasks or SAP S/4HANA situations.

Search and Filter for To-Dos

You also can share your to-dos with your colleagues now, for instance a SAP S/4HANA situation. Just tab on the action menu of a to-do and select share. Then you can chose from the standard device sharing options how to share it.

Sharing of To-Dos for easy collaboration

With the new release, system administrators can apply additional settings in the Mobile Settings Exchange menu of SAP Mobile Services:

Require to passcode-protect the watch before being able to use SAP Mobile Start on it
Disable the download or upload of files (like attachments) from the app, via the embedded web-view

SAP Mobile Services - New features

I hope you like this new feature within SAP Mobile Start, we will certainly continue to add more attractive content types.

For further information on the new topics, please check our SAP Mobile Start documentation.

SAP Mobile Experience offers intelligent native mobile solutions that help businesses build more efficient, resilient and sustainable end-to-end processes, improving people’s work life wherever they are.

Visit SAP Mobile Experience Community Page and click “follow” to get the latest development and innovation of our solutions. We look forward to hearing about your experience with setting up the solution in your landscape; please do share your thoughts and comments below. Enter here for additional questions regarding SAP Mobile Experience Applications.

Want to be notified? Check your profile settings to ensure you have your settings activated.

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Technical Catalog Migration – Why and Getting Ready for Migration

2024-03-27T00:49:54.337000+01:00

Are any of your team members still using the Launchpad Designer to maintain launchpad content and layouts? If so, it’s time to move over to the new launchpad content and layout tools.

Hint: The Launchpad Designer tool is accessed via transactions /UI2/FLPD_CUST and /UI2/FLPD_CONF. For the new launchpad content and layout tools refer to SAP’s Tool Strategy in section Tools for Setting Up Launchpad Content in the SAP Fiori launchpad administration guide.

The new tool for Technical Catalog Migration - transaction /UI2/MGR_TC - is the final piece to set your launchpad content free from Launchpad Designer. This tool is available from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 – refer to What’s New in ABAP Platform 2023 FPS01 – Migration of Technical Catalogs.

IMPORTANT: Not yet on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01? You can still take some first steps to make your next release upgrade easier. Read the section Getting your catalogs ready for migration.

The aim of the tool is to provide an easy phased conversion of your custom technical catalogs to the current best practices. The migration tool avoids impacts on business users. Once converted, you move to the recommended launchpad content and layout maintenance tools. These new tools reduce business-as-usual maintenance effort; simplify release upgrades; and provide your users with usability improvements.

In this post you will learn:

Why you need to migrate your catalogs
Benefits of using the new tools and best practices
When to migrate your catalogs
Getting your catalogs ready for migration

In the subsequent post SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Technical Catalog Migration – How the migration process works you will learn:

How the migration process works
FAQ

You can also refer to the official documentation in the SAP Note 3444719 - Documentation Correction: Missing Topics in SAP Fiori Launchpad Guide - SAP for Me.

IMPORTANT: Failure to migrate your custom technical catalogs may significantly impact your future release upgrade plans due to risk of additional effort to manually recreate custom technical catalogs.

Why you need to migrate your catalogs

Since SAP S/4HANA 1709, features of the classic Launchpad Designer tool have been gradually deprecated and superseded by new tools and new best practices. Refer to SAP Fiori Launchpad Designer: Features Deprecated. Deprecation is SAP’s formal notice of intent to make the tool obsolete in future SAP S/4HANA releases. Obsolete means that the tool will be removed and will no longer exist. Refer to SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Upgrade Faster – Managing app lifecycle impacts on users

WARNING: Removal of the tool is tentatively planned for SAP S/4HANA 2025. While a final decision has not yet been made, launchpad designer may first be locked (read only mode), so that maintenance of classic technical catalogs is no longer possible.

All SAP-delivered launchpad content has already been migrated to the new tools. For example, all technical catalogs were migrated with releases SAP S/4HANA 2020 and 2021.

Customers who have created custom technical catalogs using the classic Launchpad Designer tool need to migrate these to the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager - transaction /UI2/FLPAM. You may have created classic custom technical catalogs if:

You started on SAP S/4HANA releases 1511 to 1909, before the launchpad app manager tool was available
You currently, or previously, have deployed your SAP Fiori front-end server in standalone (hub) mode for your SAP S/4HANA system
You started on SAP S/4HANA release 2020 or higher, however some of your team were not following the recommended best practices for launchpad content and maintenance. They continued to use the older tools and created custom technical catalogs using Launchpad Designer.

You must migrate classic technical catalogs so that you can continue to maintain your custom launchpad content after upgrade to future SAP S/4HANA releases. Not moving risks:

Not being able to maintain your existing custom technical catalogs in future releases
Having to manually recreate your custom technical catalogs from scratch during your next upgrade

You should also consider that custom technical catalogs created with Launchpad Designer can not take advantage of new features that improve UX and make upgrades easier, such as:

Features that simplify swapping deprecated/obsolete apps for their successors on upgrade
Change logs for technical catalogs
Integration to SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition – new exposure version 2 features

SAP delivered technical catalogs were all migrated to standard catalogs as part of the SAP S/4HANA 2020 and 2021 releases, using an early version of the technical catalog migration tool. The tool has now been improved for customer use, and considerable help documentation has been added to assist you.

You do NOT need to migrate your custom technical catalogs if:

You have only created custom technical catalogs using the launchpad app manager. That is, all your custom technical catalogs are of type standard catalog

Hint: You can see the catalog type in the launchpad app manager.

You can use the migration tool to check if any of your custom catalogs need to be migrated.

What are the benefits of using the new tools

The new tools for launchpad content and layout maintenance include:

Tool	Purpose	First available
SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager - transaction /UI2/FLPAM	Launchpad content maintenance of Technical Catalogs	SAP S/4HANA 2020
Launchpad Content Manager - transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CUST (client-specific)	Assignment of launchpad content via Business Catalogs and Business Roles	SAP S/4HANA 1709
SAP Fiori apps F4834 Manage Launchpad Spaces and F4512 Manage Launchpad Pages	Launchpad layout maintenance	SAP S/4HANA 2020
Launchpad Content Aggregator - transaction /UI2/FLPCA	For read-only review of launchpad content	SAP S/4HANA 2020
Overview of Roles, Spaces, and Pages - transaction /UI2/RSP_LIST	For read-only review of launchpad layouts	SAP S/4HANA 2021

These tools provide:

Scalability across the more than 3K SAP Fiori apps and 10K classic UIs available for SAP S/4HANA
- This includes composite role support from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01
Re-usability of launchpad content across multiple business roles
Improved productivity for admin and support staff via ease of navigation between tools and services
Reduced maintenance effort by providing Clean Core extension features for SAP delivered content, such as the adaptation mode in the launchpad app manager, from SAP S/4HANA 2022 - refer to Adapting Launchpad App Descriptor Items
Change logs such as /UI2/FLPAM_LOG - refer to Display Change Logs for SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager
Quick fixes for app lifecycle changes on release upgrade
Translation support
Troubleshooting support such as service activation and where-used checks

The new tools also:

Ensure consistent behaviour between design time and runtime
Enforce best practices resulting in fewer errors and less time spent troubleshooting
Provide support for additional tile/app types, such as Web Client UI apps

Put all of these features together and there is a considerable saving in time, effort, and skill needed to maintain launchpad content and layouts, compared to Launchpad Designer.

Hint: For more information on the launchpad app manager adaptation mode, refer to SAP Fiori Launchpad: New Fast and Easy Option to Adapt SAP-delivered Launchpad Content (for On-Premise and Cloud, Private Edition)

When to migrate your technical catalogs

If you are moving to SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 or higher you can start to migrate your technical catalogs now using the technical catalog migration tool (transaction /UI2/MGR_TC).

From early feedback from beta customers, converting several custom technical catalogs that were ready for migration took only a few hours using the migration tool.

However, you should keep in mind that it is difficult to estimate the effort each customer will need to migrate given:

You may have many custom technical catalogs to migrate
Your custom technical catalogs may need to be remediated before they can be migrated
The more people you have had involved in launchpad content and layout maintenance, the greater the risk that best practices have been missed.

In other words, the effort you need to remediate your catalogs is highly dependent on the state of your custom catalogs. You may not know the status of your catalogs until you have done a first assessment.

IMPORTANT: The migration tool includes features to check whether your catalogs require migration.

If you are not yet on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 or higher

You should consider some simple steps that will miminize effort for future migration (and associated clean-up activities), such as:

Move to the new tools for launchpad content and layout maintenance
Stop all creation of custom technical catalogs using Launchpad Designer
Limit access to Launchpad Designer
Review your existing custom technical catalogs and start getting them ready for migration, to reduce the effort of migration when you upgrade.

Getting your technical catalogs ready for migration

The migration tool enforces the same best practices as the new tools. These best practices ensure your catalogs are reusable and Clean Core. Refer to ERP Clean Core Strategy

Any catalogs that do not follow best practices will be marked as Not Ready for Migration. The issues must be resolved before the catalogs can be migrated. You can start doing this preparation early, even if you are on a lower release of SAP S/4HANA.

You can find the detailed rules in SAP Note 3397026 - SAP Fiori Launchpad - Technical Catalog Migration - Content Cleanup Risks.

Hint: SAP Note 3397026 will be regularly updated based on new recommendations and customer feedback.

Prepare your custom technical catalogs by:

Checking all technical catalogs are in the customer namespace
Ensuring a clean separation between technical catalogs (original tiles and target mappings) and business catalogs (referenced tiles and target mappings)
Ensuring tiles and target mapping with the same intent are held in the same technical catalog
If you have developer-created custom tile types, separate tiles and target mappings for custom tile types from your other technical catalogs. Refer to Custom Tiles and Tile Types in the SAP Fiori launchpad Developer Guide in the SAP Help portal.

Some of the best practices that are enforced are self-explanatory:

Technical catalogs are cross-client to maximize reuse.
Technical catalog ids must follow the required naming conventions, so that they are clearly in the customer namespace.
Technical catalogs must only contain permitted app types.

Hint: You can optionally define the permitted app types, for example if you have created custom tile types. Refer to Maintain Allowed App Types for Launchpad App Manager.

IMPORTANT: The technical catalog migration tool will only support SAP delivered app types. These are the supported content types and their abbreviation codes as seen in the launchpad app manager tool.

GUI – SAP GUI transactions
WDA – ABAP Web Dynpro applications
UI5 – SAP Fiori and SAPUI5 applications
URL - URLs
SSB – SAP Smart Business

Hint: Migration of other SAP delivered tile types:

WCF - Web Client UI - tiles and target mappings do not need to be migrated as these can only be created in the launchpad app manager.
News tiles must be manually migrated due to a change in how these are structured. Refer to the section News Tiles within Setting Up Technical Catalogs with the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager in the SAP Fiori launchpad administration guide.

IMPORTANT: Custom tile types must be manually integrated. For how to define a custom tile type and integrate it to the launchpad tools, refer to the SAP Fiori launchpad Developer guide, section Exposing Custom Tile Type Information to Launchpad Design-Time Tools

There are some best practices that enforce a clean separation between technical catalogs and business catalogs. These best practices minimize maintenance of original entries, and maximize flexible reuse when assigning launchpad content to business roles via business catalogs.

Technical catalogs must contain only original entries of tiles and target mappings.
Business catalogs must only contain references to tiles and target mappings.

There are some special best practice rules for how tiles and target mappings are combined.

Tiles and Target Mappings that use the same intent must be in the same technical catalog.

Hint: An intent is a logical alias consisting of a SemanticObject paired with an Action, e.g. PurchaseOrder-manage. Intents are used to flexibility determine the target of a navigation from one app to another. The SemanticObject is used to identify related apps, for example when you select a Related Apps button.

Ensuring tile/target mapping combinations are in the same technical catalog prepares them for migration:

from individual unrelated entries, loosely related by an intent at run-time
to launchpad app descriptor items (LADI).

Launchpad app descriptor items (LADI) simplify maintenance and ensure consistent behaviour at design-time and run-time. This avoids content assignment errors.

Each LADI is its own workbench object with its own lifecycle, translation, etc.
The leading entity of a LADI is the Target Mapping. The consequences are:
- All tiles should have a mapping target mapping, with the exception of URL tiles
- A LADI can contain 0, 1, or multiple tiles.
- If the LADU contains multiple tiles, 1 of the tiles must be marked as the default for the LADI
Refer to What is a Launchpad App Descriptor Item in the SAP Fiori launchpad administration guide.

IMPORTANT:Technical catalogs that ONLY contain tiles cannot be migrated. With the shift to launchpad app descriptor items, the Target Mapping is the leading object for software lifecycle management. This means the target mapping and its associated tile(s) must be in the same technical catalog.

Hint: You may find it useful to be aware of some other best practices required by the new tools:

Business catalogs may be client-specific or cross-client.
Business catalogs contain only references to original entries

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Other helpful links:

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
Follow SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA for more blogs and updates
Ask a Question about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG and Customer Care team.

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Technical Catalog Migration – How the migration process works

2024-03-27T02:25:43.254000+01:00

So you have read SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Technical Catalog Migration – Why and Getting Ready for Migration. You are considering migrating your custom technical catalogs and would like to know how the migration process works. The good news is migration is an easy process and non-disruptive for your business users and non-disruptive for your existing launchpad content assignments.

In previous customer experiences at even large sites, converting several custom catalogs only took a few hours for catalogs that were ready to migrate.

The main steps are shown below:

Before you start, prepare your custom technical catalogs for migration.
Phase 1 - Create new technical catalogs for launchpad app manager
Phase 2 – Migrate texts - that is catalog-related, non-original-language texts
Phase 3 – Delete old technical catalogs from launchpad designer

Hint: Custom technical catalogs are ready for migration if they follow best practice recommendations in SAP Note 3397026 - SAP Fiori Launchpad - Technical Catalog Migration - Content Cleanup Risks. You use the migration tool to confirm that all custom technical catalogs meet the requirements.

IMPORTANT: Remember that you must be on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 or higher to use the migration tool. In earlier releases, you can minimize future upgrade effort by applying the Getting your catalogs ready for migration advice in the previous post SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Technical Catalog Migration – Why and Getting Ready for Migration.

In the previous post you learned:

Why you need to migrate your catalogs
Benefits of using the new tools and best practices
When to migrate your catalogs
Getting your catalogs ready for migration

In this blog post you will learn:

How the migration process works
FAQ

You can also refer to the official documentation in the SAP Note 3444719 - Documentation Correction: Missing Topics in SAP Fiori Launchpad Guide - SAP for Me.

Hint: You do not need to worry about SAP delivered technical catalogs. SAP has already migrated all of them in SAP S/4HANA releases 2020 and 2021.

How the migration process works

The migration provides a phased approach.

All phases are managed by the Technical Catalog Migration tool - transaction /UI2/MGR_TC.

The phases are sequential. You move each of your custom technical catalogs through these phases as needed, until all your catalogs are migrated.

IMPORTANT: You execute all phases in your Development environment.

The phases are:

Preparation – Assess and clean your custom technical catalogs in Launchpad Designer
Phase 1 – Create new standard technical catalogs for the launchpad app manager
Phase 2 – Migrate texts in non-original languages
Phase 3 – Delete the old technical catalogs from Launchpad Designer

The Technical Catalog Migration tool includes detailed help documentation to guide you through the migration.

IMPORTANT: You can stagger the conversion process over time, moving selected custom technical catalogs and then others. For example, you might migrate catalogs for one line of business completely, then move to the next set of catalogs and so on.

Hint: To help with planning your migration activities, it is a very good idea to at least do the Preparation phase as part of or immediately after upgrade to check if you need to do any additional preparation work on your custom technical catalogs before they can be migrated.

Preparation: Verify the status of your custom technical catalogs

You should do a first assessment as part of or immediately after upgrade to check:

Which of your custom technical catalogs are Ready for Migration – for these you can move on to Phase 1
Which of your custom technical catalogs are Ready for Migration – Assignment Required – these will need a small extra step in Phase 1
Which of your custom technical catalogs are Not Ready for Migration – these need to be remediated before they can be migrated. In some cases, you may have custom technical catalogs that need to be manually migrated, such as custom technical catalogs containing developer-created custom tile types.
Which of your custom catalogs are Not Relevant for Migration – usually these are custom business catalogs that do not require any further action.

Hint: By default the tool lists all catalogs in your system. If you want to focus on specific catalogs, use the Search Catalogs field to restrict the search.

Start by using the migration tool select Migration Status = Ready for Migration.

This will show catalogs that are ready to be migrated. For any of these catalogs you can move on to Phase 1.

Next use the migration tool select Migration Status = Ready for Migration – Assignment Required. This finds catalogs that are ready to migrate, however will need a small additional step during phase 1 to complete the target mapping to tile assignment. For example, when your custom technical catalogs contain Target Mappings that match to multiple tiles, you will need to nominate the default tile. For these catalogs you can also move onto Phase 1.

Next use the migration tool select Migration Status = Not Ready for Migration

Review the error messages to see what issues have been found. Where there are multiple errors, you can select the long text to see the individual errors found and get advice on what to remediate.

For example, the message “Target Mapping has content issues” can be expanded to see the long text explaining the content issues and guidance on how to remediate the issues.

You may also find some custom technical catalogs containing developer-created custom tile types that cannot be migrated by the migration tool. These must be managed manually.

Finally, using the migration tool, select Migration Status = Not Relevant for Migration. These catalogs do not require any further action because they are:

Business catalogs - That is, catalogs that only contain references to tiles and target mappings. They already follow best practices and can already be maintained with the Launchpad content manager.

Hint: Custom technical catalogs that have already been migrated will have the status Migration Finished. This includes custom technical catalogs that are already of type standard catalog. Refer to section Maintain Allowed Catalog Types for Launchpad App Manager in the SAP Fiori Launchpad administration guide.

Standard catalogs already follow best practices and can already be maintained with the launchpad app manager. No further action is needed on catalogs in status Migration Finished.

Phase 1: Create new catalogs

To start this phase, the catalog must be in status Ready for Migration or Ready for Migration – Assignment Required.

Select the catalog you want to migration and press Create New Catalog.

The new catalog will be of catalog type standard type and can be maintained in the launchpad app manager - transaction /UI2/FLPAM

IMPORTANT: All new catalogs will be cross-client (“CONF” mode). Technical catalogs are always cross-client to maximize reusability across multiple business catalogs and business roles.

All tile/target mapping combinations will be migrated to launchpad app descriptor items (technical object UIAD), including original language entries of the tile texts and link texts.

If the catalog was in status Ready for Migration – Assignment Required you need to complete the assignment of target mappings to tiles. Select the catalog to review which assignments need to be completed.

Assignments are listed by the intent (i.e. the SemanticObject-Action combination) that matches them.

Assignments that are ok show a green tick.
Assignments that need to be completed show a red cross.
You can select an assignment with a red cross to see what is needed to complete the assignment.
Each target mapping must be matched to zero, one or multiple tiles.
Each tile must be matched to a target mapping (tile only is not permitted, except for URL tiles.

The possible actions are:

Where a target mapping has multiple tiles, nominate the default tile by selecting the tile and then button “Set as Default Tile”
Where there are target mappings with the same intent (i.e. assigned the same SemanticObject-action) as one or more tiles, in addition to confirming the correct tile is marked as the default tile, you need to confirm which target mapping/tile combinations are correct. If needed, you can use the Assign or Unassign options to correct the tile to target mappings.
If needed, you can also Assign or Unassign a Target Mapping, i.e. to decouple the tile and target mapping.

Hint: Where a target mapping has multiple tiles, after migration you will also be able to adjust which tile is marked as the default tile in the launchpad app manager.

Once the assignment is complete the intent and the target mapping will have a green check icon and you can remediate any other assignments until the whole catalog is complete.

You can now move to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Migrate texts

To start this phase, the catalog must be in status Ready for Text Migration.

IMPORTANT: If you only maintain custom catalogs in a single language, Phase 2 - Migrate Texts can be skipped, and you can move to Phase 3 - Delete old catalogs. You should consider using the migration status Ready for Text Migration to check that there are no texts maintained in the non-original language.

Launchpad content includes translatable texts such as tile texts, link texts, and descriptions. These translations may be held:

In the same system
In a separate dedicated translation system

IMPORTANT: If you are using a separate dedicated translation system, you must complete the text migration in the dedicated translation system using the migration tool. Make sure the catalogs are showing as Ready for Catalog Deletion in both the original and the dedicated translation system before deleting the catalogs. Naturally, you delete the old catalogs in your development system.

When first migrated in Phase 1 Create new catalogs, only the original language entries are migrated. The translations are held in separate technical objects and must be mapped to the new LADis.

To start the migration of texts, select the catalog and press Migrate Translated Texts.

You can run the text migration in test mode first.

Running in test mode will give you a log to check which texts are being migrated. This can save on troubleshooting later, e.g. if the tile was supposed to be migrated into a certain language but the text in that language is missing from the original translations. You can see an example of the log below.

Provided there are no major issues, you can then uncheck the test mode and execute the text migration in production mode (i.e. with test mode = false).

Once texts have been migrated, you are ready to test your catalogs. Your test should make sure all the assignments and translations are still working.

To compare the texts you can bring up the technical catalog in the Launchpad Designer and side-by-side in a separate browser window to the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager. When you are logged into the SAP Fiori launchpad, you can use the menu option User Actions > Settings > Language and Region to switch between languages and check the tile translations have all come across correctly. Refer to the section Maintaining Your Language and Regional Settings in the SAP Fiori Launchpad User Guide.

Phase 3: Delete old catalogs

The final stage is to remove the old catalog from the launchpad designer. This avoids any mistakes in maintenance later.

Select the status Ready for Catalog Deletion. Select the catalog you want to delete and press button “Delete old catalog”.

IMPORTANT: Review the warnings about testing your migrated catalogs and translations before you delete the old Launchpad Designer catalog.

Once you have completed all steps, the migrated catalogs can be seen in the tool with migration status = Migration Finished.

You can then maintain your custom technical catalogs using the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager - transaction /UI2/FLPAM.

IMPORTANT: Once all catalogs are migrated, you should consider locking all users out of the Launchpad Designer to avoid anyone creating more catalogs that in turn will need to be migrated.

IMPORTANT: If you need to retain Launchpad Designer while you are migrating your layouts from Groups to Spaces and Pages, then carefully control who has access to this environment. Refer to Info Package: Making the Move from Launchpad Groups to Spaces (In SAP S/4HANA and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition)

FAQ

Do I need to worry about SAP catalogs at all?

No. SAP migrated all of its catalogs back in SAP S/4HANA 2020 and 2021.

Do I need to migrate custom business catalogs?

No.

Business catalogs only contain references.

Business catalogs should be maintained in the launchpad content manager - transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CUST.

The launchpad content manager has best practices built in that ensure only references can be assigned to business catalogs,

The migration tool ignores business catalogs.

Do I need to change the referencing business catalogs at all?

There is no need to change the referencing business catalogs. The migration process keeps names and IDs stable.

Do I need to make change to the business role assignments?

Provided your custom technical catalogs are ready for migration, there are no changes needed by the migration process itself. That is, you do not need to make any changes in either in the launchpad content manager or in PFCG.

If your custom technical catalogs have NOT followed best practices – e.g. you have a mix of original entries and references in the same catalog – you may need to make some assignment changes to resolve the content issues.

You can find the detailed rules for launchpad content in SAP Note 3397026 - SAP Fiori Launchpad - Technical Catalog Migration - Content Cleanup Risks.

However, there are no changes needed by the migration process once your custom content is Ready for Migration.

What is the main difference for the launchpad content maintenance team before and after migration?

Before migration – Your custom technical catalogs are missing in the launchpad app manager. You can only see your custom technical catalogs in the Launchpad Designer or in launchpad content manager. You can only edit your custom technical catalogs in the Launchpad Designer - transactions /UI2/FLPD_CONF and /UI2/FLPD_CUST - as described in the SAP Fiori launchpad Administration Guide section: Updating Content Created with the Launchpad Designer. You cannot use new catalog features only supported by the launchpad app manager.

After migration – You will only see your custom technical catalogs in read-only mode in the Launchpad Designer. You can view and edit your custom technical catalogs in the launchpad app manager - transaction /UI2/FLPAM - as described in the SAP Fiori launchpad administration guide section: Setting Up Technical Catalogs with the SAP Fiori Launchpad App Manager. You will have full access to catalog features supported by the launchpad app manager.

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Other helpful links:

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
Follow SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA for more blogs and updates
Ask a Question about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG and Customer Care team.

Horizon Theme and Templates for Stories in SAP Analytics Cloud

2024-04-05T17:10:07.510000+02:00

A new theme, templates, and sample story are now available in the SAP Analytics Cloud Community Content on GitHub to enable you to apply the Morning Horizon style to your stories in SAP Analytics Cloud!

The Morning Horizon theme is an evolution of the SAP Fiori design language, aimed at providing a more coherent and consistent user experience across SAP's product portfolio. It is designed to be simple, intuitive, and efficient, helping users focus on their tasks with minimal distraction.

Sample Story Based on the Morning Horizon Theme

In the sample story provided as part of the template package, you can see how a story will look like using the Morning Horizon theme, which includes:

Cards with rounded corners and drop shadows that group together related information;
Consistent headers and controls to standardize the experience across elements and pages; and
A clean and minimal palette, with lots of white space, where color is used sparingly to highlight key information and reinforce semantics.

On the first page of the sample page, you can see the appearance of widgets that display data, such as charts and tables, and containers like panels. On the second page are all the filter controls, the comment widget, and other elements with the theme applied.

Morning Horizon – Sample Story

Morning Horizon Theme for Stories in SAP Analytics Cloud

The theme defines all relevant styling aspects of the widgets in SAP Analytics Cloud, so you, as a story designer, can focus more on your data rather than on fine-tuning the colors of your widgets. For some aspects, you will need to apply a CSS class to widgets by adding the CSS class name in the Styling Panel.

A detailed CSS guide for the theme is available on our SAC Dashboard Design Best Practice page here: https://dashboarddesign.frontify.com/. After you have registered with your email address, you will receive an invitation to the guide. The information on the CSS classes themselves can be found under the top level navigation item "Optimized Story".

You can use following CSS classes for content cards with shadow, which can be applied to Panels and Flow Layout Panels.

card

You can use following CSS classes for different Button use cases:

acceptButton
rejectButton
emphasizedButton
liteButton

You can use following CSS classes for different Text use cases:

pageTitle
pageSubTitle
descTitle
descContent
link
negative
critical
positive
information
neutral

Story Templates Based on the Morning Horizon Theme

We provide two templates to enable you to quickly apply the Horizon Theme to your own stories, ensuring a consistent look and feel across your SAP Analytics Cloud content and between it and other SAP applications.

The Report Template gives you the layout for a structured reporting page. The header summarizes high level the key message of the page with a title, short description, and overarching KPIs. Below that, you can place detailed breakdowns on the logical groups that visually group information on cards. On the second page of the Report Template is a layout with the overarching information on the left-hand side.

Report Template

The Exploration Template provides a structure to create a story for an exploration use case. It also starts with overarching information on the top and then provides one detail area, where you can create charts that go more in detail from left to right. You can then link the charts using the Linked Analysis feature (not part of the template) so that you can explore your data in more detail.

Exploration Template

Download Now!

You can download the package with the from GitHub:
https://github.com/SAP-samples/analytics-cloud-datasphere-community-content/tree/main/Technical_Samples/SAC_Fiori_Horizon_Theme

Once you have downloaded the package, you can import it to your SAP Analytics Cloud system using the Transport feature. Once imported, the templates will appear on the Welcome to Stories page.

You can then create a new story based on the template in the Optimized Story Experience. In the editing environment, click on the placeholders and add your model to the story. You can then continue by defining the data that you want to show on each placeholder.

We’ll provide more information in a later blog on how to make larger changes to the default layout.

Best Practices When Applying a Theme to Stories

In SAP Analytics Cloud stories, there are three options that can influence the look and feel of story widgets:

Theme, for styling the entire story;
Widget styling, to define the style for individual widgets via the Styling Panel; and
CSS class, for applying more granular styling to widgets than you can achieve via the Styling Panel or Theme settings.

In the story runtime, these settings are applied to the story widgets with the following priority order:

CSS classes that are defined in story-level CSS file
CSS classes that are defined in theme file
Widget local styling (via the Styling panel for each widget
Widget style setting defined in the theme

Based on these rules, if you would like to apply the theme to your story, you need to consider the following aspects:

For new stories, avoid adding any specific widget styling in the Styling panel; stick with the default settings.
For existing stories, reset all the existing widget styling to the default value and then apply the theme.

Local widget styling MUST be set to the default value so that the theme style settings can be successfully applied to the story, as the theme has a lower priority compared to the widget styling that is locally done via the styling panel.

Your feedback helps to improve SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

2024-04-08T17:20:45.589000+02:00

Dear User,

again we want to thank you for all the feedback you have shared with us on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Your ratings help us to better understand how different applications compare in your eyes, and if our focus should be on missing functionality or if we rather invest into design and ease of use. Also your written comments can help us to see if you are concerned about performance, the user interface or search functionality to name just a few. In the following section I want to share examples on how we have addressed product improvements based on constructive and specific textual feedback we have received from you. In this Blog, let’s look into specific improvements we did along the categories ease of use/UI design, features & functions and user enablement:

Ease of use / UI Design

We received the verbal comment “It would be great if the data “created on” and “created by” were still displayed in the overview”. Product Management assessed this very specific user request and was able to deliver it in the application Serial Number History (F7368) with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2308.4. For the app Display Serialized Stock Quantities (F7551) users requested additional functionality regarding the user interface for filtering and columns, so we improved the user interface with the same delivery mentioned before.

Also, there was the request to improve the app Manage Journal Entries V2 (F0717A) with the small improvement to expand the tree table with the related documents by default to increase the ease of use. We plan to deliver this change with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2408. For the two Monitor Material Coverage apps (F2101A and F0247A) it was too difficult to filter the materials with (or without) respective rescheduling proposal category. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.1 we had included a rescheduling column with the respective filter.

For the app Manage Purchase Orders V2 (F0842A), users requested extensive layout improvements for sections, columns and tables. So we already moved the account assignment sections to the second position, to ease the entry processing with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402. We plan to further provide the new six-column layout this summer and complete the merger of items and limit items table into one SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2502.

Feature & Functions

Let’s look again at the app Manage Purchase Orders V2 (F0842A), where users mentioned “…entering items is difficult as there is barely any screen real estate”. In this case we provided the functionality to add items via the purchase requisition with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2308.

The app Create Billing Documents (F0798) had user comments helping us to understand, that maintaining price conditions was sometimes impossible with misleading error messages. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2408 we plan to improve the message handling and with the following release thereafter, we also plan to implement the reuse pricing component in a new generation of apps.

User Enablement

For the app Clear Ongoing Payments (F1367) we suddenly received a comment “Application no longer automatically picks reversed journal entries when using it” what initiated an In-App help for the field “invoice reference” with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition] 2402.

Already with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2308, we were able to improve the documentation for the users that told us “I don’t know how to use the new feature” or “have not been told how it works” for the apps Manage Stock (F1062) and Transfer Stock – in Plant (F1061).

These examples should show, that we take your feedback seriously. While we cannot directly contact users giving anonymous feedback, we highly appreciate your feedback and we also try to implement any constructive and reasonable feedback given to us. So please continue and even increase the feedback you share with us, it helps us to deliver a continuously improved product.

An Uber for Engineering?

SAP Commerce Cloud Q1 ‘24 Release Highlights

2024-04-11T21:26:07.968000+02:00

SAP Commerce Cloud kicked off the new year with many exciting features to help our customers drive profitable growth! Time and time again, we’ve heard how critical it is for organizations to provide connected, seamless experiences across all digital and physical channels, while driving profitable engagements and increasing lifetime value.

These themes were reiterated at the recently concluded Shoptalk event in March, where SAP showcased how organizations can drive agility and end to end processes by connecting their commerce, marketing, sales, and service data with back-office ERP data. Customers also saw how they could harness the power of insightful and AI-powered scenarios to future-proof their businesses and drive profitable growth with the power of adaptive composability. I am also extremely excited that we announced SAP Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, a new solution that extends payment options for customers. You will find more details for this later in this post.

Let’s dive in a bit more and have a look at the top features that have been released in the last 3 months for SAP Commerce Cloud. For more information and to see the product in action, take a look at the Q1 2024 Highlights webcast to learn more about our latest innovations.

Industry-Tailored

Achieve Profitable and Accurate Shipments Through Flexible Order Orchestration

Order Management Services empower organizations to seamlessly integrate all owned or third-party purchasing channels with fulfillment channels for consistent order experiences, a unified view of inventory, and valuable insights across all touchpoints. SAP Order Management Services helps ensure that your organization is meeting key goals for omni-channel order orchestration, is fulfilling customer promises reliably, and is utilizing data to understand relative performance and make improvements to the business.

Gain more control for orchestrating orders with deeper decision capabilities and easy to follow logic through no-code, low-code mechanism that speeds up implementation and drives agility. For more complex decisions, you can use any number of branches with a multitude of conditions with guaranteed scalability and performance. Order Management Services can provide real-time updates to business users and end customers based on order changes in backend systems. This provides more accurate visibility into the fulfillment of orders, allows a response to late customer change requests, and reduces returns by preventing unnecessary shipments.

Branching nodes for complex decisions

Improve Customer Satisfaction Through Flexible Sourcing Controls, Including Bundles

SAP Order Management Sourcing and Availability provides higher agility on sourcing products that might come as a group of products sold together in a bundle. We can now source products either as a full set or as individual products, removing complexity for shoppers. This enhances revenue generation by offering products both individually and as part of sets, simultaneously boosting customer satisfaction through the assurance of complete set availability. Newly added capabilities will allow organizations to configure the following:

Support for sourcing and availability of sets/bundles
Separate availability of each product of the set when required
Enforce the availability of full sets/bundles
Option for sourcing of all products in a set/bundle from the same location

Improve Operational Efficiency through Sourcing Analytics and Insights

We’ve added the ability to review past sourcing information to improve operations in a unified commerce environment. Order specialists can go back in time and analyze requested products, selected sites, and sourcing results more broadly. This helps to gain insights through analytics that can improve operational efficiency, all without having to re-run the sourcing logic.

Enhanced Financial Services Accelerator now available on SAP Store

SAP Commerce Cloud, financial services accelerator is designed to empower organizations in the financial services sector. With its self-service and commerce capabilities, customer experiences are simplified through digitalization, reducing duplication in data collection, and providing customers with personalized product options for easier purchase decision-making. Our modern composable storefront enables insurance and banking customers to quickly customize and build their own insurance and banking products using a set of predefined process templates. The inclusion of self-service capabilities allows customers to conveniently view their dashboard, compare quotes, change policies, schedule appointments with an agent, and perform other tasks results in time savings and a streamlined experience.

SAP Commerce Cloud, financial services accelerator

SAP Commerce Cloud, composable storefront, also received many recent enhancements that improve the B2B buying experience, the management of user profiles, and the search experience. These enhancements provide more control, save time, and make for a more intuitive experience.

B2B Quotes Provide Greater Control and Ease of B2B Transactions Between Buyers and Sellers

Have your sellers ever wanted to be able to start and view a B2B customer quote, and to minimize the back and forth needed to finalize the transaction? This is now available in a headless fashion for SAP Commerce Cloud, composable storefront, to streamline the B2B quote process.

B2B Commerce Quotes enable the negotiation of a final price for an order between buyers and sellers. Buyers can create and submit quote requests to sellers. Alternatively, sellers can also create quote requests for their buyers using the Assisted Service Module (ASM). This lets you open a new sales channel and increases your team’s productivity by negotiating digitally with full access to customer preferences. SAP CPQ is also supported in SAP Commerce Cloud, composable storefront, to empower your sales team and partners to offer complex product configurations, optimized pricing, and great-looking proposals.

Drive Productive and Intuitive Workflows with User Experience Enhancements

We have improved the user experience with My Account UI and Recent Searches to save users time on managing their profile and viewing search history. With My Account integration from SAP Customer Data Platform, shoppers can quickly and easily manage their personal details such as email address, password, notification preferences and consents, and view service request details. This, along with previous Customer Data Platform integrations such as those highlighted in the Q3 2023 release blog, further strengthens the benefits of connecting SAP solutions.

With Recent Searches functionality, shoppers no longer need to remember what they were searching for, and if it is still relevant. Shoppers can now revisit previously used search terms, saving time and frustration while providing a streamlined search experience. Recent Searches can boost conversion rates as shoppers are more likely to make a purchase when they see search phrases they have recently used and find relevant results quickly.

On a technical note, we are also using the newer <picture> tag instead of <img> throughout for better control and better-looking images at specific screen sizes. This enables responsive image selection for modern browsers that have support for srcset and media queries. But what if you are using legacy browsers? Not to worry because, as a fallback option when srcset is not provided, the media component will use the <img> tag.

Adopt Frontend and Backend Updates More Easily

Starting in February 2024, SAP Commerce Cloud, composable storefront uses the same continuous release numbering system as core commerce (2211.21 April 9, 2024), making it easy to align the frontend and backend update releases. There is now one place for all documentation, with one continuous documentation set, clear visibility of what’s new, and the same structure as core commerce, making it simple to find content.

Around February of each year, there will also be an annual framework update release to the newest Angular version. By having the framework update release around the same time each year, we are making the updates predictable. The framework was most recently updated to Angular v17 to keep up to date with compliance and provide faster performance. According to the Angular blog, v17 improvements include “deferrable views which brings performance and developer experience to the next level, up to 90% faster runtime with a built-in control flow loops in public benchmarks, and up to 87% faster builds for hybrid rendering and 67% for client-side rendering.”

Connected

Extend Payments Options with Open Payment Framework [Preview]

SAP Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, available in preview now, integrates with multiple third-party payment providers, including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay and Airwallex. Organizations can easily adopt this plug-and-play solution, reducing integration complexity. The framework is extensible and headless, enabling independent operation of front and back ends, catering to diverse channel needs, and adding innovative solutions seamlessly. It covers common payment requirements and end-to-end payment processes across authorization, capture, refunds, and re-authorization and automatic updates with security and compliance standards. It also ensures customers have the freedom to pick their preferred payment method, which enhances the checkout experience.

As we take on the challenge of payments, we hope you are as excited as we, and our partners are about this, and enjoy this sneak preview before its General Availability release!

Insightful

Observe, Track, and Manage Performance of SAP Commerce Cloud Environments with Personal Access Token in Dynatrace

Customers can now access Dynatrace data via API to monitor the performance of their SAP Commerce Cloud environments. Personal Access Tokens enable customers to generate a token for API usage without administrator rights. The available scopes are bound to your permissions, which means you can only use the API counterparts of authorized features, and you can only access the data from authorized management zones.

View the documentation on how to generate the Personal Access Token.

Optimize Your SAP Commerce Cloud Infrastructure Utilization for Better Performance and Compliance

Have you ever wondered if your SAP Commerce Cloud infrastructure is performing at its best? SAP experts can help you be more effective with your infrastructure usage.

With Infrastructure Assessment Service for SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP experts will review your SAP Commerce Cloud environment and highlight any areas where the infrastructure is being most heavily utilized. Specialists from SAP will dig into these areas to identify potential improvements that could reduce and optimize the use of infrastructure while enabling efficient operations for peak seasonal loads.

Adaptive

Painless Kubernetes Upgrades Minimizes Disruption

SAP Commerce Cloud will now remain accessible and operational throughout upgrade process with no downtime. Customers can get the latest security and performance patches without interruption from our new cloud upgrades, meaning full continuity for your customers’ shopping experiences.

What’s more is that these changes are transparent and do not require testing of your implementation. All new environment upgrades will be executed with this improved method. You can read the FAQ in SAP for Me for more details.

New SAP Store Additions Bring Innovation and Cutting-edge Solutions

Recent additions to the SAP Store bring more innovation to our ever-expanding ecosystem, enhancing your digital experiences. We are excited to spotlight OneView Commerce that enables seamless omnichannel order execution. Omnichannel order execution requires coordinating across many channels and optimizing organizational resources, with the goal of delighting the customer with a seamless, convenient shopping experience that can create loyalty and high customer lifetime value.

Oneview Unified Commerce Platform extends SAP Order Management Services into the physical store to maximize profitability and improve customer outcomes. Oneview Unified Commerce Platform provides shopping convenience by supporting all in-store fulfillment types for web-based orders ensuring that more orders are fulfilled rapidly and eliminates cancellations. Order types include pick up in store, reserve in store, ship from store with major carrier integration. Associate-optimized workflows also allow for efficient pick and pack orders and preparing them for customer pick up or to ship directly to the customer using built-in carrier integrations. Finally, if you have your own last mile delivery fleet, Oneview Commerce provides an intuitive delivery driver solution for at home deliveries.

Oneview Unified Commerce Platform

Are you a new customer that needs your commerce site to go-live quickly? SAP CX Services has an Accelerated Implementation Service for SAP Commerce Cloud that enables just that. The site can be up and running in only nine weeks! SAP CX Services can help you to fast track to value by offering a fixed scope, proven and reliable approach to implement standardized features with the flexibility built in to provide you with a solution that feels unique to your business.

Finally, we have some great news to share. We are extending our end of support for deprecated Accelerator UIs to Q3 2028 (previously stated as no earlier than 2025), and you can see the updated SAP Help documentation for more details. We will also have a dedicated webcast where we will cover the technical details of this topic in depth. Keep an eye out for calendar dates in our newsletter.

For more details on the above release features, check out the following resources:

Q1 2024 SAP Commerce Cloud Release Readiness Kit
Performance Optimization Best Practices
SAP Commerce Cloud update cycle
SAP Commerce Cloud Release Navigator single access point to release content

SAP Help Portal

SAP Commerce Cloud What’s New

Composable Commerce

SAP Report: Achieving Agility in Digital Commerce: Guidance to Help Organizational Leaders Future-Proof Digital Experiences with an Agile Commerce Approach

Please share your feedback in a comment and follow our SAP Commerce Cloud topic page to connect with the community!

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.2: Final What's New & Product Assistance available

2024-04-18T14:33:42.421000+02:00

With immediate effect, the final What's New information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.2 is now available. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is based on the technical product SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

To access the Final What’s New information, please use the What’s New Viewer.

For further formats and languages of the What's New information, as well as pre-filtered views, please use the following SAP S/4HANA Cloud Help Portal page.

In addition, the final Product Assistance (aka Application Help) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.2 is available. Please use the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Help Portal page to access the Product Assistance in multiple languages.

For you as a customers, we recommend to also use the Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool.

The Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool provides you with a personalized and tailored view on What’s New information based on the activated and used scope within your system. The information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.2 will be available in RASD within the next few days. A valid Customer S-user ID is required for login. We recommend to use RASD to prepare for upgrades and updates of your system and to focus on the new and changed features that are relevant for you as a customer.

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Composite Roles in launchpad content and layout tools

2024-04-24T08:35:10.620000+02:00

Composite roles have long been known as an effective way to handle business role variations at scale. From SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01, increased support for composite roles gives you more flexible options for security role and authorizations design.

Composite role support is now available in the launchpad content and layout administration tools:

launchpad content manager
manage launchpad spaces
manage launchpad pages
launchpad content aggregator
launchpad content exposure (version 1 and version 2) to SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition

IMPORTANT: Similar updates to the tool Overview of Roles, Spaces and Pages are planned.

In this blog post you will learn:

Why you may need a composite role
Composite role design in earlier SAP S/4HANA releases
How composite role design is simplified from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01
How launchpad content maintenance tools support composite roles from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01
FAQ

IMPORTANT: Composite roles are not available in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition.

Why you may need a composite role

In a small organization, you may have only a few people performing a business role, and their needs are likely to be closely aligned. Your roles are likely to be distinct so a simple arrangement of launchpad content (apps and features) aligned to launchpad layout (spaces and pages) is sufficient.

You could achieve this through single roles – and there are many examples in SAP Business Role templates, such as: General Ledger Accountant, Purchaser, Internal Sales Representative, Industrial Hygienist, Maintenance Technician, Strategic Buyer. Your single role design might look something like the following diagram, i.e. a single role with an assigned space and assigned business catalogs.

If you have some overlap between roles, you can still easily share layouts. For example, the procurement roles Purchaser and Strategic Buyer, may share some tasks. With spaces and pages, apps that are relevant to Purchaser only or Strategic Buyer only are automatically visible or hidden based on your catalog assignments. This flexibility means you can reuse the same space for multiple roles. Even better, when you maintain the page layouts in SAP Fiori app F4512 Mange Launchpad Pages you can use the feature Page Preview (select role context) to check which tiles are visible or hidden depending on the user's assigned roles.

Your role design for single roles that share the same space might look something like this, with multiple roles all assigned to the same space.

However, the larger your organization, the more likely you are to need variations on business roles. For example, you may need some shared content for all General Ledger Accountants, and some distinct content for different geographical locations. You may need different content for roles based on different customer focus; different product focus; different services focus. You might have different content for employees versus manager/supervisors; for casual users versus expert, and so on.

An example might be: You want mostly similar catalogs and apps for all General Ledger Accountants, with some distinctive content for different countries that have different tax and financial reporting requirements. The more complexity and the more variations you have, the more difficult it becomes to manage these variations within a single role.

Composite roles are a useful way to handle these role variations, while minimizing role maintenance effort. Composite roles let you combine multiple single roles. You can segregate shared catalogs/apps and delta catalogs/apps by assigning them to separate single roles. You can use composite roles to create different combinations of single roles to assign to users.

Your role design can shift from something like this below for the launchpad content. With a composite role that includes one or more single roles, with each single role assigned to one or more business catalogs. This kind of role design works in most SAP S/4HANA releases.

However, when you want to share layouts across composite roles, it gets a little more complicated.

IMPORTANT: You can only assign spaces and catalogs to single roles.

Composite role design in earlier SAP S/4HANA releases

Composite roles are a long-standing capability of the ABAP Platform that is the foundation for SAP S/4HANA. It was technically possible to use composite roles as security roles in all SAP S/4HANA releases, and many customers do use composite roles.

A consideration in roles design was that best practices for launchpad content and layout management have evolved and continue to evolve over the releases of SAP S/4HANA. For example. the layering of cross-client technical catalogs with original entries and client-specific business catalogs for role assignment. Refer to:

SAP Fiori launchpad Administration Guide section Best Practices and Typical Scenarios for Setting Up Launchpad Content > Best Practices for Managing Catalogs

A major shift in best practices that affect role design came with the introduction of Spaces and Pages in SAP S/4HANA 2020.

Spaces and Pages have introduced a range of useful features

Business-meaningful spaces and pages hierarchy that could be reinforce customer-preferred process/task organization, and are easily aligned to Business Process Management flows
Tiles (i.e. launchpad app descriptor items – see hint below) are derived directly from roles – reducing content assignment effort and authorization errors
Page Previews (with selected role context) – so you could verify the impact when you reused spaces and pages across multiple roles
Multiple tile types (tile, flat tile, wide tile, flat wide tile, link)
Automatic merging of administrator changes with user personalizations
Delta-enabled personalization, which minimizes issues such as “cannot load tile”

Hint: Each app that you see on a launchpad page is technically represented by a launchpad app descriptor item (LADI) that contains a combination of:

Target mapping – how the app is launched when the tile link is selected by the user, such as which app is launched and which parameters are passed
Tile definition(s) – how the tile/link should appear, such as texts and icons

For customers on SAP S/4HANA 2020 to 2022 who wanted to use composite roles, to take advantage of the full features of spaces and pages with composite roles, you needed to:

Assign the shared space to every single role containing (one or more) business catalogs
You could then include any LADI (aka tile/target mapping) from any of the assigned business catalogs in the pages of the space
You could use the Page Preview (Select Role Context) feature in SAP Fiori app F4512 Mange Launchpad Pages to check your page against different combinations of single roles. That is, to check which tiles would be visible or hidden depending on the combination of single roles assigned to the business user.

This also meant that:

If you wanted to split or merge your composite roles, you might possibly need to reassign the space in every single role
You could only view or test the impact of your composite roles on your spaces and pages by knowing exactly which combinations of single roles were included in your composite roles.

How composite role design is simplified with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01

With SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01, composite roles are now supported in launchpad content and layout tools. This means you can now simplify your composite role design.

Most importantly, you can have a clean separation between content and layout at the single role level. For example, you can use a single role that only contains the space, and flexibly assign it across one or more composite roles.

From SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 you also have some new Spaces and Pages features, such as:

Administrator-controlled merging of spaces
Administrator-controlled merging of pages
Favorite Pages in New My Home Page

These new features make it even easier to match the right spaces and pages to your business users, regardless of their needs.

Even better, as an administrator, you now have visibility of composite roles in the best practice maintenance tools for launchpad content and layout.

How launchpad content maintenance tools support composite roles from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01

You can now find composite role support in the launchpad content and layout maintenance tools:

Launchpad Content Manager
Manage Launchpad Spaces
Manage Launchpad Pages
Launchpad Content Aggregator

IMPORTANT: Similar updates to the tool Overview of Roles, Spaces and Pages (transaction /UI2/RSP_LIST) are planned.

As a Fiori Foundation Administrator, you can access most of these tools from the Administration - Fiori Launchpad page.

IMPORTANT: Composite roles were already supported for content exposure to SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition. Composite roles are supported for both content exposure Version 1 and Version 2.

For a description of the differences between version 1 and version 2 refer to: SAP Note 3345119 - Expose Launchpad Content to SAP BTP - Exposure Version 2

Composite roles in Launchpad Content Manager

The launchpad content manager is the main and most efficient tool for business role maintenance, i.e. the assignment of content to business catalogs, and the assignment of business catalogs and spaces to business roles. You access the tool from the Fiori Foundation Administration launchpad, or from transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CUST (client-specific).

IMPORTANT: Business roles are usually assigned client-specific. If you have cross-client roles you can also access the cross-client Launchpad Content Manager via transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CONF. All screenshots in this section are from the client-specific Launchpad Content Manager.

The launchpad content manager provides support for composite roles from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01.

On the Roles tab:

Composite roles are listed and assigned catalogs can be viewed
Assigned groups and spaces can be viewed for Composite roles
For both composite and single roles, you can optionally launch to the role maintenance transaction PFCG to see more details

On the roles tab, the new column Role Type indicates whether a role is composite or single. Assigned catalogs can be seen for composite roles, i.e. all catalogs assigned to single roles assigned to the composite role.

On the Roles tab, Spaces (and Groups) can be shown for composite roles.

On the Tiles/Target Mappings tab, Tiles/Target mappings can be viewed for both composite roles and single roles.

On the Tiles/Target Mappings tab, Show Usage in Roles lists both composite and single roles to which the app or UI is assigned

On the Catalogs tab, Show Usage in Roles feature shows both composite and single roles in which the catalog is used.

Composite roles in Manage Launchpad Spaces

SAP Fiori app F4834 Manage Launchpad Spaces is the primary tool for organizing the layouts assigned to business roles. With this app as an administrator you control the assignment of pages to spaces, the visibility of pages, and the merging of spaces at runtime.

Each space is presented to a business user on their launchpad as:

a tab - if only one page is assigned to the space, or
a menu tab - if multiple pages are assigned to the space.

From SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01, SAP Fiori app Manage Launchpad spaces lists both composite and single roles to which the page is assigned.

Composite role support in Manage Launchpad Pages

SAP Fiori app F4512 Mange Launchpad Pages is the primary tool for organizing which sections, tiles, and links appear on a launchpad page. Content is derived from the role(s) assigned to the related space.

From SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01, you can:

Derive tiles from single roles that are derived from composite roles assigned to the space
When using Page Preview (Select Role Context) you can select composite roles and/or single roles to check which tiles are visible/hidden depending on the user's assigned roles.

Composite roles in Launchpad Content Aggregator

Launchpad content aggregator is the primary tool for a read-only view of what launchpad content is assigned to your business roles. You access this tool using transaction /UI2/FLPCA.

Refer to: SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – 3 simple use cases for Launchpad Content Aggregator

The launchpad content aggregator tool is particularly useful for:

Providing a read-only view of assigned content for business stakeholders
Providing a read-only view of assigned content for auditors and other interested parties
Providing a read-only view of assigned content for upgrade planning.
- For example, to derive lists of which SAP Fiori apps and classic UIs are currently assigned to your business roles.
- Such lists can be further assessed for upgrade planning via tools such as the Fiori Upgrade Impact Analysis.

Refer to:

From SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01:

Select composite or single roles
View aggregated content for both composite and single roles

When selecting Roles to aggregate, you can select composite or single roles.

You can view the apps assigned to the composite role by the single roles.

FAQ

Do I need to change any of my existing custom business roles?

No. Your existing business roles will continue to work. The new composite role features give you the option of simplifying on-going maintenance.

Why can’t I see composite roles in the Launchpad Designer?

Launchpad Designer does NOT give you this visibility because Launchpad Designer is deprecated. If you are still using Launchpad Designer, you should move to the new tools, i.e.

Migrate from Groups to Spaces and Pages
Migrate custom technical catalogs to launchpad app manager

Refer to:

What do the naming convention in the diagrams mean?

In the diagrams of this blog post a simple naming convention has been used to reinforce the role objects involved and reflect many of the naming conventions in the SAP Fiori launchpad Administration Guide.

..._BR_... for a business role
..._BC_... for a business catalog
..._SP_... for a space
..._PG_...for a page

For clarity of the purpose of single roles in a composite role context you will also see:

..._BCR... for a single business role for assigning business catalogs only
..._SPR... for a single business role for assigning spaces only

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Other helpful links:

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
Follow SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA for more blogs and updates
Ask a Question about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG and Customer Care team.

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Empowering Your Homepage: Enabling My Home for SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01

2024-04-26T11:34:59.906000+02:00

Good news! The new My Home page is finally available with the SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition (and on-premise) solution with the SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 release. So it’s time to explore more about the sections and features that it contains.

The new My Home is like your personal command center for work. It provides you with a super easy way to find all the important information that you need to get your job done faster. With the new My Home entry page, you can keep track of your tasks and situations, check out key insights via analytical tiles and cards, and you can access your favorite pages and apps from any device. It offers a space of your own space with enhanced personalization capabilities and a better user experience! Plus, it builds on the features of the SAP Fiori Launchpad, using spaces and pages to make everything run smoothly.

New My Home available with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01

As a part of this blog post, you will:

Get familiar with the structure of the new My Home
Explore the various building blocks / technical components necessary for My Home
Learn how to enable My Home functionality step-by-step
Discover how to assign My Home to your business users

If you are interested in learning about the features and functionality about the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA from an end user's perspective, you are recommended to refer to this blog from Thomas Reiss User Experience Advances with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 (Private Cloud and On-Premise).

IMPORTANT : Please keep in mind that to enable My Home on SAP S/4HANA 2023 (as of March 2024), you need to have at least the first feature pack stack installed for this product version, that is SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01.

IMPORTANT : In this blog post, for brevity, the abbreviation FLP = Fiori launchpad and My Home = My Home in SAP S/4HANA.

Structure of the My Home - main components

Let’s get started by understanding its structure and components briefly before we deep dive into configurations and the other technicalities.

The standard entry page contains the following sections and functionality.

#	Section	Functionality
1	To-Dos	This section contains two parts: Tasks - That are populated from the My Inbox App Situations - That are populated from the My Situations App Note: At the time of writing the blog, the My Situations Extended App was not integrated with the view You also have an option (depending upon your release) to either see a contact card or to directly send an email to the concerned Task Owner or Situation Owner from the Task / Situation tiles.
2	Pages	This section can be personalized by the user with their favorite Launchpad Pages. However, at the beginning (without any user personalization) it shows up to the first 8 pages that are assigned to the user. For these 8 Pages, you see 8 different colors which are assigned automatically from the color palette. Each colored Page would have a title and a subtitle that corresponds to the Page title and Space title respectively from the Page they belong. In case both the Space and Page titles are the same, you would just see a title without any subtitle. For example the Fiori Launchpad page in the below screenshot.
3	Apps	This section is comprised of the following parts: Favorites- Under this tab, you can add Tiles from various other Spaces and Pages. You can also group these applications together under a custom group with a custom name. For example, the group My Sales Analytics in the following screenshot is a customized app group. If you navigate to a page from the Pages section (of My Home) described above and you add a tile as a favorite (from User Action Menu --> Edit current Page, and from a tile menu --> Add to My Home). You will see that the app gets added to the favorites tab, with the same color as the original Page. For example Manage Sales Order, My Inbox and Sales Order Fulfillment apps in the following screenshot were added via Overview – Internal Sales Page, Manage Sales Quotation, Manage Credit Memo Requests, and Manage Debit Memo Requests from Sales Processing – Internal Sales and so on. However, If you perform the same action on any other page (other than these 8 colored pages, from the Pages section), the app that you mark as a favorite is displayed in a random color that can be customized by the end user. You can also add an App tile via the App Finder (by choosing the My Home Page under My Home space), and if that application is not a part of your favorite pages, then a random color is applied to the marked favorite App, which is usually the grey color. For example, Manage Workflows App in the following screenshot is grey in color. Most Used - This list gets populated from the system and is based on the most used applications in terms of their frequency. Note : For the Most Used and Recent Used tabs to appear, the business users must enable User Activities tracking in their Fiori launchpad > User Actions > Settings dialog. Recently Used - This list gets populated from the system and is based on the recently used apps (i.e., based on a descending timestamp order). One very cool feature supported by the Recently Used tab support is the "Resume Last Activity" option, where you can return to the same application state (i.e., same filters variants, same table variants etc.) from where you last left the application.
4	Insights	This comprises of two parts (which while populated, splits up into two different sections): Insights Tiles: You can use the Add Tiles option from the Insights section to add Dynamic tiles as your content. The system would typically propose Dynamic Tiles (such as KPI tiles) as a part of this section. However, just like other areas, you could jump to App Finder and include any tile here). The primary purpose of this section is to place analytical tile content in it for quick insights. Insights Cards: Here you can add cards from SAP Fiori Elements based Overview Pages(OVP) and List/Table cards from List Reports(LR) and charts from Analytical List Pages(ALP). You also have options to add filters and change the chart type of the standard content while adding them from an OVP / LR / ALP page.

My Home - Building Blocks and Technical Components

Now that you are familiar with a basic structure of My Home, let's look at some of the technical components involved as part of it.

Spaces and Pages Layout: This entry page is based on the Spaces and Pages layout, which is a must to enable the My Home capability.
SAPUI5 Home Component: Available as a part of SAP FIORI FES FOR S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 (SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01), This component contains the user interface for My Home in SAP S/4HANA. Just like other UI5 applications, this is based on a BSP application (a SAPUI5 Component) PRODUCT_HOMES1.
SAP Fiori Launchpad Configuration : By default the My Home is disabled in S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 and you need to do some Fiori Launchpad configurations using Launchpad Configuration Parameters in order to enable My Home in SAP S/4HANA.
Required App Authorizations: The To-Dos section only displays the Tasks and Situations if you have the target mappings for the My Inbox App and the My Situations App assigned to the Fiori User (i.e. if you have authorizations to access these applications)
Various OData Services involved: The following table summarizes various OData services required to use the My Home in SAP S/4HANA, based on its various components.

#	Section	OData Service	OData Version	Description
1	To-Dos	For Tasks: TASKPROCESSING (Namespace: /IWPGW/ )	V2	Task Gateway Service, required for My Inbox Tasks
		For Situations (Standard Situations): C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS	V2	RAP: C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS, required for Situations
2	Pages	Pages are read as a part of FLP service itself and require no additional OData service. For personalization of the pages INTEROP service is used (see point 3)	NA	This should be available by default.
3	Apps	Apps are read via the INTEROP (Namespace: /UI2/)	V2	Gateway Service of Interoperability, required for Personalization (This should also be already active, by default)
4	Insights	For Insights Cards: /UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV (belongs to Service Group /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV)	V4	Insights Cards Repository Service Definition, required for reading Insight Cards.
		For insights Tiles: INTEROP service is used, where the tiles added to this section are stored as users personalization	V2	This should also be already active, by default

Note: The other OData services like FDM_PAGE_RUNTIME_SRV, PAGE_BUILDER_PERS, OData v4 /iwngw/notification , ESH_SEARCH_SRV etc. that are required by the FLP, are out of the scope of this blog.

The Image below summarizes the OData services, Target Mappings and the BSP required:

How to enable My Home

Now that you have a good understanding of all the basic building blocks of My Home in SAP S/4HANA, let’s get started. After activating the necessary components, you shall also create a Role Z_MY_HOME and add all the relevant authorizations to that.

You would do the My Home enablement in the following 5 steps.

Step1: Enabling Spaces and Pages Layout
Step 2: Activating the My Home UI5 Component
Step 3: Activating the required OData V2 and V4 services
Step 4: Configuring Launchpad Parameters
Step 5: Adding relevant authorizations i.e. Target Mapping and OData Authorizations via a PFCG Role

So, let’s get started…

Step 1: Enabling Spaces and Pages Layout

The first prerequisite is to check if the Spaces and Pages Layout is already enabled. Please note that the classical Home Page Layout has been already deprecated as of ABAP Platform 2021 and we strongly encourage you to move to the new layout i.e., Spaces and Pages if you haven't.

To validate the enablement, click on the User Actions Menu (your profile picture icon) --> and then click on Settings.

On the Settings Dialog, you would find a menu option Spaces and Pages. If you see this menu, the new layout is already configured. Click on it, to reveal the Spaces and Pages settings. Ensure that you have both the Use Spaces and Show My Home check boxes enabled, as shown below.

If you see this Spaces and Pages menu option, you can skip this step and move to the next one after checking both the boxes and clicking on Save.

If in case you DO NOT see the Spaces and Pages menu option at all, and instead you only see the Home Page menu option (as shown in the following screenshot), you must activate and configure the new Spaces and Pages Layout.

To activate the new Spaces and Pages Layout use the following steps.

Navigate to the transaction STC01 (Task Manager for Technical Configuration).
Enter the Task List name as SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 (which is used to activate Fiori foundation) and click on the Generate Task List Run (F8) button.
On the next screen with generated task list, uncheck all the tasks using Skip All Tasks (F7) button and then only Select the task Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF). You will get an Information popup that the activation step has dependencies on other steps like creating transports, activating services etc., click Continue for all.
Finally, Click on Start/Resume Task List Run In Dialog (F8).

This step is just creating some entries in the /UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF transaction and activating the required OData services, therefore it should typically not take much time to end up in a successful state.
If in case you are interested in knowing about the entries that it creates in the Launchpad Configuration, below is a screenshot of the customizing.
Once you have performed the configuration mentioned in the previous step, Spaces and Pages menu option becomes available in the Settings dialog (from the User Actions Menu). Check the Use Spaces and Show My Home check boxes as explained above, and you are good to move to the Step 2.

Note: that sometimes you may have to enable these two check boxes one by one, by opening the Settings dialog twice, as the former has a dependency on the latter.

Step 2: Activating the My Home UI5 Component

After ensuring that you have the Spaces and Pages Layout enabled for our Launchpad, you can move on to the next steps of activating the services that are required to enable My Home in SAP S/4HANA. You first start with activating the UI5 component for My Home i.e., the BSP application.

The standard SAPUI5 component that is available for the My Home (shipped with S/4HANA2023 FPS01) has its component id as ux.eng.s4producthomes1 and the BSP name is PRODUCT_HOMES1.

To activate the ICF Node, go to the transaction code SICF, Enter the BSP name PRODUCT_HOMES1 (which is also the ICF Node name) in the field Service Name and click Execute.
Right click on the service node and click Activate Service. Select the first Yes button on the confirmation dialog.

Step 3: Activating the required OData V2 and V4 services

After the BSP, it's time for you to activate the Back-end services of the My Home entry page i.e., the required OData services.

As a part of this step, you will activate the following OData services, that have been described above:

TASKPROCESSING (namespace /IWPGW/) for My Inbox
C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS - for My Situations (Standard only supported for now)
INTEROP - for personalization service. (But don’t worry too much about this, as it is always available with the basic launchpad setup).
/UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV - (Service Group /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV) for viewing the Insights Cards

Typically for an OData V2, the transaction /n/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE (help doc) is used, and to publish an OData V4 service, we use /n/IWFND/V4_ADMIN (help doc).

Refer to: the section Activate OData Service in the SAP Gateway Hub in the ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori guide.

However, since these OData services are also Fiori foundation services. This task of OData service activation can be done by using the task lists SAP_FIORI_LAUNCHPAD_INIT_SETUP and SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4.

But before you go ahead and activate these services, let's do a quick test to validate if they are already active on your system. In order to do so, use the following 4 URLS

TASKPROCESSING (namespace /IWPGW/) https://hostname:portnumber/sap/opu/odata/IWPGW/TASKPROCESSING;mo;v=2/$metadata
C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS - https://hostname:portnumber/sap/opu/odata/sap/C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS/$metadata
INTEROP - https://hostname:portnumber/sap/opu/odata/UI2/INTEROP/$metadata
/UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV - https://hostname:portnumber/sap/opu/odata4/ui2/insights_srv/srvd/ui2/insights_cards_read_srv/0001/$metadata

IMPORTANT: Replace the hostname and portnumber with your application server from your FLP URL.
For example, if your FLP URL is https://mydummycompany:443/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=100&sap-language=EN#Shell-home the first link becomes https://mydummycompany:443/sap/opu/odata/IWPGW/TASKPROCESSING;mo;v=2/$metadata

If a service is active, you will see an XML returned with entities in its response. The response would start with <edmx: Edmx xmlns.

However, if a service is inactive, you will see an error. The response in this case, would start with <error xmlns.

In case you find all the services to be active, please skip this step and move to Step 4.
However, if you find some URLs are returning error code, follow the bellow mentioned steps based on the services that don’t work.

Now let's take a step-by-step look at how you can activate these services in case if they are not active on your SAP S/4HANA system.

TASKPROCESSING: Task Processing is an OData V2 service related to the My Inbox Application. And this service requires some additional customizing.
Refer to SAP Notes 2676990 - Release Information note for SAP Fiori My Inbox and 2424054 for more info on How to setup the My Inbox app.
C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS: This is an OData V2 service and must be activated via the transaction /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE. Follow the steps mentioned in the SAP Help doc : Activate OData Service in the SAP Gateway Hub to activate the OData service.
INTEROP: As mentioned above, this should be already up and running for you as it’s a part of the Launchpad itself.
However, in case you still do not see this, please ensure that you run the task list SAP_FIORI_LAUNCHPAD_INIT_SETUP to verify the launchpad configurations and the Task 'Activate Gateway OData Services for Launchpad (/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE)' should take care of activating this service.
/UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV: This OData V4 service is a part of Service group /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV, which is published via the Task Publish Service Groups Foundation (/IWFND/V4_ADMIN) of the Foundation Task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4.

Note : For INTEROP and /UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV, In case if you have never run the task list before, please refer to the Step 1, where we explained the steps required to execute a single task Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF) of the task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4.
Repeat the same steps for your desired task in the desired task list.

Step 4: Configuring Launchpad Parameters

After ensuring that all the underlying services required to run the My Home are in place, it’s time to configure the Launchpad Configuration Parameters.

SPACES
SPACES_MYHOME
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME_COMPONENT_ID
UI5_INSIGHTS

The first two parameters should be already in place. In case if you don’t find them, please execute the task Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF) of the task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 as described in the Step 1.

To maintain the other configuration parameters, process as following.

Navigate to the transaction code /UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF (Client Specific Launchpad Configuration Settings), and click on New Entries.
To enable the My Home, you must use the FLP config parameters: SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME and SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME_COMPONENT_ID.
The former parameter is used to declare that you have a custom home page to be enabled and the latter parameter is used to provide the component info (a SAPUI5 Component) for this custom home page. This is same UI5 Component which you activated as a part of Step 2 , i.e., ux.eng.s4producthomes1 having the BSP name as PRODUCT_HOMES1.
This My Home SAPUI5 component delivered by SAP also requires an FLP configuration parameter which would be used to enable the Insights Cards i.e., UI5_INSIGHTS.
Enter the following values on the "New Entries: Overview of Added Entries" screen, that opened after clicking New Entries. Then click Save.
Launchpad Property ID
Property Value
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME
true
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME_COMPONENT_ID
ux.eng.s4producthomes1
UI5_INSIGHTS
true

After creating these 3 new entries, confirm that you have all the 5 configuration parameters (including SPACES and SPACES_MYHOME) setup correctly.

Step 5: Adding relevant authorizations i.e., Target Mapping and OData Authorizations via a PFCG Role

This is the final step and as a part of this process, you will include authorizations to these My Home building blocks (including the OData services and the Target Mapping) to a PFCG Role that will be used to provide complete access to My Home to users.

Navigate to transaction PFCG, enter a role name, for example Z_MY_HOME and click on the Create Single Role button.
Document the role description and click on the Menu tab. Save the role if prompted. Click on Insert node button and choose Authorizations Default.

Now you will add the authorizations for the above-discussed OData services to this role.
- TASKPROCESSING (namespace /IWPGW/) for My Inbox
- C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS - for My Situations (Standard only supported for now)
- INTEROP - for personalization service. (But don’t worry too much about this as it is always available with the basic role required to run the launchpad ex SAP_FLP_USER or classical SAP_UI2_USER_700 ).
- /UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV (Service Group /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV)
Start by adding the OData V2 services by using the menu Insert Node --> Authorization Default
Choose the option SAP Gateway Business Suite Enablement - Service from the Authorization Default drop down. Use the value help to add TASKPROCESSING V2 Service to the same.

Although you just need Version 0002 for My Home to work, you can add both the versions (0001 and 0002) of the service for now. The view of Role Menu should look something like the following screenshot.
Repeat the steps for menu Insert Node --> Authorization Default, but this time select the Authorization Default type object as Service Gateway: Service Groups Metadata i.e., IWSG, after adding the authorization default, the Role Menu should look something like below.
Similarly add the Authorization Defaults for other OData V2 services as well i.e., C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS and INTEROP.
In case of a OData V4 service, the entire service group needs to be authorized. Therefore, for the OData V4 service /UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV, you must add the authorizations to Service Group /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV.
This is done by using the menu Insert Node --> Authorization Default and selecting the option SAP Gateway OData V4 Backend Service Group & Assignments.

After adding the Insights service group, the role menu should appear as the following screenshot.

With this step, the backend set up is complete and now must perform the front-end configuration. For this you must provide authorizations to My Inbox and My Situations apps. You can assign these authorizations by creating a Launchpad Catalog and assigning it to your Z_MY_HOME role.
Navigate to the SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager: Client Specific (transaction /n/UI2/FLPCM_CUST). Click on the Catalogs Tab (that should be preselected) and then click Create.
Enter a new Catalog ID and title (in the New ID and the New Title fields) and click Continue.Enter a customizing request if prompted for.
Now switch to the Tiles/Target Mappings tab and search for the following two Fiori Apps using their IDs, one by one:
- My Inbox: F0862
- My Situations: F4154
After finding the Tile + TM for My Inbox, select the row and click on Add TM Reference (text: Add Reference to Catalog).
On the Add Tiles/Target Mappings as Reference screen, Search for the catalog (Created in subset 8 above) i.e., ZC_MY_HOME, and click on the Add TM Reference button.
Repeat the steps for the My Situations: F4154 to add the Target Mapping to our catalog ZC_MY_HOME
Finally, you can assign this Catalog ZC_MY_HOME to our business role.

Navigate to the transaction code PFCG, Enter the Role name Z_MY_HOME click on Change.

In the Menu tab, Click on Insert Node button, choose SAP Fiori Launchpad and select Launchpad Catalog
Enter the Catalog name on the screen Assign SAP Fiori Launchpad Catalog and click Continue.
Finally Save your role, and you are done.
Assign the role to the desired user master record and you can see the My Home.

Note: Please ensure that sufficient Business Roles are added to the user and that these roles contain spaces and pages.

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Other helpful links:

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
Follow SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA for more blogs and updates
Ask a Question about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG and Customer Care team.

Sapphire 2024 user experience and application development sessions

2024-04-26T23:47:59.397000+02:00

I’m excited to return to SAP Sapphire for the first time in several years. As always, Sapphire is about showcasing SAP’s latest innovations. There will be lots to see across the full portfolio, especially all the new AI uses cases that help you make better, more informed business decisions. In this blog post, I will focus on the sessions that highlight user experience and application development, both of which contain varying levels of AI, as SAP is infusing artificial intelligence into most of our solutions.

To deliver a great user experience in SAP /4HANA, we focus on developing simple, intuitive applications using our own tools. We also make these technologies available to customers and partners. We have been making updates across our portfolio of tools and technologies for professional developers:

SAPUI5 – added Joule as a helper to write freestyle SAPUI5 applications or custom pages
SAP Fiori elements – unlocks efficiency and simplicity for creating apps
SAP Fiori tools – introduces generative AI capabilities
SAP Business Application Studio – includes many new features to make development easier

AI improves the user experience

At Sapphire, we will be showing some easier ways to find information in your apps, summarize it, and share it with your peers. Please visit the demo stations and expert stations to see the latest released functionality, along with some cool prototypes available to early adopters.

Natural language filtering in SAP Fiori elements apps is one of the AI innovations we will preview at SAP Sapphire 2024.

Natural language filtering in SAP Fiori elements apps is one of the AI innovations we will preview at SAP Sapphire 2024.

AI improves developer productivity

For developers, some tasks require great creativity and technical skill to build an app that meets all the user requirements and ideally is fun to use. Artificial intelligence can perform some of the mundane tasks, freeing developers to focus on understanding the user requirements, creating the business logic, and determining how to deliver an engaging experience. We have new AI capabilities in SAP Build Code and SAP Fiori tools, including the ability to create an app directly from a business requirements document. One of our co-innovation partners told us this would save them several days at the start of every project. You can hear more about this and more in the sessions I have listed below.

Key UX and application development sessions at SAP Sapphire 2024

If you are looking for more topics beyond UX and app dev, you can find them in the session catalog.

Session #

Day / Time

Title

Abstract

Presenter(s)

ASUG pre-conference session

Monday, June 3

8:00am – 5:00pm

Unleashing the Power SAP BTP: Maximizing Your SAP Investment Through Innovation and Transformation

Understand how SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) provides tools and solutions to address critical business and technology areas like integration, data and analytics, low-code/no-code customizations, and AI.

Many SAP experts

BTP118

Tuesday, June 4

10:30am – 10:50am

Discover generative AI code-based development from SAP Build Code

See how AI in SAP Build Code is used to generate app logic, data models, and test scripts. Learn all about SAP Build Code, including how it connects smoothly to enterprise systems

Steve Day, SAP

Dimitri Lerner, Henkel

TRE306

Tuesday, June 4

11:00am – 11:20am

AI-augmented development and its impact on your IT organization

AI-augmented development aids software engineers in designing, coding, and testing applications. With rising business demands, teams face backlogs and the need for efficiency.

Yaad Oren, SAP

BAI200

Tuesday, June 4

11:30am – 11:50am

Achieve real-world results with SAP Business AI solutions

Join SAP leaders to uncover how AI delivers real-world results across your business functions reliably and responsibly. Get an update on SAP's AI strategy and learn how companies that have embraced AI.

Philipp Herzig, SAP

TRE321

Tuesday, June 4

11:30am – 11:50am

The new ERP mindset

As changing market dynamics put pressure on traditional businesses, business model innovation becomes imperative. More than ever, businesses need ERP to enable innovation, which involves a change in mindset as much as technology.

Maura Hameroff, SAP

Eric van Rossum, SAP

BTP131

Tuesday, June 4

1:00pm – 1:40pm

The latest in low-code SAP Build solutions

Learn what's new in SAP Build for use in low-code development, including deeper integrations, an improved user experience, and comprehensive AI and generative AI support.

Aviad Rivlin, SAP

BTP116

Tuesday, June 4

2:00pm – 2:20pm

Five key low-code techniques for building effective enterprise apps

Find out how to create and deploy enterprise-grade applications with stunning user interfaces, custom data models, and complex business logic – all within IT governance and operational guardrails

Eric Solberg, SAP

Mark Wright, SAP

BTP201

Tuesday, June 4

3:30pm – 3:50pm

Unleashing the power of generative AI for developers with SAP Build

Understand the paradigm shift generative AI brings to developers and its impact on their productivity and pace of delivery. Learn how they can leverage SAP Build solutions.

Tim Back, SAP

ASUG301

Wednesday, June 5

10:30am – 11:10am

Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori

Hear about best practices for using SAPUI5, SAP Fiori elements, SAP Fiori tools, and SAP Business Application Studio to create enterprise-grade apps for your business users. Find out about practical ways to build and deploy apps quickly, leveraging AI. Come prepared to learn and ask your questions.

Peter Spielvogel, SAP

BAI208

Wednesday, June 5

11:00am – 11:20am

See Joule in action and empower your business

Discover how Joule, the AI copilot from SAP, helps your business get smarter insights and better outcomes, and assists your people in getting their work done faster.

Jana Richter, SAP

BTP119

Wednesday, June 5

11:00am – 11:40am

Application development with SAP Build and SAP Build Code: roadmap review

Find out what's new and what's coming in SAP Build and SAP Build Code solutions for use in fusion development and how they integrate further. Discover upcoming capabilities that improve a builder's efficiency and innovation potential using generative AI across the portfolio.

Nicolas Damonte, SAP

Thomas Volmering, SAP

ASUG303

Wednesday, June 5

1:00pm – 1:40pm

Customer roundtable: migration to SAP S/4HANA and adoption of SAP BTP

Using design thinking principles, walk through SAP S/4HANA migration scenarios, explore clean core methodologies, and learn how to maximize SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to avoid latency. Interact with your peers to discuss lessons learned and best practices for migration.

Peter Keller, SAP

BTP117

Wednesday, June 5

2:00pm – 2:20pm

Generative AI-based code development from SAP Build Code

The SAP Build Code solution, with generative AI–based code development tools and a Joule copilot, optimized for Java and JavaScript application development, provides a turnkey environment for coding, testing, integrations, and application lifecycle management.

Steve Day, SAP

Sid Misra, SAP

BTP130

Wednesday, June 5

2:30pm – 2:50pm

Application extensibility with SAP Build solutions

Learn how to speed up your innovation potential by leveraging the power of low-code and pro-code. See how you can extend processes and applications with SAP Build solutions.

Nicolas Damonte, SAP

Thomas Volmering, SAP

See you at Sapphire! If you want to connect and talk about how to improve the UX at your organization, please reach out to me and we can schedule a meeting.

User centricity opens the door to a successful SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation

2024-04-29T17:38:29.947000+02:00

As a user experience enthusiast, I tend to focus on observing, asking questions, and seeing situations from the eyes of our users. So, during a recent vacation to Morocco, I found myself thinking about my experiences in this amazing country through this lens. In this blogpost I will share what colorful doors, system implementations of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, and user centricity have in common.

The red city and the blue system

When I mentioned that my next vacation will be to Marrakesh, I was either told to try a fresh orange juice (I was promised that this will be the best orange juice of my life!), congratulated on the cuisine I will be able to try or received half serious orders for dates. The common denominator was food - and rightfully so. We went to a different restaurant every night so we could try all types of tajines and each time, we were impressed with the unique spices and the amazing taste.

Besides the cuisine, I noticed something else about the „red city“. Each door was unique and created with so much care and excellent craft, I quickly found myself stopping to look at doors of mosques, riads, restaurants or simple corner stores. Doors have a very special meaning in Morocco because it is the first thing your visitor notices. It is so common to invite guests into your home and welcome them with hospitality and you guessed it, a lot of food.

The door sets the tone for the experience you'll have inside.

That got me thinking. What are the doors that SAP’s cloud customers are walking through? What is the first thing they notice and see? Especially for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition customers that are typically small to medium sized enterprises with a smaller user base, I found that the first touchpoints with SAP set the tone for their entire product experience.

Implementations form impressions

The implementation is such a crucial step for a successful move to an SAP S/4HANA system because it requires a lot of resources – you need trust, deep functional expertise in the form of key users and a partner as well as time. Once the provisioning of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is finalized, the implementation projects begin. With the help of an implementation partner, the customer and partner closely collaborate to do the scoping via Fit-to-Standard workshops, configure their systems, migrate data and enable users to work with their new SAP S/4HANA system.
At the end of the implementation awaits the Go-Live, which some customers host parties for. I learned that Go-Live parties are a real thing, did you know that? But before celebrations and parties comes the very crucial step of onboarding the customers and their users to their new SAP system. The user enablement is an important milestone as an SAP system with all its great functionality and capabilities is not easy to learn for a first time user. I can imagine that it is quite intimidating to take the first actions, understand how to fill in fields or decide on global settings.

An implementation project can take several months depending on the scope, the availability of the customer and the knowledge of the partner. SAP delivers a wealth of tools that can support customers and partners during the implementation and even frameworks to help guide consultants and users from one phase to the next one.

The 6 Phases of SAP Activate methodology

Key Users know scope items

I was especially interested to learn more about the mindset of a key user during the implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Key users, and sometimes even business users, are fully involved and relied upon during the scoping of a new SAP S/4HANA system. As they are the most knowledgeable person with deep business knowledge of their respective business area, they are a key resource during this important phase.

It is fair to say that moving to a new system – whether that’s SAP or not – means that the users have to do extra tasks on top of their day job, which means a higher workload. Additionally, they can’t assess the amount of tasks they will be handling as this is most likely their first SAP implementation project and they have no comparable previous experience. All this leads to a rather difficult start when it comes to accepting or dare I say enjoying their new SAP S/4HANA system. Top that off with a wealth of SAP acronyms and SAP specific language that they are not familiar with and you will understand that the journey of an SAP S/4HANA user can be quite emotional.

Once the customers and users have their foot in the door, meaning they have successfully implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, they are ready to take a significant step forward. They can now run and experience their SAP S/4HANA system in its full power. And after the go live, the business users will hopefully enter and find themselves in front of a colorful door. A door that’s modern, yet substantial. A door that’s easy to navigate and intuitive, and perhaps welcomes you with the words “Home”.

My Home as the entry point for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

My vacation in Morocco has made a lasting impression on me: aside from now being a fan of the Moroccan cuisine, finally speaking French again and having visited my 22nd country, I was reminded of a simple yet crucial lesson: first impressions really do matter. We need to keep in mind how the entry way sets the tone for how our users experience their S/4 system from the very first touchpoint to their day-to-day interactions.

Preliminary What’s New Information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.3

2024-05-02T10:07:26.959000+02:00

Preliminary versions of What’s New information and of the Product Assistance are now available for customers and partners to get a preview on the upcoming new and changed features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402.3.

You can find this preview on the current Help Portal page SAP S/4HANA Cloud (see What’s New section “Preview of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402.3”). To access the Preliminary What’s New information, please use the What’s New Viewer or the Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool.

The RASD tool provides you with a personalized and tailored view on What’s New information based on the activated and used scope within your system. The preliminary information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2402.3 will be available in RASD within the next few days. We recommend using RASD to prepare for upgrades and updates of your system and to focus on the new and changed features that are relevant for you.

A valid S-User ID is needed to use the RASD tool and to view all the preliminary content stated above.

Launchpad Property ID	Property Value
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME	true
SPACES_CUSTOM_HOME_COMPONENT_ID	ux.eng.s4producthomes1
UI5_INSIGHTS	true