SAP Community - User Interface

Design Systems: The Heart of SAP's User Experience

2024-01-04T01:41:59+01:00

Much like an artist's signature touch on their masterpiece, design systems lend a distinctive voice to products, making them immediately recognizable. It's this consistency, both visually and functionally, that drives memorable user experiences. This is where SAP's Fiori design system shines, serving as a beacon of familiarity and trust across our diverse range of products.

Typical Fiori Object Page Screen

Fiori stands as a testament to SAP's dedication to clean, efficient, and intuitive design. It's not just about following a set of rules; it's about embracing a philosophy that places the user at the heart of the software experience. Fiori's language, with its minimalist aesthetics and responsive layouts, goes beyond visuals; it's about crafting an intuitive user journey.

A Guide to Using Fiori Design Guidelines

Before delving deeper into the essence of Fiori, let's explore some practical insights that could enhance your design process:

Start with Layout and Floorplan:

Begin by mapping out your screens at a high level. Use the Fiori design guidelines to determine the best layout and floorplan for your specific task.

Self-Check for Flow:

Assess the user flow across screens. A disjointed flow indicates gaps in UI Architecture that need addressing.

Content Building Blocks:

After establishing your floorplan, choose the right compound elements like tables, forms, and containers. The guidelines can help you select the most suitable components for your needs.

Attention to Detail:

Finally, focus on the finer details like button types, input selections, and other elements. Refer back to the guidelines to inform these choices.

Remember, structured thinking can significantly streamline your design process. Avoid diving into specifics too early and maintain focus on the overall user journey.

Reflective Questions

In our SAP universe, Fiori is the constant star. It’s our promise of a familiar, intuitive user experience across all SAP products. This isn't just about maintaining visual cohesion; it's about delivering predictable, reliable functionality that users can count on.

An app's visual identity – from its button placements, color scheme, to its typography – often becomes its signature. It's these meticulous design choices, informed by a robust design system, that make products instantly identifiable. It's akin to recognizing a song from its first few notes.

But mastery of a design system is a journey. Even after nearly a decade of immersion in Fiori designs, I still find myself revisiting guidelines, seeking clarity, and striving for perfection. This journey is both challenging and rewarding, as it ensures that our products not only look like they belong to the SAP family but also function with the excellence our users expect.

Navigating Fiori's complexities is a team effort. In our experience, a collaborative approach has been instrumental in upholding Fiori's high standards. By leveraging collective knowledge and perspectives, we ensure that every Fiori application we deliver is not just a solitary piece of software, but part of a larger, cohesive user experience.

In the tech space, evolution is a given. SAP's commitment to staying ahead of the curve means our design systems, though mature, are always in flux.

For every designer or developer: if the term "Fiori app" resonates with your creation, delve deep into the guidelines. Consistency is Fiori's hallmark. Embrace it, and every app you craft will echo SAP's commitment to excellence. Dive deeper into our design system and discover the potential.

But don't stop there. Join the SAP design community and contribute to the evolving Fiori landscape. Share your experiences, seek feedback, and be part of the continuous dialogue that shapes our products. Your voice is vital in crafting a user experience that not only meets but exceeds expectations.

Explore more about Fiori and its intricacies, and join us in shaping the future of SAP's user experience.

Create CBO (Custom Business Object) Tile using BAS in SAP UI5

2024-01-08T09:14:55+01:00

Hello,

In this blog we will learn How to create CBO Tile (Custom Business Object Tile ) with BAS , also learn about fiori app tile creation in launchpad designer, and Git.

What is CBO ?

CBO (Custom Business Object) is a SAP ui5 fiori application in which we can define the custom business object as per the requirement.

Custom business objects can be accessed from outside SAP S/4HANA via an automatically generated OData service. You can use this app to create custom business objects and to generate database tables, services, UIs, and applications based on custom business objects. The fields can be used as table columns on the initial page of a custom application that you create based on a custom business object.

What we can do in Custom Business Object:

Create your own business objects and the corresponding database tables

Copy already published custom business objects

Add fields to business objects

Generate UIs based on custom business objects

Create associations between custom business objects for reuse

Track changes in a custom business object with change documents

Generate OData services for custom business objects to work with and modify custom business objects from externally

Publish business objects

Edit business objects that have already been published

Create multiple sub nodes for one business object

Implement custom logic on node level

Reset business objects to their last published version

Delete custom business objects that have not yet been transported to your production system

Refer to custom libraries and custom code lists

Steps to create CBO tile in SAP BAS :
1. Launch the SAP Business Application Studio from the Cloud Cockpit

2. To create a Tile, select new Project from Template. --> Select Template and Target location.

Select the worklist type template.

3. Select the Data source, system and OData service.

4. Select the Entityset (Main Entity) and Navigation Entity (Navigation Entity: When you click on the table row, it will navigate to another page, where you can see the information of the selected row.)

5. Provide the required information for Project attributes and finish.

6. Run the Fiori app using command: npm run start

7. Deploy the CBO Tile :

To deploy the CBO Tile follow the below attached sap blog.

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/02/24/deploy-the-ui5-fiori-app-on-sap-abap-repository-with-bas-webide-create-fiori-app-tile-using-launchpad-designer/

8. how to create git repository and push the code on GIT.

8.1. Login your account

8.2. Click on New Project and select Blank Project.

8.3. To upload the Ui5 project follow the below steps.

9. Steps to create a Tile and Target mapping in Fiori launchpad Designer

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/02/24/deploy-the-ui5-fiori-app-on-sap-abap-repository-with-bas-webide-create-fiori-app-tile-using-launchpad-designer/

To learn more about the CBO, read below attached Links.

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/02/24/deploy-the-ui5-fiori-app-on-sap-abap-repository-with-bas-webide-create-fiori-app-tile-using-launchpad-designer/

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/06/24/fiori-elements-object-page-table-items-context-based-edit-ability/

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_EXTENSIBILITY_EXPLORER/b0e8d558ba2f47f5b02a3fc0ac9edc34/6bd534db33694eba9ddde788ef717dfd.html?locale=en-US&state=PRODUCTION&version=SHIP&q=Custom%20Business%20object

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/0f69f8fb28ac4bf48d2b57b9637e81fa/b45696ca0d9143cba040797e9c71aa44.html?locale=en-US&state=PRODUCTION&version=2308.504&q=Custom%20Business%20object

Conclusion

The Custom business application tile has been created using Fiori. The Fiori app tile has been created on Fiori Launchpad.

With this we come to an end of this blog. Hope you find it useful.

Keep learning & Keep Sharing!!

Team FPM How to render an FPM Overview Page to look like a SAP Fiori Object Page

2024-01-10T10:39:20+01:00

Dear SAP Community,

Today, I will demonstrate how you can render an Overview Page (OVP) Floorplan to look like a SAP Fiori Object Page Floorplan. If you have a new or existing FPM application based on the OVP floorplan, it can be rendered to appear as one based on the SAP Fiori Object Page floorplan.

The new Floorplan Modes

With SAP_UI 758 (ABAP Platform 2023) and SAP_BASIS 7.94 (S/4H Cloud 2308), the OVP offers multiple modes of an Object Page floorplan, which can be used to control its appearance, functionality, and behavior. The mode of the OVP can be specified by using the URL or application parameter FPM_FLOORPLAN_MODE or at the configuration level, using the FPM configuration editor, FLUID (screen area General Settings > dropdown list box Floorplan Mode).

The modes for the FPM Floorplan Mode are as follows:

< (Space)>	Classic Mode (default)
OA1	Object Page With 1-Level Anchor Bar Navigation
OA1P	Object Page With 1-Level Anchor Bar Navigation (Power User)
OA2	Object Page With 2-Level Anchor Bar Navigation
OA2P	Object Page With 2-Level Anchor Bar Navigation (Power User)
OT1	Object Page With 1-Level Tab Bar Navigation
OT1P	Object Page With 1-Level Tab Bar Navigation (Power User)
OT2	Object Page With 2-Level Tab Bar Navigation
OT2P	Object Page With 2-Level Tab Bar Navigation (Power User)

In Figure 1, I have taken demo application S_EPM_FPM_PO and Floorplan Mode OA1 to demonstrate the necessary adaptations, for instance, on the customizing level

Figure 1: Changing the Floorplan Mode of OVP component configuration S_EPM_UX_PO_OVP

In addition, I have added the title Result List on the Initial Page for the List UIBB EPM_PO_OVP_SEARCH_LIST_CFG, see Figure 2. In Floorplan Mode OA1, the respective UIBB titles are displayed above the UIBBs and in the anchor bar.

Figure 2: Adding a title for the result list on the Search Page

Dynamic Page Header

The above adjustments enable the page header areas to automatically collapse or expand as you scroll down or up, as illustrated in Figure 3. Conversely, the header toolbar maintains a fixed position.

Figure 3: Floorplan Mode OA1 - Search Page of EPM Purchase Order Application showing the expanded and collapsed page header

Navigation Bar

The anchor bar and the tab bar are variants of the navigation bar in the OVP header. They have distinct differences in terms of the UIBBs displayed and navigation functionality. For example, in Floorplan Mode OA1 the anchor bar represents the UIBBs of the current page and the respective UIBB titles are displayed in the anchor bar (see Figure 4), while a tab bar represents the sections of the current page and the section titles are displayed in the tab bar.

Figure 4: Main page of EPM Purchase Order Application showing the new anchor bar of Floorplan Mode OA1

Additional Remarks

Some features of the OVP floorplan may behave differently when rendered in Object Page modes. These differences may impact aspects such as the header, UIBB selector UI control, page master splitter UI control, UIBB height, section column resizing, sections and UIBB stacking, UIBB stacking, panels, drag-and-drop of UIBBs, panels and panel stacks, UIBB collapse/expand, and personalization. However, the Power User Modes allow you to override some of the constraints imposed by Object Page rendering. You can enable drag-and-drop for moving UIBBs, panels, and panel stacks around the UI. You can also expand and collapse UIBBs.

Stay tuned for more insights and updates 😉 Happy coding!

Getting Familiar with Spaces and Pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

2024-01-12T11:20:20+01:00

Happy New Year 2024! To start off the year right, I'd like to remind you to switch from groups to spaces and pages, our go-to approach for visualization and layout in the SAP Fiori launchpad.

Why switch to spaces and pages? The groups setup on the SAP Fiori launchpad is officially outdated with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2402 release. Get ready for the next release and switch to spaces and pages now! Please note that the switch is mandatory and has to be done manually.

In the meantime, watch the videos below to get familiar with spaces and pages and the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition:

Switching from Groups to Spaces and Pages

SAP introduced spaces and pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition in Q2/2020 already, accompanied by the announcement to deprecate the group-based visualization.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Read more on how to switch from groups to spaces and pages in my blog post.

Using Predefined Spaces Out-of-the-Box

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2302, SAP introduced the option to use predefined spaces and pages out-of-the-box. The benefits here are clear: Fast implementation without the need of investing time and resources in designing own spaces and pages. Direct consumption of SAP enhancements to predefined spaces and pages with an upgrade.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Importing Personalized Groups

Learn how to work with the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Import your personalized groups from the classic home page, customize your favorite apps, and stay organized with spaces and pages.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Using the Navigation Bar

Learn how to easily arrange your spaces in the new My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition according to your needs and preferences. Optimize your workflow by pinning and rearranging spaces.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Personalizing the Page

Learn how to personalize your pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Easily customize your favorite pages and arrange them according to your preferences.

Click on the image below to watch the video:

Other SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enablement Assets

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the foundation of the intelligent enterprise and is an innovative, robust, and scalable ERP. We at Cloud ERP Product Success and Cloud Co-Innovation offer a service as versatile as our product itself. Click on the image below to check out the numerous offerings our Enablement team has created for you:

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

Subscribe to our podcast “Inside SAP S/4HANA“! This podcast leverages the unique knowledge and expertise of SAP S/4HANA Cloud product experts, partners and customers to address objects of interest by sharing product insights and project best practice. There is no customer success without product success and project success; we share all ingredients with you to get to the next level and make your SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition project a success. Subscribe now and benefit from the shared knowledge.

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Our openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud offer an exciting new learning opportunity. What began with a small batch of 20 videos, has now become a channel with more than 50 microlearnings that have generated over 20,000 views. Today we cover multiple lines of business such as finance, manufacturing, and supply chain management, and key technology topics like Master Data Management, extensibility, SAP User Experience, and upgrade management. We are continuously adding new microlearnings to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud channel, so make sure you check them out.

Your Voice Matters!

If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, join our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition topic page on SAP Community. The community brings together customers, partners, and SAP experts and has a clear mission: deliver an interactive community to engage with one another about best practices and product solutions. We invite you to explore our ‘one-stop shop’ as the central place for all resources, tools, content questions, answers and connect with experts to guide you through your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

More Information:

SAP User Experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2308

Deactivation of Groups in the SAP Fiori Launchpad in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Switching to Spaces and Pages Mandatory

Upcoming SAP User Experience Live Session

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Release Info

Release Blog Posts

YouTube Playlist for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

SAP Community

Feature Scope Description

What’s New

Help Portal Product Page

Team FPM ABAP Push Channel for FPM Events - Enhancing the user experience with a delivery type

2024-01-12T15:12:19+01:00

Dear SAP Community,

our team continues to provide new features to enhance user experience and productivity. One such improvement is introduced with SAP Note 3406803, available from SAP_UI 757, which focuses on the FPM ABAP Push Channel for Events and the new delivery type Do Not Disturb Receiver. In this blog post, I will demonstrate how this new feature empowers application developers to prevent immediate roundtrips on the application user interface, thus improving the overall user experience.

When users interact with an application, they may place the cursor in an input field to provide input or make changes, for instance, in a filter bar. As a result, any event triggered via ABAP Push Channel during this time would result in an immediate roundtrip on the user interface, interrupting the user's workflow. This interruption can be frustrating and hinder efficiency, therefore we addressed this problem by introducing a new parameter, IV_DELIVERY_TYPE, in the method SEND of class CL_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER, respectively interface IF_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER.

The parameter IV_DELIVERY_TYPE can have two kind of values:

0	IF_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER=>GC_DELIVERY_TYPE-STANDARD (default)
1	IF_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER=>GC_DELIVERY_TYPE-DO_NOT_DISTURB_RECEIVER

In addition, we have prepared test application FPM_TEST_APC_OVP such that you can try the new feature right after implementing SAP Note 3406803, see Figure 1.

Figure 1: Test application FPM_TEST_APC_OVP showing a filterbar, result list and chart

By running ABAP report FPM_APC_MULTIPLE_TEST you will trigger fifty FPM events, for instance, with ID FPM_REFRESH and further defined properties, see Figure 2. When using the new delivery type, the application ensures a smooth and uninterrupted user experience. You can continue your work without unnecessary interruptions caused by events triggered during input field interactions. In the meantime, the events are queued on the client, and are forwarded to the ABAP backend once you leave the input field or trigger any roundtrip on the user interface, e.g. by pressing the button "Go" in the test application.

Figure 2: Initial Screen of ABAP Report FPM_APC_MULTIPLE_TEST

One final remark: The above sample application is using also the event tracker introduced with ABAP interface IF_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER. The defined tracking time is 20 seconds, and the event handler of event FAILED_DELIVERY (class CL_FPM_CHANNEL_MANAGER_TEST) is sending an FPM Event of delivery type STANDARD, such the event queue is being resolved at the client. As an application developer, you can of course implement, extend or combine this as you like.

Bye bye 😉

Basis Monitoring & Tcodes with Key notes

2024-02-05T14:25:53.980000+01:00

Hi All,

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with all of you through this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to aid newcomers in Basis in gaining knowledge about Basis-related Tcodes, including key notes and their usage and frequency.

I believe this will be beneficial for those who are beginning their careers in SAP Basis.

I wish you good luck and welcome to SAP Basis Team

The Daily Monitoring Basis-related Tcodes, their uses, and their related Tcodes are utilised for any future investigation.

Tcodes that pertain to operating systems and databases, their usage, and any future process.

The SAP Basis Admin is accountable for tuning performance. These Tcodes are associated with performance analysis at the application level.

Ticketing tools vary widely between organizations, including SAP ITSM (SOLMAN), Non SAP (ServiceNow, Zendesk), and others.

User Management, Role Management, and Transport Management will receive the majority of daily ticketing. Here are the Tcodes that pertain to these areas.

Tcodes that pertain to SAP Software Maintenance and related OS and other tasks.

Programs that are useful for administrative tasks related to Basis.

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog.

#SAPBasis #Basis Basis Technology EWM - Basis NW ABAP Monitoring Tools SAP EarlyWatch Alert SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA database SAP Advantage Database Server Oracle Database SAP S/4HANA SAP NetWeaver Application Server for SAP S/4HANA #Dailymonitoring NW Java Security and User Management Defense and Security SOLMAN Setup/Configuration/LMDB NW ABAP Monitoring Tools SOLMAN System Monitoring

Newly released! The much awaited SAP Sales Cloud V2 course and certification

2024-02-09T22:30:29.271000+01:00

Greetings, Knowledge Seekers!

I am thrilled to broadcast the much-anticipated launch of the free e-learning course and its related certification for SAP Sales Cloud Version 2.

Introducing our Digital First Course - Exploring and Configuring SAP Sales Cloud Version 2, tailored specifically for Consultants.

This all-inclusive course grants participants the chance to dive headfirst into the innovative features of our newest solution - SAP Sales Cloud Version 2. Whether you're a beginner administrator, functional consultant, or an individual thirsting to master the application, consider this interactive course your ultimate roadmap. The course covers a multitude of features, including advanced lead management, dynamic selling guides, strategic pipeline & forecast management, efficient activity tracking, MS teams integration, AI features powered by machine learning – to name just a few!

I am also excited to present the Certification - SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP Sales Cloud Version 2. This certification has 80 questions. It tests and validates that the candidate truly masters the fundamentals of SAP Sales Cloud Version 2 and possesses the essential knowledge expected of a consultant.

Note: You will need a license for SAP Learning Hub to take the certification.

Jump on this opportunity to enhance your knowledge and validate your skills with SAP Learning!

SAP Sales Cloud Customer Experience Training Certification

When will we leave cave painting behind us?

2024-02-14T11:00:55.309000+01:00

More then 17'000 years ago our ancestors in the French region of Perigord allowed themselves the luxury of art. They had the time to allow people to create cave paintings instead of engaging into the hunt for nutrition. That alone is striking, given that we think of the stone age as a period in which people were busy with anything but art. The oldest reported cave paintings go much further back, up to 39'000 years.

But what strikes me more than the level of freedom to create art is how it was created. With fingertips and brushes on a wall. We already translated a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional representation of what we saw or wanted to express.

Looking at our today's world, I wonder if we have really progressed in that regard.

Spoiler

What's next..

However, upcoming technologies will offer us the opportunity to leave the cave walls behind and move our user experiences into a three-dimensional world or even directly into the brain:

Augmented Reality can already today be used with mobile phone cameras and handsets to display real-time information in a real-world, starting from directions going to system status or runtime information for machinery.

Virtual Reality is still clumsy to use but nonetheless impressive and the advancement of the technologies used in the VR-Glasses and handsets will make them smaller or even disappear because..

..reading the feedback of a human becomes affordable. Cameras, sensors and the computing power to analyze those signals are becoming a commodity and the..

..algorithms, including AI models, are available to a general public. Generative AI can be used to create on the fly scenes, interactions and settings in which we can interact with machines.

And if you remember the scene out of the first Matrix movie in which Neo is connected directly from his brain to the computer - scientists are working on these type of interfaces to read as directly as possible from the brain what we would like to express.

With these advancements, we will see new types of user interfaces emerge which wil allow us to link what we think to what happens in the machine without going through the bottleneck of speech:

Speech as a communication tool is a compromise, slow and full of possibilities for error and misunderstanding. I'm curious to see what will emerge as a solution as alternative to language and speech and how we will adopt these solutions.

Navigating the AI Landscape: A UX Designer's Guide

2024-02-14T11:01:22.387000+01:00

Introduction

As we stand on the brink of a technological revolution, AI is reshaping the way we interact with the digital world. I'm here to share my insights regarding this evolving landscape, offering observations into how AI, machine learning, and other related technologies can enhance our work in UX design.

Brief Overview of AI and ML

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the overarching concept of machines carrying out tasks in ways that we consider 'smart'. It's a broad discipline aimed at creating systems that can simulate various aspects of human intelligence. Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI, focused on algorithms that enable machines to improve at tasks with experience. Think of AI as the universe of intelligent computation, with ML being a planet within it.

Deep Learning, in turn, is a subset of ML. It involves neural networks with many layers (hence 'deep') that can learn and make intelligent decisions on their own. Deep Learning has been instrumental in achieving significant breakthroughs in areas like image and speech recognition.

Then come Foundation Models, a recent development in AI. These are large-scale models (like GPT-3) that are trained on vast amounts of data and can be adapted to a wide range of tasks without being specifically trained for them. They are called 'foundations' because they provide a base layer of understanding that can be built upon for various applications.

These technologies are interrelated, forming a hierarchy from broad to specific. AI encompasses everything intelligent that a machine might do. Under AI, ML is the method through which machines learn from data. Deep Learning is a further specialization of ML with a focus on complex, layered neural networks. And Foundation Models are the cutting-edge, versatile systems pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve.

Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) and Transformer Architecture

GPT, or Generative Pretrained Transformer, is a type of language processing AI. It's built on the Transformer architecture, which is revolutionary in the way it handles data. Traditional models processed data sequentially, one piece after another. The Transformer, however, allows for parallel processing, looking at entire sequences of data at once. This is done through mechanisms called 'attention' and 'self-attention,' letting the model weigh the importance of different parts of the input data and learn the context more effectively.

GPT takes this architecture and applies it to language, learning to predict the next word in a sentence. It's trained on a vast corpus of text and then fine-tuned for specific tasks. This pretraining is what makes it 'generative' - it can generate text, not just understand or classify it.

Inception of Generative AI

Generative AI came into existence as a natural progression from earlier AI models that were primarily discriminative. While discriminative models could classify and understand data, they couldn't create new data. The inception of Generative AI marked a shift from understanding to creation.

This shift was fueled by advancements in neural networks and an exponential increase in computational power and data availability. Researchers began exploring how neural networks could not only recognize patterns but also use those patterns to generate new, similar data. This exploration led to the development of models like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), and eventually to large-scale models like GPT.

Integrating Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback

Adding to this is the concept of Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF). This approach trains AI systems not just on static datasets but on dynamic feedback loops. It’s akin to teaching a pet new tricks: the AI tries different strategies and, based on human feedback, learns which actions are desirable or undesirable. This human-in-the-loop methodology ensures that the AI’s learning trajectory aligns more closely with human values and preferences, making it particularly potent for personalization and adaptive learning scenarios.

Incorporating RLHF into the design of AI systems compels us to consider not just the initial user interaction but the ongoing relationship between the user and the AI as they adapt and learn from each other over time.

Various Approaches to AI

Understanding the various approaches to AI can be daunting, but it's crucial for harnessing its full potential:

Symbolic AI: Based on the manipulation of symbols and rules, this approach tries to mimic human reasoning.
Probabilistic AI: Focuses on using probabilities to make predictions and decisions.
Statistical AI: Uses statistical methods to infer patterns and make predictions.
Large Language Models (LLMs): These are trained on vast datasets to understand and generate human-like text.

Each approach has its strengths, and knowing which to apply can significantly impact the success of a project.

How Are Models Trained?

AI models are trained using large datasets. They learn by recognising patterns and making associations. For instance, an image recognition model might learn to identify cats by being shown thousands of pictures of cats and not-cats. Over time, it improves its accuracy through a process called backpropagation, where it adjusts its internal parameters to minimize errors.

AI and Design

In the realm of AI, as designers, we're tasked with shaping a human-machine relationship that is continually evolving. Unlike traditional design, where interactions are fixed, AI-based design involves a fluid, ever-changing dynamic. Non-AI systems interact in a consistent, unchanging manner. However, AI systems learn and adapt over time, leading to a constantly developing relationship.

As both the machine and humans learn and adapt, they engage in a reciprocal learning process, forming a dynamic feedback loop. This loop is characterized by an ongoing exchange of information, with both parties growing and adjusting to the interaction. Our role as AI designers is to foster effective communication within this vibrant human-machine relationship.

In this context, data becomes the pivotal element. Previously, data interaction was straightforward — a user command followed by a machine response. With AI, data is the foundation of learned behaviours, informing the machine and shaping its growth. Here, data inputs are about educating the machine with information, not just instructing it. Conversely, machine outputs are no longer fixed; they have generated responses that necessitate explanations of how the data led to a particular conclusion.

As designers, we are charged with orchestrating these interactions throughout the entire data lifecycle. This includes the initial data capture, guiding the machine's learning process, designing clear and understandable data outputs, and ensuring a seamless flow of information back into the system for continued learning. Our responsibility extends beyond creating interfaces; it's about crafting experiences that support this rich, ongoing dialogue between humans and AI, ensuring clarity, transparency, and a mutual growth trajectory.

A comparison can be drawn from the days when selecting a movie at a DVD store involved browsing aisles for a favoured title or relying on a recommendation from a salesperson. In contrast, platforms like Netflix now curate suggestions tailored to our tastes, informed by our viewing history.

Designers find themselves at the intersection of innovation, with three distinct yet interconnected realms to explore:

1. Designing with AI: Crafting Alongside AI

Designers are now partnering with AI in a collaborative dance of creation, where the output is a fusion of human ingenuity and machine efficiency. Imagine the synergy of a designer working with AI to conjure up ground-breaking architectural structures, much like Autodesk's venture in utilizing generative design principles to conceive their Toronto office. Here, AI becomes an ally in the creative process, providing new perspectives and solutions that push the boundaries of traditional design.

Moreover, designers harness AI to streamline repetitive tasks, freeing up creative energy for more complex challenges. Tools like Airbnb's system for transforming sketches into digital wireframes or Netflix's algorithm for adapting graphics across different cultures exemplify this trend. These innovations signify a new era where AI does not replace the designer but rather amplifies their capabilities.

2. Designing for AI: The Human-Centric Design Approach

Designing for AI requires a human-centred lens, focusing on crafting systems that prioritize user needs and experiences. It's about spotting those unique opportunities where AI can not only function but flourish in addressing real-world problems. Here, the designer's role transcends aesthetics, venturing into the realm of functionality and utility, transforming user needs into data-driven AI solutions.

Human-centered design makes AI effective. These are some ways:

1. Beyond Interfaces: Embracing Human-Centered Design in AI Algorithm Development

UX can aid in designing algorithms that mirror the decision-making processes humans employ, by considering their information, goals, and constraints. It can ensure that the decision environment, which encompasses both the algorithm and its human users should be thoughtfully constructed. Users should comprehend their AI tools well enough to use them effectively. Designers also aid in establishing guidelines and business protocols that translate algorithmic predictions into actionable insights, advising when human intervention is appropriate to supplement or override the AI.

2. To Translate User Needs into Data Requirements: A designer can aid in identifying the type of data necessary for training the model, considering various factors like predictive power (A percentage that refers to an ML model’s ability to predict outcomes given a certain input correctly), relevance, fairness, privacy, and security. Ensure the training dataset is comprehensive, reflecting the real-world scenarios the AI will encounter, and free from biases.

3. Knowing the source of the data & Tuning the Model: Evaluating data sourcing and collection methods for their suitability of the project is critical. Once deployed, A designer will assess if the AI meets the target user’s needs as per predefined success metrics. Provide feedback on adjusting the model’s parameters as needed to enhance its performance, focusing on metrics that reflect user experience, such as customer satisfaction or the frequency of users following the AI’s recommendations.

4. Addressing Bias, Fairness, and Transparency: UX designers can help analyze data with an understanding of the domain, Goal definition, possible and required outcomes and the process that generated it. This leads to designers being a crucial part of designing algorithms that are mindful of the environment they will operate in, avoiding controversial predictors. They aid in conducting usability tests or audits to detect and eliminate unintended biases.

5. Managing the Handoff in AI Systems: Designing for smooth transitions between AI and human control in situations demanding common sense or contextual understanding is very important. The accountability for any action in the real world still lies with human users as over-reliance on technology can leave users unprepared for instances where AI fails, necessitating more skilled human intervention. A UX designer can analyse such situations and will aid in designing smooth handoff processes.

6. Designing Reward Functions and leveraging User Feedback for Model Improvement: Designing the AI’s reward function is critical as it influences the user experience significantly. User feedback is essential in refining AI models and enhancing user experience. Designers analyse and optimize the reward data to enhance the model for long-term user benefits and anticipate the downstream effects of your product. This also allows users to contribute to the personalization of their experiences, thereby increasing their trust in the system.

7. Anticipating Errors and Designing Response Pathways: A Human-centred design prepares your AI system to facilitate user responses to inevitable errors, turning them into opportunities for learning and improvement.

8. Educating Users and Setting Realistic Expectations: Designers help communicate the capabilities and limitations of your AI product to customers. Help users develop accurate mental models and understand how their interactions train the system. It’s essential to balance user trust, avoiding both undue scepticism and over-reliance on AI.

9. Guiding User Trust in AI Systems: Users need to adjust their trust in AI systems appropriately, rather than relying on them implicitly in every situation. The phenomenon of 'algorithm aversion' is well-documented, where users may be sceptical of software systems. Conversely, there are instances where users place excessive trust in AI capabilities, expecting more than what the system can deliver. Designers help users develop a balanced level of trust, aligning with the system's actual capabilities and limitations by taking a human-centred approach.

For instance, openly acknowledging the potential inaccuracies in AI predictions can temporarily reduce trust in those specific outcomes. However, this honesty can foster a more sustainable trust in the long term. Users become more judicious in their reliance on the system, reducing the likelihood of disappointment due to misplaced expectations."

3. Designing of AI: The User Experience Frontier

When it comes to the design of AI, it's about envisioning and sculpting the interactions between AI systems and their human users. It's a space where new forms of engagement, like voice-activated assistants or image recognition software, become gateways to enhanced user experiences. The key challenge here is transparency: designing interfaces that not only serve but also educate. Users should be able to grasp, with just the right level of detail, how AI systems make decisions and learn over time.

An example could be the intuitive dashboards in our cars that provide real-time insights into the vehicle's AI, or the smart home devices that learn our preferences and conversationally explain their actions. These are no longer scenarios from a sci-fi novel; they are today's design challenges that call for a blend of technical knowledge, user empathy, and creative foresight.

In essence, the designer's canvas has expanded, not just in size but in dimensionality. As AI continues to intertwine with our daily lives, it invites designers to step into roles that are as diverse as they are dynamic, shaping not only how AI looks but also how it behaves and interacts in the fabric of human experience.

Understanding the Limitations of AI in UX Design

Incorporating AI into UX design comes with distinct limitations that underscore the irreplaceable value of human insight and direction.

1. Hallucinations and Reliability

AI "hallucinations" refer to instances where a model confidently generates an incorrect response. These can be caused by inconsistencies within a large data set or errors in the model's training methodology. In fields where precision is critical, such as financial reporting or legal documentation, these inaccuracies can introduce significant risks. Combatting this requires robust document structuring and advanced prompt design techniques to direct AI towards more dependable outcomes.

2. Prompt Sensitivity

Large Language Models (LLMs) are highly sensitive to user input. The nuances of how a prompt is phrased can lead to varied and unpredictable responses. This sensitivity necessitates a careful and strategic approach to prompt engineering, ensuring that the AI's responses align with user intentions. The evolving role of "Prompt Engineer" is a testament to the significance of crafting prompts that steer AI toward delivering consistent and accurate results.

3. Context Window

Limits The context window, the amount of information an AI can consider when generating a response, is a notable constraint. As the context window expands, so does the computational complexity. Despite improvements like GPT-4's extended context window, there remains a ceiling to the volume of data an AI can process at a time. This limitation is particularly challenging in tasks that require the review of extensive documents, where the AI must understand and analyze large quantities of text. Designing for AI in UX thus requires a thoughtful balance between the AI's capabilities and the complexity of the tasks it is expected to perform.

Things Designers Should Know Before Designing for AI

Technical Knowledge

Grasping the basics of data science and AI techniques like NLP and deep learning.
Basic Understanding of the AI toolchain and DevOps processes for AI development.
Access to clean data set.

Ethics in AI

Integrate ethical standards into the design and development process, ensuring accountability, fairness, and transparency.
Navigate GDPR/compliance mandates and be mindful of the financial and human impacts of design decisions.

Collaboration is Key:

Work closely with data scientists and engineers to understand the technical aspects and constraints.
Foster a shared vision across multidisciplinary teams and participate actively in the AI development lifecycle.
Engage in design thinking activities tailored to AI and address the needs of diverse users.

AI Strategy

Develop and communicate a user-focused AI strategy, explaining barriers to adoption and the business and user benefits.
Articulate your company's AI strategy, differentiators, and the journey toward AI success.

Designing AI Interactions

Translate AI model outputs into understandable insights for users and design interactions that capture human input for machine learning.
Prototype and test AI solutions frequently, and design for various stages of the AI lifecycle, such as model maintenance and data collection methods.

User Trust and Transparency

Build trust by making your AI interactions transparent and understandable.

In conclusion, AI is not just a tool but a new frontier in design. By embracing it, we can create more personalized, efficient, and engaging user experiences. Let's embark on this journey together, continuously learning and adapting to ensure technology serves humanity in the most beneficial ways.

Resources to Refer :

Generative AI at SAP: https://open.sap.com/courses/genai1
AI Ethics at SAP: https://open.sap.com/courses/aie1-1
Designing for Generative AI: https://experience.sap.com/internal/fiori-design-web/generative-ai-design/
Designing for Intelligent Systems: https://experience.sap.com/internal/fiori-design-web/designing-intelligent-systems/
SAP AI community file: https://www.figma.com/file/SJh2Eb5KrBIbaK3Bo2wqtq/AI-UX-Pattern-Community-Explorations?type=design&node-id=737-200772&mode=design
AI Design Community Teams Channel
AI Design Community Exploration File
Prompt Pattern Presentation Figjam

Card UI Design in a Business Context: A New System for Mobile Apps by SAP

2024-02-16T17:13:40.669000+01:00

When I asked my mother what comes to her mind when I say, “card components in mobile apps”, she first gave me a puzzled look, as if I had just asked her to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded. With a hint of confusion in her voice, she replied, "Cards? Like a deck of cards on your smartphone? I thought we were done with the whole 'Solitaire' phase."

What is so special about card UI design?

In her defense, it's not every day someone asks about card UI components. But while my mother may have initially misunderstood the concept, there is a little bit of truth in her answer: Cards in apps resemble physical cards, like those found in a deck. This familiarity can actually help users quickly understand the purpose of each card within an app. In fact, even Apple used a design approach called "skeuomorphism" in the early versions of iOS, which aimed to make digital interfaces mimic real-world objects.

Many consumer apps are using card components to provide a clear visual hierarchy, organizing information into brief, self-contained units. This makes it easier for users to scan the app content. Cards are also well-suited for responsive design, enabling adaptation to different screen sizes, screen orientations and device types, such as phones or tablets.

And of course, there are those nice, rounded corners that soften the overall look of the app, making it more friendly and approachable – who knew geometry could be so charming?

Cards make it easier to scan the app content

Using cards in an enterprise context

The benefits I just mentioned go far beyond consumer apps. In the world of multifaceted software products, where users sometimes struggle with large amounts of information and features, the use of cards can improve the user experience as content becomes more structured and modular.

However, incorporating cards in the context of large software companies just like SAP can also be a challenge as there are many different products with a wide variety of use cases. To address this, the teams for the SAP Mobile Design System and SAP BTP SDK have supported app teams by offering several card types. These card types include object cards, list cards, and chart cards, among others that can be utilized when developing apps.

For example, a maintenance app can use object cards that display important information, such as work order name, description, and priority. The object cards allow users to efficiently manage maintenance activities and monitor progress. Or, in a procurement app, list cards can be used to display the top three pending purchases with additional information such as purchase price and due date that help users prioritize and manage their workload more effectively.

Unfortunately, these card types are not flexibly adaptable or extendable, so that many app teams are forced to design and develop custom cards, which not only adds additional development efforts, but also creates inconsistent cards across SAP mobile apps.

So how can we ensure that our SAP Mobile Design System and SAP BTP SDKs provide reusable card components that are flexible enough to adapt to any use case while maintaining a consistent design?

A new approach to display your business app’s content

Our solution is a sophisticated “card system” that provides a toolkit of so-called nested components that reside in the card container. These nested components include lists, charts, calendars, KPIs, and many more components to fulfil the needs of any SAP product. Moreover, the card system offers improved customization, flexibility, and adaptable sizing options to fit different layouts, such as a masonry or a carousel layout into which cards can be placed.

The core of this card component approach is the modular structure of three flexible containers that exist in the card: the card header, the card body, and the card footer. Each of these containers can be separately controlled, adjusted, and switched on or off.

Three separate containers in the card ensure maximum flexibility

But like Solitaire, every good card game also needs a couple of rules. To ensure consistency despite the flexibility of the new card component, we’ve also defined “Do’s and Don’ts” as well as design recommendations within our design guidelines.

The card header displays only key details, such as a title and a subtitle. The card body can show additional information alongside the content of the card header, such as in-depth details, KPIs, or relevant graphics. The card footer is used for important or routine actions that affect the content of the card.

In addition to the card itself, card layouts, such as a carousel or masonry layout can be used to facilitate a quick and modular overview of information across different content resources. Using cards together with card layouts can enable a holistic information approach and ensure an intuitive and frictionless app experience.

Card layouts such as a masonry layout provide a quick overview of various information

Design along various use cases

Before developing the card system, we prioritized gaining a comprehensive understanding of SAPs mobile apps and their specific needs. This included interviews with all app teams and extensive research. Our goal was to identify the common elements found in already existing cards and determine their frequency of occurrence.

Through this analysis, we discovered, for example, that the existing cards heavily emphasized the uppermost part of the card and often included a title, a subtitle, and a thumbnail. With the insights gained from this research, we began to develop the card system and the above-mentioned header, body, and footer structure, along with a set of recommended components for each part.

Business card UIs often emphasize the uppermost part of the card

Of course, there were also elements that were only used by one single app within cards, such as a QR code. As much as we would have loved to accommodate these special cases (people love QR codes!), we had to stay focused on our main objective: prioritizing the most widely used features.

Testing it regularly

To improve and refine the new card component, we used regular evaluation cycles to test the card system's design and implementation. Getting feedback on our design was really important as it helped us to make necessary modifications and enhance the overall functionality. For example, we incorporated the icon stack component into the card header based on a feedback session with our stakeholders. Furthermore, we plan to continue to gather feedback on a regular basis and to expand the card system in the future.

How to use it

Our card system is now available for designers using our Figma UI Kit of the SAP Mobile Design System for Android and SAP Mobile Design System for iOS, as well as for developers using the SAP BTP SDK for Android and SAP BTP SDK for iOS. This is our initial release of the card system, and we are committed to actively working on enhancing it in future releases. We encourage you to try it out and provide feedback on your experiences! 😊

The card system allows creating a wide variety of card UIs

For more information, explore the card system in our design guidelines for SAP Fiori for iOS or SAP Fiori for Android, and our technical documentation for the SAP BTP SDK for iOS and SAP BTP SDK for Android card component.

Epilogue

Of course, I also read this blog post to my mother. What begins with initial enthusiasm ends 32 seconds later with her picking up her phone and no longer listening. I wondered: Is it because it's my first blog post and I still need to optimize my skills? Is UX design just not interesting enough for a woman who works in elderly care? Or is it simply because she doesn't really understand English...?

After all, the fact that she reached for her phone first shows me one thing: mobile design is relevant. It’s not just my generation or the generation after me that is literally addicted to their phone and would like to perform every activity with it. By pursuing innovative approaches, such as a flexible card system, we can enhance the experience also for business users and simplify digital business processes by using these beautifully rounded corners.

And who knows, maybe one day apps will become “old-fashioned data silos”, thanks to artificial intelligence. AI might be able to condense app content to the point where we will only need to display a widget, a notification, or just one single card.

Special thanks to Janin Stoess, Eva Artinger, Natalie Stainton, Huy Ngo, Cara Stallone, Yuepei Guo, Diana Klukas, Michael Krenkler, Marisa Wollner, Emil Voutta, and all the other colleagues who have contributed to this project at SAP 💙

Latest benefits enrollment experience in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

2024-02-20T23:17:10.887000+01:00

In the dynamic and ever advancing realm of HR technology, evolution is not just a choice, but a mandate to successfully compete.

We at SAP SuccessFactors are very excited to unveil a new chapter in our journey – reimagining our SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Global Benefits solution.

We started our revamp journey about one year ago with focus on “enhancing the user experience to make benefits management seamless, simplified and far more intuitive”.

Our goal is to build a platform that goes beyond functionality, one that meets the level of intuitiveness and just-in-time help that employees have come to expect from business and consumer software nowadays.

We understand that Total Rewards teams must offer competitive benefits that are based on local market trends and prevailing practices. Therefore, we are delivering a user experience designed to meet the benefits needs of the North America market, with plans to ultimately cover all countries globally.

Our latest benefits experience supports administration of open enrollment processes, exception cycles due to employee work or life events (such as child birth, promotion, etc.).

We currently cover the following benefit types: Insurances (including health, dental, vision, life), Section 125 savings plans (including HSA, FSA, LPFSA, DCRA) and pensions. Support for additional benefit types is planned for future releases.

Here are some key highlights of the latest enrollment experience:

Personalized UX: Personalized text and instructions enable you to deliver a tailored enrollment experience aligned with your organizational needs.
Guided enrollment:An intuitive, step-by-step guided enrollment experience makes sure employees never lose track of their progress. Real-time benefits eligibility updates help your employees continually understand the choices and options available by presenting them with all the benefits for which they are eligible to enroll.

Smart system: Solution detects when proof of good health is required for a benefit coverage; Also, based on number and age of dependents, the system assigns employees to the appropriate insurance coverage tiers, reducing employee efforts in matching the right coverage tier.

Informed decision-making: Side by side benefit plan comparison allows employees to see difference in coverage, costs and other important factors, making it easier to assess plan options to select the best-fit plan. Employees can also view how much they spend on benefits per pay period and annually, which further promotes informed decision-making.
Increased transparency:Organizations have the option to share how much they are spending on their employee’s benefits, which promotes transparency.

Employee education resources: Embedded informational text and simplified on-screen “help and resources” interface helps to educate employees and provides more clarity into their benefits options.
Mobile -enabled: Employees can complete their benefits enrollment from any location using our SAP SuccessFactors native mobile application.

The latest benefits experience will provide significant value to both employers and employees, but don’t just take our word for it. Here is what some of our customers have said about the new benefits experience:

“The New Enrollment experience is a game changer”

- An International European-based company with 300,000 employees

“Latest Benefits Experience is a major improvement”

- A 40,000 employee US-based company

“We are putting EC Global Benefits back on our roadmap”

- A large global software company

"I love that employees must make an enrollment decision for each benefit"

- A mid west company live on the Legacy experience

Interested in learning more?

Our new Enrollment Experience will be available through an Early Adopter Care Program starting February 29th, 2024 for those customers using insurance and savings plan benefit types. The latest enrollment experience is planned for general availability with the 1H 2024 release (May 17, 2024).

If you are an SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central customer and are interested in our joining the early adopter care program or learning more about the new Benefits enrollment experience, please send me an email at simar.kaur@sap.com.

I look forward to hearing from you!

New Asynchronous Export to Spreadsheet Feature for the Multidimensional Data Grid Apps

2024-02-27T11:20:25.612000+01:00

Dear SAP Community,

In 2021, the Web Dynpro Multidimensional Data Grid App replaced the SAP Design Studio app as default reporting tool for drill-down reporting in SAP S/4HANA.

Initially designed for human interaction, this web application offers an export feature that has been continuously improved and streamlined over time:

Export of PDF files
Streamlining of export to improve performance
Google workspace integration with the possibility to export spreadsheets to Google directly
etc.

However, there always was the possibility that the amount of data cells simply was too large, and the system would run out of memory, or into a timeout. SAP Note 2547776 introduced a popup message that warned a user of these risks in case more than 100.000 cells would be exported.

Now the next step in terms of performance optimization has been taken by offering to export large amounts of data in a background task. Furthermore, the user can trigger the export in the background (see Figure 1), and continue working in the application without having to wait until the export has finished, with or without the application still alive and running.

Figure 1: “Export to Spreadsheet” popup with a new function to trigger the export in the background.

Once the background task has finished, if the application that has triggered it is still running, the user is informed of the success (or failure) of the export. The exported file is then available for download for the next 72 hours. Expired files will be deleted automatically from the database table.

The files can be accessed either in a new tab “Downloads” (e.g. in the generic FPM_BICS_OVP apps), or in a dialog window that can be accessed via the download button choice for applications that do not offer the new tab directly (see Figure 2). In both cases, the same component is used, and the layout is the same.

Figure 2: List of downloads to monitor the status and access the result of the asynchronous exports.

In the list of downloads in this example, the first file “export.xlsx” already has been exported successfully, while the second file “demo_export” is currently being exported. Download is possible only for successfully exported files, while deletion is possible also for entries where the export has failed or is currently in progress. However, deleting an unfinished export does not abort the background process.

During a single user session, only one background export can be executed at any given time. If you start an export in background while there is still another process running, the new process will not be started, and an error message will be displayed.

It should be noted that this does not mean that unlimited amounts of data can be exported from the grid now. There are still scenarios where the amount of data required to export a file is outside the boundaries of memory allocation for a work process. This depends not only on the number of cells in the grid, but also on their (conditional) formatting and merging, variables, and filters, down to the definition of the query and the used database tables. Even the database technology may have an influence on how much data can be processed at once.

The feature is available with SAP Note 3427386 for SAP_BW 757 and 758, and SAP Note 3434831 for BW/4HANA 400, and it is planned to be contained in the 2408 updates of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP BW/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
[A previous version of this blog stated that it will be contained in the 2408 update. Since this is current state of planning and may be changed by SAP at any time without notice, the wording has been adopted.]

With this new feature, you can more easily export data from a Multidimensional Data Grid Apps without blocking the application and reduce the risk of running into error situations.

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

Configuring SAP CI/CD pipeline for Deploying ReactJS application in Cloud Foundry

2024-05-07T09:59:07.961000+02:00

In this blog, we will discuss how to integrate SAP CI/CD pipeline for deploying ReactJS application on SAP Cloud Foundry environment.

You will learn,

How to create and build a ReactJS application.
How to configure and run SAP CI/CD Pipeline service.
How to create GitHub Webhook for automatically build, test and deploying the code changes.

Prerequisites

You have an SAP BTP Global or trial account.
Node installed in your system.
You have a GitHub account.

Setting up React Application

step 1: Create your react application using the create-react-app. The create-react-app is an excellent tool which allows you to create and run React project very quickly by wrapping all the required dependencies.

npx create-react-app reactcicd

step 2: To ensure that the application is running as expected, open the terminal and navigate to the application folder and type the below command. The application gets automatically hosted in the default server localhost:3000 and you’ll get the following screen.

npm start

step 3: Now create manifest.yml file for determining the Cloud Foundry app configurations and paste the below contents.

 ---
applications:
- name: your-app-name
path: build/
instances: 1
buildpack: https://github.com/cloudfoundry/staticfile-buildpack.git
memory: 256M

step 4: Build the application using the below command, you will see the build folder getting added to your project.

npm run build

Also create a Staticfile with the following content in the build folder as shown below

step 5: Now create a repository in your GitHub and push the changes. Make sure to remove build folder from the gitignore file since it is added default while creating the react project, we require it for deployment. For more details on how to deploy react application refer this link react-CF-deploy

Enable SAP Continuous integration and Delivery Service

step 1: Login into SAP BTP Cockpit and choose the subaccount to which you want to deploy your application.

step 2: Select Service Marketplace from the side pane and search for Continuous Integration and Delivery service. Click the create button.

step 3: Create popup will appear then choose the plan you want to and click create button at the bottom. Choose View Subscription and wait until the status changes to Subscribed.

step 4: Once the status is changed to subscribed navigate to Security → Role Collections from the left-hand pane. Choose role collection CICD Service Administrator and click edit.

step 5: Navigate to users section click edit then Add a new row in the Users section table, enter your user id, Keep the identity provider as default and click save.

Configure your credentials

step 1: Go to Services → Instances and Subscriptions from the pane. Choose the application icon located next to the Continuous Integration & Delivery subscription. Now we need to add credentials for GitHub, CF and Webhook.

step 2: Let’s first go with GitHub credentials. If your GitHub repository is private, you will need to provide with the necessary credentials to access it. You can skip this in case of public repository.

step 3: In Create Credentials popup make sure you give unique name within the subaccount. Select the type as basic authentication and provide your git credentials. Use personal access token as a password. Then choose create.

step 4: Now repeat the same steps for adding CF credentials. Here you have to provide your SAP BTP cockpit username and password.

step 5: For configuring webhook credentials change the type from Basic Authentication to Webhook Secret. Then generate the webhook secret copy it somewhere safe and finally choose Create.

Add a CI/CD job

step 1: Navigate to the Jobs tab and choose the icon to add a new job. Provide unique name for the job.

step 2: Click on the icon inside the Repository input field. You will get a popup then choose add repository., Enter your git repository clone URL. You can add any name of your choice. It need not to be matched with your repo. Choose your saved credentials for git and webhook.

step 3: For Branch, enter the GitHub branch of your repository from which you want to receive push events. In this example, master. Select Cloud Foundry Environment from the dropdown in the Pipeline field.

step 4: In the BUILD section choose npm as your build tool. For Build Tool Version, select the latest node version.

step 5: Under the Release section, switch on the execution of the Deploy to Cloud Foundry Space. Since we have already given name in the manifest file, we can skip the name field.

Replace the placeholders API Endpoint, Org Name and Space with the values in the Cloud Foundry environment to which you want to deploy. You can get the values from your subaccount overview in the SAP BTP cockpit.

step 6: For Deploy Type, choose standard and select your previously created CF credentials. Leave remaining fields default then finally choose create.

Create a GitHub Webhook

GitHub webhooks allow you to automate CI/CD builds. Whenever you push changes to your GitHub repository, a webhook push event is sent to the service to trigger a build of the connected job.

step 1: To create a webhook in GitHub, you need payload URL. Select your repository and choose Webhook Data from the right pane. You will see a below popup:

step 2: Now sign in into your GitHub account. In your project, go to the Settings tab.

step 3: From the left pane, choose Webhooks then Add webhook. Enter the Payload URL, Content type from the popup and the Secret that you had saved previously. For all other settings, leave the default values and add.

Verify your Build

You have to trigger your job manually the first time after creation.

step 1: In Jobs tab, select your job and choose Run. Verify that a new tile appears in the Builds view. This tile should be marked as running.

step 2: Wait until the job has finished and verify that the build tile is marked as successful.

step 3: Navigate to your space in the SAP BTP cockpit and check the list of installed applications. Now you can see your application got added.

step 4: Select your application and launch it with the application route. You can see the react application deployed.

You have now successfully created a CI/CD pipeline and deployed your ReactJS application to SAP BTP. From now on for every commit you can see the job getting triggered with commit id displayed under builds section.

We don't need any help! This product is super intuitive!

2024-05-10T09:49:50.486000+02:00

Well, we've heard the excuses...

No budget for user assistance. We can do without.
The developers can write the help.
We'll develop the software, then think of the help, if we get to it.
Do we even need help? This product is so intuitive.
It's too early to think about help?

Why do we need help?

Bottom line is: our users want and need it. What is it and why do we care? Well, our users care and our users need it. We've seen help in software we use daily and on help/support sites. We may not always need it, but we rely on it when we do need it. Help pages are not only used for product assistance, but for support, sales, marketing, and much more. The value is measurable, profitable, and expected by our users. Users expect it and need to be able to find the information they need when they need it.

What is User Assistance, anyway?

User Assistance (aka help) includes some or all of the following:

🗒 Note: you can select any of the images to enlarge them. Now that's helpful! 😀

In-app help that you can pull up in the app to get some guidance.

Question mark to access in-app help

In-app help and guidance

Embedded Help and Tours

Any content that appears in the app: tooltips, onscreen text, placeholder text, instructions, user interface labels, fields, and more.

Tooltips and Guided Tours

Literally, any text that appears in the user interface.

UI text: any text in the app

How the heck would we even know what all the Apple iPhone settings are if there wasn't some help? How do I turn off that darn Live Photo!!!???

iPhone Settings Help iPhone Settings Help

Product documentation (user/admin/developer guides). For example, the SAP Help Portal.

SAP Help Portal Product Documentation

How-to videos, demos, tutorials.

YouTube How-to Video

User Assistance developers ARE the user

As intuitive as you think a product is, without a user assistance developer to work with developers, product owners, UX Design, and all the stakeholders, the user won't get what he needs from us. We ARE the first end users. We use the software and can tell you where it's not intuitive before it goes out the door. We can ensure consistency in language, branding, terminology, UX design, and more.

AI and Bots can only do so much

All the hype about AI and Bots is abundant. But who will train and quality check what these bots are coming up with? AI uses existing content out there. Is it correct? Is it hallucinating? Is it what the user needs?

Someone (a human) needs to plan the content strategy, create the structure, and put together correct and accurate content for the appropriate audience. Every website and app bombards you with chatbots that can't answer your question and empty offers to solve your problems. Let me write a text or email for you. Let me create your resume. Let me do brain surgery on you. These bots use scripted, repetitive, unnatural text, and seem to have no common sense.

Sometimes a bot greets me with, "I'm Alex..." I don't know if this is a digital assistant or a human. I ask it, "Are you human?". She responds with "Hello, here are some suggested answers to your question". She lists several irrelevant responses. All I need to know is ARE-YOU-HUMAN? I ask for some hotel options in Spain. To which Alex responds, "Do you want a hotel near Spain?" Um, yes. Then I simply ask for a live agent. Much better.

Content is king

We know that providing users with the right content at the right time is essential. Read the customer satisfaction survey results! The type of content we include in our software determines user trust, confidence, and affects their perception of your software and your company. Does Alex give you a whole lot of confidence? Not really.

Listen to your users

We've run dozens of surveys, asked for feedback, talked to users directly, and conducted user research. It all comes back to providing useful and timely content to our users. The users demand it and get frustrated when they can't find it. They want to use the software and easily and quickly do their job. We must enable them to be productive and successful. It's a worthwhile investment for your users and for your company. Don't skimp on proper user assistance. Your customers won't be happy!

About the Author

Sophia Moustakas-Marx is a User Assistance Development Architect and UX Designer. She's been a passionate user advocate for 20+ years (I stopped counting). She's contributed to intuitive software design, user assistance, building bridges, not silos, and helping businesses make the world run better. She's a Design Thinking Coach, Content Strategist, a coach and mentor, blogger, and User Assistance expert.

Sophia Marx on LinkedIn

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Finding business process improvements with SAP Signavio

2024-05-21T11:01:14.634000+02:00

As a UX specialist in the SAP S/4HANA Regional Implementation Group, I’m privileged to work with many of our SAP S/4HANA customers.

As a customer running SAP S/4HANA, you probably fall into one of the following categories:

New to SAP S/4HANA and only using SAP GUI.
Implemented SAP S/4HANA with some SAP Fiori exposure but not sure you are using the right apps.
Implemented SAP S/4HANA and you want to identify areas for improvement.
You are aware of new business processes only available in SAP S/4HANA, and you want to find out which SAP Fiori apps to use with these business processes.

Good news! SAP S/4HANA offers LOTS of standard functionality ‘’Out of the box’’ content, including:

More than 3K SAP Fiori apps
More than 1.5K embedded analytics apps
More than 125 Situation Handling templates.
New business models only available in SAP Fiori
Mix and match more than 10 classic UIs

You can see with significant standard functionality listed above, it can be easy to be unsure as to where to start.

Even more good news! There is now new and improved tooling so you can learn where to start with SAP Fiori and how to identify which business process improvements will bring you new business value.

Here we will introduce the following tools to help implement business process improvements and bring new value to your business:

SAP Signavio Process Navigator – find the Best Practice recommendations (SAP Fiori roles and apps) for each business process.
SAP Signavio Process Insights - evaluate your current usage based on industry benchmarks to find priority target areas for improvement.

SAP Signavio Process Navigator is a free service that is integrated into SAP for Me to provide access to the following:

SAP Solution Scenarios, such as Lead to Cash or Plan to Fulfil; respective Solution Processes; contextual process information such as integrations, applications, and implemented solution capabilities.

SAP Signavio Process Navigator provides flow diagrams for solution values and solution processes with the following:

Detailed solution activities
Test scripts (these include which SAP Fiori apps and roles to use with each business process)
Setup instructions
Localization-specific implementation details
Required solution components.
Other implementation information

All this helps YOU to achieve tangible value as quickly as possible. Information available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator is structured in line with SAP's Enterprise Architecture methodology providing you with a consumer-grade experience with a modern and intuitive user interface (UI).

You can use the SAP Signavio Process Navigator to assist you in your scoping. SAP Process Signavio Navigator contains process diagrams and test scripts per Line of Business function that will help you understand:

Which SAP Business Roles are relevant to your business processes
Which SAP Fiori apps and classic UIs are recommended for your SAP S/4HANA release

Each solution process has a test script with details on BOTH the SAP Fiori roles to use and an overview table of recommended SAP Fiori apps associated with the solution process.

Using SAP Signavio Process Navigator, YOU can easily find this information as follows, here we will use the Solution Process Accounts Payable (J60) as an example:

Logon to SAP Signavio Process Navigator and click on the Solution Scenarios tile:
Locate the Solution Scenario for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition (Note: This Solution Scenario can also be used for SAP S/4HANA on-Premise)
Follow the menu path shown Finance->Financial Operations->Accounts Payable (J60). Select the Accounts Payable (J60) link:
From the Accelerators tab, click on the test script and this will download a document (in this case called J60_S4HANA2023_BPD_EN_DE.docx) to your downloads folder
Open the document downloaded in step 4 and view the Table of Contents. Here we can see the following:
- Roles that contain the SAP Fiori apps for this business process (section 2.2 in this case)
- An Overview Table of the SAP Fiori apps for this business process (section 3 in this case)
Here in section 2.2, we can see a full list of the roles that contain the SAP Fiori apps for this business process: [Note: Role SAP_BR_AP_ACCOUNTANT is noted here, this will be used in the example in step 8].
Here in section 3, we can see a full list of the roles that contain the SAP Fiori apps for this business process. [Note: SAP Fiori app F1861 Display Supplier List is noted here, this will be used in the example in step 8].
With this information, you can review the SAP Fiori app details in the SAP Fiori apps reference library which can be found here: https://url.sap/fiori-apps-library
The SAP Fiori apps reference library contains detailed information on all SAP Fiori launchpad content for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud including:
- SAP Fiori apps
- Classic Web Dynpro apps
- Web Client UI
- Classic SAP GUI transactions
Based on what you found in the SAP Signavio Process Navigator in step 6 and step 7, proceed as follows using the SAP Fiori apps reference library to search by Role or SAP Fiori App ID.
a) Search by role: All apps for SAP S/4HANA -> by Roles-> SAP_BR_AP_ACCOUNTANT
b) Search by SAP Fiori App ID: All apps for SAP S/4HANA ->F1861

NOTE: In some cases you can even view the relevant SAP Fiori apps from the Business Process Model (BPM diagram so you do not even need to look at the test script, this make it VERY EASY to find the SAP Fiori Apps. For example, in SAP Signavio Process Navigator / Solution Scenario / SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, you can see directly from the BPM diagram in Solution Process Basic Credit Management (BD6) that SAP Fiori App ID F4596 is used:

Conclusion: You now have enough information to plan for and implement the SAP Fiori apps that will bring business process improvements.

SAP Signavio Process Insights is a process analytics solution that helps YOU rapidly discover areas for improvement and automation within your SAP business processes.

What can I achieve with the product?

Get a better understanding of your processes.
Find the root cause of your problems.
Obtain faster value discovery pre-, mid-, or post-transformation.
Increase process transparency and process standardization.
Reduce transformation time and risks.
Start exploring with SAP Signavio Process Insights, discovery edition (see below):

SAP Signavio Process Insights is the fastest path to process improvements.
The SAP Signavio Process Insights solution is a process analytics solution that helps you rapidly discover areas for improvement and automation.

SAP Signavio Process Insights helps you understand your current business process performance and identify new functionalities from SAP S/4HANA, SAP Fiori apps, automation, and intelligent technologies to support your business goals, including:

Unique tailored insights into your current operational business process performance, based on data from your SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA system.
Specific insights and recommendations are segmented by line of business and end-to-end processes
More functionalities, automation, intelligent technologies, SAP Fiori apps and all the SAP cloud solutions with SAP S/4HANA
Build your case for SAP S/4HANA in SAP Signavio Process Insights, discovery edition and secure the buy-in from the business

Refer to SAP Signavio Process Insights, discovery edition now in General Availability!

For release dates for SAP Signavio Process Insights refer to SAP Note 3399700 SAP Signavio Process Insights - Planned Release Dates

Becoming an SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

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

Other helpful links in the SAP Community:

Follow our tag SAP S/4HANA RIG for more from the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG
See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
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Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG.

FPM Team: Transport of BICS Bookmarks and SEARCH UIBB Views

2024-05-30T10:59:05.911000+02:00

Dear SAP Community,

In 2021, the Web Dynpro Multidimensional Data Grid App replaced the SAP Design Studio app as default reporting tool for drill-down reporting in SAP S/4HANA. This app is using the Search UIBB provided by FPM for variable selection.

For the two components Grid and Search used in the Web Dynpro Multidimensional Data Grid it is possible to save the actual state (search View for the variables and Bookmark for the Grid (Layout for the grid and if wanted variables of the search)) in the actual system. These bookmarks and saved searches are stored in the system locally and cannot be transported automatically to other systems.

We from the FPM team, have now made it possible to transfer views and bookmarks from one system to another.

The source and the target system needs to be at last on a special Support Package level (for the saved searches SAP_UI 7.57SP006, SAP_UI 758 SP001 (note 3386445) and Release SAP_BW 757 SP003 for the bookmarks in the BICS Grid note 3336542).

For both components there are reports available which allow the user to collect the bookmarks/Saved searches and write them on a customizing request as well as reports in the target system to import them into the environment.

For the Search UIBB the reports are

FPM_SEARCH_TRANSPORT_VIEWS (Source system report)
FPM_SEARCH_IMPORT_SSEARCH (Target system report)

The source system report needs to be called within transaction SE38.
The user has to enter a search configuration ID (e.g. FPM_BICS_SEARCH_GENERIC for the BICS Grid standard configuration) for which the public search views should be transported.
The search IDs can be selected from the list as well as the deleted views which should be deleted in the target system.
These views will be written on a customizing request and can be imported into the target system with the target system report after the transport has reached the target system.
This importing report can be started via transaction SE38 and has an option to run a test first.

Please note that your system needs to be configured correctly for customizing request (transaction SCC4)

For the GRID the reports to transport the bookmarks are

FPM_BICS_TRANSPORT_BOOKMARKS (Source system report)
FPM_BICS_IMPORT_BOOKMARKS (Target system report)

When calling the source system report for the BICS Grid you need to know the query for which the bookmarks should be transported. The name of the query can be found on the query information tab in section Technical Information field “Query Technical Name” in your application.
For the importing report there is test run available and some more options like you have for the search UIBB views.

Now you have learned how to transport saved searches and bookmarks from one system to another.

Please note that the transport of saved searches not only works for variable selection for the BICS Grid but for all Search configurations.

SAP Event Mesh vs. SAP Integration Suite, Advanced Event Mesh

2024-06-17T08:16:42.765000+02:00

This blog focuses on the differences of the "SAP Event Mesh" versus the powerhouse "SAP Integration Suite - Advanced Event Mesh" which will help to make an informed decision to optimize event-driven integration within your organization's specific requirements.

Event-Driven Integration in the Digital Age

Modern businesses navigate a data-driven landscape, demanding seamless integration between ever-expanding application portfolios. Traditional methods struggle to keep pace, necessitating a shift towards real-time, event-based integration approaches.

SAP's Event Mesh vs. Advanced Event Mesh, IS

SAP offers two compelling solutions for event-driven integration: SAP Integration Suite, Advanced Event Mesh (AEM), and SAP Event Mesh. While both leverage event brokers for integration, they cater to distinct use cases.

AEM goes beyond basic integration, offering robust event management capabilities. It empowers you to:

Govern the events throughout their lifecycle, ensuring data integrity and compliance
Design, publish, and discover events, fostering collaboration and reusability
Deploy flexibly across various public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP), on-premises, or at the edge
Maintain data consistency through event transactions
Replay messages for troubleshooting or new applications
Handle large payloads and storage for demanding use cases

On the other hand, SAP Event Mesh provides a lightweight solution for the core event streaming and integration. It would be great choice in below scenario's:

Simple integration scenarios within the SAP ecosystem
Cost-effective implementation with usage-based pricing
Straightforward deployment on SAP Business Technology Platform

In conclusion, One can choose right fit based on below pointers -

1. Complexity - AEM tackles the complex event-driven architectures, while Event Mesh targets simpler integrations

2. Event Governance - AEM prioritizes event management for control and compliance

3. Deployment - AEM offers broader deployment options, while Event Mesh resides within SAP BTP

4. Data Volume - AEM handles larger payloads and storage for extensive data flows. AEM Can handle message size upto 30 MB with a storage of 6TB while Event Mesh can handle message size upto 1 MB with a storage support of 10 GB

Blast Off! UI5 Web Components 2.0 is Now Live!

2024-07-04T12:15:37.669000+02:00

A Journey of Innovation and Growth

Since the release of UI5 Web Components 1.0 in 2021, our journey has been marked by unwavering innovation and a commitment to excellence. Over the past three years, we have listened to our community, refined our technologies, and expanded our capabilities. Today, we stand at a pivotal moment in our evolution with the launch of UI5 Web Components 2.0.

Picture 1: UI5 Web Components timeline

The Evolution of UI5 Web Components

Our project has continuously evolved, embracing new web standards, eliminating legacy code, and integrating invaluable user feedback from our community to enhance our APIs. This journey culminated in April with the unveiling of the first Release Candidate for UI5 Web Components 2.0.

Announcing UI5 Web Components 2.0! 🎉

Today, we are thrilled to officially launch UI5 Web Components 2.0. This major release signifies our commitment to providing cutting-edge tools for web development. Version 2.0 not only enhances performance and reliability but also sets the stage for future innovations.

Key Benefits of UI5 Web Components 2.0

UI5 Web Components 2.0 introduces several substantial improvements:

Embracing New Standards: Future-proofing UI5 Web Components.

Consistent APIs: Streamlined and more intuitive, albeit with some breaking changes.

Elimination of Legacy Code: Reducing footprint and enhancing quality by minimizing bugs.

Looking ahead, we will adhere to Semantic Versioning and release major updates more frequently to keep pace with technological advancements.

What's New in UI5 Web Components 2.0?

Revolutionary Popover API: Experience a standardized, consistent, and flexible mechanism for displaying popover content across all relevant components.

This API allows popups to display correctly above all other content, eliminating the need for the "static area" used in version 1.x. Previously, popups were placed in a static area within the body to ensure correct positioning despite various CSS rules. In version 2.x, the popover API simplifies the DOM structure by incorporating the popover directly within the component. This results in easier development, maintenance, and enhanced styling capabilities. It also allows components with popups to have physical children, supporting custom content and simplifying testing. The popover API is fully supported by all major browsers.

Form-Associated Custom Elements: Harness the power of native input behavior within HTML forms. This enhancement makes the features/InputElementsFormSupport.js feature redundant, simplifying form handling and enhancing the developer experience. Refer to the ElementInternals API documentation for more details.

Seamless Time Zone Support: Seamlessly manage time zones within your applications for a more personalized user experience. The date and time components are adapted to the time zone feature, allowing the components to present dates in different time zones. The time zone identifiers format is the one used in the IANA time zone database.

New Components: Expand your UI toolkit with new components such as Dynamic Page, Form, Table, Text, Tokenizer, AI Button, AI Prompt Input, Custom Option and Custom Suggestion Item.

Picture 2: Preview of UI5 Web Components 2.0 new components

Enhanced Existing Components: Benefit from improvements in List Drag and Drop, Tree Drag and Drop, Tab Container Drag and Drop, and a revamped Notifications Experience.

Picture 3: Preview of UI5 Web Components 2.0 new features

Revamped Documentation Site: Explore our new documentation site featuring a live editor, playground, dark mode, and an intuitive icons view.

Picture 4: UI5 Web Components 2.0 new website

New logo: We are excited to introduce our new logo and branding, reflecting the modern and dynamic nature of our project. Our new design incorporates defining elements of the feather and the flame. The feather symbolizes being lightweight, while the flame forms a connection to the phoenix, embodying the spirit of rebirth and continuous improvement.

Explore the Full-Screen Playground: Our new full-screen playground offers a range of features designed to enhance your development experience:

Live code editing

TypeScript support

Code completion for components in HTML

Sample download

Easy sharing

Theming options

Predefined examples

Picture 5: UI5 Web Components 2.0 full-screen playground

Adoption and Breaking Changes

UI5 Web Components 2.0 is a major version and introduces breaking changes that may require updates to your code. Our comprehensive Migration Guide will assist you in making a smooth transition from UI5 Web Components v1.x to v2.0. Note: The majority of the breaking changes can be achieved with find and replace.

Notable Breaking Changes:

The Belize theme has been removed and is no longer available.
CSP (Content Security Policy) will be ensured via the adoptedStyleSheets only, which are CSP-compliant by design.
The static area has been removed since the browser now ensures the correct positioning of popups thanks to the popover API that is fully adopted by the UI5 Web Components.
The Badge component (ui5-badge) has been renamed to Tag (ui5-tag).
The old Table (ui5-table) has been moved to @ui5/webcomponents-compat; new Table is available with better API and accessibility.
Public methods for opening popovers are replaced with the open property for declarative APIs.
Components like Label, Text, Link, and Title now wrap by default (wrappingType="Normal" by default, wrappingType="None" optionally).
SelectMenu and SelectMenuOption components have been removed; standard options with the popover API make them obsolete.
Renaming of properties, events, and enumeration values.
Removed APIs without alternatives:
- Progress Indicator (ui5-progress-indicator): Disabled property removed.
- Select Option (ui5-option): Disabled property removed for UX and accessibility alignment.
- Token (ui5-token): Readonly property removed; logic now within the Tokenizer.
- The Device#isIE method has been removed and is no longer available - the IE browser is not supported anymore.
- Notification List Group (ui5-li-notification-group): The properties showClose, showCounter, priority, the event close and the slot actions are removed due to the new better notification list design concept.

Ongoing Support for Version 1.x

We will continue to support version 1.x until the end of the year, focusing on bug fixes to ensure continuity for our existing users.

Get Help and Engage with the Community

Encountering issues? Reach out for support or report bugs on our GitHub project: Submit a bug or ask a question here.

Call to Action

UI5 Web Components 2.0 is a testament to our dedication to innovation, quality, and community engagement. We are particularly excited about the groundbreaking features such as the Popover API, Form-Associated Custom Elements, and seamless time zone support.

We invite you to preview the new version and migrate to UI5 Web Components 2.0 to fully leverage these advancements. Together, we are entering a new era of web development, and the possibilities are endless. Thank you for being part of this exciting journey with us! 🙌

UI5 Tooling 4.0

2024-07-24T09:30:00.054000+02:00

UI5 Tooling 4.0

The UI5 Core team is pleased to announce the release of UI5 Tooling 4.0.

This release has a strong focus on enabling UI5 2.x compatibility for projects. In addition, along with some important housekeeping, we introduced a new feature for automatically generating locale information in the manifest.json.

We are doing our best to minimize upgrade efforts for UI5 developers. Projects currently working with UI5 Tooling 3.x are generally expected to work with UI5 Tooling 4.0. More on this below.

Node.js and npm Requirements

UI5 Tooling 4.0 requires Node.js v20.11.0, v22.0.0, or higher.

This allows us to make use of the latest Node.js features and to upgrade dependencies requiring current Node.js versions.

Specification Version 4.0

This new major Specification Version comes with breaking changes that might have an impact on projects. Please carefully read the migration guide before applying the new version to your projects.

These changes are mostly related to how bundles are created in UI5 Tooling. Even if you do not use custom bundles, this might have an impact on the initial loading behavior of your application or library. These changes pave the road for future improvements on bundling in UI5. Stay tuned for more!

UI5 2.x

UI5 Tooling 4.0 along with the new Specification Version 4.0 is required for projects to utilize UI5 2.x.

When defining Specification Version 4.0 in your project, the code generated by UI5 Tooling will apply all the current best practices, such as consistently loading resources asynchronously and terminating the use of "eval()" (a common CSP violation). Both of which are prerequisites for projects to be compatible with UI5 2.x.

New Feature: Automatic Generation of Locale Information

In your application or library project, UI5 Tooling now analyzes existing manifest.json files. For any "i18n" and "ResourceModel" configuration, this ensures that the "supportedLocales" property is defined. If it is not defined, it is now filled in automatically based on the translation files present in the project.

This improves user experience by avoiding unnecessary requests at runtime. Without a defined set of "supported locales", the UI5 runtime has to determine the available translations by requesting individual files, often resulting in "404 Not Found" server responses.

Note that you can opt out of this behavior by defining the "supportedLocales" property yourself. The feature is active for both, the build and the server.

Learn more about this new feature in the builder documentation.

Upgrade Today

Upgrading to UI5 Tooling 4.0 is a straightforward task for most projects.

First, ensure that you meet the minimum required versions of Node.js and npm using the commands "node --version" and "npm --version". Make sure to also check your CI/CD workflows.

Then upgrade the UI5 CLI in your project by executing the following command:

npm i --save-dev @ui5/cli@latest

Also update your global install using:

npm i --global @ui5/cli@latest

You may already stop there, since updating the Specification Version remains optional.

However, if you want UI5 Tooling to apply the current best practices when building your project, also update the "specVersion" property in all ui5.yaml files to "4.0":

specVersion: "4.0"
[...]

Afterwards, test your project as usual. In case any problems come up, make sure to check our migration guide. And if you need further assistance, we invite you to raise an issue on GitHub.

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

SAP Community - User Interface

Design Systems: The Heart of SAP's User Experience

Create CBO (Custom Business Object) Tile using BAS in SAP UI5

What is CBO ?

What we can do in Custom Business Object:

Steps to create CBO tile in SAP BAS : 1. Launch the SAP Business Application Studio from the Cloud Cockpit

2. To create a Tile, select new Project from Template. --> Select Template and Target location.

Select the worklist type template.

3. Select the Data source, system and OData service.

4. Select the Entityset (Main Entity) and Navigation Entity (Navigation Entity: When you click on the table row, it will navigate to another page, where you can see the information of the selected row.)

5. Provide the required information for Project attributes and finish.

6. Run the Fiori app using command: npm run start

7. Deploy the CBO Tile :

8. how to create git repository and push the code on GIT.

Conclusion

** Team FPM ** How to render an FPM Overview Page to look like a SAP Fiori Object Page

The new Floorplan Modes

Navigation Bar

Getting Familiar with Spaces and Pages in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Switching from Groups to Spaces and Pages

Using Predefined Spaces Out-of-the-Box

Importing Personalized Groups

Using the Navigation Bar

Personalizing the Page

Other SAP S/4HANA Cloud Enablement Assets

Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast

openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Your Voice Matters!

More Information:

** Team FPM ** ABAP Push Channel for FPM Events - Enhancing the user experience with a delivery type

Basis Monitoring & Tcodes with Key notes

Newly released! The much awaited SAP Sales Cloud V2 course and certification

When will we leave cave painting behind us?

Navigating the AI Landscape: A UX Designer's Guide

Card UI Design in a Business Context: A New System for Mobile Apps by SAP

What is so special about card UI design?

Using cards in an enterprise context

A new approach to display your business app’s content

Design along various use cases

Testing it regularly

How to use it

Epilogue

Latest benefits enrollment experience in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

New Asynchronous Export to Spreadsheet Feature for the Multidimensional Data Grid Apps

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

Structure of the My Home - main components

My Home - Building Blocks and Technical Components

How to enable My Home

Step 1: 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

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

Configuring SAP CI/CD pipeline for Deploying ReactJS application in Cloud Foundry

We don't need any help! This product is super intuitive!

Well, we've heard the excuses...

Why do we need help?

What is User Assistance, anyway?

🗒 Note: you can select any of the images to enlarge them. Now that's helpful! 😀

User Assistance developers ARE the user

AI and Bots can only do so much

Content is king

Listen to your users

About the Author

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Finding business process improvements with SAP Signavio

Good news! SAP S/4HANA offers LOTS of standard functionality ‘’Out of the box’’ content, including:

Even more good news! There is now new and improved tooling so you can learn where to start with SAP Fiori and how to identify which business process improvements will bring you new business value.

SAP Signavio Process Navigator is a free service that is integrated into SAP for Me to provide access to the following:

Conclusion: You now have enough information to plan for and implement the SAP Fiori apps that will bring business process improvements.

SAP Signavio Process Insights is a process analytics solution that helps YOU rapidly discover areas for improvement and automation within your SAP business processes.

Becoming an SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

FPM Team: Transport of BICS Bookmarks and SEARCH UIBB Views

SAP Event Mesh vs. SAP Integration Suite, Advanced Event Mesh

Blast Off! UI5 Web Components 2.0 is Now Live!

UI5 Tooling 4.0

UI5 Tooling 4.0

Node.js and npm Requirements

Specification Version 4.0

UI5 2.x

Steps to create CBO tile in SAP BAS :
1. Launch the SAP Business Application Studio from the Cloud Cockpit

Team FPM How to render an FPM Overview Page to look like a SAP Fiori Object Page

Team FPM ABAP Push Channel for FPM Events - Enhancing the user experience with a delivery type