App Support for the SAP Fiori Launchpad

[the_tobias]

As a former inhouse consultant I found it challenging sometimes to maintain and support apps in the SAP Fiori launchpad, especially when I was new to the topic and had little training in this area. In general checking the settings of an app, in terms of user authorization, configuration and customizing can be pretty time consuming.

Luckily now the SAP Fiori launchpad plug-in App Support can help you troubleshoot some of the most common problems that might occur for an app, most prominently authorization issues on the front-end or back-end server. This might prove especially useful during the initial implementation phase of an app.

App support is available for SAP S/4HANA as part of the SAP_UI component from the following versions:

• SAP_UI 7.54 SP06 in S/4HANA 1909 SP04 or Frontend Server 6.0 SP04 


• SAP_UI 7.55 SP02 in S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 or Frontend Server 2020 SP01 


• SAP_UI 7.56 in S/4HANA 2021 or Frontend Server 2021

Please note, this information is the current status of planning and subject to change. In the following post, I will describe the basic functions and sections of App Support.

How to start App Support

Depending on your setup, you can start App Support directly from within the app you want to check. Simply navigate from the user actions menu:

Start App Support from the user menu

If it is not displayed in the user actions menu, refer to the setup information here:
https://help.sap.com/docs/ABAP_PLATFORM_NEW/a7b390faab1140c087b8926571e942b7/2fb0c6924bc346e5a25d975...


Also note, that App Support is currently not available on the home screen of the launchpad. 

If you are more of a hands-on person, feel free to stop reading here and give the tool a spin. It is fairly straight forward and it is not possible to break anything with it. Otherwise continue reading for a more detailed explanation of the various areas of the plug-in.

Overview

After the dialog opens you will see a menu on the left-hand side. The structure and contents of the menu highly depend on the inspected app, your landscape and your authorizations. For example it would be possible to only have the menu option Authorization Errors for several back-end servers.

The App Information section provides information on the app context

In addition, you are prompted that log messages have been identified for your user. You may download these logs in a spreadsheet format and send them to the next level of support, for example a user admin.

Front-End/ Back-End Server Checks

The top-level menu options are relevant for the servers of the app in question. On these menu options you'll find various checks on the app configuration. This might turn out quite helpful during the setup phase of an app. When there is a warning icon leading the menu option, you should better look into the checks. In this example the OData service is inactive for the corresponding app:

OData Service inactive on Front-End Server

The checks depend on the app type and are not the same for each app. For example, it would not make sense to look for OData services in a WebDynpro app but checking the NWBC ICF service might provide important insights.

Logs in General

Each error menu option displays directly the amount of log entries in the corresponding view. Depending on your authorizations, all logs can display the messages for your own user, or for any other user. Simply change the name in the User field. In addition, it is possible to navigate to the log transactions following the link next to the User:

Change user or navigate to transaction ST22

Each log basically represents a transaction in the corresponding system. Authorization errors will display the same results as transaction SU53, Gateway Errors represent /IWFND/ERROR_LOG, back-end errors are /IWBEP/ERROR_LOG and runtime errors correspond to ST22.

Summary

While App Support does not really contain "new" checks and insights, it can be a real time-saver, when it comes to troubleshooting. You don't have to figure out which systems are involved and then go through various transactions. App Support combines the most important information required for analyzing apps in the SAP Fiori launchpad.

Important Notes

For apps using OData v4, please refer to SAP Notes 3392675 (from S/4 HANA 2022) and 3319530 (before S/4 HANA 2022).

For Questions and Answers on SAP Fiori – please see the SAP Community Q&A area and feel free to post your own questions.

I hope you found this blog post helpful – feel free to leave comments and feedback, you can follow the SAP Fiori Launchpad tag to receive updates on blog posts here.

[luis_sismeiro]

Hi Tobias!

Thank you for this blog.

Can you provide more documentation about the functionality? Direct links for the app?

I'm working with S/4HANA 2020, and this app could be very usefull.

Best Regards.

[the_tobias]

Hi Luis,

Sorry, yes there will be more documentation available after the planned RTC on the 24th of February. I'll add some links in the article, as soon as it is available.

Best regards,

Tobias

[luis_sismeiro]

Thank you for the reply.

Good job.

BR

[athreya_sj]

Hello Tobias,

Thanks for the information, it could be quite useful for us already. Are the relevant documents available now ? We could not find any links or references for "If it is not displayed in the user actions menu, refer to the setup information at help.sap.com".

we really want to use this feature but unfortunately cant get our hands on any documentation.
Thanks in advance.

BR,
Pavan

[TommyM]

Hi Tobias,

we have the same problems as Pavan. We're already on 2020 FPS1 and have activated the recommended FLP Plugin. But no success. In the user actions menu this functionality is missing.

 

What can be done to solve that?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

BR

Tommy

[wenjie_he]

HI

When i open this app,the issue shows 'Unable to get RFC destination for UI5 application.'

[the_tobias]

Hi Tommy,

Sorry for the late reply. The documentation on setting up App Support is now available at
https://help.sap.com/viewer/a7b390faab1140c087b8926571e942b7/202009.001/en-US/04bc7b47932f4e689f7911...

Best regards,

Tobias

[the_tobias]

Hi Wenjie,

This indicates, that the inspected app is not correctly configured. Usually this message is related to the OData Service not being available. For further information, please check the documentation here:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/265ae41071e34a8ea98c39acb9056ffb/7.2.07/en-US/555e098cf54d4fa1e10000000a...

Best regards,

Tobias

 

[RBETRICH]

Hi Tobias,

 

from my point of view this is a huge step to bring "Fiori design" closer to the technical experts and to get rid of some steps / ui`s while trying to solve technical problems / to help your users to get their work done.

Nevertheless, there are a view things that could be improved. Most of them are related to the different sources and the steps to get the app "up and running".

For the App itself, I got the situation, that the UI reported that there are Problems, but after having a look at the download, I just got some lines hat have been marked as "information".

What's your preferred way to solve that issues? Raising tickets, I suggest?

Thanks,
Rainer

 

[the_tobias]

Hi Rainer,

Thanks for sharing your experience with App Support. Due to performance reasons the status message is quite generic. Only in case you also notice problems or functional restrictions it makes sense to download the logs.

For your specific case it might make sense to open a ticket, in case you think something should be displayed, but I'm not sure how the support team will reply.

Best regards,
Tobias

[RBETRICH]

HI Tobias,

in that specific case I would like to have "no hint or message" because even the logs have no additional value, especially if I use the app as an admin who is allowed to see the "errors" of other users.

Best Regards,

Rainer

Update 2021/07/07: the support team fixed that issue with sap note 3053480

[karthikkuttuva]

Hello Tobias,

Thanks for your post.

I have a scenario with FIORI Tile is been configured in Launchpad to call ME21 Transaction SAP GUI screen.

We are in the process of collecting all possible error messages ( Data handling, Customizing error messages, Organizational error messages(MM related information) etc ).

So will this App support Tool pulls even functional error messages(in this case it is MM) with error category.

Please comment on the same.

[the_tobias]

Hello Karthik,

At the moment App Support does not collect application or module specific logs apart from the ones mentioned above. Fortunately the application was designed to be extendible in this regard. Please take a look at Enhancement Spot /UI2/ADE_DATASOURCE.

Each menu item is represented by its own BAdI, so it should be possible (with moderate development effort), to provide the required information through a customer specific BAdI.

Best regards,
Tobias

[RBETRICH]

Hi Tobias,

thanks for mentioning the Enhancement Spot as this information is not available via the online documentation on help.sap.com or in the Fiori apps library.

Kind regards,

Rainer

[gregorw]

Hello Tobias,

is it planned to provide App Support tool in the SAP BTP Portal / Launchpad service?

Best Regards
Gregor

[the_tobias]

Hi Gregor,

Currently there are no plans, as far as I am aware. It would definitely be a useful service in BTP.

Best regards,
Tobias

[gregorw]

Hi Tobias,

can you confirm that App Support should be available in Frontend Server 6.0 SP04? We've updated to that Support Package and activated App Support. But when we call the application then we see this error messages in the Pop-Up:

Method 'MENUENTITYSET_GET_ENTITYSET' not implemented in data provider class.
Method 'USERLISTSET_GET_ENTITYSET' not implemented in data provider class.

 

I've searched for the App Support Notes applicable for that SP and found 10. But I already have an issue implementingSAP Note 301996 due to "Delete block (not found)" warning. I've filed incident 911285 / 2021 on this. Hope you can provide some further guidance.

Best Regards
Gregor

 

[the_tobias]

Hi Gregor,

Yes, App Support should be available from Frontend Server 6.0 SP04. Thank you for bringing this up, maybe a dependency is missing in your system, which has not been identified yet. Please follow up in the incident for further information.

Best regards,
Tobias

[gregorw]

Hi Tobias,

I would like to inform you that the implementation of SAP Note 3053480 - App Support: Excel text and warning strip correction solved the issues:

Method 'MENUENTITYSET_GET_ENTITYSET' not implemented in data provider class.
Method 'USERLISTSET_GET_ENTITYSET' not implemented in data provider class.

Best Regards
Gregor

[the_tobias]

Hi Gregor,

Great! Thank you for sharing.

Best regards,
Tobias

[sascha_weidlich2]

Hi the_tobias ,

sorry to bring this old blog back to life again. 🙂

Are there any plans to provide support for OData-V4 Services when using App-Support? Right now if you are using an OData-V4 Service inside your App, the App Support will raise an Error "Unable to get RFC destination for UI5 application." because it is only compatible with v2 services.

Best regards,

Sascha

[the_tobias]

Hi Sascha,

No problem 🙂 , actually OData-V4 is currently planned for a next version and unfortunately not supported as of now. In case you're interested in the feature, we would also be interested in some feedback for the next version. If possible, please reach out to me via personal message.

Best regards,
Tobias

[former_member807864]

Hallo Tobias,

ich habe das Tool nach deiner Anleitung bereits bei unseren Systemen und einigen Kundensystemen implementiert. Heute habe ich das Problem bekommen, dass fiorisierte Transaktionen nicht in diesem Plug In auftauchen.

Gibt es hier ähnliche Erfahrungen?

Viele Grüße

Stefan

[gregorw]

Hallo Stefan,

meinst Du mit "fiorisiert" Transaktionen die über den SAP GUI for HTML bzw. als WebDynpro ausgeliefert werden?

Grüße
Gregor

[former_member807864]

Hallo Gregor,

ne, damit meine ich Transaktionen, die die SAP noch nicht als Fiori Apps rausgebracht hat, und die aber im Launchpad als Kacheln genutzt werden sollen.

Grüße

Stefan

[the_tobias]

Hallo Stefan,

WebGUI Transaktionen sollten eigentlich auch unterstützt werden, also wenn die SAP GUI Transaktion über den webgui service aufgerufen wird. Das sollte auch für selbst erstellt Kacheln möglich sein, wenn diese richtig eingestellt wurden. Das funktioniert in der Regel, wenn in der Transaktion /UI2/FLPCM_CUST für die Kachel in der Spalte 'Application Type' GUI steht.

Wurde die Kachel anders als wie in diesem Blog Beitrag eingerichtet?
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/12/21/open-your-sap-gui-transaction-in-fiori-launchpad/

Viele Grüße
Tobias

[former_member807864]

Hallo Tobias,

die erstellten Fioris sind im Content-Manager als GUI gekennzeichnet. Ich habe aktuell z.b. auch die Herausforderung, dass ich in einem Entwicklungssystem sowohl die Front-Server als auch die Backend-Server angezeigt bekomme (berechtigt über SAP_ALL).

Wenn ich jetzt auf dem Kundensystem, ebenfalls SAP_ALL, das ganze nachstelle, dann sehe ich nur den Frontend-Server. Es wurden alle Services und OData komplett gleich eingerichtet.

Selbst der Release-Stand ist identisch.

Aber insgesamt ein Tool, dass mir meine Arbeit deutlich erleichtert.

[mkoch_wu]

A more general question. Some of my team members likened "App Support" to the often-used SU53 transaction, which gives you visibility of the auth buffers and checks in SAP GUI. I know that this app goes beyond that.

In our own implementation, we were wondering whether it would make sense for users to have access to this app, too. Given that the app is assigned via the FIORI_FOUNDATION_ADMIN composite role, I'd guess that this is not the intended use by SAP.

Could you maybe comment on this? What is your experience? Have you seen customers who used the app as part of a bespoke end user role in order to help resolving support issues?

Thank you!

Michael

[the_tobias]

Hello Michael,

Thanks for reaching out. Actually there is a clear intention for App Support to be used by End-Users or Key-Users as well. There are already some authorization recommendations for PFCG role SAP_FLP_USER. For more details on the setup, please also see this article:
https://blogs.sap.com/2021/03/11/how-to-identify-authorization-errors-in-the-sap-fiori-launchpad/

I hope this is able to help you with the setup. The App Support tool was designed to be part of the troubleshooting and problem analysis process (also in the early steps). But of course it really depends on the company setup, if users should be able to display their SU53 errors.

Best regards,
Tobias

[saritaagrawal59]

Hello,

 

For the Odata V4 service, I am getting below error, is there any configuration I missed ?

Thanks

Sarita

[gregorw]

Hi the_tobias,

I hope that the answer is: Install the next Service Pack and not create an Influencing request.

Best Regards
Gregor

[the_tobias]

Hi Sarita,

Unfortunately, OData v4 apps aren't supported until S/4 HANA 2023 or SAP_UI 7.58. Before this release please refer to SAP Note 3319530

Lower versions are currently being evaluated, I will provide an update here, when release scope is finalized. Could you please also share the SAP_UI version you have currently installed?

Best regards,
Tobias

[the_tobias]

Hi Gregor,

Yes, you are right we have already been working on the topic as OData v4 has been around for some time. So no need for an influencing request.

Best regards,
Tobias

[saritaagrawal59]

Thank you Tobias for you response.

For the note link provided by you, I am getting below error, can you please confirm once ?

Also the information you asked :

and

 

Thanks

Sarita

[the_tobias]

Hi Sarita,

Sorry about that, I've updated the link with the correct Note. From the information provided, it seems you will be able to implement the Note for oData v4 support. I'll provide an update in this blog as soon as it is ready for implementation.

Best regards,
Tobias

[saritaagrawal59]

Thank you so much Tobias.!

[the_tobias]

Hello Sarita,

Please refer to SAP Note 3392675 regarding the support of OData version 4 apps.

Best regards,
Tobias