How to use SAP NetWeaver Business Client and SAP Screen Personas together
Users of SAP Screen Personas often ask if they can use this solution with NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC). The short answer is yes, NWBC and Personas are complementary but there ARE limitations. For more details, see the SAP Note 2080071 .
However, if you are interested in consuming Personas flavors in SAP BC, read on.
Some common questions include:
- Do Personas and NWBC work together?
- Is there a difference between NWBC for Desktop and NWBC for HTML?
- What are the limitations?
- What about the side panel?
If you are reading this post, I’m guessing that you know about the benefits of Personas, and of NWBC, and you want to know how well they work together. (If not, see NWBC (video), NWBC Overview (slide deck), and Personas (SCN Wiki)). So I’m going to answer each of these questions in turn.
First of all: Yes, they really work together. This is a screenshot of my own effort. I’ve taken the simplest transaction (SU01); given my flavor an imaginative name (JP_TEST_SU01_WPFCG); then added a background image, some colors, and a Launch… button. If you have eagle eyes, you’ll also see that this is not read-only – you really can post-edit a flavor in NWBC ;-).
How does this work?
Integrating a Personas 3.0 flavor in NWBC
As of SAP Screen Personas 3.0, Service Pack 1, integrating Flavors in NWBC is even easier than 2.0. This is because rendering is now done on the server. For more details, see Peter Spielvogel’s blog:
SAP Screen Personas 3.0 is generally available…
How exactly to integrate a 3.0 flavor in NWBC is covered excellently in this blog on the SCN Wiki by Tobias Queck:
Configuring NWBC to use SAP Screen Personas 3.0
The two flavors: NWBC for Desktop and NWBC for HTML
NWBC (for Desktop) is free to download and is installed locally. NWBC for HTML is a zero footprint client with no installer – to use it, you activate a node in the ICF. SAP Screen Personas 2.0 is a single download with a single installation process that installs both products. But, once installed, the products run independently and do not interact.
In both cases, there are two separate products that serve two different use cases. The 2 flavors of NWBC correspond to the two flavors of SAP GUI
- NWBC for Desktop embeds SAP GUI for Windows. NWBC for Desktop is fully functional and is intended for expert or everyday users of SAP GUI.
- Personas 2.0 Silverlight is intended for SAP GUI for Windows users who want to improve usability
- NWBC for HTML consumes SAP GUI for HTML, which works with SAP Screen Personas 2.0 HTML. NWBC for HTML is the zero-footprint, Web-based flavor with some limitations, and is intended for occasional users. Since this is completely browser-based, Personas screens just appear as any other web-based content.
So there is a pretty good fit regarding to the two use cases.
Side Panel
I hope to add more details about this soon. For the moment, check out this discussion thread: NWBC Side Panel and SAP Screen Personas
Integrating a Personas 2.0 flavor in NWBC
This is legacy, but may still be relevant.You basically need a short link, which you can then add to a PFCG role – either as a URL (Web Address or File) or within a BSP application. I’ll go into both these options below. I’m assuming you feel comfortable with both. (If not, see the SAP Library help – SAP Screen Personas, and ABAP Role Maintenance (PFCG) for NWBC).
- Start by creating a SAP Screen Personas flavor as normal. When you are happy, save and exit.
- Now you need to create the short link:
- Launch the transaction /Persos/admin_ui
- From the left panel, choose Short Link Maintenance.
- Enter the transaction code, system, and flavor; then choose Get Short Link. I then copied the whole link to Notepad for convenience.
- Now you need to embed the flavor in an existing role. Make sure you have created a role and assigned it to your user in PFCG. Open this role and switch to the menu tab.
- You have 2 options:
-
- Web Address or File – this is the simpler option. However, I don’t recommend it, except perhaps for testing purposes: Tthe flavor will appear read-only in NWBC – you will not be able to edit it. In the Web Address or File field, paste the whole link – in the form:
<server:port_no.>/sap/bc/bsp/persos/mainapp/nwbc.html?link=005056830EDB1ED3A6AA8ED7565FB63A&sap-client=001&frameless=false
NOTE: The original link you have copied from the Personas admin transaction will be “…index.html…”. Make sure you change this to “nwbc.html”. Also include the parameter “frameless=false” – so the flavor appears in the NWBC shell, not standalone):
-
- BSP application – this option allows you to edit this flavor in the Personas Editor in NWBC. There is an existing BSP application you can use – /PERSOS/MAINAPP. Paste the GUID of the link in the form 005056830EDB1ED3A6AA8ED7565FB63A :
5. Save the role. Refresh the navigation tree, by choosing Ctrl+Help > Extended Supportability -> Cleanup -> Reload naigation tree from server.
6. Now test the link. You should see something like the shot above.
(Thanks to Tobias Queck for this really useful blog: How to Render Flavors in SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC)).
Limitations in Personas 2.0
There are some myths about this. In fact, at present, there are two main limitations:
- The flavor is always system-specific, so transporting the flavors from the DEV to productive system is a pain – This is the big one. One thing to bear in mind though, is that Personas already has a mechanism for transporting groups, flavors, and media files from one system to another (See the SAP Library: Transport Objects ). So you can do 90% of the work on flavors, groups, and files in your development system, then transport them once you’re happy, then embed them in PFCG roles.
HOWEVER, this means that someone has to edit the role in the PRD system. One possible approach is to split your authorization roles from your navigation roles. One of our major customers considered this, but decided to wait. (Note that this does not answer the question: What happens after a system copy/refresh?)
In Personas 3.0 (for SAP GUI for Windows), however, Personas is a separate, native, implementation. Therefore, there is no need to wrap a flavor in a BSP. This means that the links are not broken, so the issue will be resolved. Currently, this version of Personas is in beta.
- Quicklaunch always brings up the default, not the Persona-flavored transaction. The workaround is to embed all your flavors in PFCG roles. This should also be resolved in Personas 3.0 for SAP GUI for Windows.
The following have been flagged as limitations, but actually work fine:
- If I navigate from one persona-fied transaction (including SMEN) to another in NWBC, the 2nd transaction opens standalone – not true.
- The Editor doesn’t work in NWBC the Personas flavor is read-only – as we have seen, this is true only if you embed the flavor as a URL. The Editor works fine in the BSP application.
And that’s basically it.
Hi Julia,
thanks for a good blog, it gives a nice overview of the possibility to use screen personas in HTML. I have managed to use the Personas for HTML in the NWBC for desktop by pasting the webgui link directly into a url in a PFCG role. This works however it does complain about launching SAP GUI for HTML.
You mention this in your blog
Quicklaunch always brings up the default, not the Persona-flavored transaction. The workaround is to embed all your flavors in PFCG roles.
When you fire transactions in the quick launch bar in NWBC, i can't see how you are able to point this to the flavors from screen personas, is this correct? otherwise it would be great to enlighten us about that workaround 🙂
Hi, Yes you are correct - you cannot (at present) point to a flavor - you always get the default transaction. By workaround, I simply meant that you can access flavors by embedding them in roles.
Best wishes,
Julie.
Dear Julia,
I would like to ask a question. We can make use of Personas to customise a ECC GUI based screen. Can we use Personas to customise NWBC screen which the look and feel is not OK?
Thanks
Ivan
Hi Ivan,
Do you want background images, colors, etc for shell pages, like this:
The tool for that is not Personas, it's UI theme designer. You need NWBC 4.0, PL7, plus UI add-on. See this blog for more details:
Patch Level 7 Now Available
The advantage of theme designer is that all your themes are reusable, unlike (I think?) Personas.
Is that what you meant?
Best wishes,
Julie.
Hey Julie,
thanks for the learning curve in your blog. I can recommend the UI Theme Designer for NWBC.
But here goes my question - that I try to solve since years in NWBC: How to get a Customer Logo to brand the NWBC?
I am good community searcher and found many related comments that in the classy NWBC this is not really doable - i tried some of the recommendatins to tweak ... that all did not work.
Now, i found that the UI Theme Designer has a setting for bringin in a customer logo (see below) ... but while the background picture works nicely in NWBC then ... the customer logo does not.
Any hint ....?
Markus
Hi Markus,
Several hints:
It has been possible for a long time to integrate a company logo in NWBC (visualized in NWBC for Desktop 3.x and NWBC for HTML at the bottom of the navigation panel, in NWBC for Desktop 4.0 on the Index and New Tab page). For more information, have a look at the description of configuration parameter BRANDING_IMAGE in the documentation:
In addition, you can now set the company logo using the Theme Designer. NWBC for Desktop 4.0 will be able to integrate this image with the upcoming PL13 (release expected end of this or next week). There are also expert parameters to set the size of the logo as well as header margins. To be able to use these, you need an update of the Theme Designer backend resources (next UI Add-On SP09).
Best regards,
Claudia
Hello,
After doing some testing, I would like to add one 'major' limitation to using Personas inside NWBC (4.0) that I found.
There is a field property called IsLocalHistoryEnabled which makes the field remember previously entered values, a basic functionality in SAP GUI.
This property works fine when using Screen Personas inside the browser, but does not seem to work when using it inside of NWBC (when closing the tab and restarting the transaction).
Is someone able to confirm my findings?
Dear Julia ,
is it working with sap business client 5 and sap personas 2 ,that's what i have, ?
Regards
Hi Ghadeer,
Yes NWBC 5.0 and SAP Screen Personas 2.0 work together. However the limitation mentioned above (you should, for security's sake, split your roles into authorization roles and business roles) still applies. This issue will not be resolved until SAP Screen Personas 3.0 for Windows , which is still in beta as far as I know.
For more information re availability of Personas versions, please see the Personas SCN space (link above):
Best wishes Julie R Plummer.
Hi Julie - we are trying to increase the size of the logo display area as our customer's logo is currently getting "chopped off" to be the same size of the standard SAP Logo. Our logo is 66 pixels high and 137 pixels wide.
We are on NWBC 5.0 PL2, and are using UI Theme Designer together with NWBC backend config but cannot find the parameters where logo size is specified.
Any advice please?
Many thanks,
Eloise
Hi Eloise,
It’s not clear from your description which logo you are referring to.
Do you mean this one?
If so, then this is not specified in theme designer. Rather it is part of the old NWBC configuration.
THe docu for that is here:
Definition of Configuration Parameters with Table NWBC_CFG - User Interface Add-On for SAP NetWeaver - SAP Library
Or do you mean a different logo?
If so, could you please supply a screen shot?
HTH Julie.
Hi Eloise,
If your question goes towards the logo shown in Julie's screenshot, I need to revise her answer. In my comment in this thread from April 30, 2014, I sketched the different options for changing the logo. One is NWBC configuration in the backend, the other is specifying a company logo in the theme designer.
If you choose the second one, you can change the area that is available on the Index and New Tab page, in the Expert Theming for these pages:
Best regards,
Claudia
Thank you Claudia!
We managed to find the Expert Parameters toggle button in the Theme Designer earlier which allowed us to access and change the logo size parameters. It is not labelled as "Expert" but rather has an icon that was not intuitive initially.
Hi Julie,
We are using NWBC 5.0 + Personas 3.0.
We want to transport the PFCG roles to QA system. Issue is Personas web address link has - server details. Do we need to edit web address link in all PFCG roles in each system if we want deploy them ? Please help!
Best Regards,
Uday
Hi Uday,
I am sorry for the long delay. However, you need to post this question on the SAP GUI Community Space:
SAP GUI
Best wishes,
Julie.
Hello Julie,
Could you please let me know how to configure Business Client 6.0 for Screen Personas 3.0
Thanks & Regards,
Bhavin
Hi Bhavin,
You should not have to configure anything specific for the SAP BC-Personas combination.
IF your SAP GUI for Windows transactions are working in SAP BC, and if your Personas flavors are working fine in SAP GUI for Windows stand-alone, then you should be able to consume the Personas flavors in SAP BC.
The easiest way to test that everything is working is to assign the desired Personas flavor as default flavor in the Personas Editor - in a sandbox system, of course.
Then open SAP BC. Enter the transaction in the OK-Code field.
If this works, then you can assign different flavours to different variants, as in the tutorial by Tobias Queck above.
HTH Julie.
Hello Julie,
Thanks for the answer. I will try this way.
Thanks & Regards,
Bhavin