SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) 5.0 : Released!
Yes, finally SAP NWBC 5.0 is available!
Prerequisites
Software
- Microsoft .NET 4.5 – if necessary, available here: Download Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 (Offline Installer) for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows Ser…
- Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012. Note: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 is included in NWBC 5.0. If you do not have this, it is automatically installed with NWBC 5.0.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0, 9.0, 10 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 for the desktop. If higher versions can be used, this will be published in SAP PAM (Product Availability Matrix), product instance Frontend
- SAP GUI for Windows 7.40 This is part of the common installer with NWBC 5.0. NWBC 5.0 is not supported with SAP GUI 7.30. (Corollary to the above: NWBC 4.0 and NWBC 5.0 can run on the same front end, but SAP GUI 7.30 and 7.40 are exclusive.)
Hardware
- For desktop installations, the same requirements apply as for SAP GUI installations. For more information, see Note 26417.
- We recommend at least 1 GB of memory. The actual memory consumption depends on the number of windows that are open.
- We recommend a minimum screen size of 1024×768, but larger if possible.
Relevant SAP Notes
Software, operating system and browser requirements as well as restrictions are listed in SAP Note 2066345. Planned release dates for the next patch can be found in SAP Note 2023658.
Documentation
SAP Help Portal: NetWeaver UI Add-Ons 1.0: SAP NetWeaver Business Client
Download and Installation
Download from Service Marketplace:
http://service.sap.com/installations
-> A – Z Index -> “N” -> NETWEAVER BUSINESS CLIENT -> NWBC NW BUSINESS CLIENT 5.0 -> Installation:
You will see two options:
Generally, we strongly recommend that you choose the first option (in red), since this offers you the joint installer with both NWBC and SAP GUI (which is kind of the point 😉 ). (The other option is intended mainly for testing or patching purposes).
What’s New
Well mainly, if you install NWBC 5.0 and open it up, it looks remarkably similar to 4.0. This is because most of the interesting new developments are under the hood. We’ve tried to minimize disruption for end users be keeping most of the visual idioms of 4.0 – Corbu theme, tabbed browsing, etc – and focused this time on installation and configuration. So – what exactly has changed?
Common installer
The first thing you may have noticed is that you only download one installation file for both SAP GUI 7.40 and NWBC 5.0 – SetupAll.exe. BTW, once you open this file up, there are still checkboxes for each component – so you can still patch one component without the other, or just install one for testing purposes:
Common infrastructure
Before, you had to create system connections for NWBC manually – even if you had already created these connections in the SAPLogon pad. Now, SAP
GUI/SAPLogon for Windows , SAP GUI for Java and NWBC all share their system connection information. There are just two files: admin and user.
So now, if you create a new system in NWBC, the system reconciles this automatically:
One access point to all systems regardless of release
NWBC 4.0 (and earlier) required all systems to be 7.0 or later. NWBC 5.0 consumes content from all SAP ABAP systems – 6.20, 4.6C etc. (See the documentation for a complete list of system requirements.: SAP Library: NWBC Versions .
Much tighter SAP GUI integration:
These are arguably smaller features taken individually but together they add up to a much more closely integrated desktop client, so that the number of reasons for choosing SAP GUI standalone over NWBC is dramatically reduced:
-
GUI transactions always open in NWBC tabs – in 4.0, if you opened one transaction from another (eg to display a role from User Maintenance (SU01), the new transaction opened in standalone SAP GUI. Now, it opens in a new tab.
-
SAP Shortcuts open in NWBC tabs – that is, these:
-
Stop transaction from context menu of tab – you could always access this function from the menu of a stand-alone SAP GUI window. Now, it ‘s also on the context menu of the tab hosting the SAP GUI session.
-
Use SAP GUI theme – In SAP GUI 7.3 standalone (Signature theme), you could set different color themes for different systems – eg to distinguish between ERP and HCM, or DEV and PRD. In the NWBC Corbu theme, these color systems were lost. Now you can retain them:
Other features:
- Easy entry – In 4.0, the default entry page was the index page. Now you can choose between: Index page, first pinned tab, New Tab page, First Work Center Page (eg Page Builder entry page, or Power List (POWL)). The Work Center title is now a live link, so you can open the work center entry page / POWL without having to open the work center.
- Favorites – you can now structure favorites in folders (and sub-folders) and manage your structure using drag and drop:
- Side Panel – we’ve made the side panel symbol more more obvious (just for you, Simon Kemp 😉 ). Also, you can personalize your settings so that the side panel opens by default (if available) when you open a new tab.
In summary, For the first time, SAP NetWeaver Business Client and SAP GUI are released in step, with one common installer and infrastructure, and much tighter integration. For more information on the new SAP GUI 7.40 release, see the following blog :
Announcing SAP GUI 7.40: New Features
And see the following video: NWBC 5.0
Thanks Julie, well done in getting this out so quickly, I look forward to trying it out soon. I particularly like the Easy Entry, Favourites and of course the bigger Side Panel button 🙂
Fantastic news and keen to see this in action soon.
Thanks a lot! will try the installation tomorrow afternoon after the FIORI/Personas-presentation to be held at a customer site...too much to do on the UX-side these days 😉
br
christian
Just in time for my new customer 🙂
Hi everyone,
does anybody else cannot connect to various systems with SAP Gui 7.40?
Cannot be more precise, because I got a lot of different customers and I just got one system located it doesn't work 🙁
With SAPGui 7.30 everything works fine 😕
Do I need to change something on the serverside too?
~Florian
Florian - I didn't change anything and everything works fine. That is strange you are having this issue
Really strange.. I had to uninstall 7.40 because I did not find any solution or even the reason... It is a 7.02 ERP System. 7.30 is working perfect without doing anything to it.
~Florian
Hi Florian,
I have this issue as well. It is because the developers haven't taken into consideration that some users might be using custom applications in their SAP logon pad. The unified NWBC login and GUI in NWBC only works with a group/server selection. I have made SAP aware of this and they said they would correct it.
Hi Jakob,
a moment I thought i'm the only one facing problems with it 😆
Thanks a lot.
~Florian
Great job, great blog... keep going Julie 🙂
Great news.
I've installed it already and it looks great.
What is the MAC strategy? Any news on a really functional GUI for MAC? (apart from the GUI for JAVA that doesn't even have NWBC or screen painter)
Thanks
Hi Leonardo,
Currently, for NWBC Desktop, we cannot provide support for operating systems other than Windows. Microsoft provides an IE control, which is used for displaying all Web-based content (ie non-SAP GUI content). NWBC is also tied to IE security settings. For this reason, broadening support to include other browsers would be extremely
resource-intensive, effectively ruling out Mac support for the foreseeable future.
Sorry about that,
Julie R Plummer.
Hi,
Has anyone used this with the central connections file yet?
For Example: NwbcremoteOptions.xml points to a centrally located nwbcoptions.xml file.
As the connections files are now SAPUILansdcape.xml & SAPUILandscapeGlobal.xml should I be centrally locating these files and amending the path in our NwbcRemoteOptions.xml file?
I did some testing by copying in the previous NWBCOptions.xml into users profile and they were successfully converted to the new file type.
Thanks
Daren
Hmmm
Initially I had quite some trouble getting my SAPlogon.ini migrated.
After migration all SID's had disappeared. (not that I need them to login though)
Now I'm facing a new issue.
when I use NWBC to open up a ABAP-server NWBC connection (/sap/bc/ui2/nwbc/) my navigation tree is not loaded
When I try this manually via the browser, I get an empty XML
<host:port>/sap/bc/ui2/nwbc/~api/getnavigationtrees gives
In the NWBC, I get an error message
Whereas I know, that I have quite an extensive menu (it used to work in NWBC4)
any ideas?
Edit:
solved. apparently I had been clicking on checkboxes I shouldn't have clicked...
PHew! Glad you got that solved Tom . To everyone else, I'm out of office now till Momday, but I will try to be on here more from now on.
BEst wishes Julie
Looking forward to trying it out!
So with v5.0 is Windows 8.1 now supported? I can't find it in PAM specifically.
Hi John,
Not yet. We will be implementing this in a future patch. Several customers have asked about this.
As soon as that patch is available, I will announce it here.
Best wishes
Julie R Plummer.
Actually, I'm running it on a windows 8.1 on daily usage.
Although I must say it crashes frequently on NetWeaver 7.0 systems. More precisely in the developer workbench, when I try to open an object source code with the new front-end editor.
If I stick to the old front-end editor, it works fine.
On NetWeaver 7.02, 7.31 and 7.40, no issues.
Well, that is apart from the issues (and fixes) I already documented over here
Hi Tom, That's good to know. However, as you no doubt are aware, this does not yet mean that 8.1 is supported ;-). I will let you all know as soon as it is supported.
Just fyi, everyone.
Julie
I just installed and tested it and in my opinion this is a giant step forward in exactly the right direction! Very well done!
I had one issue installing though: I got SAPGUI 7.40 from the Software Corner, but somehow could not install NWBC 5.0 with it. I then installed the NWBC using the download from Service Marketplace.
Did I overlook something? I thought there would be also a common installer available in th Software Corner.
Best regards,
Marc
Hi Marc, No, NWBC 5.0 is not yet in SW Corner. To be on the safe side, if you have any problems at all, can you please deinstall your separate 5.0 and 7.40, and then reinstall from the SetupAll.exe from Service Marketplace? Just to make sure your registry settings etc are complete. This is just if you have any problems.
Otherwise, I am glad you like it.
Best wishes, Julie R Plummer.
OK, thanks for the info!
Best regards,
Marc
Hi Marc,
As Julie says this worked fine for me.
First if not already installed, install .NET 4.5.
Then run 'SetupAll.exe' from the following media location
50127120_6\BD_NW_7.0_Presentation_7.40_Comp._1_\PRES1\GUI\WINDOWS\WIN32
Select SAP NetWeaver Business Client 5.0 from the very top of the component list as well as the GUI components you require.
Kind Regards,
John
Does anyone know when PL3 is actually available and what changes are included? It was announced with note 2023658 for KW46 (10-14.11.2014), but in the support portal it is not yet ready (via SW-Download > Installations and Upgrades > A - Z Index > ...)
Best regards,
Marc
Guys, Any idea on when SP1 will be available (for the GUI)?
I love the new interface and NWBC integration, but I am having problems opening ABAP editor. It hangs.
I may need to downgrade to 730. ;-(
Leo
Hi everyone,
For NWBC patches: PL3 should be available soon. As soon as it is, we will announce this here, in this space.
For SAP GUI patches, please post in the SAP GUI space; that is the fastest way.
Thanks and best wishes,
Julie R PLummer.
Thank you Julie for the response.
Br,
Marc
Hi Leo,
first: known problems with the ABAP Editor in notes
second: For the release dates for SAP GUI for Windows see note 1053737. SAPGUI 7.40 Patchlevel 1 is expected to be shipped in week 50 (8th - 12th of December 2014)
Best regards,
Marc
Hi,
please see note 2035293 for known and open issues of SAP GUI for Windows.
Best regards,
Daniel
Hi Daniel or everyone,
thank you for the link. Do you know a similar note for NWBC 5.0. I found the note 1378659, but it contains no know or open issues specifically for NWBC 5.0.
Best regards,
Marc
Hi Marc,
I haven't found such a KBA for NWBC.
However, there is three notes I've subscribed in order to stay up to date:
- 2030419 - Patches NWBC 5.0: CLIENT ONLY- SAP NetWeaver Business Client
- 2023658 - SAP NetWeaver Business Client 5.0 expected releases
- 2066345 - NWBC for Desktop 5.0: Prerequisites and restrictions
Best regards,
Daniel
Hello Julie,
I am currently in the process of upgrading to SAP GUI 7.4 from 7.3 for my organisation.
I tested standalone 7.4 and it works perfectly fine similar to 7.3 w/o any issues.
For providing something new on the UI space, i tried installing GUI with NWBC. It gets installed and looks great . But I am facing problem of configurng the system connections. for SAP GUI.
I have saplogon.ini ,sapmsg.ini and services file ready from my SAP GUI 7.3.
How am i supposed to integrate it with NWBC? it says we only have 2 XML files now and i tried doing it that way but no result.
I am new to NWBC space and could not breakthrough.
Creating manual entry also does not help as it throws an error while connecting.
Hope i get some help here?
Thanks,
Deep Desai
Every time I see the use of the drug and drop functionality and this makes me again and again proud in Top Tier (sold to SAP in 2001) and its patented technologies.
Hi all,
We are currently using NWBC 5.0 at a customer and they have requested to display the T-CODE technical name in the service map. It has been activated in personalisation to appear in the side panel, however when we enable Folders within a PFCG role to be a service map, the t-codes within them only display the description within the main panel. Is there a way to concatenate the tcode technical name (similar to how it is done in the side panel) ?
Many thanks,
Cuneyt
Hi Cuneyt,
Sorry about the delay. AFAIK, this is not possible.
Melinda Ludanyi - would you like to add anything?
Best wishes,
Julie R Plummer.
Hi Julie,
Actually I figured this out by debugging the NWBC runtime. If you want the Tcode ID to be displayed in the main window (i.e. on the service maps etc), each user must set their preferences in SAP GUI via Extra's->settings->Display Technical names.
This then allows NWBC runtime to render the main application window for the service maps with the tcode desciprtion + tcode ID. Similar to how it is presented in the Side Panel.
Cheers,
Cuneyt
Hi Cuneyt, Sorry I didn't get back to you in time; it is pretty hectic here. I'm glad you sorted this out.
Best wishes,
Julie.
Hello
I just installed the NWBC 5.0 PL2.
And now Index page is no more displayed, even if in my options I choose Index page as initial page.
Any solution to have this index page with roles ?
Thanks
Xavier
Hi Xavier, Can you provide a screen shot of what you can now see? Thanks Julie.
Hi Julie
Here is the screen shot where Index page is missing.
Hi Xavier,
it seems that you are connected to the system via DIAG and not through HTTP(s). Please keep in mind that with NWBC 5.0 your system selector contains connections from SAP Logon (DIAG) and NWBC (HTTP). The Index Page is only part of the NWBC/HTTP connections were the role information can be retrieved from the backend and rendered into the index and new tab page.
Best Regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas
Thanks !
Hi Julie,
Would it support The Websocket Architecture for Webdynpro Applications?
Regards,
Manish
Hi Manish,
I see no reason why not.
However, this is a question for the Web Dynpro forum.
Please post a new discussion there.
Thanks Julie.
Hi Julie,
When we are using NWBC 5.0, the new session is not displayed in a new tab, but a new window. For example, when displaying a user through SU01 and double click a role, the role detail is shown in a new window, not the a new tab.
In personalize settings, we did not check the checkbox for 'Open session in new window'.
Appreciate for any idea to enable the display of new session in a new tab.
Thanks!
Best regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
the new window seems to be a SAP GUI window and not a NWBC window. That happens for example if the feature of opening a new GUI session within a new NWBC tab is not available. Can you please check your SAP GUI version ? You need to install SAP GUI 7.40.
Best Regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Thanks so much for the feedback!
We are on SAP GUI 7.30 and this should be the root cause of our issue.
Best regards,
Bill
Hi Julie,
when will NWBC 5.0 and SAPGUI 7.40 support Windows 10, do you have details when this will be done?
Best regards,
Marc
Hi Marc,
it's planned for 2016. As soon as we know when, we will announce this here.
Regards,
Sandra
Hi Sandra,
now six months have passed. Are there any new information when NWBC will Support Windows 10. Will it be NWBC 5.x or NWBC 6.x?
We plan a Windows 10 Business-Rollout in Q1 2016 and need NWBC as an SAP-supported Client für W10.
I hope you can help with temporal information.
Best Regards,
Marc
Hi Marc, it will be supported for NWBC 5.0 and BC 6.0! can't give you any dates yet. Regards, Sandra
Hi,
Does anyone else also have problem with NWBC unable to open the SrvConlink.sap directly from the BCP ?
Instead of taking me to the customer system (stfk) it takes me to the NWBC - CSN Inbox -
I have to manually download this "SrvConlink.sap" file and then drag/drop on to NWBC window to open the customer 'service connections' stfk page.
It was working fine when I first installed it, but somehow stopped working now.
Hi Yashwanth,
You will probably get a better response if you create a new discussion thread.
Best wishes Julie.
<<IMPORTANT for NWBC installation using .NET >4.5 ! >>
Hi all,
Just to share with you my troubleshooting tip - it costed me two days!
Download sw as mentioned in the post is OK. But if after you started NWBC, you get err msg "Cannot find .NET 4.5", it is because you are using .Net higher than 4.5.
Do this:
goto http://goo.gl/1HudnV
download NWBC 5.0 PL7. PL7 solves this problem.
Hope this would have been mentioned in the post too.
Br,
Dong Zhu
Thank you Dong Zhu. I am sorry that this cost you 2 days. We always recommend the latest patch, and use it ourselves; this is why the problem was not clear to us.
Best wishes Julie.
Hi Julie,
No problem and thank you for your reply. We are starting to use NWBC as a main tool. No doubt it offers more functionalities. I may seek helps from time to time in this group from now on. 🙂
Br,
Dong
Hi Julie,
Initially, I was working on NWBC 5.0 PL 2 and now I have installed PL 7
After login the Index screen sections looks like below, which is different than the one I used to work on in PL2 or 4.0.
How do I fix it ? Can you please help
Best Regards,
Uday
Resolved it. Reference link Look and feel of Index page in NWBC 5.0 PL7
Hi Julie,
First of all, thank you for your hard work on the NWBC client; it is truly excellent (and I can see it soon replacing the standard SAPGUI for my company's end users).
I'm currently on NWBC 5.0 PL 2 (SAPGUI version 7400.1.0.3301) and I noticed that SAPGUI shortcuts are still being opened in the classic SAPGUI client. Some things to note:
-The SAPGUI shortcuts were created via the NWBC Desktop client
-I've made sure that the "ActivateDesktopAgent" parameter is set to 'True' in the NwbcOptions.xml file. This parameter is mentioned in the following SAP Help Portal URL and I thought this would be the solution for my situation (but it did not work):
Administrator Configuration Tips - User Interface Add-On for SAP NetWeaver - SAP Library
How can I get SAPGUI shortcuts to open in the NWBC Desktop client (ideally in a new tab)? Thank you for any help you can provide!
-Nadir
Hi Nadir, I'd really recommend an upgrade. With 5.0 we are on PL 10. SAP Shortcuts are mapped to SAP Business Client. Depending on a registry entry that is set during installation, it is possible to start an SAP GUI connection directly in SAP Business Client.SAP Business Client shortcuts are based on URLs. Applications addressed in SAP Business Client start-up URLs are opened within an existing SAP Business Client window if the connection matches the user. A new shortcut is opened in a new window. If you re-open a shortcut, it is opened on a new tab within the same window.
The desktop agent is activated by default. It starts when the first NWBC instance is opened and is terminated with the last NWBC instance.
I've just reproduced what you wrote within my system (PL 10) it works fine for me. Please check the parameter again. If it wont work you'l have to open a message.
Shortcut for SU01 (German) to be open as a new tab within NWBC.
Regards,
Sandra
Sandra,
Thank you for the prompt reply. I upgraded to PL10 but it still didn't work for me; I'll be opening a ticket for this.
Also, I noticed that the CTRL+Left/Right keyboard shortcut is documented as enabling tab movement and this is working fine for me. However, I've become accustomed over the years to using this same keyboard shortcut to fast skip through text (whether it be code or just about any text field). This keyboard shortcut is similarly used for fast skipping in the overwhelming majority of applications generally speaking (text editors, web browsers, etc..) and to have the NWBC utilize this for tab switching seems to be an awkward and less efficient use of this shortcut.
Is there a way to selectively suppress this NWBC keyboard shortcut so that the legacy behavior will be respected? Thanks again for the help.
-Nadir