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Author's profile photo Aviad Rivlin

SAP Portal and SAP Fiori – Common Architecture

The SAP Enterprise Portal is the recommended single point of access for applications and content for more than 10 years and being implemented by thousands of customers across regions and industries.

The SAP Portal UX is aligning with the Fiori UX in two dimensions:

  • The SAP Fiori launchpad in running on the SAP Enterprise Portal (as a new portal framework page)
  • Fiori applications serving as business content for the portal

A typical scenario for the SAP Enterprise Portal together with the Fiori apps is the consumption on mobile devices, providing access to the system from inside and outside of the corporate network on multiple devices. This integration raises many architectural and security questions, which eventually lead to the question: what is the common architecture to integrate the SAP Enterprise Portal and with Fiori apps?

Arch1.jpg

Typical reasons to integrate the SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP Fiori?

  • Provide end users a single point of access, with a single URL, to all the end users daily business applications (Fiori and non-Fiori) and content
  • Renew the SAP Enterprise Portal user experience with attractive, responsive and multi-device applications while keeping the established UIs in place
  • Aligned look&feel of the portal and the business applications (including Fiori apps)
  • Strong authentication and Single Sign-On concepts provided by the portal and the NetWeaver platform
  • Leverage existing investment in the SAP Enterprise Portal

To learn more about this topic, please have a look at the following new white-paper presenting the topic and shading light on the common architecture, especially when consuming apps from outside of the corporate network. If you would like to review only the architecture slides, these are also available in the following link.

Thanks Thomas Csapo for co-writing this white-paper and Andy Silvey for providing very valuable feedback.

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      9 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Ashish Sachdeva
      Ashish Sachdeva

      Hi Aviad,

      Thanks for the document and link to whitepaper. Its really great to see one of my wish in BIT taking shape.

      Brs,

      Ashish Sachdeva

      Author's profile photo Manikanta P
      Manikanta P

      HI Aviad Rivlin,

      Thanks for documents.we need more docs on fiori related with portal.Such a nice blog it was.

      Thanks,

      MKP.

      Author's profile photo Tobias Trapp
      Tobias Trapp

      Thanks for sharing it - it is really useful.

      It seems to me that parts of teh architecture changed from Portal 7.31 to 7.40 - SAP Web Dispatcher seems to be available only for NW 7.40 in this scenario: Configuring SAP Web Dispatcher - Portal - SAP Library

      Is it true? Becomes Portal 7.40 mandatory if you want to benefit from Fiori? What kind of restrictions do you have in release Portal 7.31?

      Best Regards,

      Tobias

      Author's profile photo Aviad Rivlin
      Aviad Rivlin
      Blog Post Author

      The web dispatcher is a mandatory component in the Fiori apps integration scenario to removing/relaxing Click-Jacking Protection (see also note 2057847).

      Aviad

      Author's profile photo Paul Tomlinson
      Paul Tomlinson

      I'm going to be slightly controversial.  Whilst some companies may want this (and the blog is very useful for them), most organisations I am working with actively want to remove their SAP portal and replace it with Fiori launchpad or integrate it into SharePoint.  Why? Two reasons:

      1. Microsoft have invested heavily into SharePoint and really improved it.  I really do not see much difference in EP 7.3 vs EP6 (and I'm certified in EP 5, 6 and 7!).
      2. Customers are now thinking of things as apps and the launchpad provides the app type effect to desktop / laptop users. On their mobile devices they can simply launch the relevant app (Fiori or other)

      Having said that, thank you for the blog and it does have some very good architecture points in it which help explain the wider requirements around gateway / Fiori etc.

      Paul

      Author's profile photo Aviad Rivlin
      Aviad Rivlin
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Paul,

      There are thousands of customers running the SAP Portal today and the Fiori launchpad (running on the portal) is a great opportunity for them to re-new their portal while re-using their current investment (mobile is a key…).

      The Fiori launchpad strategy is to run across platforms (ABAP, SAP Portal, Cloud/HCP, HANA), hence giving customers the option to choose which is the right platform for them, in their specific scenario (not only the portal, but the portal is a good option).

      Finaly, the Fiori launchpad (across its deployment options) is the entry point for SAP applications going forward. You can see more details in the User Interface Technologies - Roadmap slide #52.

      These were few comments from my side...

      Regards,

      Aviad

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Paul,

      Hello. 

      I believe both Microsoft and EP have their own
      advantages, and some disadvantages (cost to support, license, resource
      knowledge, etc.) depending on the maturity and availability of internal
      resources/knowledge at a specific client(s). I had both a customer who moved
      away from SAP Enterprise Portal to SharePoint, and also a customer that adapted
      the SAP NW 7.09 SP09 Fiori/SAPUI5, etc. quite easily due to developers
      (internal) that were both knowledgeable on either .NET or SAPUI5/Fiori-like
      development. I also have a few customers who have a mixed scenario wherein
      single point of access is SharePoint, and links and Web Parts (mostly
      customized) to launch Portal Apps (Web Dynpro, BSP, etc.) I came from the
      Microsoft world and transitioned into SAP, and hoped that they improved DUET to
      a much better option (they have done great since DUET 1.0/1.5), but I think
      this went back to MS and SAP being both a partner and also competitors. I
      believe that the Common Architecture and UI-UX strategy of SAP is gaining a lot
      of ground and acceptance, as it has evolved quite progressively (also with a
      lot of investment from SAP), especially today. One thing I wish SAP worked on,
      is the knowledge, training, and information being available and delivered to
      non-SAP (internal) folks out in the industry. It is quite confusing, and
      constantly changing (Dynamic), and keeping up with changes, is not easy on
      clients that do not even have an overall UI-UX strategy. I think the key is to focus on offering a solution that works and fits within the clients environment (considering budget, technology, resources,  and what is supported way beyond the extended maintenace periods. Building a comparison chart, GAP Analysis, and Risk Assessment as well as available (in this case a UI-UX strategy) options for the customer certainly helps.

      Thanks Aviad for the User Interface Technologies Roadmap.

      Regards,

      James

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Aviad for sharing the architecture, very useful for a dummy. However being a SAP Portal Consultant, i too feel that there should be less coding and more efforts should be going to enhance Customer UX, which i feel Fiori will definitely serve the purpose.

      Thanks again!!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Aviad

      Excellent Blog.  But there is one limitation in this design or I am missing the point.

      It's always Proxy which redirect between Portal and Backend not Portal directly communicate with Backend.

      In our company,  we currently have Apache redirect with 2 url path.

      Portal -> /irj

      ABAP - /sap/bc

      We are using this for ITS/BSP services using HTML Plug-in.

      Now with Central HUB NWG in landscape, I have to configure One Apache to redirect as

      Portal -> /irj

      ABAP - /sap/bc

      FIORI - /sap/bc/ui2_ui5

      My only concern is many of these services in /sap/bc available in backend and FIORI ABAP frontend.

      Any suggestion on using Apache Redirect here?

      Thank you

      Santosh Lad