FIORI Notes 1 : One UX to Rule them All
The first week of the open SAP “Build Your Own SAP Fiori App in the Cloud” has just been done.
I’ll use this blog series as my personal notes on the Course.
I post this in ABAP development as that is the kind of audience similar to myself.
If things have been pretty stable in your system for the last few years, SAP’s direction on Fiori may just rock your boat a little.
I’ve been watching this space for a while, and evidently SAP is really getting serious on it now.
I’ll note 2 points from the first week
1. “SAP Fiori UX is the new face of SAP to all business users for ALL lines of business across devices and deployment options”.
Think of it. No SAPGUI. No Webdynpro. Only Fiori UX. Personally, I think that statement is aspirational. But it’s a good one.
2. Shift from complex monolithic transactional apps to smaller simpler role specific apps that can be consumed on any device.
This shift addresses the complexity in using transactional apps. Role/task specific apps are more simple. Simple = Productive. Using the launchpad, users can have multiple role-specific apps which are tailored to their activities.
DEMO
If you haven’t played with FIORI, try the demo : http://demo-fioritrial.dispatcher.hana.ondemand.com
Discover how you can perform functions that are typically more difficult in legacy systems.
FIORI APP LIBRARY
Then, look at the App Library : http://www.sap.com/fiori-apps-library
The library allows you to get a feel of the standard, extensible FIORI apps that SAP currently have.
You can always create your own, but building on existing ones is probably the first option. This site contain a list of apps (currently 541) with their corresponding description, installation and configuration information.
Note that most apps require the HANA DB There are some transactional applications that only requires ECC, but all Analytical and Fact Sheet applications require HANA.
UI5 CONTROLS
UI5 is the foundation for FIORI apps.
This link lists available controls in UI5 https://sapui5.netweaver.ondemand.com/sdk/explored.html
"No SAPGUI. No Webdynpro. Only Fiori UX."
I'm kind of skeptical when I see such statements.
5-10 years ago Webdynpro was the recommended UI, now it's not anymore.
I wonder if Fiori will also stay long or there will be a new trend and it will be also not recommended anymore.
Peter
Thanks for the message Peter.
I agree with you on the sentiment. A lot of it is speculative at the moment.
Here's how I think about it.
If we look outside of SAP. You'll have Android Native and iOS native UI developers and the current JS platform of the month Angular JS. Nobody else talks SAP's UI5 which is actually an Open Platform.
The OData architecture opens up the backend of SAP to any of these UI development platforms.
What I realized is that when SAP speaks of FIORI UX... they're generally talking about several things. (1) Their philosophy of UI Design (2) The Web app deployment to any device (3) The relationship with products like Hana Cloud Platform or Mobile Secure (4) The Launchpad
If we ask whether they're going to stay the same way it is in five years time? Absolutely not.
Launchpad will likely still be there - It's SAP's frontend product. It can launch any web app.
UI design on the web for Business will be there not because of SAP but because of external driving forces.
But how about Hana Cloud Platform or Mobile Secure? Well... They use to call them by other names. They will evolve.
Will your existing SAPGUI applications still be relevant in 5 years time? I think so. I wouldn't want to work on it. But there's so much customer investment on it that it's hard to see it totally being removed just in 5 years. Case in point, is that I see COBOL and AS/400 developers still in SEEK. 🙂
Cheers,
Wilbert
One of the problems, SAP has faced during the last decade was the lack of coherence in their UI strategy.
CRM was using web UI, SRM was using web dynpro etc etc.
Within CRM, the changes in terms of UI were quite significant, accros the versions.
SAP is finally addressing the problem by providing one UI that will be coherent accross all the systems.
Let's hope that this gets widely adopted and will stay for long.
Cheers,
Helder
Let's examine this assumption in 3 years..
Hi Wilbert,
Nice Blog.
Yaah, like Peter, I also do not believe Fiori will be able to replace SAP GUI and WD but yes, Fiori is SAP's answer to changing market and customer's habit.
Well, just wanted to know, is there there any cloud based server provided by SAP where Developers can do initial handson ?
Thanking You All..!!
Hi Ankit,
For building an app... Try Rui Noguiera's blog HTML5 apps with SAP Web IDE on SAP HANA Cloud Platform. You'll need to get an HCP trial account ( account.hanatrial.ondemand.com ).
For when you need to connect to a backend system that runs OData services. Here is the link to the sample Gateway Demo System http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31221 . It's pretty old, but I still use it every now and then. You can use the existing services on your app. If you want to build your own services, you'll need to install an ABAP/HANA server on a cloud provider ($$$). I use Amazon Web Services.
If you want more detail, i find Craig Haworth's course in Open SAP a good intro.
Cheers,
Wilbert
This one is good too. How to Create A SAP Fiori Starter App In SAP River RDE I'd think you'd be redirected to WebIDE now.. but the steps would be the same.