Let’s talk FCC – An Introduction & App Configuration (Part 1 of 3)

Most of us in the Fiori community are familiar, either first hand or by association, with the on-premise Fiori implementation and configuration technicalities. I myself, supported the on-premise Fiori deployment model from an end to end enablement perspective and then later focused specifically on the Fiori Launchpad. I spent a lot of time working directly with customers to better understand how they need to use SAP Fiori so that I could help cycle their feedback to our development teams to improve our products. During my time focusing on the Fiori Launchpad a common theme among customer feedback was the confusing admin configuration – in the on-premise world, admins need to be in the Launchpad designer, the GUI, looking up t-codes and role names…you get the picture. We were told that while anyone can learn anything the current process was not intuitive and one, single admin environment is preferred.

Fast forward to the SAP Fiori, Cloud Edition deployment model and you can now see the vision of an admin environment is a reality! My personal favorite part of Fiori Cloud Edition is the Fiori Configuration Cockpit (FCC), a tool used by admins to create new and maintain existing content for sites. If you haven’t found FCC in your extended demo account or read about it somewhere in the SAP HANA Cloud Portal SCN Page (some wonderful blogs there BTW) then be prepared to experience it now!

In order to cover FCC in an end to end scenario (and not make the blog post ridiculously long) I have divided the content into 3 posts:

Accessing FCC from your extended demo account

If you haven’t played around with the demo yet and/or signed up for an extended demo account (what are you waiting for?!?!) then reference this blog to get started. After logging into your extended demo account, select the drop down next to your username and choose Manage Site. This will launch FCC.

In the latest Update you will notice that FCC now mirrors the look and feel of the HCP cockpit, with the same color scheme and side tab navigation. All the functionality from the last version is still present, we just cleaned it up a bit and will continue to make improvements based on your feedback. FCC has the following tabs:

• Home – The Home tab provides admins with a dashboard for their tasks. On the home page admins can easily get started by jumping into a task, for example creating an app tile (formerly the App Tile Wizard). They can also see incomplete tasks and take action directly from the Home page to complete the tasks, they can see a snapshot of recent activities and site usage analytics and on the right side they have quick links to SAP supported documentation in case they need further learning. Finally at the bottom of the Home page admins are provided useful links to the official help guides to see what’s new, the apps reference library, the HCP cockpit, SAP Web IDE and more!
  
• Site Settings – In the previous version, Site Settings was part of the Tools group but now it acts as the landing page in FCC. The second blog will review the features and functionalities of this tab.
• Apps –  This tile displays all the apps admins have created for their launchpad site. In the previous version, this feature was called ‘Configure Apps’ and was part of the Account Content group. This blog will review the features and functionality for this tab.
• Catalogs – In this tab admins will create catalogs that apps will be assigned to later. These catalogs will be assigned to users and will appear in their tile catalog in their launchpad. This tab will be discussed further in the second blog.
• Tile Groups – Similar to Tile Catalogs, in this tab admins will create Groups to assign their
• Services – This tab provides quick access to translations, UI Theme Designer, Theme Manager and Transport Manager.
• App Tile Wizard – In the previous version this app was titled Create App Tile and it is where new admins go to use a guided wizard to help them in creating an app. This blog will detail the specifics of this tab option.
• Account Apps – This tab displays a list of all the Fiori apps available in the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. Admins can easily add apps to their site directly from this tab.
• Usage Analytics – Previously part of the tools group, this tab will show the admin analytics on the usage of specific apps and from what browser/device your users are accessing from.
• External Links – this tab provides a popup with quick access to the Admin Guide, the Apps Reference Library and the HCP Cockpit. It replaces the previously used Info group.

For more information on the FCC entities and how they relate to each other, please refer to Inbal Sabag’s blog

Apps

The App tab displays all the apps admins have created for their launchpad. This tab offers the same features and functionalities as the previous Configure apps tile from the Account group. proficient admins can come to this tab to create a tile and have the option to save their entries if necessary before finishing the configuration.

From the Apps tab, select the plus sign at the bottom of the master pane. This will create a new app entry. In the app name field choose browse apps and select hcmmyleaverequest. ‘Browse apps’ is a feature that allows admins to quickly search for apps deployed to HCP and upon selection, the fields in the target section will be pre-populated for you. Notice all the other fields are pre-populated for you. In the supported devices section all 3 form factors are selected by default. Decide if this makes sense and if you don’t, for example, want this app available on smartphones just uncheck the selection.

Select the Navigation tab to design your tile. The Intent is pre-populated for you, add additional parameters if necessary.

Scroll down to tile properties and design your tile to your liking, then select a group to assign the tile too. When you’re finished with both tasks choose Save.

Select the Site Preview option from the bottom right. This will open a new tab to the launchpad, scroll to the bottom to see what the app we designed will look like to end users.

Account Apps

With the most recent update to FCC you’ll notice a new feature called Account Apps. In this tab you’ll get a list of all the apps in your SAP HANA Cloud Platform account. Previously you would have to go into the HCP cockpit to see this list but not anymore. In addition to the list the column on the far right provides an icon that allows you to easily add any of the apps to your site. Choosing this option will redirect you to the Apps tab where you can make futher configurations to your newly added apps.

In part 2, we will continue doing additional admin work by creating a catalog, group and setting up our site and more. In part 3, I’ll show you how you can assign users to your demo account.