Integrating NWBC 5.0 and Fiori Apps

Since Thursday, SAP NetWeaver 7.5 has been available. This includes (among a few other features 😉 ) a new PFCG type, which lets you easily add Fiori apps to a normal PFCG role.

If you ‘re not ready to upgrade to NW 7.5, you will find the same feature in SAP NetWeaver UI Add-Ons, version 2, SP0.

If you have NWBC 5.0, PL7 or later, you can now integrate Fiori apps in a standard PFCG role.

You actually have 2 options – one for the “standalone apps”, and one for all the apps in the Fiori catalog.

NOTE: You can do all this in NWBC 5.0; you don’t need Business Client 6.0. If you want to know more about SAP Business Client 6.0, see SAP Business Client 6.0: Released!

How this fits into our overall UX Strategy

I have posted a slide deck, which I hope will explain the overall strategy: SAP Business Client and SAP Fiori Integration .

Standalone apps

This option is available for 10 apps with the biggest reach. They are all ESS/MSS scenarios and they are all self-contained – they don’t require the end user to navigate app-to-app.

This is the simplest option: You need to configure the Fiori launchpad in the standard way, you need the relevant Gateway service activated, the relevant authorizations, and so on, BUT you don’t need FLPDesigner – ie you don’t need to define catalogs, tiles, or target mapping, or assign catalogs and groups in PFCG.

For a list of the 10 apps, see: SAP Note 2103156 . For more information on how to configure these apps, see the documentation: SAP Help: Running a Fiori Application Standalone . For information on the Gateway service you need, see SAP Fiori Reference Apps Library .

All apps

OK, this option is still relatively simple, but you do need to need to configure the relevant catalogs, tiles, target mapping etc in the Fiori Launchpad Designer, and then assign these in PFCG.

The benefit is, firstly, you have access to all the Fiori apps you have installed. Secondly – crucially – you can configure genuine intent-based navigation for these apps. This is a really powerful Fiori concept: Instead of getting a developer-based view of a transaction with all functions visible to everyone, and having to pick your way through different tabs to fill the fields you want, the admin can now set up different intents for different users – ie different end users can perform different actions on the same semantic object. (I still love to Graham Robinson’s description of this: What is SAP Fiori? Maybe it’s more than you think ).

What you need to do

• Before you start: Make sure the app is working in a browser (just saying).
• Also, you need to be familiar with creating new PFCG entries in general. (If not, it’s all here: Role Maintenance: Navigation Tree . )
• Even if you are inserting a Fiori app/ launchpad from the same system, you need to create RFC destinations in SM59 mapping the local system (ie where the PFCG role is stored) to the ABAP Frontend Server (ie where the Fiori apps and Launchpad are stored), since the Fiori Launchpad start-up URL must be defined here. The ABAP connection must be specified in the “Target System” field.

The ABAP connection GM6CLNT001 contains information used for establishing SAP GUI connections (message server, port) as well as logon options (e.g. client); the HTTP connection contains server and port information as well as the relative Fiori Launchpad start-up URL

• you must create RFC destinations in transaction SM59, specifying server addresses, ports, logon information, and in particular, the SAP Fiori launchpad start-up URL (for more information about this, see the NWBC space on SCN Configuring Remote Systems in SM59).

Then in PFCG:

1. Either open an existing role or create a new one.
   (Note: For test purposes, I have tended to lump all my Fiori apps in one role. In general, for a real end user though, that’s obviously not good practice.)
2. In the Menu tab, create a new app of type SAP Fiori App.
   You get this dialog (I’m using the example MyLeaveRequests):
3. Choose Intent (not Fiori Launchpad).

Now you have 2 options:

For a standalone app:

There is no real intent:

• Semantic object always = Shell;
• Action always = runStandaloneApp.

You then enter the name/value pair for the component and the location. To get the correct values, again see: SAP Note 2103156 . (The “location” is actually an ICF node):

For any app in the Fiori catalog

Intent = Semantic object + Action

To get the semantic object and action for the app, simply open the Fiori Apps Reference Library and choose Implementation Information:

4. Choose Enter.

That’s your entry created. You must, however, do one more thing:

5. Double-click the menu entry you have just created, and choose Other Node Details. Under Target System, enter the target system, where all your Fiori apps are located – ie your “Frontend Server. ” – ie the system you configured in SM59.

OK, that’s it! At runtime, the end user should see something like this:

ie when he logs on to the system, he gets the standard index page with all the usual SAP GUI transactions, FPM applications – plus the new application type, Fiori app.