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New SAP Fiori Launchpad on SAP Enterprise Portal Features in NetWeaver 7.40 SP12 (Java stack)

This blog is for portal end-users and content administrators who would like to learn about the new features developed in the latest Enterprise Portal SP for FLP on EP, their added value, and the configuration required.

The new features include:

  • SAP Smart Business analytics and fact sheets access
  • Enhanced personalization capabilities of Home Page / Tile Catalog
  • SAP Fiori borders in iViews and pages
  • Hiding groups on Home Page
  • Etc.


1 SAP Smart Business Analytical Apps Consumption

Analytical apps are supported in the Fiori Launchpad. These apps present up-to-date data from HANA databases in the home page and thus let end-users monitor business activities and key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time (more information).

This is how the analytic tiles in My Home group might look like:

HPwithAnalytics.JPG


Prerequisites:

  1. SAP Web Dispatcher or any other reverse proxy,which is responsible to dispatch the requests between the ABAP FES and Java server (EP).  It has to be configured to access SAP HANA catalogs.
  2. For FES minimum required SP please refer to SAP note 2031108.


To enable this feature administrators have to follow the steps in SP16 blog for Remote ABAP Content Consumption.

To manage HANA catalogs and groups the remote content editor is used. Both runtime and design-time HANA catalogs can be assigned to portal roles. The catalogs and groups can be defined in the SAP Fiori Launchpad Designer.

2 Search for SAP Fiori Fact Sheets

Fact sheets are applications that display contextual information and key facts about central objects of the SAP Business Suite, such as Customers or Suppliers. End-users can open a fact sheet tile and drill down into its details, or navigate from one fact sheet to its related fact sheets (more information here).


Prerequisites:

  1. SAP Web Dispatcher or any other reverse proxy, which is responsible to dispatch the requests between the ABAP FES and Java server (EP).  It has to be configured to access SAP HANA catalogs.
  2. For FES minimum required SP please refer to SAP note 2031108.

To enable this capability, administrators have to go to Framework Page Configuration, select Fiori Framework Page in dropdown list, check-in Enable Search for Fact Sheets checkbox and save:

FactSheetEnabled.JPG

In run-time an end-user will be able to search for the fact sheets using the enhanced Quick search bar:

FactSheetRT.JPG


FSSearch1.JPG


The search result looks as following:


FactSheetResult.JPG

3 SAP Fiori Borders in iViews and Pages

SAP Fiori borders allow to enhance end-user experience with portal iViews and pages. Portal administrators can enable the following:

  • Header bar – contains the iView/page title and a back button
  • Footer bar – can contain the following UI elements:

o Related Links – end-users select this option to open a popup window with the related links

o Dynamic Navigation – end-users select this option to open a popup window with a dynamic navigation iView/page

o Save as Tile – end-users save an iView/page as a tile to the Home page.


Procedure

In the portal, open an iView/page.

From the Show Category dropdown list, select Personalized Launcher and SAP Fiori Borders property:

HeadernFooterConfig.JPG


Note

  • For all iViews and pages except for SAPUI5 and SAP Fiori iViews, Header and footer bars is the default option.
  • For SAPUI5 and SAP Fiori iViews, No header and footer bars is the default option.
  • In the Launch in New Window property, select one of the following:
    • Display in Portal Content Area
    • Display in Separate Headerless Portal Window (standard mode).


SAP Fiori borders example:


BordersRT.JPG

If a user clicks on Related links, the following appears:

RelatedLinksRT.JPG:


4 Home Page Personalization Options

The configuration options are used by the administrators to provide end-users with various personalizing abilities for their home pages. If configured by an administrator, end-users can use:

  • Floating action
  • Option menu action
  • Hide/show groups.

The main switch Enable Personalization should be checked-in for other options to make an effect. If this option is switched off, in run-time there is no access to Tile Catalog and personalization actions:


PersSwitchOffConfig.JPG


NoPersonalization.JPG

4.1 Floating Action and Option Menu Action

If portal administrator enabled the following personalization options in FFP:

FloatingActionConfig.JPG

The end-users have floating action in the low right corner and Option menu action, both allowing to re-arrange the Home page:

FloatingActionRT.JPG

4.2  Hiding Groups on Home Page

If the option Enable Hide Groups in Option Menu is checked in FFP configuration, the corresponding entry will appear in Option menu in the Home Page:


HideGroupsConfig.JPG


HideGroup.JPG


By choosing this option end-users can control the groups to be hidden/displayed on the Home Page:


HideGroupPopUp.JPG



5 Search Options in Tile Catalog and Home Page

Several options allow the administrators to control search abilities for end-users, both in Tile catalog and Home page.

In Tile Catalog there might be no search possibilities at all:


TileCatalogNoSearch.JPG


Or three search options in Tile Catalog due to the following configuration on FFP:


SearchConfig.JPG


End-user experience with full search and filter capabilities will look like this:


TileCatalogSearch.JPG


Enable Search Icon in Header Bar option is relevant also for the Home Page.



6 Resetting User Personalization

After end-users have logged on to the SAP Fiori Launchpad for the first time, any consequent changes made by administrators are not reflected in the home page.

Personalization Data Cleanup tool is used to clear personalization and reset the home page for end users.

Warning: Resetting user personalization also removes all changes on the Home page made by the end user. There is no Undo for this action.


Procedure

Navigate to System Administration -> Support -> PCD Tools -> Personalization Data Cleanup.

In the Search for field, type a user login ID, and choose Go.

Select com.sap.portal.navigation.flp.pl.UserData entry, and choose Remove Application Personalization.


PCDClean.JPG


7 Role Editor Enhancement


A new Device Groups column displays the device group object IDs defined for objects in a role. A new Remote Content table displays the SAP Fiori catalogs and SAP Fiori groups, assigned to the role.


RoleConfigEnhanced.JPG


8 Enabling Fiori Framework Page Extensions

The Fiori Framework Page core capabilities can be extended by enabling custom plugin to load when the SAP Fiori launchpad opens.

This allows the customers to extend the standard FLP functionality, with, for example, an additional action in Option menu, a custom footer, etc.

The extensions are activated by the following FFP configuration (details):

  • Custom SAPUI5 Module Plugin Name
  • Custom Plugin URL.


9 Embedding SAP UI5 Apps

Administrators can embed SAPUI5 applications directly into the SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal without iframes to get a better performance, a harmonized look-and-feel, and good support for mobile browsers.

SAP UI5 application can be hosted on the portal server (Web Resource Repository is a recommended location).

The embedding is enabled with the following iVIew properties (detailed description):

  • Embed iView in SAP Fiori Launchpad
  • SAPUI5 Component Name
  • SAPUI5 URL Path.

Watch also this product demo focusing on the end user features described in this blog:




For more information: see SAP Documentation.

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      39 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Thanks for the sharing, it is very promising.

      I have one question, don't know if you can help

      cross app navigation for FLP on portal

      basically, is the standard cross app navigation is supported in flp for portal. we are on 7.4 sp10.

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hello,

      Both Portal cross app navigation (using EPCM, OBN etc.) and cross Fiori app navigation (through ABAP catalogs and groups consumption) are supported through Fiori Launchpad on Portal.

      For ABAP catalogs and groups consumption please look at New SAP Fiori Launchpad on SAP NetWeaver Portal Features (NW7.31 SP16, NW 7.40 SP11)

      Shani Limor

      SAP Enterprise Portal Product Owner

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Shani,

      Thanks for the information.

      for my case, I have two ui5 app developed and deployed to portal(no abap system in the picture). now I want to implement the cross app navigation.

      do you know where I can find the sap help document or tutorial to implement that scenario?

      I am trying to use standard CrossApplicationNavigation service.

      if you have other idea to implement the navigation, please let me know.

      Best regards.

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      I tried EPCM.doNavigate, but no luck.

      parent.EPCM.doNavigate("ROLES://****")

      I debugged with developer tool, the method is called, but nothing happened. no error either.

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      seems the flp on portal is a bit crippled, compared with the abap and cloud one.

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hello Jun,

      Now that I see your answers to my questions I can provide more concrete answers:

      1. EPCM.doNavigate allows Portal navigation between iViews/pages. It is supported through FLP@EP from 731 SP16 and 740 SP11.
      2. Navigation between UI5 based apps (including Fiori apps, of course) is an FLP cross platform feature (not specific to FLP@EP) where customers should use an FLP service.
        To learn about how this is achievable please review the following links:
        1. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_uiaddon10/helpdata/en/09/4d968eb7c442208303427e82da92c9/content.htm?frameset=/en/09/4d968eb7c442208303427e82da92c9/frameset.htm&current_toc=/en/e4/843b8c3d05411c83f58033bac7f072/plain.htm&node_id=187&show_children=true#jump187
        2. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_uiaddon10/helpdata/en/3a/35ab684174415899c98da4931bd6c1/content.htm
        3. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_uiaddon10/helpdata/en/c8/2a9f6bc2454b46928315e45c0a5b7d/content.htm
      3. I am sorry to read that this one case makes you feel that “flp on portal is a bit crippled”. I strongly encourage you to review all supported features according to SP`s in the following note: 2031108 - SAP Fiori Integration with SAP Enterprise Portal - Central note and also in blog: SAP Fiori launchpad in SAP Enterprise Portal: Overview Information.

      Have a great day,

      Shani

      Product Owner | NW Enterprise Portal

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Shani,

      I have been looking at those link for thousands of times, if not more.

      you have to do the configuration for the navigation. I can find the configuration for abap case only.

      Configuring Navigation - User Interface Add-On for SAP NetWeaver - SAP Library

      the following link make me think there is no backend configuration for FLP on porta regarding the navigation.

      Local Sandbox Environment for the SAP Fiori Launchpad - User Interface Add-On for SAP NetWeaver - SAP Library

      "Use the sandbox environment for local development and testing. This allows you to ensure that the application can be embedded properly into the SAP Fiori launchpad. The sandbox shell implementation uses local configuration files instead of ABAP or SAP HANA back-end services."

      if you can help to find the link for the portal configuration regarding UI5 cross app navigation, I will be very happy.

      Best regards,

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Jun,

      You can find all the information you need for cross app navigation in UI5 applications here:

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Matan,

      Can you be more specific?

      As my understanding, I need to configure the navigation target.

      how to configure the semantic object?

      My environment is portal only, no abap.

      my app should be component based? for now my app is just regular one, no component created.

      Best regards,

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Matan,

      how it goes? my question is too hard or too simple......

      is portal flp(latest version) supporting the standard cross app navigation(not portal navigation)?

      Best regards,

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Jun,

      Sorry for the delay in my answer, I had been doing some deeper investigation for this subject.
      Like you mentioned, the navigation in FLP is based on navigation target. It is actually contains semantic object and semantic action.
      In EP , the semantic object is "LEGACY" and the semantic action is  "RANDOM_NAMBER-IVIEW_NAME".
      For example, lets say you have an iView name "my UI5 app". Then the hash for launching it can be "#LEGACY-431235-my_UI5_app".

      Now comes your role: You create a new service for crossAppNavigation:

      var crossAppNavService = sap.ushell.Container.getService("CrossApplicationNavigation");

      And then, to navigate to your app, you use:

      crossAppNavService.toExternal({

                                     target : { semanticObject : "LEGACY",
                                     action: "431235-my_UI5_app" }
      })

      It will perform a hash change, that will trigger cross app navigation.

      Now, the only thing left is how to tell the random number which is created in the hash?
      Well, you cannot tell it in advance. But, this number is permanent, so if you will launch your application once, you can tell what is the exact semanticObject-semanticAction of your application, and you can configure cross app navigation as I suggested (or using the UI5 API I provided earlier).

      Hope this solves your problem.

      Matan

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Matan,

      thanks for the update. really appreciate your effort.

      it may work for my POC.

      for the random number, how permanent it will be? let's say, the ui5 iview is assigned to many role, all the navigation can use same number?

      Is there any plan for portal to catch up? providing something similar to abap FLP regarding navigation configuration?

      Best regards,

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Jun,

      The number is generated according to the location of the iView in the role. So the same iView will have different numbers in different roles.

      Regarding future plans,I don't have answer to this question, it should be addressed to product owners. Shani might help you here.

      Best Regards,

      Matan

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      Hi Matan,

      one quick question, I integrated a wdj application in FLP on portal.

      when I click the wdj tile, it opens, but gives me popup. you know the famous one,    mode issue,

      I have configured the wdj iview, I put sap-ie=Edge in the application parameters, which ask the wdj to be rendered in standard mode.

      I checked the http request, and found sap-ie=EmulateIE8 is appended after the url, is this done by the FLP?

      Thanks

      Best regards,

      Jun

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jun,

      please make sure that you using navigation mode 10 (which is open in headerless standards mode).

      BR, Irena

       

      Author's profile photo Jun Wu
      Jun Wu

      thanks for the reply, actually I am not asking how....but why sap-ie=EmulateIE8 is appended?

      and I want to open wdj in place not a separate tab.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Jun,

      It is a bug which was fixed on 7.40 SP11.

      For further details, please refer to SAP note 2237712 - AI iView Rendering issues in FFP and IE

      Best Regards,

      Matan

      Author's profile photo Ulf Zeisberger
      Ulf Zeisberger

      Hi Shani,

      can you please adjust your SAP Note link to go to sap.com and not to sap.corp  ?

      Regs

      Ulf

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hi Ulf,

      I`ve checked if it`s possible and unfortunately it`s not working correctly. Do you have issues launching the note?

      Have a great day,

      Shani

      Author's profile photo Ulf Zeisberger
      Ulf Zeisberger

      Hello Shani,

      no problem, I can find the notes with the number.

      I stumble across the issue from time to time, that links to SAP Notes point to sap.corp domain instead of sap.com. Also inside other SAP Notes or Knowledge base Articles.

      regs

      Ulf

      Author's profile photo Arnold Gallemann
      Arnold Gallemann

      Hello Irena,

      your article was very intersting for me.

      However, when I try to upgrade SAP NW 7.4 from SPS 10 to SPS 13 I can't find SPS 13 on SAP Marktplace --> Software Downloads --> Support Packages and patches.

      Is SPS 13 not pulished?

      Regards,

      Arnold

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Arnold,

      it is actually NW 7.40 SP12 for Java stack (which is included into NW7.40 SPS 13).

      I fixed the blog title.

      Sorry for confusion,

      Irena

      Author's profile photo Kanchanapalli Sridhar
      Kanchanapalli Sridhar

      Thanks Irena. User issue has been fixed.

      How does reset button supposed to work? For us, Reset button is not resetting any tiles (Initial) and I try Personalize/Reset on Locked Group, it is causing to miss all the tiles from the Locked Group and non-locked groups are not resetting to initial.


      Thanks,

      Sri

      Author's profile photo Arnold Gallemann
      Arnold Gallemann

      Hello Irena,

      we upgraded our Portal to SP12 this week.

      But I can't find the new fiori functions from this blog (e.g. the new Parameters for the FFP)

      In which Software component can I find this functions?

      Regards,

      Arnold

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hello Arnold,

      Please set the locale of the administrator to English and then you will see all available parameters in the Fiori Framework Page Configuration UI.

      This is a minor bug we`ve found lately and we are delivering a fix through patch.

      Have a wonderful week,

      Shani Limor

      Author's profile photo Arnold Gallemann
      Arnold Gallemann

      Hello Shani,

      thank you for your answer.

      Do you know when the patch will be available approximately?

      Best regards,

      Arnold

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hello Arnold,

      Please follow SAP Note 2249664 to download the patch from there once it is available. The note should be available tomorrow.

      Have a great day,

      Shani

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Shani,

      thanks for your interesting blog.

      One question from my site. How can i change the language or theme via User Preferences?

      I see a save button, but no possibility to change the values.

      Regards,

      Johannes

      Author's profile photo Shani Limor
      Shani Limor

      Hi Johannes,

      Fiori Launchpad (cross platforms) don`t support change of language by the user through User Preferences.

      Regarding the change of theme through User Preferences, it is planned to be released to customers starting NW7.31 SPS18 \  NW7.40 SPS15 (JAVA component 7.40 SP13) \ NW7.50 SPS2.

      Have a great day,

      Shani

      Author's profile photo Sudarshan Paliwal
      Sudarshan Paliwal

      Hi Irena / Shani ,

      Thanks for providing plugin for embedding Jscript . Until now I was embedding JScript through iView to framework page to handle events and change little bit of look and feel of ffp. I would now like to move jscript to plugin but I am having difficulty in following steps from SAP 7.4's documentation hence I was looking at 7.5 document for ffp extension which contain some good code examples . I would need help on below questions please :

      • We are on 7.4 so can we use ffp extension points described in 7.5 for 7.4 ? It does say that JS file can be used to register to FFP extensions in 7.4 documentation .
      • Can you please put some example screenshots of framework page config for plugin URL field , module name , a sample JS file 7.4 also ?
      • Currently my jScript does something after whole page is loaded , what would be best event to do the same thing using plugin ?
      • For Embedding SAP UI5 application I followed steps in detailed documentation but I don't see my application UI appearing on ffp . DO we have to include that iview on ffp ? How does launchpad ffp knows to bring this iView . If I do preview of this iView it says mandatory parameters like system is missing. Also , I could not find "com.sap.portal.application.integration.sap" but "com.sap.portal.appintegrator.sap" which is what I used now and earlier for creating UI5 iViews. Please let me know your inputs here to show UI5 app on ffp .

      Thanks!

      Sudarshan

      Following below for 7.4 :

      Enabling Fiori Framework Page Extensions - Portal - SAP Library

      For 7.5 :

      Performing Actions on Fiori Framework Page Events - Portal - SAP Library

      Author's profile photo Ram Alon
      Ram Alon

      Hello Sudarshan,

      Happy to see that you find our latest enhancements useful and trying to use them extensively. I think the best way to assist you is by contacting you to our experts.

      I'll take note of your suggestions to enhance our documentation for future releases.

      Best Regards,

      Ram

      Author's profile photo Sudarshan Paliwal
      Sudarshan Paliwal

      Thanks Ram !

      Regards

      Sudarshan

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sudarshan,

      please see the answers below in green:

      • We are on 7.4 so can we use ffp extension points described in 7.5 for 7.4 ? It does say that JS file can be used to register to FFP extensions in 7.4 documentation .

      Both in 7.4 and 7.5 you can use the bootstrap plugin configuration in the framework page.

      The difference is, that in 7.5 you have additional extensions available from EP (additional 5 extensions mentioned in the table in link you have provided).

      In 7.4 you can use only the standard extensions delivered by FLP framework.

      • Can you please put some example screenshots of framework page config for plugin URL field , module name , a sample JS file 7.4 also ?

      Example:

      Module plugin name: custom.MyPlugin

      Plugin URL: /com.sap.portal.resourcerepository/repo/My_Plugins/MyPlugin.js

      • Currently my jScript does something after whole page is loaded , what would be best event to do the same thing using plugin ?

      I'm not sure what event can be used, These should be FLP events though, and not sure if such api's exists.

      • For Embedding SAP UI5 application I followed steps in detailed documentation but I don't see my application UI appearing on ffp . DO we have to include that iview on ffp ? How does launchpad ffp knows to bring this iView . If I do preview of this iView it says mandatory parameters like system is missing. Also , I could not find "com.sap.portal.application.integration.sap" but "com.sap.portal.appintegrator.sap" which is what I used now and earlier for creating UI5 iViews. Please let me know your inputs here to show UI5 app on ffp .


      Please follow the steps after you have uploaded your Fiori app to Web Resource Repository (WRR) :

      1. Go to Content Administration -> Portal Content.
      2. Right click on Portal Content and select “New”->”Folder”
      3. Set a name  and click “finish” and “close”.
      4. Create a freestyle role and make it an entry point.
      5. Go to Content Administration -> portal Applications -> expand com.sap.portal.appintegrator.sap.
      6. Right click UI5 and select “copy”
      7. Right click on the folder you created in steps 3-5, and click “paste as PCD Object”.
      8. In the new opened wizard, click “next” and then “finish”
        Expected result: a new iView is created under the folder
      9. Change iview "name" to "<name>".
      10. Add the iView to the role you have created in step 6, as delta link.
      11. Change the iView properties
        1. Change the property SAPUI5URLPath to com.sap.portal.resourcerepository/repo/com.sap.<WRR_FolderName>.
        2. Change the property SAPUI5CompName to com.sap.Component
        3. Set EmbedInFLP as true (checkbox).
        4. Search for "Object ID of Device Group" property  and set it according to the device the iView should be visible on, e.g. "com.sap.portal.dg.tablet;TabletAndroid;com.sap.portal.dg.smartphone;com.sap.portal.dg.desktop"
      12. Assign the role to your test user.

      Start the test:

      1. Login as a EndUser to the FLP
      2. Go to “Tile Catalog” and under “General” category, click the “+” of the UI5 tile and choose “My Home”.
      3. Go back to home page.

      The tile is visible on Home page.

      Please let me k now if you have further questions,

      Irena

      Author's profile photo Sudarshan Paliwal
      Sudarshan Paliwal

      Thanks Irena for your response ! I will implement the steps as described and let you know the results or if i have any questions .

      Regards

      Sudarshan

      Author's profile photo Sudarshan Paliwal
      Sudarshan Paliwal

      Hi Irena ,

      I moved my Jscript code from portal component to plugin and it works really very well . I am facing one small issue though -

      If I change code in plugin and login, portal does not take the updated code until I clear my browser cache . This would become a problem after go-live , what should I do to ensure that plugin file is not cached or if it is cached it should get from server if changed , something Appcachebuster mechanism ?

      Thanks !

      Regards

      Sudarshan

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author


      Hi Sudarshan,

      Cache busting is not supported for this. This needs to be done manually, for example:

      Once user is using or changing it, he needs to provide a different name and update in the fw page configuration.


      Regards,

      Irena

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Sudarshan,

      I would also like to make use of the extension feature for the fiori launchpad. But unfortunately it is not totally clear to me how the plugin JS-File should look like.

      Could you please provide an example for a custom JS-file?

      Thanks and regards,

      Michael

      Author's profile photo Arnold Gallemann
      Arnold Gallemann

      Hello,

      I have a problem with our own fiori framework page:

      I create a own FFP and a desktop as a deltalink copy from the sap standard, an url alias and a display rule.

      But the own FFP is not shown.

      I don't now why.

      Best regards,

      Arnold

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Arnold,

      I'm afraid there is not enough information to help you. Please open a ticket on the component EP-PIN-NAV-FFP. We will also need an access to your system.

      Thanks,

      Irena