Differences between SAP Enterprise Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.40 and SAP NetWeaver 7.50
In that blog I already gave you a detailed overview on the highlights and the focus development of SAP Enterprise Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.50. Most of these features and highlights will not be available on SAP NetWeaver 7.40 or 7.31. Only SAP NetWeaver 7.50 will provide a new visual UI design, based on SAP Fiori 2.0, the integration of S/4HANA content and a lean and simplified Portal including the new Fiori SCA. SAP NetWeaver 7.50 will also be based on the latest Java version (Java 8).
Differences in Detail
Until now six support package stacks were delivered for Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.50. When looking closer at the features in stack 1 – stack 4, you will not discover a big difference between the feature scope of Enterprise Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.40 and SAP NetWeaver 7.50. Most NetWeaver 7.50 features are also part of SAP NetWeaver 7.40 SPS15 stack (Java stack 13).
You will find also additional information in these SAP notes:
2190368 – Enhancements on Portal NW 7.50 SPS01 and NW 7.31 SPS18 / NW 7.40 SPS15
2190375 – Enhancements on Portal NW 7.50 SPS02 and NW 7.31 SPS18 / NW 7.40 SPS15
2240950 – Enhancements on Portal NW 7.50 SPS03 and NW 7.31 SPS18 / NW 7.40 SPS15
Starting with SAPNetWeaver 7.50 SPS05 the differences are getting more obvious, this trend will continue in the next support package stacks. As a result almost all new features and innovations will be delivered with focus on SAP NetWeaver 7.50. You should take this into consideration when planning an upgrade to a higher NetWeaver release.
If your SAP Enterprise Portal release is still on 7.0x there is even more time pressure to start upgrading to SAP NetWeaver 7.50, at the end of 2017 SAP NetWeaver 7.0X Java stack will no longer be supported (see PAM for more information and SAP Note 1648480).
Have a look at the available NW 7.50 stacks and the availability of the features on SAP NetWeaver 7.40:
| Support Package | Features | Available on SAP NW 7.4 |
| Stack 1 | Extending SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal | + |
| Embedding SAP UI5 applications | + | |
| Enable tile personalization | + | |
| SAP Web IDE Plug-In which enables to deploy an Web IDE application to the Portal | + | |
| Configurable SAP Fiori Borders for iViews/pages (header and footer bars) | + | |
| Hide/show groups action in Option Menu | + | |
| Configurable iView/Page width | + | |
| Tile Personalization by end users | + | |
| Remove Duplicate Tiles from Remote Content | + | |
| Stack 2 | Sync Home Page – allows end-users getting the updated content on the Home page after portal administrator changes it | + |
| News Tile (via RSS feeds) | – | |
| Theme Change Using User Preferences Option | + | |
| Stack 3 | Quick link for iView/Page | + |
| Dynamic Navigation Enhancement | + | |
| Related Links enhancement: administrators can now determine whether related links appear in a side panel, and not a pop-up window | + | |
| Tile as Link for iView/Page Administrators can now configure iViews and pages to appear as links in the home page | + | |
| Accessibility Support (keyboard and JAWS screen reader support, along with SAP High-Contrast Black theme) | + | |
| Stack 4 | Homepage update options: the administrator can control the ability of end users to see homepage updates and changes | |
| Clear Personalization | + | |
| Fiori Framework Page updates (Remove duplicate tiles, show/hide user image, clear personalization) | + | |
| Remote Content assignment for non-unit role | + | |
| Accessibility: End users can now activate accessibility features by choosing a new Options menu item, | + | |
| The SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal is now integrated with SAP Business Client 6.0 PL5. | + | |
| Stack 5 | User Personalization Enhancements: it is stored per Fiori desktop, which is a portal desktop and contains Fiori Framework Page and portal themes. | – |
| User Personalization Clean-up Tool | – | |
| S/4HANA (sFIN) Applications Integration: With the release of the SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition, additional remote catalogs and groups are now available. | – | |
| ABAP Front-End Server Locale Settings: Administrators can change the locale applied to remote content from the portal server locale to the ABAP front-end server locale. | – | |
| Stack 6 | Support of SAP Fiori 2.0 Design for experimental use | – |
| Role Viewer, which is a tile on the home page that allows to navigate within a role-specific hierarchy by connecting it to a Portal role. | – | |
| Stack 7 | Support of SAP Fiori 2.0 for productive use | – |
| SAPUI5 version for SAP Fiori 2.0 design | – | |
| Role Viewer | – | |
| Show User Menu Tab | – | |
| Support of SAPUI5 plugins | – | |
| Animation mode for SAP Fiori 2.0 design | – | |
| Stack 8 | Text-only tiles | – |
| Home Page Personalization | – | |
| Compact Content Spacing | – | |
| Stack 9 | Fiori Notification from ABAP Gateway | – |
| SAP Belize theme for end user selection | – |
SAP Enterprise Portal Transition Paths
When you consider about upgrading your Portal, this consideration might also be connected with a decision on the future of your Portal in general.
In addition to the on-premise Enterprise Portal offering on SAP NetWeaver 7.50 with all the upcoming innovations and enhancements, there is also the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, Portal Service offering. This is a cloud-based portal service (on top of SAP HANA Cloud Platform) for building attractive (B2B/B2C) business sites and extending on-premise and cloud scenarios. We recommend Portal Service especially for innovative, cloud-based scenarios (IoT, S/4HANA and Cloud extensions, Fiori Cloud, Mobile, Social, Analytics) where Portal Service is taking advantage of the agile HCP platform and its services.
To help your company determine which solution – on premise and/or cloud – best fits your portal scenario, you might expect from SAP a tailor-made plan. Such a plan should be based on your current business challenges combined with your company IT plans and vision, to make sure you move in the right direction. SAP offers a special service that could help you to plan, build, and run your future SAP Portal solution.
Recommended Reading:
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 Overview
One Common Foundation for SAP Business Suite and SAP S/4HANA on-premise
Fiori Launchpad in Enterprise Portal 7.40 and 7.50:
Overview Information: in this document you see a table listing all importal features of Portal on NW 7.40. Be aware that all those features are also part of NW 7.50.
Portal Upgrade
Why should I upgrade my SAP Enterprise Portal ?
You can also check these 5 blogs, which are available per NW 7.50 support package stack:
Thank you for the details.
I see list of features and those revolve around Fiori framework page only.
If that is the case, why should customer deploy Enterprise Portal (with Fiori framework page)? Instead why not access Fiori Launchpad directly from Frontend server? Isn't it natural transition path? Please comment.
This is a great question that comes up very often...
Keep in mind that there are very good reasons to run the launchpad on the SAP Portal with the Fiori Framework page. Few of them are:
- In the Portal you can consume (alomost) all the UI technologies that SAP used in the past 15+ years, while with the launhcpad on the ABAP FES you have limitations
- Assume that you are running BW/BI/BOBJ reports and you want to integrate them to the launhcpad - the best integration will be achieved with the portal and FFW
- Assume that you are running WDJ apps (custom or SAP delivered) and you want to integrate them to the launhcpad - the best integration will be achieved with the portal and FFW
- If you are using the Portal for SSO, complex roles, etc. - in many cases this can be achieved only with the Portal
- And many others...
Long story short, we (=SAP) provide you the options and it is up to you to select the best option for your specific business needs. Fiori launhcpad on ABAP FES, SAP Portal, Cloud Portal / HCP.
Regards,
Aviad