In this blog I am going to share some information on a new App type introduced in the Fiori Launchpad sites – “Dynamic URL”. This is currently available in the Preview environment of Portal service. Before I get into the details, let me clarify on what a Preview environment is.
The preview environment of Portal service on SAP Cloud Platform provides an option to view all the new capabilities before they are officially made available. Customers and Partners can explore the new capabilities for non-productive use, two weeks before the official delivery.
If you have an active subscription to the Portal service and would like to start using the Preview environment, please follow the best practice documentation.
Now let’s move on to the new App type called “Dynamic URL”. Few months back, I was working with a customer who is already live with S4/HANA Cloud (S4HC) and were using SAP Cloud Platform to extend it. They had built custom apps on the Cloud Platform which would be accessed from the Fiori Launchpad available in the Cloud Platform. This resulted in their end users accessing two set of Launchpads – one available on Cloud Platform to access custom apps and the other provided by S4HC to access standard Fiori apps. In order to enhance the UX, we thought of keeping the Fiori Launchpad from the Cloud Platform as the central entry point to access all the applications. S4HC Fiori apps would be configured as “URL Apps” and we could hard code the S4HC Test tenant details in the URL App configuration. However, after we transport these configurations to the PROD subaccount of SAP Cloud Platform, we would have to manually change the URLs for all those apps to point to the S4HC PROD tenant. This could be a painstaking job especially if you have created several apps (URL App type) for many of those standard S4HC Fiori apps.
With the introduction of new the “Dynamic URL” app type, we can now simplify the whole process for such scenarios. Below is an overview of the scenario which I have setup. I will explain this in detail.
I have two S4HC tenants – SM1 and SM2 where I have configured the standard Fiori Apps.
I have setup my “Test” subaccount in SAP Cloud Platform and created a destination as below.
Notice that I have provided the name of the destination as “S4HC” and maintained the property Usage=Dynamic.
I have created a Fiori Launchpad based site with an app type “Dynamic URL”. This refers to the destination “S4HC” and in the path, I have provided the intent to invoke the relevant Fiori app. In this example, its “Maintain Employees” Fiori app.
When I publish and view the site, it would highlight at the top that this is a Preview version and display the tile which I have configured.
Clicking on this tile will launch the “Maintain Employees” Fiori App from the S4HC Test tenant (SM1) in a new tab.
Once the Fiori Launchpad has been configured, I can use the standard transport mechanism to transport the contents to the PROD subaccount.
In the PROD subaccount, I can change the URL of S4HC destination to now refer to the PROD tenant (SM2).
After making this change, all the apps (Dynamic URL apps) based on this destination will now refer to the S4HC PROD Tenant. Clicking on the same Fiori Launchpad tile (in the PROD subaccount) will take me to the “Maintain Employees” Fiori app available in S4HC PROD tenant (SM2).
In this scenario, I didn’t have to edit any of the apps individually as the URLs are dynamically constructed based on the destination properties.
The preview environment of Portal service on SAP Cloud Platform provides an option to view all the new capabilities before they are officially made available. Customers and Partners can explore the new capabilities for non-productive use, two weeks before the official delivery.
If you have an active subscription to the Portal service and would like to start using the Preview environment, please follow the best practice documentation.
Now let’s move on to the new App type called “Dynamic URL”. Few months back, I was working with a customer who is already live with S4/HANA Cloud (S4HC) and were using SAP Cloud Platform to extend it. They had built custom apps on the Cloud Platform which would be accessed from the Fiori Launchpad available in the Cloud Platform. This resulted in their end users accessing two set of Launchpads – one available on Cloud Platform to access custom apps and the other provided by S4HC to access standard Fiori apps. In order to enhance the UX, we thought of keeping the Fiori Launchpad from the Cloud Platform as the central entry point to access all the applications. S4HC Fiori apps would be configured as “URL Apps” and we could hard code the S4HC Test tenant details in the URL App configuration. However, after we transport these configurations to the PROD subaccount of SAP Cloud Platform, we would have to manually change the URLs for all those apps to point to the S4HC PROD tenant. This could be a painstaking job especially if you have created several apps (URL App type) for many of those standard S4HC Fiori apps.
With the introduction of new the “Dynamic URL” app type, we can now simplify the whole process for such scenarios. Below is an overview of the scenario which I have setup. I will explain this in detail.
I have two S4HC tenants – SM1 and SM2 where I have configured the standard Fiori Apps.
I have setup my “Test” subaccount in SAP Cloud Platform and created a destination as below.
Notice that I have provided the name of the destination as “S4HC” and maintained the property Usage=Dynamic.
I have created a Fiori Launchpad based site with an app type “Dynamic URL”. This refers to the destination “S4HC” and in the path, I have provided the intent to invoke the relevant Fiori app. In this example, its “Maintain Employees” Fiori app.
When I publish and view the site, it would highlight at the top that this is a Preview version and display the tile which I have configured.
Clicking on this tile will launch the “Maintain Employees” Fiori App from the S4HC Test tenant (SM1) in a new tab.
Once the Fiori Launchpad has been configured, I can use the standard transport mechanism to transport the contents to the PROD subaccount.
In the PROD subaccount, I can change the URL of S4HC destination to now refer to the PROD tenant (SM2).
After making this change, all the apps (Dynamic URL apps) based on this destination will now refer to the S4HC PROD Tenant. Clicking on the same Fiori Launchpad tile (in the PROD subaccount) will take me to the “Maintain Employees” Fiori app available in S4HC PROD tenant (SM2).
In this scenario, I didn’t have to edit any of the apps individually as the URLs are dynamically constructed based on the destination properties.
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