Easily Create App Variants in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Have you ever been using an application and thought that the user interface (UI) would be more intuitive if you could move one field here, hide another field there and perhaps add some fields that weren’t there?

Say you are a manager and know that there’s an application that everyone in the company uses, but your department’s work would be done more quickly if the UI was changed just a little bit for them?

Good news! Now in SAP S/4HANA Cloud version 1805, you can easily adapt the user interface of SAPUI5 applications and save that as a variant for yourself and others to use!

How do App Variants work?

If you are using a S/4HANA application that was developed with SAPUI5, you can start the Adaptation at Runtime editor (RTA), adjust the UI of that application and save the new configuration as a new variant which you and other people can use.

The original application is not changed and its tile remains on the FLP. However, the variant gets its own tile on FLP.  The changes to the UI made via RTA are saved in a layered repository which is applied at runtime, ie whenever the variant is launched.  Just one of the advantages of this is that the changes are upgrade safe — if the original application is updated behind the scenes, the changes you made for the variant will still be applied when the variant is launched and will still work.

How do I create a Variant?

From Fiori Launch Pad, launch the application you want to adapt by selecting its tile.  Then go to the Me area and select Adapt UI.

This starts the RTA editor where you can easily drag and drop, hide, add and rename groups and controls.  Once you have made your changes, select the Save As button. In the Save as New App Variant dialog, complete the fields for Title, Subtitle, Description and choose an icon you’d like to appear in the tile on FLP.

Once you select Save, an alert tells you that the variant is being saved, will appear as a new tile in the FLP and the RTA editor will close.

How do I know which version I’m using?

Creating variants is really easy, but you can imagine that you might end up with a few and wonder which one is the original and which are variants.  All you need to do is launch the app in question, open up the RTA editor and select the Overview of App Variants button:

There you will see a list that includes the original application and any variants.  From there you can see which you are currently adapting, copy IDs, adapt the UI of any of them or even Save As in order to create another variant.

What are the requirements for using RTA?

• You run your SAP Fiori app on a desktop computer or laptop.

• Your app is developed in SAPUI5 version 1.28 or higher, is not scaffolding-based and uses Stable IDs.  If in doubt, ask your administrator.

• Your business role is authorized for the business catalog SAP_CORE_BC_EXT.

Helpful links

Adapting SAP Fiori UIs at Runtime – S/4HANA Cloud documentation

SAPUI5 SDK Flexibility Services documentation