Skip to Content
Technical Articles
Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
Jocelyn Dart
March 16, 2019 11 minute read

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – New Rapid Content Activation on SAP S/4HANA releases 1709 to 2023 – Part 1 – Overview

Latest Updates:

As a UX specialist in the S/4HANA Regional Implementation Group team I’m privileged to work with many of our SAP S/4HANA customers.  Many of these SAP S/4HANA customers are looking to drive the business benefits of S/4HANA by implementing Fiori at scale.  It is experiences with those customers that have driven the need for new tooling to make it easier to activate Fiori at scale.  On your S/4HANA project, you can take advantage of a new approach to activating Fiori at scale that can cut activation time from weeks down to hours or days.

TL;DR + video version: If you are technical and would prefer to jump straight to a step by step guide, please refer to this excellent blog by my colleague Mahesh Sardesai: New Installation of SAP S/4HANA 2022 FPS2 – Part 4 – Rapid Activation for Fiori

SAP Fiori is how business users access S/4HANA innovations.  Many SAP S/4HANA customers are keen to make the most of these innovations, whether as a big bang or as a carefully staged journey.  That means they may need to activate 100s and in some cases 1000s of SAP Fiori apps and other Fiori launchpad content, such as Web Dynpro ABAP applications and SAPGUI for HTML transactions. If this is your project, naturally you want an easy way to do this – now you have one!

You can now use the new rapid content activation task lists to dramatically cut the activation effort from days to weeks down to hours to days. You do this by activating delivered SAP Business Roles as a consolidated single unit, complete with ready-to-test business user ids.  This is very different from the app by app by app approach of early alternatives.  The good news is that even if you only intend to activate one business role as a showcase, these new task lists will make things much easier for you too.

A few months ago, these new Rapid Activation for Fiori in SAP S/4HANA task lists were quietly released for customer use for customers on SAP S/4HANA 1809 and SAP S/4HANA 1709.  The feedback so far has been very positive. Not only do they decimate the time needed to activate apps, they also avoid a lot of the common issues, missteps & stumbling points experienced by project teams new to SAP S/4HANA.

You can find these new task lists in the following SAP Notes:

You can now use this central note to find the list of all Rapid content activation notes for all SAP S/4HANA versions

2902673 – Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA – Overview

Direct SAP Notes:

3336782 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2023

3308535 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2022 FPS02

3282460 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2022 FPS01

3236624 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2022

3166600 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS02

3132689 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS01

3085127 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2021

3045635 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS02

3009827 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01

2947824 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 2020

2924004 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS02

2895644 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01

SAP Note 2834415 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 1909

SAP Note 2823926 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1809 FPS02

SAP Note 2777142 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1809 FPS01

SAP Note 2704570 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1809

SAP Note 2695653 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1709

The rapid activation approach is particularly useful when activating apps in your sandpit and demo systems.  With some care you may be able to use it for activating apps in your development system too (make sure you have also applied 2686456 – Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Business Roles so that you can transport your OData activations).

If you have a little time, before you start using them, you may find it helpful to keep reading further to understand the task lists in more detail.

Part 1: Overview (this blog)

  • Why these Rapid Activation task lists were created
  • What’s in the Rapid Activation task lists

Part 2: Pre-requisites and executing the Fiori Foundation task list

  • Pre-requisites
  • How to execute the Fiori Foundation task list

Part 3: Scoping & Executing the Rapid Activation Task List for your business roles

  • Selecting your business roles
  • How to execute the Rapid Activation task list
  • Testing your activated business roles

Part 4: Customizing & transporting your activated business roles

  • How to customize the business roles you have activated by the task lists
  • Transporting activation and activation alternatives
  • Where to get help

Why Rapid Activation for Fiori in SAP S/4HANA

The aim of the rapid activation task lists is to help you get started exploring Fiori in SAP S/4HANA as quickly as possible.  This is particularly important in the early Explore phase of SAP Activate methodology, where you are focused on understanding what apps have been delivered with your SAP S/4HANA system. This is the starting point for deciding which apps you will use, and how these apps fit to your organization’s specific business processes & business users.

In the past, many customers found there are 2 main hurdles to overcome in getting to that starting point: scale and inexperience.

Dealing with the scale of SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA

Five years into the S/4HANA journey, the number of SAP Fiori apps available has grown from around 300 in SAP S/4HANA 1511 to the nearly 3K apps available in the latest version SAP S/4HANA 2022 FPS02. And that is not including the many other types of delivered SAP Fiori launchpad content such as Web Dynpro ABAP applications and SAP GUI for HTML transactions.

While many of the tools and accelerators we used in the early SAP S/4HANA days are still good for some smaller use cases, for customer projects wanting to enable a large SAP Fiori scope there was quite some effort required to activate using even only standard SAP Fiori apps and roles.  With traditional mass maintenance tasks lists, customer experiences over the last 4-5 years have found activating Fiori apps at scale can take days or even weeks of effort, especially for those consultants new to SAP S/4HANA.

Activating apps at such large scale clearly needed some careful rethinking.

IMPORTANT: Activation is not the only area where you will find improved tooling.  Since 2018, you could also decrease a lot of the manual effort of business role maintenance, and gateway service activation, as discussed in these blogs:

You should also watch out for more tooling in the 2019 roadmap to help with mass maintenance of custom catalogs.

Dealing with inexperience (avoiding newbie errors)

One of the common missteps of many early SAP S/4HANA customers was to select and activate SAP Fiori apps one by one. This is a very high effort approach.  It was also very error prone, as often related apps & dependencies needed to complete the end-to-end app deployment were missed resulting in confusion, frantic troubleshooting, and delays.

Fiori apps are organized very differently to SAP GUI transactions. Compared to SAP GUI transactions, most Fiori apps are not intended to be used standalone or individually. Instead Fiori navigation enables a high degree of reuse & natural app-to-app navigation as the user completes a task.

It’s more than just a change in organization: the UX paradigm of Fiori differs fundamentally to the classical SAP GUI transaction pattern. Instead of big multi-purpose transactions which are typically launched individually (often via the TCode field), Fiori offers a navigation network of task-oriented UIs, which are interconnected via Fiori Launchpad Content. This means, there are usually multiple options to launch any app, such as:

  • from the Home page by clicking on a tile or link
  • from the Navigation Menu at the top of the shell bar
  • via a Fiori Enterprise Search result
  • by selecting an app in the App Finder in the Me area
  • via the Frequently Used or Recent Activity lists in the Me Area

And once launched users can use forward navigation to reach related apps by:

  • using hyperlinks, e.g. via the Smart Link “List of Links” popup
  • buttons or hyperlinks that launch other apps to perform a task

This degree of app-to-app forward navigation in SAP Fiori is much higher than SAP GUI transactions. The whole mechanism is controlled by authorizations, i.e. users see only those apps and links to apps which they are authorized to use. That’s another fundamental difference to SAP GUI transactions.

A selective Fiori implementation by cherry-picking single Fiori apps breaks the user experience and leads to very high implementation costs. Since Fiori apps are not designed to be used individually, to support the end-to-end task this may need even you to (re-)configure the complete app-to-app navigation network, which is defined in SAP’s delivered Fiori Launchpad Content. This is why SAP recommends a role-based approach to implement Fiori, i.e.:

  • Copy the SAP-delivered business roles and catalogs and adjust them to your needs.
  • Implement complete business roles and not just single Fiori apps.

What’s in the Rapid Activation task lists

There are 2 task lists included in Rapid Activation of Fiori in S/4HANA:

  1. A task list for activating the Fiori Foundation named SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4
  2. A task list for activating Fiori Content by selected business roles, named SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION

Task List Fiori Foundation (SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4)

You run this task list first as a once-off activity to set up your Fiori Foundation, that is:

  • Execute basic configuration for Fiori Launchpad, SAP GUI for HTML and Web Dynpro ABAP common services
  • Generate generic user roles for Administrator and End User

Task List Fiori Content Activation (SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION)

Once you have the Fiori Foundation in place, you use the Fiori Content Activation task list to activate all the apps associated with your selected business roles. You can select one business roles or activate multiple business roles together.  You can run the task list as many times as you need to, to complete the activation of all your selected business roles.  The more business roles you select in one run, the bigger the saving in time and effort. For each business role the task list will:

  • Activate all the associated Fiori apps (i.e. activate the related ICF node & OData Service(s))
  • Activate all the associated Web Dynpro for ABAP applications
  • Generate the business role (i.e. the PFCG security role) with default authorizations
  • Optionally, generate a Test user per business role

IMPORTANT: Some of the current limitations of these 2 task lists are:

  • Only standard roles can be selected. If you have created your own custom Fiori Apps these have to be activated separately.
  • Some apps have additional post activation activities. These are typically performed by functional business process consultants. Check the App documentation.
  • Not all activation steps done by the task list can be saved to a transport request – therefore this method should be used to activate SAP Fiori apps in sandbox or demo systems. For Dev, Q and P systems see the separate section Transporting your apps in the blog Part 4: Customizing & transporting your activated business roles.

Want to take advantage of this new Rapid Activation approach?

Then read on to Part 2: Pre-requisites and executing the Fiori Foundation task list 

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

This particular blog series has been a collaborative effort between the S/4HANA RIG and the Global Fiori Design team.  I’d like to add my personal thanks to all the contributors – they know who they are!  And especially to my colleague Hannes Defloo who has shepherded this initiative on behalf of the S/4HANA RIG, as well as drafting this blog series.

You’ll find much more on the community topic page for SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Other helpful links in the SAP Community:

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG.

Assigned Tags

      21 Comments
      You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.
      Author's profile photo Nabheet Madan
      Nabheet Madan

      Thanks for the blog. Rapid content activation was very much needed, I myself can vouch for it as have been activating lot of apps one by one. #MuchNeed

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Nabheet - we'd love to hear your experiences and how much you have found the new technique saves you.  Remember the more business roles you activate at the same time, the higher the savings.

      Author's profile photo Jean-Philippe Augert
      Jean-Philippe Augert

      Thanks a lot for your great work JOCELYN

       

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Jean-Philippe - this one was a group effort! Enjoy the new technique and let us know how you go.

      Author's profile photo Anjan Paul
      Anjan Paul

      Thanks Jocelyn. Your blog always rock. Very good information for quick activation.

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Paul for the encouragement!  When you get the chance to use the new task lists we would love to have your feedback

       

      Author's profile photo Anjan Paul
      Anjan Paul

      Sure Jocelyn.  Have a great day.

      Author's profile photo Sarbjeet Singh
      Sarbjeet Singh

      Thanks for sharing this Jocelyn,

      Can we use these for central-Hub implementation approach also?

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sarbjeet Singh,

      No unfortunately - there are some things that are just too difficult to automate when working across a hub frontend system to backend system.

      What you can do instead is use a similar approach (i.e. activate all apps of a business role together) using the existing task lists.  This at least minimizes issues caused by broken app to app navigation links.  You can also follow the advice in the Rapid Content Activation SAP Notes re pre/post activities for the business roles you are activating.

      You can find more on the alternative approaches in part 4 of this blog series.

      Thanks

      Jocelyn

      Author's profile photo Nary Rajaonarivo
      Nary Rajaonarivo

      Hello Jocelyn,

       

      Thanks for this amazing blog.

       

      Regarding your latest update on 1/08/2019, we would like to know if it is possible to add into transport request the OData Services already activated before the installation of the note 2686456 – Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Business Roles. ?

       

      Thanks.

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Nary,

      What I would suggest for that is running the tasklist for the roles content activation again - just for the transport & OData Service activation. There's no harm in activating the content twice and that would record them against the transport at the same time.

      Also remember that ICF nodes still need to be transported using the Export/Import approach explained in  Part 4: Customizing & transporting your activated business roles as ICF nodes do not have a transportable object

       

      Author's profile photo Ian Knight
      Ian Knight

      Hi Jocelyn,

      great blog.

       

      A question regarding access to the catalogs. After the mass activation is there an easy way to assign the catalogs to ID's? or is this step still manual.

      If we use the Task List to generate the test IDs, do those IDs automatically have access to the catalogs and tiles?
      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Ian,

      Yes absolutely.

      Part of the Rapid Activation task lists is the option to create a test user per business role.  The related security roles are generated and automatically assigned to the test users.

      You can then use the test user to immediately test the role - both the apps and the related authorizations.

      That is why the test users are provided - to make the whole process of exploring the business roles that much easier.

      Thanks

      Jocelyn

      Author's profile photo Paul Bartlett
      Paul Bartlett

      Hi Jocelyn,

      At the risk of being 'Off-topic', can I ask if these rapid activation innovations will come to those customers who have not yet made the leap to S/4 HANA, i.e. are Business Suite 7 users?

      We have the option to improve UX since 'SAP Fiori 1.0 for SAP ERP' however there is much concern in the user-base about re-training so that we need to show and tell as rapidly as possible to get the understanding and interest up. So Rapid Activation of standard Business Roles would be a good stepping stone...

      Regards, Paul.

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Paul, Sorry I missed this. In short, the tasks lists are part of the SAP Fiori frontend server so you get them, however you need to be a little careful.

      Since the task lists are:

      • based on SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA functionality,
      • based on running SAP Fiori frontend server in embedded mode

      some/most will not be relevant in a Business Suite context.

      For example, some of SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 may be usable - if you select the tasks you want to run in the task list.

      However SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION is unlikely to bring much value to a Business Suite context as the SAP_BR_xxx roles do not exist/are very limited.

      You can try using SAP_FIORI_FCM_CONTENT_ACTIVATION to activate your custom business roles and non standard roles (i.e. those that start with something other than SAP_BR_), however remember the approach requires FES in embedded mode... and most Business Suite customers I have seen are using standalone mode.

      Author's profile photo Ramya Chinnaswamy
      Ramya Chinnaswamy

      Hello Jocelyn,

      Thanks for this blog!

      In the step to activate the fiori content using SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION by choosing some business roles, few times I encountered error stating oData service or CDS view is not available. What is the solution to solve this type of errors?

      Thanks in advance!

      Regards,

      Ramya

       

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Sorry Ramya, missed this one. Generally speaking:

      1. Read the Composite note for SAP Fiori Rapid activation for your specific SAP S/4HANA release and FPS as mentioned above. This usually has the known issues for the business roles you have chosen.
      2. As usual check for a SAP Note using the OData Service or CDS View name
      3. If you still can't find anything raise a SAP Incident

       

      Best

      Jocelyn

      Author's profile photo Saravana Ramakrishnan
      Saravana Ramakrishnan

      Hi Jocelyn,

      We are trying to activate one of app F1815 as per app library. We cannot see a tile under standard technical catalog(SAP_TC_CEC_SD_COMMON).  instead of it shows some different values like "ET091VRSCA1TJQOJN9C210VO1". Can you please advise. We use S/4 HANA 2022 SP01 and UIS4HOP1.

       

      Thanks

      Saravana

      Author's profile photo Jocelyn Dart
      Jocelyn Dart
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Saravana, sounds like a typical "tile reference lost" error.

      Thanks for including the release info. You don't mention if you are embedded or standalone FES...

      Make sure you are using the current tools - i.e. Launchpad app manager and Launchpad content manager - not the launchpad designer.

      The new tools have quick fixes for these problems.

      Check for quick fixes first as per this blog post

      SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – How to fix Changed and Outdated Catalogs

      If that still does not resolve it you may need to run /UI2/GET_APP_DESCR_REMOTE_ALL once to synch the technical catalogs. For more on this you can can refer to SAP Note 2690615 - Tiles are blank or missing titles...

      If you still can't resolve it please either ask a question and assign the official tag "SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA" or raise a SAP Incident.

      Good luck!

       

      Author's profile photo Saravana Ramakrishnan
      Saravana Ramakrishnan

      Thanks for your quick response. Ours is Embedded.

       

      Author's profile photo Mohammed Rizwan
      Mohammed Rizwan

      Great post, thanks for all details as its very valuables.