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Author's profile photo Jorge Baltazar

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Launch SAP Business Client from SAP Fiori Launchpad

Relevant for S/4HANA 2022, 2021, 2020, 1909, 1809, 1709, 1610

There could be some cases where customers need to use transactions that are not supported in SAP GUI for HTML through their SAP Fiori Launchpad.

Some of the transactions we have identified based on project experience are:

  • SAP S/4HANA All versions:
    • CJ20N – Needed to display JGantt controls
    • /SAPAPO/CDPS0 – Needed to display JGantt controls
    • /SAPAPO/PPT1 – Needed to display JGantt controls
    • /MRSS/PLBOSRV – Needed to support a Windows graphical editor
    • BNK_APP – Needed to support a digital signature for the payment file
  • SAP S/4HANA 1809
    • IW28 – Needed to support MS Excel download
    • IW37N – Needed to support MS Excel download
    • IW38 – Needed to support MS Excel download

NOTE – Several of the more complex PP/DS transactions with the prefix /SAPAPO/  – for example transaction /SAPAPO/POV1 – require SAP GUI for Windows for full capabilities. SAP Fiori app alternatives are currently planned in the roadmap for Q4 2021 – 2023 (and beyond).

You check the roadmap for PP/DS using the term “Constraint-Based Production Planning” at https://roadmaps.sap.com/board?BC=6EAE8B27FCC11ED892E91CE972DC80CC&range=CURRENT-LAST#Q4%202020

We will continue to update this list based on project findings.

The reason for these transactions not being available via WebGUI is generally due to deprecated or unavailable plug-ins via web technologies. You can find additional information in the following SAP Notes:

Once you are aware of this limitation in your project, what happens when your SAP S/4HANA transition committee has defined the use of SAP Fiori Launchpad via browser as a central access point to all backend functionality?

In this case, you will be using Fiori Launchpad as a centralized access point to backend functionality so you could leverage the integration options of the SAP Fiori Launchpad and available SAP technologies.

One solution, though not the best user experience, is to create a tile in SAP Fiori Launchpad to launch SAP Business Client with the required transaction, as for these cases, transactions will typically be available only through SAP GUI for Windows runtime.

To do this Business Client needs to be setup with specific configurations which are listed here:

1. Place custom NWBCOptions.xml file in the following folder: C:\ProgramData\SAP\NWBC or you can use a centralized options file through a shared folder in your network.

2. In your custom NWBCOptions file, ensure parameter AllowTemporaryConnections is set to true

3. Once the custom file is created, you need to identify the path defined in Windows system environment variable: SAPLOGON_LSXML_FILE

Sample:  SAPLOGON_LSXML_FILE = C:\saplogon\SAPUILandscape.xml

4. Ensure that all users have read/write permissions to the file and folder defined in environment variable SAPLOGON_LSXML_FILE

5. If users do not have read/write access to the file and folder you can override the setup by defining an environment user variable with the same variable name aiming to a folder where the users have read/write access

Sample:  SAPLOGON_LSXML_FILE = C:\Users\i834429\AppData\Roaming\SAP\NWBC\SAPUILandscape.xml

6. Create new custom tile in SAP Fiori Launchpad Designer for a custom URL with the following format:
sap-nwbc://https://<hostname.fqdn>:<port>/sap/bc/nwbc/~canvas/transaction/<TCODE>

Sample:
sap-nwbc://https://<hostname.fqdn>:<port>/sap/bc/nwbc/~canvas/transaction/SAPAPO/CDPS0

Additional parameters for the sap-nwbc url can be found in SAP NWBC documentation

7. Assign tile to catalog, group, role and user

8. Test and adjust NWBCOptions file as required.

Note that despite looking simple this setup can really put all your technical knowledge of SAP GUI and Windows OS to a test.

The final result will look like:

Please note that this is a possible workaround for cases where a specific transaction does not exist or has issues while rendering as a web application and specific functionality is required.

The usage of this procedure will depend on your project requirements.

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA wiki

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments section.

Thanks,

SAP S/4HANA RIG

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      8 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Rajesh Ragupathy
      Rajesh Ragupathy

      Hi Jorge,

      Most of the customers in my experience who define the use of SAP Fiori Launchpad via browser as a central access point, do not deploy Business Client to the desktops.

      In most of the SAP customer's desktops SAP GUI for windows is deployed, can the similar approach be proposed to launch  the unsupported Tcodes using the sap gui for windows?

      Regards,

      Rajesh.R.

      Author's profile photo Jorge Baltazar
      Jorge Baltazar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rajesh,

      There is an option through custom coding were you create a SAP GUI shortcut dynamically from a BSP. This is even more complex to setup and there is no support from SAP when you face issues with this deployment option compared to using SAP Business Client which does offer support for Web Links since version 3.5

      I do have faced the same situation where customers do not deploy Business Client but this is an example on how you can simplify your implementation efforts using standard functionality and avoid custom coding efforts.

      Even better if usage Business Client is discussed at any stage of the project as ideally you would not face this situation if Business Client is set as the access point to Fiori Launchpad as it helps you merge Fiori Launchpad and SAP GUI for Windows runtime.

      The procedure to use and develop these shortcuts is nicely explained in the following blog:

      How to launch SAPGUI with SSO from Fiori Launchpad

      Hope this helps!

      JB

      Author's profile photo Matt Harding
      Matt Harding

      Hi JB,

       

      Another addition to your post might be to look at the option of using the prefix "connection=FIORI@" which would allow you to at least keep them in FLP within Business Client.  One aspect I'm considering is using a URL based tile which hits an SICF node which identifies whether they are in Business Client already and for something like cj20n, opening Business Client if they are in a browser.

      Unfortunately, another similar scenario you may want to create a proposed solution for is that the older Web Dynpro Expenses functionality doesn't render correctly in FLP. My plan for this is to either render as an external URL, or worse case (since I haven't investigated yet), creating a HTML Business Client Cockpit dedicated for this to handle navigation...

      Cheers,

      Matt

      Author's profile photo Mahendra Bhandari
      Mahendra Bhandari

      Hi Jorge,

       

      We did what was mentioned and it works fine (till the video which was shared in this blog) but once user clicks Execute, User gets an error as "Control could not be created".

       

      Per SAP Note- 2616384 - 'Control could not be created' error in Fiori Launchpad>> since, we are not running the SAP GUI for HTML then why the error in SAP Business Client.

       

      I think something is missing; could you please check and confirm if we are missing anything here?

       

      KR,

      ~ Mahendra

      Author's profile photo Jorge Baltazar
      Jorge Baltazar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Mahendra,

      SAP GUI still needs to be installed in the desktop so Business Client can use the GUI runtime. Can you confirm this has been done?

      If this is not the case, Business Client will default to SAP GUI for HTML.

      JB

      Author's profile photo Chandra Vasudevan
      Chandra Vasudevan

      Hi JB,

      Thanks for the Post, I followed the steps mentioned and created the Fiori tile. when i launched the tile its opening the NWBC login credential screen, after entering the details i am getting host name unknown error. Could you please provide a sample NWBCOptions.xml if my issue is related to this file.

      VC.

       

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Atul Kumar Jain
      Atul Kumar Jain

      Hi Jorge,

       

      We are experiencing a different situation here when opening nwbc from launch pad,where it open a new tab  and new HTTPS tab  fails on the first attempt and prompts me for a user name/password, but if I refresh the same web browser, HTTPS also works on the second attempt.

      Here we have configure SAML2 for SSO.

      It is only happing for NWBC but for GUI it is working fine.

      Best Regards,

      Atul

      Author's profile photo Pichet Aueisarakul
      Pichet Aueisarakul

      as of Nov 2020,  we have a lot of problem launching Fiori app in BC.  the BC is 7.0 PL14.

      Many times, App is loaded as blank page and we have to refresh the page to make the content appears. And many times, App stucks in three dot loading.

      Problems happens to both IE and chromium configuration. Clear cache also does not help.

      Open more than 4 tabs also overload BC.

       

      Using Chrome or Edge to launch Fiori directly does not have any problem.