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hannes_defloo
Advisor
Advisor

UPDATE 10/2/2023 : Still relevant also for S/4HANA 2022, you can see in this blog the functionality the web assisant offers.  For the setup instructions please use the PDF in the note 3022494 via transaction /ui2/flp_cus_conf, this is easier compared to the web dispacher config.  Web Dispatcher config might still be used eg. if in the customer network the backend system cannot access the internet.

UPDATE 3/5/2021: As from S/4HANA2020 there is an option to without SAP Web Dispatcher, see SAP Note 3022494 - SAP S/4HANA (On Premise) 2020 / SAP_UI 7.56 : Configure Web Assistant without SAP...

UPDATE 29/07/2020: new configuration option possbile as from SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS 2 see blog https://blogs.sap.com/2020/07/27/simplified-configuration-of-help-links-in-sap-s-4hana/

UPDATE 28/05/2020:  Recommended settings for S/4HANA 1909 described in SAP Note 2874229 - User Assistance Settings for Static Documentation (SAP S/4HANA 1909)

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 SAP S/4HANA by implementing SAP Fiori at scale.

A lot of customers are interested in activating the User Assistant guidance from the SAP Fiori launchpad (FLP) for their end-users.  It gives these end-users micro-learning on the FLP and the standard apps.  This is covered by the standard SAP S/4HANA License.  Customers can also customize the content, however this requires an additional license for SAP Enable Now.

TIP: User Assistance is described as Web Assistant in some guides, and as in-app help in the SAP Fiori launchpad guide.

This blog is a summary of the configuration steps described in the from the SAP Enable Now User Assistant Integration official guide.  In this blog however we focus on the standard setup, without extensibility, without SAP Enable Now setup, and without an additional license.

You can also find a quick summary of the essential configuration in the UI Technologies guide for SAP S/4HANA.

https://help.sap.com/doc/61634ead9e5144b89e7eca2b1d4b8bce/latest/en-US/UITECH_OP1909.pdf

Overview of the different help options of the User Assistant

After doing the configuration described in the sections below you will see a new “question mark”-icon in your FLP:

Clicking on this will provide access to the different User Assistant help information:

Clicking on an element on the page indicated in blue corner, will give you some terminology explanation, eg. here for Notifications in the FLP:

In an app you can also find information on the functionality by clicking on the different screen elements, eg. here the app F2175 Find Maintenance Orders :

 

The User Assistant also provides a link to the app documentation in SAP Help documentation:

There is also in-app help available, eg. here for the Find Maintenance Order app:

Clicking on the “Learning”-icon will open the Learning Centre page:

 

System Architecture for the User Assistant setup



Clients connect via a browser or SAP Business Client to the SAP S/4HANA FLP via the SAP Web Dispatcher.  Normally this component should already be in your system landscape and is pointing to the S/4HANA server.  For User Assistance will configure two additional connections to the SAP Web Assistant Server and SAP Content Server.

 

Overview of the steps to configure User Assistant

Step 1 : Setup Web Dispatcher, create 2 additional routes and import certificates.

 

UPDATE 3/5/2021: As from S/4HANA2020 there is an option to without SAP Web Dispatcher, see SAP Note 3022494 - SAP S/4HANA (On Premise) 2020 / SAP_UI 7.56 : Configure Web Assistant without SAP... In this case the S/4HANA system will do the outbound requests instead of the SAP Web Dispatcher, so this must be allowed in the customer network.

Note that we still recommend all customer to have the SAP Web Dispatcher in the landscape, also if you have an embedded Fiori deployment.  See my other blog https://blogs.sap.com/2016/12/06/sap-web-dispatcher-for-fiori-explained.-why-and-how/

Make sure you have a Web Dispatcher (WD) in your systems landscape and you connect to your FLP via the Web Dispathcer host and port.  If not, see this wiki for installation help : https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SI/Web+Dispatcher+Installation

 

Adapt the WD configuration to forward requests to =/sap/dfa/help/ and /resources/sap/dfa/help/ to the relevant SAP servers

 

wdisp/system_conflict_resolution = 1 #(first match)

# Added for User Assistant SID= WA1/WA2 dummy sids
wdisp/system_0 = SID=WA1,EXTSRV=https://cp.hana.ondemand.com,SRCURL=/sap/dfa/help/, SRCSRV=*:*
, STANDARD_COOKIE_FILTER=OFF
wdisp/system_1 = SID=WA2,EXTSRV=https://xray.hana.ondemand.com,SRCURL=/resources/sap/dfa/help/
, SRCSRV=*:*, STANDARD_COOKIE_FILTER=OFF



Put this part in front of the configuration of the other systems like the S/4HANA backend system. Restart the WD after doing these changes.  Next import the certificates via the system entry in the WD Administration and Establish Trust

NOTE : the WD Administration page can be opened via /sap/wdisp/admin/public/default.html



 

Steps 2 : Create Fiori Catalog and PFCG Role

Create a new catalog for example ZENABLENOW and add 2 target mappings : Shell-plugin and Shell-BootConfig.

NOTE : the FLP Designer to create and edit Fiori Catalogs is available on S/4HANA server via url /sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/arsrvc_upb_admn/main.html

Shell-plugin:



The exact parameter values can be found in the official guide (link – section 3.1.3 Setting Up SAP Fiori Catalog), and may be changed in later versions.

Version : can be 1709.000, 1809.000, 1909.000 reflecting your SAP S/4HANA release, but is independent of the FPS level of your system.

UPDATE 28/05/2020: For S/4HANA 1909 FPS1 you can also use 1909.001

ServiceLayerVersion : UACP (default) or EXT (for the extended scenario, not covered in this blog)

carouselOrientation: vertical or horizontal (screenshots in the blog)

Shell-bootConfig:

Parameters:

    • renderers/fiori2/componentData/config/enableHelp = true



Create a PFCG role and link to this catalog.  Assign this role to your user in transaction SU01.

 

In 1909 you can use a simpler approach via transaction /UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF or /UI2/FLP_SYS_CONF,  and FLP configuration parameter ENABLE_HELP



And you can set up the plug in the FLP Plugins section:

Use the dropdown to find the parameters you can set:

Step 3 : Test and Troubleshoot

Now reload the FLP and see if you have the User Assistant available.  Most often in life and also in IT things do not work at the first try, it’s important not to give up and investigate where things are going wrong and try to solve them.

For the User Assistant you can troubleshoot via the browser developers tools.  Open these and refresh the FLP page, filter on “dfa” calls and check the HTTP Response status.

    • In case there are calls, but they are in errors (40x, 50x) then verify the configuration you did in step 1: check the WD configuration and WD trace file.  Maybe there is a problem with the import of the certificates?

 

    • In case you don’t find any such calls there is a problem with the Fiori Catalog or PFCG role assignment, configured in step 2





The WD Trace file can be viewed and downloaded from the WD Administration page. It can reveal possible routing or certificate errors.



You get more verbose output on the issues by adding the following parameters to the WD instance profile:

    • icm/HTTP/trace_info=TRUE

 

    • is/HTTP/show_detailed_errors=TRUE



Here we see an example of a call to /sap/dfa/help correctly forwarded to system WA1:



 

You can test in the Dispatching Table and simulate a url, eg in my case. https://hostname/resources/sap/dfa/help/utils/adapters/fiori/Component-preload.js

It should route it to WA2.



 

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

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

Brought to you by the S/4HANA RIG

 

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