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Author's profile photo Sascha Zygar

Six reasons why Web Dynpro is Better than Design Studio in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

In the past SAP S/4HANA Cloud users had two options. Either choose the red or the blue pill: Design Studio versus Web Dynpro.

The decision has been made. Since the 2102 release the Design studio apps are deprecated. Instead, the multidimensional reports will be used with Web Dynpro apps in the future. Besides performance improvements, there are many advantages, that simplify saying goodbye to the Design Studio. This blog highlights 6 reasons why you can be optimistic about the new Web Dynpro era.

  1. Filter bar always on top
  2. Filter measures
  3. Additional dimensions from data source /new
  4. Variants + bookmarks
  5. Excel + PDF Export
  6. More helpful query information

The functions are demonstrated using the “Journal Entry Analyzer” app.

  1. Filter bar always on top

With the Design studio it was always quite complex to filter. You could filter in the prompts and had to display them again via “Show prompts”. Or you had to configure the filter bar yourself. In the Web Dynpro the relevant filters are always available on top. The Navigation Panel can be shown if desired. Here you can also filter directly by the dimensions by activating “show filter”.

  1. Filter measures

Furthermore, you can filter key figures with Web Dynpro. With different operators the user can influence the result set, a very useful filter possibility.

      3. Additional dimensions from data source

Next, the users can use dimensions in Web Dynpro that are not contained in the query itself, but in the data source based on it. This offers key users new possibilities in the design of custom analytical queries. Because not all dimensions have to be contained in the query itself.

  1. Variants + bookmarks

In Design studio it was possible to maintain different variants of the reports. In Web Dynpro two levels of variants can be maintained. The first one saves the main filters, that were maintained by the user.

Within the second level, the bookmarks, the user can save the customizing, that was done directly in the data analysis. E.g. measure filters, drilldowns, additional attributes etc. That means working with variants is now more flexible.

Variants, that were maintained in Design Studio, must be recreated in Web Dynpro.

  1. Excel + PDF Export

Besides of the Excel-Export, in Web Dynpro it is possible to export the report in PDF format. With “PDF Export Settings” the concrete output can be defined.

If the export to MS Excel should be basic without formatting, it can be edited easily using the “Clear Formats” function.

  1. More helpful query information

In my opinion, the query information in Web Dynpro is more helpful than in Design Studio, because the InfoProvider name is available.

In comparison to the technical name, this information can be used in the View Browser in order to find the data source.

There are even more reasons, which should be considered:

  • The Navigation Panel can be hidden (more space on the screen)
  • Available for Desktop and Tablet devices
  • Fulfills SAP’s Accessibility Standard
  • Offers Exception Reporting
  • Offers for (onPremise) customers the option to define via BADI own field name mappings
  • Offers for (onPremise) customers the option to change via BADI the IBN navigation parameters

Summary:

As a huge fan of the Design Studio first I was shocked about the deprecation. But after working with the Web Dynpro app for a while I must admit that it’s much better. It makes the life of users a lot easier with improved filter options. Users don’t have to add every dimension manually to the custom query anymore, the variant management is more flexible, as well as the export options. And most importantly the performance is much better.

In case you have any questions, please use the  SAP S/4HANA Cloud Q&A area. You are also welcome to provide your feedback in the comment section below. Thank you.

Good-bye Design Studio!

Welcome Web Dynpro!

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      24 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Owen Liu
      Owen Liu

      Useful information, thanks!

      Author's profile photo Julius Englert
      Julius Englert

      Great blog, Sascha! Thank you for this comparison.

      Author's profile photo Pragya Pande
      Pragya Pande

      Nice blog and well put points 🙂

      Thanks!

      Pragya

      Author's profile photo Silke Pekrun-Spang
      Silke Pekrun-Spang

      Not bad 🙂 I would add f4 Search Helps here 🙂 They are automatically taken form DDIC.

       

      Also no BE service has to be done.

      Author's profile photo Stefan-Claudius Mueller
      Stefan-Claudius Mueller

      Thanks for the comprehensive compilation

      I want also to emphasize the possibility to hide or show the Navigation Panel.

      Author's profile photo Mustafa Bensan
      Mustafa Bensan

      Isn't the Web Dynpro approach inconsistent with SAP's UX Strategy which favours UI5-based Fiori apps?

       

      Author's profile photo Sascha Zygar
      Sascha Zygar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Mustafa,

      thank you for the question.

      Embedding drill down reporting in Fiori UI5 is very complex. Web Dynpro is also HTML-based and fully adaptive (Data Grid Apps are also released for tablet devices) and thus has some similarities with Fiori.

      BR,

      Sascha

      Author's profile photo suboss selvam
      suboss selvam

      Useful information at the right time thanks a lot

      Author's profile photo Mio Yasutake
      Mio Yasutake

      Thank you for sharing this blog.

      I have a question. With "Query Browser" app, we would be able to search for CDS Views and execute Design Studio for a selected CDS View.

      Is there similar app for Web Dynpro Data Grid? Right  now I can find Tr: RSRT as only option for executing Web Dynpro Data Grid for a specific CDS View, which has not been registered as a Tile.

       

      Best Regards,

      Mio

       

       

      Author's profile photo Sascha Zygar
      Sascha Zygar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Mio,

      thank you for the questions.

      In the "Query Browser" all queries of a user are listed and can be executed via "Open for Analysis".

      Another option in SAP S/4HANA Cloud is to select the query in "View Browser" and execute it via "Show content".

      In 2105 you will be able to open the reports with Web Dynpro by default.

      BR,

      Sascha

      Author's profile photo Mio Yasutake
      Mio Yasutake

      Hi Sascha Zygar,

       

      Thank you for answer.

      We're on S/4 HANA 2020 (on-premise), but it's a good news that in the future Web Dynpro app will be opened by default.

       

      Thanks,

      Mio

      Author's profile photo Yang Wang
      Yang Wang

      Nice summary and many thanks for the helpful info.

      Author's profile photo Ali Masoud
      Ali Masoud

      Contrary to the design studio applications, regular users (not admin) are not able to make their variants public to share their layout with others. Any workarounds or a solution? Thanks,

      Author's profile photo Mohamed Cassim
      Mohamed Cassim

      Is there a solution to this - how may one share a personal layout?

      Author's profile photo Henrike Groetecke
      Henrike Groetecke

      Hi Ali,

      Please refer to the "Using Variants and Bookmarks" section in "Using Analytical Reports (Web Dynpro Apps):

      https://help.sap.com/viewer/a630d57fc5004c6383e7a81efee7a8bb/Latest/en-US/f7a8c8547996b109e10000000a423f68.html

      Best regards,

      Henrike

       

      Author's profile photo Thomas Born
      Thomas Born

      Hi Sascha;

      Thanks for the blog. I agree that the Web Dynpro app has better performance, but this is basically all that we can find in favour of it.

      All our users see Web Dynpro as a big step backwards. Mind you we are not using onpremise S/4HANA and have always only used S/4HANA Public Cloud. Design Studio has definitely a more modern look and feel.

      Apart from this

      • Search functions in filter searches were much easier
      • Export to Excel did not merge rows with the same content (importing when working with the export)
      • Web Dynpro changes some of the format of dimensions to add unnecessary and confusing information, e.g. Fiscal year period from 010.2021 to SZ/2021010, similar behavior for GL account
      • different date format
      • whilst it was not always working drag and drop of measures/dimension was user friendly
      • filter that are not part of prompt screens difficult to find

      the list goes on. Please SAP let us keep Design Studio

      Author's profile photo Jan Kuboschek
      Jan Kuboschek

      Thank you for the blog, Sascha. As SAP has deprecated DS for S/4HANA Cloud, can we expect this deprecation to extend to on-premise as well? Is there already a (tentative) timeline for this? It'd be great if SAP could shed some light on this.

      Author's profile photo Henrike Groetecke
      Henrike Groetecke

      Hi Jan,

      Yes, in SAP S/4HANA 2021, most SAP Design Studio apps were deprecated. In SAP S/4HANA 2022, they will no longer be available.

      For more information and a complete list of the deprecated apps, see 3081996 - Deprecation of SAP Design Studio Apps in SAP S/4HANA 2021

      Best regards,

      Henrike

      Author's profile photo Utkarsh Kanade
      Utkarsh Kanade

      Thanks for the informative blog. Would like to understand if this direction is only for S/4HANA Cloud or for On Prem as well? Some of the apps are available as Webdynpro and also Design studio apps for  On Prem landscape. E.g. Journal Entry Analyzer app. Is the recommendation to configure WD apps going forward?

      Author's profile photo Henrike Groetecke
      Henrike Groetecke

      Hi Utkarsh,

      Thanks for your question.

      Yes, we recommend that you don't create any new Design Studio apps and migrate custom Design Studio apps to Web Dynpro apps.

      Kind regards,

      Henrike

      Author's profile photo Renan Correa
      Renan Correa

      Hi,

      I just wanted to confirm one thing, is this WebDynpro the same technology as in WebDynpro ABAP used since mid 2000's for SRM and other SAP applications?

      Regards,

      Renan Correa

      Author's profile photo Harish Medehal Krishnaiah
      Harish Medehal Krishnaiah

      Thank you for the blog. If users save variants / bookmarks in the development environment, and would eventually like to move those variants / bookmarks to quality / production environments, how should they go about this? Any pointers will help. Thank you.

      Sascha Zygar Henrike Groetecke 

      Author's profile photo Nitesh Patel
      Nitesh Patel

      This is very helpful Article. I also like feature that allow pulling Master data attributes. But wondering why not all attributes show up for selection? refer attached snapshot, I see only segment field, do we need any other setting to get all key Profit center fields?

      I tried different apps but same issue as in F0943.

       

      F0943%20Fiori%20app

      F0943 Fiori app

      Author's profile photo Lilia Busch
      Lilia Busch

      Hello,

      thanks for all the useful information.

      One question regarding bookmarks: when using bookmarks is it possible to search for a certain bookmark via text? And if so, how?

      Thanks and regards.