I work in the product management team for SAP Portal and SAP Launchpad service and would like to make you aware of the latest news around the topics of SAP Portal portfolio (on-premise and cloud) and SAP Launchpad service, our latest addition to the “family”.
You are aware that we released in September 2020 the new SAP Launchpad service on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) multi-cloud environment?
Why did we do this and what business value is provided with SAP Launchpad service? You might be familiar with the following scenarios in your everyday business: users face a fragmented, heterogenous landscape of solutions with inconsistent user experience and many local entry points. As a consequence, they need to remember numerous URL links and logon credentials. They spend hours with searching for information and navigating around in different systems and repositories. How would it be if your users could launch all their apps and services from ONE central entry point?
This is the point where SAP Launchpad service comes into the game: it increases users’ productivity and efficiency by providing an intuitive, harmonized and central point of access to applications and services users need to fulfill their tasks. It also offers a seamless integration of content from SAP and third-party solutions (cloud and on-premise) in a uniform style. See also What is SAP Launchpad Service?
You can integrate business content from different sources to the central launchpad:
How you can get more information about Launchpad service?
I would like to refer you to our product page on SAP Community where you can find all information about Launchpad service (how to get started with a trial, overview presentation, roadmap, tutorials, discovery center mission etc.).
If you want to see all SAP Community blog posts written about SAP Launchpad service, then follow this tag. You can also activate the notifications on SAP Community to get notified about new blogs to be published.
Watch also our product video on YouTube:
In line with our goal to establish SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) as THE platform for the intelligent enterprise, SAP decided to sunset the “SAP Cloud Platform” product name to avoid confusion with the SAP BTP brand. In mid-January 2021, the SAP Cloud Platform brand was officially retired to support SAP’s One Platform strategy. While the Cloud Platform capabilities are renamed, the products and services continue to be available and their functionality will stay unchanged.
According to the new branding guidelines SAP Cloud Platform Portal was renamed to SAP Cloud Portal service and SAP Cloud Platform Launchpad was renamed to SAP Launchpad service.
Meanwhile there is an external document available where you can find all the name changes: Overview of Name Changes.
Our “old” established on-premise SAP Enterprise Portal product still exists, and there are also some news I would like to share with you.
If you are interested in a general overview on Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.5, check out this overview presentation (an updated version was recently published) providing also some first recommendations for a transition to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), information about SAP Enterprise Portal as a remote content provider to the Launchpad service and SAP Fiori 3 integration with SAP Quartz Light and Dark theme.
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS17 contains some Fiori 3 features and support for SAPUI5 1.71 as well as with SAP Quartz Light theme for SAP Fiori 3. Note that not all Fiori 3 design elements and features are available for SAP Enterprise Portal (the spaces and pages concept will not be available). Until now there are no plans to add additional Fiori 3 features.
You might already be aware, that mainstream maintenance for SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 will continue to the end of 2027, with extended maintenance to 2030. This was announced already last year. For more information, click here.
SAPUI5 1.71 will be the last supported long-term release for SAP NetWeaver Java platform. It is planned that no further SAPUI5 versions above 1.71 will be delivered and supported with SAP NetWeaver Java and respectively with SAP Enterprise Portal. More information in the following SAP notes: 2261419 and 2673298.
We have 2 tutorials which help to get started with Launchpad service:
We also have a new, advanced tutorial Enhance Your SAP Launchpad Site with Federated SAP S/4HANA Content, created by SAP product manager sibylle.brehm. By going through this step-by-step tutorial you will get familiar with the end-to-end configuration flow for content federation from an SAP S/4HANA system to your SAP Launchpad site. You will learn how to create a content provider for your SAP S/4HANA system in the SAP Launchpad service and add the exposed roles to the My Content area and to the SAP Launchpad site. Finally your end users can access the federated SAP S/4HANA apps and groups in their launchpad running on SAP Business Technology Platform.
For more information on the tutorials for Launchpad service: see this blog written by daniel.wroblewski
How to Move from SAP Cloud Portal Service to SAP Launchpad Service?
We would like to confirm that existing SAP Cloud Portal service customers can continue using this service according to their contract. Note that we do not plan to enhance the freestyle capabilities, however the Cloud Portal still benefits from our improvements in UX integration and content federation (see portal road map).
Going forward we recommend new customers adopting either SAP Launchpad service or SAP Work Zone depending on the scenario scope. The Launchpad service is the go-to solution for implementing SAP Fiori launchpad in the cloud (without the freestyle sites experience), while SAP Work Zone offers additional capabilities (such as document access, team workspaces, knowledge base, and more) to cover a broader functional scope and use cases.
You already implemented SAP Cloud Portal service on Cloud Foundry environment (or you did that for a customer), and you decided to move to the Launchpad service? Then you should read these three blog posts from SAP Product Expert dana.sarfati:
By reading these blog posts you will get some how-to information and recommendations on how to move from your existing SAP Cloud Portal service to the SAP Launchpad service within the same subaccount or in different subaccounts. The reuse of existing configuration and content is the first priority in order to avoid the need to configure everything from scratch. Note that freestyle sites and content created with SAP Cloud Platform service cannot be moved to in the Launchpad service (it does not support freestyle sites).
Integrate Apps from the ABAP Environment into SAP Launchpad Service
I would also like to recommend another blog written by SAP consultant arne.stich: Integrate Apps from the ABAP Environment into SAP Launchpad Service
In this blog you learn how to configure an integration between the SAP Launchpad service and a Fiori application deployed in the ABAP environment. The setup is done with the ABAP environment and the Launchpad service in the same subaccount.
If you have questions and feedback on the topics outlined above, please create a comment for this blog !
Do you already know SAP Launchpad service?
You are aware that we released in September 2020 the new SAP Launchpad service on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) multi-cloud environment?
Why did we do this and what business value is provided with SAP Launchpad service? You might be familiar with the following scenarios in your everyday business: users face a fragmented, heterogenous landscape of solutions with inconsistent user experience and many local entry points. As a consequence, they need to remember numerous URL links and logon credentials. They spend hours with searching for information and navigating around in different systems and repositories. How would it be if your users could launch all their apps and services from ONE central entry point?
This is the point where SAP Launchpad service comes into the game: it increases users’ productivity and efficiency by providing an intuitive, harmonized and central point of access to applications and services users need to fulfill their tasks. It also offers a seamless integration of content from SAP and third-party solutions (cloud and on-premise) in a uniform style. See also What is SAP Launchpad Service?
You can integrate business content from different sources to the central launchpad:
- Integration of content from remote content providers: at the moment the so-called "content federation" feature is available for SAP S/4HANA (on premise) and SAP Enterprise Portal (more remote content providers such as for SAP Business Suite are planned to be available)
- Integration of content from SAP BTP content providers, which include the content providers for the HTML5 apps and the launchpad modules
- Manual integration of apps
How you can get more information about Launchpad service?
I would like to refer you to our product page on SAP Community where you can find all information about Launchpad service (how to get started with a trial, overview presentation, roadmap, tutorials, discovery center mission etc.).
If you want to see all SAP Community blog posts written about SAP Launchpad service, then follow this tag. You can also activate the notifications on SAP Community to get notified about new blogs to be published.
Watch also our product video on YouTube:
Some Rebranding News
In line with our goal to establish SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) as THE platform for the intelligent enterprise, SAP decided to sunset the “SAP Cloud Platform” product name to avoid confusion with the SAP BTP brand. In mid-January 2021, the SAP Cloud Platform brand was officially retired to support SAP’s One Platform strategy. While the Cloud Platform capabilities are renamed, the products and services continue to be available and their functionality will stay unchanged.
According to the new branding guidelines SAP Cloud Platform Portal was renamed to SAP Cloud Portal service and SAP Cloud Platform Launchpad was renamed to SAP Launchpad service.
Meanwhile there is an external document available where you can find all the name changes: Overview of Name Changes.
News around SAP Enterprise Portal
Our “old” established on-premise SAP Enterprise Portal product still exists, and there are also some news I would like to share with you.
If you are interested in a general overview on Portal on SAP NetWeaver 7.5, check out this overview presentation (an updated version was recently published) providing also some first recommendations for a transition to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), information about SAP Enterprise Portal as a remote content provider to the Launchpad service and SAP Fiori 3 integration with SAP Quartz Light and Dark theme.
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS17 contains some Fiori 3 features and support for SAPUI5 1.71 as well as with SAP Quartz Light theme for SAP Fiori 3. Note that not all Fiori 3 design elements and features are available for SAP Enterprise Portal (the spaces and pages concept will not be available). Until now there are no plans to add additional Fiori 3 features.
You might already be aware, that mainstream maintenance for SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 will continue to the end of 2027, with extended maintenance to 2030. This was announced already last year. For more information, click here.
SAPUI5 1.71 will be the last supported long-term release for SAP NetWeaver Java platform. It is planned that no further SAPUI5 versions above 1.71 will be delivered and supported with SAP NetWeaver Java and respectively with SAP Enterprise Portal. More information in the following SAP notes: 2261419 and 2673298.
New Tutorials on SAP Launchpad Service
We have 2 tutorials which help to get started with Launchpad service:
- Deliver Your First SAP Fiori Launchpad Site, a 35-minute quick look at the most basic capabilities of the SAP Launchpad service
- Deliver Your First SAP Fiori Launchpad Site, a much more comprehensive, 3-hour tutorial on more extensive capabilities, such as integrating Gateway or custom SAPUI5 apps into your site.
We also have a new, advanced tutorial Enhance Your SAP Launchpad Site with Federated SAP S/4HANA Content, created by SAP product manager sibylle.brehm. By going through this step-by-step tutorial you will get familiar with the end-to-end configuration flow for content federation from an SAP S/4HANA system to your SAP Launchpad site. You will learn how to create a content provider for your SAP S/4HANA system in the SAP Launchpad service and add the exposed roles to the My Content area and to the SAP Launchpad site. Finally your end users can access the federated SAP S/4HANA apps and groups in their launchpad running on SAP Business Technology Platform.
For more information on the tutorials for Launchpad service: see this blog written by daniel.wroblewski
Recommended Blogs on SAP Community
How to Move from SAP Cloud Portal Service to SAP Launchpad Service?
We would like to confirm that existing SAP Cloud Portal service customers can continue using this service according to their contract. Note that we do not plan to enhance the freestyle capabilities, however the Cloud Portal still benefits from our improvements in UX integration and content federation (see portal road map).
Going forward we recommend new customers adopting either SAP Launchpad service or SAP Work Zone depending on the scenario scope. The Launchpad service is the go-to solution for implementing SAP Fiori launchpad in the cloud (without the freestyle sites experience), while SAP Work Zone offers additional capabilities (such as document access, team workspaces, knowledge base, and more) to cover a broader functional scope and use cases.
You already implemented SAP Cloud Portal service on Cloud Foundry environment (or you did that for a customer), and you decided to move to the Launchpad service? Then you should read these three blog posts from SAP Product Expert dana.sarfati:
- Transitioning from the Portal Service to the Launchpad Service - some how-to guidelines
- How to move from Portal service to Launchpad service in the same subaccount
- How to move from Portal service to Launchpad service in a different subaccount
By reading these blog posts you will get some how-to information and recommendations on how to move from your existing SAP Cloud Portal service to the SAP Launchpad service within the same subaccount or in different subaccounts. The reuse of existing configuration and content is the first priority in order to avoid the need to configure everything from scratch. Note that freestyle sites and content created with SAP Cloud Platform service cannot be moved to in the Launchpad service (it does not support freestyle sites).
Integrate Apps from the ABAP Environment into SAP Launchpad Service
I would also like to recommend another blog written by SAP consultant arne.stich: Integrate Apps from the ABAP Environment into SAP Launchpad Service
In this blog you learn how to configure an integration between the SAP Launchpad service and a Fiori application deployed in the ABAP environment. The setup is done with the ABAP environment and the Launchpad service in the same subaccount.
If you have questions and feedback on the topics outlined above, please create a comment for this blog !
- SAP Managed Tags:
2 Comments
