SAP Mobile Start – Adding native apps to your content

Hey everyone,

SAP Mobile Start provides a central launch overview  to consume the content (web, native apps, news tiles) defined on a site using the SAP  Launchpad service. The ability to launch native apps is a key differentiator for SAP Mobile Start  compared to accessing the same site using Safari browser on a mobile device. In this blog I would like to explain how native apps can be added as tiles to a site by using the example of the native app SAP Concur.

These “native app tiles” need to be configured as local content within the Site Manager of the SAP Launchpad Service and can only be launched from an SAP Mobile Start client. Follow the steps below to get your native app up and running!

1. Access the Site Manager and create a new app

• Access the Site Manager via the SAP Launchpad Service in your BTP Subaccount
  • The Launchpad_Admin Role Collection is required for that
• Switch to the Content Manager tab.
• Create a new application via + New > App

2. Maintain Properties-tab

• In the Properties-tab add the Title and Description
• For System, select No System since you won’t connect your native app tile with any destination
• As App UI Technology select Native iOS or Native Android
  • This option is only available if No System is selected
  • Since URL schemes can be different between iOS and Android for the same app, this is necessery to distinct between the them. If both operating systems are used in your landscape a tile has to be created for the two of them.
  • As Native iOS defined tiles will only appear in the iOS app / as Native Android defined tiles will only appear in the Android app.
• You will now see the two input fields:
  • URL to Launch App – This field requires the apps custom URL scheme (e.g. concurmobile://) that is used to open the app directly from SAP Mobile Start
  • URL to Install App – This field requires the link to Apple App Store or any custom App Store. SAP Mobile Start will navigate you to that link if the necessary app is not yet installed on the device.

3. Maintain Navigation-tab

Within the Navigation-tab it’s mandatory to provide a semantic object and action for the intent navigation. Fill the values for the Semantic Object and Action, such as the app name and an action like “start” or “launch”, respectively. However, please note that this intent-based navigation is only used in case of SAP Fiori apps, and that the native app tile won’t use this information.

4. Maintain Visualization-tab

The Visualization-tab can be used to configure the visual representation for your tile in SAP Mobile Start by setting the:

• Title:
  Headline at the top of the tile
• Subtitle:
  Additional information in second line below the title
• Icon:
  Icon shown on the tile. You can choose from SAP Icons via the value selection or provide an URL to the respective app image resource
• Information:
  Additional information at the bottom of the tile

5. Make your app available on a Site

After you saved the newly created app, you can add it to the content on a Launchpad Site. These steps will be necessary to make the app accessible on your site:

On Site Manager:

• Assign the app to a role & group
• Make sure the role used above is assigned to a site

In BTP Cockpit:

• Make sure the users accessing the site are assigned to the respective role collection

If everything is setup properly, retrieve the register QR-Code from the Site Settings and scan it within SAP Mobile Start.
Once onboarded you should see the created native app tile within your content similar to the screenshot below. Clicking the tile should take you either to the SAP Concur app or to the provided App Store link, if SAP Concur is not installed on your device.

That’s it for the native tiles in SAP Mobile Start. We would be happy to receive your feedback in the comment section! Let us know which SAP iOS native app are you using the most?