Horizon themes now available with the SAP Launchpad service and SAP Work Zone

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Please note that this blog was published prior to the re-branding related to SAP Build portfolio, which was announced at SAP TechEd 2022. SAP Launchpad service and SAP Work Zone come together under the SAP Build Work Zone brand, with two editions: standard edition (formerly SAP Launchpad service) and advanced edition (formerly SAP Work Zone).

You can learn more in this announcement blog post: SAP Build Capabilities Explained | SAP TechEd | SAP News Center.

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Just recently, the new modern and fresh Horizon theme family became available in the SAP Launchpad service and SAP Work Zone. These friendly themes help users to focus on getting their job done with an improved information hierarchy and simplified visual elements. The Horizon theme family comprises a light (Morning Horizon) and a dark version (Evening Horizon) as well as a light and a dark high-contrast theme for supporting visually impaired users.

SAP Launchpad site with Morning Horizon shown on the left and Evening Horizon shown on the right

In the SAP Launchpad service and SAP Work Zone, the new themes are available as of now via the Theme Manager, but at this time they are not assigned automatically as default themes to new sites. Yet, they can easily be made available as default theme or for user selection in a site via the theme manager which administrators can access via their user actions menu.

Horizon theme in Theme Manager

Now, how about integrated content?

The new Horizon theme is starting to become available in SAP applications, e.g. with SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 (see Thomas Reiss’ SAP Fiori update blog post for more details). So, federated apps from SAP S/4HANA Cloud or custom SAPUI5 applications running on SAP BTP would also run with the Horizon themes. SAPUI5 supports productive usage of the Horizon themes as of version 1.102  (see Oliver Graeff’s blog post on Horizon in SAP UI technologies). For on-premise or private cloud customers, the Horizon theme family is planned to be available as of FPS01 of SAP S/4HANA 2022 in the first quarter of 2023.

In general, we recommend making sure that the theme, be it custom or SAP delivered, used in the central entry point on SAP BTP is also available in all connected backend systems to avoid inconsistencies. So, as long as the Horizon theme family is not included in all connected backend systems, the simplest approach for customers would be to use a common theme based on e.g. Quartz Light. For customers who are eager to use the new Horizon themes in the Launchpad service earlier, while still not all integrated applications support Horizon, the recommended option would be to create custom themes with identical IDs in the Launchpad service and the connected systems. Those custom themes could then be based on the SAP delivered themes available in the respective systems, e.g. Morning Horizon in the Launchpad service and Quartz light in an earlier release of SAP S/4HANA . Please keep in mind that this approach will require some additional effort to ensure a harmonized experience.

To support customers in creating their own themes based on the Horizon theme family, the Horizon themes are now also available for theming in the UI Theme Designer.

Horizon themes in UI Theme Designer

Please check out our updated documentation for more details. For information about SAP Launchpad service, see our product page on SAP Community, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter. Looking forward to your feedback!