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Author's profile photo Marco Valencia

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition – Key User Extensibility (in-app extensibility) Examples

Welcome! Before diving into this blog, I want to let you know that it’s part of an SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition – cloud extensibility series. To get the most out of this post, I highly recommend reading the series overview first. This will give you a better understanding of the context and background information for the topics and examples I’ll be discussing. The series overview will also provide you with a roadmap for the rest of the blogs in the series. So, if you haven’t already, please take a moment to read the overview before continuing with this post.

This extensibility technique is available out of the box, and it will provide key users with the ability to do some low/no-code extensions. Some customers are looking to cover some last mile requirements when implementing and operating SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, and key user extensibility provides the necessary flexibility to do this – some examples include (not exhaustive list):

a) Change layout of the UI in the system: at times customers would like to change the layout of the screen to address their specific business needs by removing some optional fields to simplify the user experience or by adding custom fields to the UI. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, offers the ability to adapt the UI. We can adapt the SAP Fiori UI as well as some of the Harmonized WebGUI

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Adapting SAP Fiori User Interface

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Adapting Harmonized WebGUI Interface using SAP Screen Personas included in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition

b) Add custom fields: customers ask us all the time for the ability to add custom fields, which is naturally possible in the system. The system allows the customer to create custom fields as needed and add them to the business context where they are needed.

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Adding custom fields to Sales Orders

c) Create a custom CDS view to drive specific analytics or reporting needs: it is a very common requirement that customers are looking to combine data from released SAP CDS views, so they can create their own view to be provided with information that helps them to make decisions. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, can help them with this requirement. These custom CDS views can also be used on customer reports or for other analytical needs.

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Creating a custom CDS view

d) Change some of the behaviors in the main transactions like sales orders or purchase orders using custom logic. Some customer requirements include changing some of the logic that transactions are based on. For example, a customer asked us to be able to check some information before saving a sales order. For this purpose, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, offers many extension points (BAdls) which allow customers to make changes that will offer flexibility to cover their most pressing business needs.

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Creating custom logic

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Low code – implementing custom logic using sample code

These extension points are part of the standard offering in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, and customers receive sample code (low code method) that they can adapt and implement to address their specific business requirements.

e) Create custom objects: at times customers want to create custom business objects and use them to make information available. This can be in the form of specific tables, services or even small applications based on custom business objects. I have seen cases where our customers need to store information that might have to be used for other purposes, for example to feed custom fields, or to use this information as part of BAdls. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, allows you to create these custom objects using key user extensibility.

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Creating a custom business object

f) Custom Business Roles: we offer our customers the flexibility to create new business roles or use SAP delivered templates to create their business roles. This provides customers with the ability to pick and choose which business catalogs they want to assign to create specific authorizations for their users including some of the predelivered Fiori launchpad spaces. While this functionality might not be open for key users per se as this activity might be under the control of the system owner, Key users need to understand that they can ask to have their roles tailored in order to increase their productivity.

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Creating custom business role

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Selecting business role catalogs

There are many other ways you can apply key user extensibility. I invite you to try some of the samples scenarios included in the SAP Extensibility Explorer.

 

I hope you found the examples informative and engaging. If you’re interested in learning more about Developer extensibility and Side-by-side extensibility examples, I encourage you to continue reading the other two parts of the series.

Developer Extensibility (SAP S/4HANA Cloud, ABAP environment) – Examples

Side-by-side Extensibility – Examples

 

More Information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition:

  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, release info here
  • Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, release blog posts here and previous release highlights here
  • Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
  • SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
  • Early Release Webinar Series here
  • Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
  • openSAP Microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA here
  • Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, here
  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, Community: here
  • Feature Scope Description here
  • What’s New here
  • Help Portal Product Page here
  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment Community here

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      7 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Thomas Schneider
      Thomas Schneider

      Hi Marco,

      thank you for the blog series. You spotted the most important key user objects, but there are more. For a complete overview, see: In-App Extensibility Overview (sap.com)

      Best regards,

      Thomas

      .

      Author's profile photo Marco Valencia
      Marco Valencia
      Blog Post Author

      Absolutely Thomas! I provided only some examples.  Thank you for sharing the link with the comprehensive list!

      Author's profile photo Frank Li
      Frank Li

      Thomas, thank you for sharing. Will the link

      https://www.sap.com/documents/2018/05/606d1ee8-037d-0010-87a3-c30de2ffd8ff.html?need_redirect_to_background_page=false keep up to date in future if has any update?

      Author's profile photo Thomas Schneider
      Thomas Schneider

      Yes. typically one a year.

      Author's profile photo B. Meijs
      B. Meijs

      Hi Marco,

      Thank you for this blog. I hope you don't mind me making a small remark: the added screen shots are a bit blurry.

      Regards,

      Ben Meijs

      Author's profile photo Marco Valencia
      Marco Valencia
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Ben,

      Thank you so much for your feedback.  I have uploaded images with higher resolution.  Please let me know if this helps.

      Best regards,

      Marco

      Author's profile photo Frank Li
      Frank Li

      Hi Macro,

      Thanks for your sharing. Looking forward your coming blogs  about customer projects.

       

      Best regards.

      Frank