In-App Extension /Key User Extension

In this blog we will see In-App Extensibility Concept. Also detailed explanation on use of Custom Fields And Logic Fiori application for Fiori Extensions.

Types of Extensibilities –

1. In App Extensibility/Key User Extension/Low Code-No Code
2. Developer Extensibility- (Embedded Steampunk)
3. Side By Side Extensibility – (Business Technology Platform)

Sometimes you may see of 4^th type, which is nothing but our classical extension, and if use case is not fulfilled using above three types, we must follow classical way extensions. Like – Classical Badi’s, user Exits, Customer Exits, BTE etc.

Exploring In-App Extension (What & Why) –

The term In-app means that extensions are implemented within the S/4HANA Cloud tenant itself.
In-app extensibility is generally used to apply minor changes and extensions, to increase user productivity or implement adaptations of the application logic without changing the major parameters of the respective business processes.

The new generation of standard SAP FIORI apps can easily be modified in layout and small extensions. This is called FIORI in app extensibility.

Why In-App Extension –

1. To achieve clean core principle.

Clean Core – Clean core is nothing but when SAP release with new upgrade versions custom Extensions should have minimum impacts.

2. Approach towards SAP S4 HANA cloud development.

In every new version, SAP is releasing thousands of cloud APIs which are available as replacement of classical extension.

Cloud APIs can be check by below two ways –

• Using Transaction Code SCFD_REGISTRY
• API Business Hub

Table below shows 2 prominent common examples for old and new enhancements:

Replacements/Use Cases–

Different Fiori Tools for In-App Extensibility

Check all available In-App Dev tools in the Extensibility group in Fiori Launchpad.

1. Custom fields and Logic
2. Custom Reusable Elements
3. Custom Business Object
4. Custom CDS Views
5. Configure Software Packages
6. Register Extensions For Transport
7. Maintain Form Templates
8. Manage Texts
9. Maintain Email Templates
10. Manage Logos

Custom Fields & Logic

Three tabs are available in this Fiori Application.

1. Custom Fields
2. Data Source Extension
3. Custom Logic

Custom Fields –

Custom Field is used to extend tables based on corresponding business context. And then same field can be extended to different APIs for extending the Fiori Application with custom field.

How to check Business Context of table –

1. Transaction SCFD_EUI
2. Function Module – CFD_EUI_SHOW_LIST

Steps to create Custom Fields in table & respective different APIs –

Step 1- Check the business context of table in which custom field needs to be added

E.g., For MARA table Business Context – PRODUCT

In Registry Transaction Code SCFD_REGISTRY Check the business context name based on Context description.

Step 2 Go to Fiori Application Custom Fields and Logic (First Tab – Custom Fields)

Step 3 – Click on + icon to create new custom Field & Fill the details as shown below.

Step 4 – Click on checkbox enable usage, if field needs be added in respective API

Step 5 – Publish the custom Field. And then it will be added respective table & different APIs

Step 6 – Extend the custom Field in respective Fiori Application using Adapt UI or different Fiori extension option available in Fiori.

Data Source Extension

To know whether a CDS supports Data Source Extension can be found out using the transaction code SCFD_REGISTRY.

Let us consider the example of C_PHYSINVTRYPROPOSAL.

Under the Extensible CDS View tab we check whether the CDS view is available. We select the CDS view and click on Display icon for detailed information.

If the checkbox CDS View supports Data Source Extensions is ticked, then it supports Data Source Extension.

Steps to add fields using Data Source Extension.

Step 1: Enter the business context of the CDS view (Business Context of CDS can be checked using SCFD_REGISTRY), along with all the required entries and click Create.

Note: The naming convention of any Data Source Extensions fields will start from ZZ1_.

Step 2: Select the required field in the Field Selection list. It appears under Selected Fields.

We can provide a Custom Text to the field selected by checking Custom Text checkbox. We can now overwrite the name as per the requirement.

If the value help is available for the field at the domain level, we can check the Value Help checkbox to enable F4 help.

Step 4: Once all the required things are added and enabled, hit Save button. This will make sure that the fields are saved before it gets published.

Step 5: After saving, click on the Publish button. After publishing, a new field will be added in the main CDS view.

In the image attached below we can see 2 added fields with the name starting from ZZ1_. Those are the fields added using Data Source Extension.

Limitations of Data Source Extension –

1. It is not possible to apply extra annotations to define field position (UI annotations) on Fiori Application
2. Fuzzy search is not possible in case of data source extension.

Custom Logic –

This is third tab in Custom Field and Logic Application which is used to implement cloud Badis for custom logic.

Steps to implement cloud Badi –

Step 1 First check the cloud Badi from Business API Hub.

Step 2 Go to SCFD_REGSITRY Transaction code and check the business context in Badi registration tab.

Step 3 Go to custom Field and Logic application and open third tab Custom Logic and Click on + button to create new.

Enter below details to create new custom implementation.

Step 4 – Add custom logic in draft section as shown below.

Note – Only whitelisted APIs are applicable for data fetch.

Step 5 Publish the data source logic and test from respective Fiori application.

One more interesting way to check released/Whitelisted APIs –

Go to system Name right click New->ABAP Repository Tree

Now click on released objects (Also can filter based on type e.g., type:ddls will give all released CDS views.

Get all released API as shown below, where we can check based on In-App or Cloud Dev APIs.

Reference Links –

https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/05/s-4hana-in-app-extensibility-end-of-classical-extensions/

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/09/27/extensibility-in-sap-s-4hana-cloud/

https://learning.sap.com/learning-journey/develop-advanced-extensions-with-sap-cloud-sdk/exploring-in-app-extensibility_b921cf08-e4cf-4bb6-be5a-ba7d760282d0

Ui Adaptation – https://www.saptechnicalguru.com/fiori-in-app-extensibility/