SAP Smart Business is a framework for exposing strategic (key) and operational performance indicators (KPIs, OPIs) as Fiori applications without the need to write any code. It can be used by customers, partners and SAP’s development teams for making highly aggregated analytical data accessible via Fiori Launchpad tiles.

Smart Business is released in various flavors depending on the underlying technology platform. Specifically there are the following separate Smart Business shipments:

• Smart Business for Suite on Hana (SoH) delivery
• Smart Business for S/4Hana delivery
• SAP Smart Business in HANA Cloud Platform as a service (Beta Release)

Important documents and notes:

Help document on SAP Smart Business in Suite on HANA (SoH):

http://help.sap.com/ssb

Overview of SAP Smart Business Cockpit for Suite on HANA (SoH)

How to create KPI, Evaluations and Tiles

Smart Business Transport Tool:

http://scn.sap.com/community/fiori/blog/2016/07/27/smart-business-transport-tool

Smart Business – Redeploy HDBTI files:

Smart Business - Redeploying HDBTI files

Release notes:

2018360

2183947

In this article, I will discuss about the error “Cannot load Tile” for the KPI modeler applications.

Error: KPI Modeler – Cannot Load Tile

How to resolve the error:

Before going any further, make sure that the following requirements are met:

1.   SAP ANALYTICS FOUNDATION 1.0 is installed.(see note 2183947).

2.   Smart Business recommended roles are added to your ABAP front end , HANA user.

Frontend User Roles:

      /UI2/SAP_KPIFRW5_TC_R (Runtime role)

/UI2/SAP_KPIMOD_TC_R (Modeler role)

HANA User Roles:

                     sap.hba.r.sb.core.roles::SAP_SMART_BUSINESS_MODELER (Modeler Role)

sap.hba.r.sb.core.roles::SAP_SMART_BUSINESS_RUNTIME (Runtime Role)

3.   If you are using Smart Business with other content components like SFin, ECC, TM, EM, etc., kindly make sure to first install Smart Business HANA DU and then install the other components. This is because of the dependency of the other components on the Smart Business content.

Follow note #2158380 for further details.

Resolving this error:

1. Open the Console window of your browser (Preferably in Chrome). To open the console, either click F12 while on your Home Screen or go to Customize and Control Google Chrome Tab. 

        In Internet Explorer, go to Tools -> Developer Tools.

    2.Go to Network tab of console window.

     3.  In filter bar of network tab search for “Chips?$filter”.

4.  Check the response of the call: /sap/hba/r/sb/core/odata/runtime/SMART_BUSINESS.xsodata.

If its status code is 404, you need to check weather /sap/hba/r/sb/core/odata/runtime/SMART_BUSINESS.xsodata call is getting redirected properly to HANA system where you have installed SAP ANALYTICS FOUNDATION 1.0.

The above mentioned odata call is supposed to return the data for the KPI modeler tiles from the back end.

To check whether the call is getting redirected properly to HANA, call the URL:

https://<hana_host_id>:43<instance_no>/sap/hba/r/sb/core/odata/modeler/SMART_BUSINESS.xsodata

Steps to find HANA XS Host:

• Go to HANA studio.
• In your backend system, right click and go to properties --> XS properties.
• Take the URL /sap/hba/r/sb/core/odata/runtime/SMART_BUSINESS.xsodata  and add  <<HANA XS host>> to the link, and then launch it in new tab.

5.  If the call returns proper data in the form of an XML file, it means your HANA database is working fine and the issue is with the configuration of web dispatcher since the web dispatcher was not able to re-direct the call properly to the back end.

You can follow the Help Document of Smart Business to configure the web dispatcher:

http://help.sap.com/fiori_bs2013/helpdata/en/5e/9d0c52bcc19b33e10000000a44538d/content.htm?frameset=/en/f3/8f4552c474b610e10000000a44176d/frameset.htm&current_toc=/en/2d/740c5260e57b38e10000000a445394/plain.htm&node_id=15

Kindly contact the web dispatcher team for any further assistance.

6.  If the call using HANA XS port gives some error or it returns an empty array, then the problem is with the HANA database.

You need to check weather all entities are properly activated in HANA and that there are no broken HDBTI files in your HANA system.

7.  To check this, run the below query in your HANA database :

select * from "_SYS_REPO"."ACTIVE_OBJECT" where object_suffix = 'hdbti' and object_status > 0;

This query returns the list of all broken or inactive HDBTI files in your HANA system.

8.  If the above query returns an empty result, kindly contact Smart Business for further analysis.

9.  If the above query returns a list of HDBTI files, it means some files in your HANA database are not activated properly.

10.  To overcome this issue, you need to re-deploy all the HDBTI files contained in various packages installed in your HANA database simultaneously.

11. Steps to follow while re-deploying the HDBTI files are mentioned in

Smart Business - Redeploying HDBTI files

12. If you face an error like “Overlapping key issue”, it means you have left out some HDBTI files while re-deploying. Kindly deploy again.

13.While re-deploying the HDBTI files if you see an error as “23 22 column mismatch”, it means that there is some issue with the compatibility of the installed Smart Business components. Kindly follow note #2125939 for further details.

14. In case there is some issue with compatibility, kindly correct the installation of the packages and go back to step 7. If the query now returns an empty result, check if the KPI modeler tiles return data on your Launchpad screen. If yes, the issue is resolved. If no, go to step 11.

15. While re-deploying the HDBTI files if you see an error as “overlapping key issue”, it means that you have left out some HDBTI files while re-deployment. Re-deploy again making sure that all the HDBTI files contained in all the packages installed by you are re-deployed together.

Once the web dispatcher is properly configured, the components are compatible and all the HDBTI files are active in your HANA database, you will be able to resolve the issue. If you still face some issue, contact the Smart Business Application Team for further assistance.

I hope the above solutions works for you

SAP Smart Business is a framework for exposing strategic (key) and operational performance indicators (KPIs, OPIs) as Fiori applications without the need to write any code. It can be used by customers, partners and SAP’s development teams for making highly aggregated analytical data accessible via Fiori Launchpad tiles.

Smart Business is released in various flavors depending on the underlying technology platform. Specifically there are the following separate Smart Business shipments:

• Smart Business for Suite on Hana (SoH) delivery
• Smart Business for S/4Hana delivery
• SAP Smart Business in HANA Cloud Platform as a service (Beta Release)

Important documents and notes:

Help document on SAP Smart Business in Suite on HANA (SoH):

http://help.sap.com/ssb

Overview of SAP Smart Business Cockpit for Suite on HANA (SoH)

How to create KPI, Evaluations and Tiles

Release notes:

2018360

2183947

Smart Business Transport Tool:

http://scn.sap.com/community/fiori/blog/2016/07/27/smart-business-transport-tool

Smart Business KPI Modeler – "Cannot Load Tile" Error

In this article, I will discuss about the steps that need to be followed while re-deploying HDBTI objects.

To re-deploy the HDBTI files, follow the below mentioned steps:

1.      Go to your HANA database.

2.      Select your system and select the SQL option on top.

3.   Now run the following query in the SQL window :

select * from "_SYS_REPO"."ACTIVE_OBJECT" where object_suffix = 'hdbti' and object_status > 0;

This query returns the result of broken HDBTI objects in your system, if any.

In this example, the query returns some results. Go to step 4.

If the query does not return any result, it means all the HDBTI files are properly activated in your HANA database. If you are still facing the “Cannot Load Tile” issue with the KPI modeler tiles, go to Smart Business KPI Modeler – "Cannot Load Tile" Error

4.   If the above query returns some result, run another query to find out which packages have you installed in your system that contain the HDBTI files.

select distinct(package_id) from "_SYS_REPO"."ACTIVE_OBJECT" where package_id like 'sap.hba.%' and object_suffix = 'hdbti'

5. To re-deploy the HDBTI files, you need to re-deploy all the HDBTI files together (even if they are present in different packages in your HANA system.)

In this example, we will select the HDBTI files contained in both the packages (sap.hba.r.sb.core.db and sap.hba.apps.sofm.s.db) and deploy them together.

NOTE: It is important to re-deploy all the HDBTI files and not just the broken HDBTI files. This is because of the dependencies of the components on one another. If even one of the HDBTI files is left out, the re-deployment will fail and you will keep getting “Overlapping key” error.

6.  Open the HANA system in HANA modeler View.

Go to Window -> Open Perspective -> SAP HANA MODELER (might be present in the “Other” option).

This will open the HANA modeler View for you where you can perform actions on the database files.

7. Go to the “Systems” tab of the HANA Modeler View and open the path to the HDBTI files contained in the packages.

In this example, we have opened the path to the HDBTI files contained in the packages sap.hba.r.sb.core.db and sap.hba.apps.sofm.s.db.

8.  Now, go to the “Redeploy” option contained HANA Modeler View in the Quick View Panel.

  Select the system and then select the path to all the HDBTI files contained in various packages till you are able see the HDBTI folder in each of these paths.

In this example, we have opened the path to the HDBTI files contained in the packages sap.hba.r.sb.core.db and sap.hba.apps.sofm.s.db.

10. Once all the HDBTI files are chosen, click on “Add”.

11. Confirm that all the HDBTI files have been selected.

12. Click “Next” and then “Redeploy”.

13.  Wait for the re-deployment to finish.

14. If the re-deployment is successful for all the files, all the HDBTI files will be get activated in your system.

15.  If you face an error like “Overlapping key issue”, it means you have left out some HDBTI files while re-deploying. Kindly deploy again.

16. If you face an error like “23 22 column mismatch” or “22 23 column mismatch”, it means that there is some issue with the compatibility of the installed Smart Business components. Kindly follow note #2125939 for further details.

I hope this article is able to solve the issue of broken HDBTI files for you

Well Hello again!

Just like attachment issue in Fiori Procurement Apps, there is another problem in Fiori MM apps that GOS Notes and Private notes (saved to external respository) are not displayed by default. So what to do? Wait! There is a working solution to that.

So, let's get to know how we can display GOS Notes and Private notes in SAP MM Fiori apps. We just have to follow a few quick and simple steps and Notes would be visible in Fiori Approve Purchase Order, Approve Purchase Requisition and Service Entry Sheet apps.

Without wasting any time we are going for a how to!

I will demonstrate with Fiori SES App, please follow the same procedure for Approve Purchase Order and Approve Purchase Requisition app.

I am assuming that you must have implemented respective SES BADI, if yes then follow me!

If most of you are not aware of what Notes I am talking about then see the screenshot below with highlighted boxes:

Go to your BADI and Method is IF_EX_BADI_MMSRV_APPROVAL_APP~CHANGE_NOTES, shown below:

Now double click method CHANGE_NOTES, shown below:

Here you have to write your own code for Notes and Private Notes. First part is the data declaration! But wait? Which BAPI, Method or FM would be used? Genius! Here you go! We will use couple of them

We will use Class:

1. cl_binary_relation to links of the saved notes in Purchase Order or Purchase Requisition or Service Entry Sheet. Method:  cl_binary_relation=>read_links will be used.

2. Then we will use FM: SO_OBJECT_READ to read the document content.

Moving ahead with the necesarry data declaration for the above method and FM:

Now we are done with the data declaration, we will tell  cl_binary_relation=>read_links what notes we are going to read, for that see below:

We just asked to give us Notes and Private Notes.

Now we will read links for Notes and Privates Notes, gs_lpor contain Object info, in this case it's SES! see below:

We will now fill necessary variables to fetch notes content!

Now we will call our FM to fetch document content!

Finally after moving vairables to our local Notes strcture, we will fill CT_NOTES of this method!

We are done with adding Notes and Private Notes to Fiori Procurement apps.

For Approve Purchase Order Fiori App - write your code in Method: IF_GBAPP_EX_APV_PO_RDP~CHANGE_NOTES_API

For Approve Purchase Requisition Fiori App - write your code in Method: IF_GBAPP_EX_APV_PR_RDP~CHANGE_NOTES_API

In Fiori Notes would look something like this:

More detailed view:

Please let me know in your comments, how you feel about this one!

Goodbye till my next post!

Hello again!

This post is more of a discussion about the latest bug fixes provided by SAP regarding FIORI.

Recently SAP has given fixes for many common issues. Yes there are notes available for each bug and there is a fix as well and quite logically so. You know the best part about following SAP Notes? These are released just couple of days back!

1. If your Fiori Client is crashing at connection change then following SAP note is for you.

Note: 2349576 - Fiori Client crashes when the connection changes

Released on: 01.08.2016

2. You are not able to open PDF documents in Fiori Client then following SAP note is mandatory.

Note: 2351082 - Opening PDF Documents in Custom Fiori Client using third party apps

Released on: 04.08.2016

3. I don't know if you have faced the following issue or not, but if your Fiori screen moves to left when keyboard is opened then follow the following SAP Note.

Note: 2350476 - Fiori screen moves to the left when open keyboard

Released on: 02.08.2016

4. If your custom Fiori app crashes with Custom icon and Splash then follow this Note:

Note: 2349211 - Customizing Mobile Fiori application with custom icon and splash screen fails

Released on: 02.08.2016

5. How about a Submit button is not working in Fiori Apps? Following note fixed this

Note: 2348714 - Submit Button not working in Fiori applications

Released on: 20.07.2016

Updated on: 08.08.2016

6. 2348193 - Launchpad URL integration opens new window tab

7. 2347312 - Fiori Login in non Unicode system

Although these are not all the issues but few common ones! I hope you guys like these in one place!

Cheers!

Warning

This is written for those who live and breathe Workflow & Inboxes plus are implementing Fiori My Inbox. It's a quick post just to put my thoughts on a solution when moving from POWL based Inbox to Fiori My Inbox; very open to debate!

From Inbox to Fiori My Inbox - The hurdle

As part of an implementation of My Inbox at a customer who already has the POWL based Universal Inbox (Let's Crowd Source a POWL Based Universal Worklist Design for ERP) I quickly discovered how many out-of-the-box task approvals were based on an out-of-the-box visualisation that for unknown reasons, relied on more than just the Work Item and Task Id's (I'm looking at you EH&S & T&M). Now this was fine in the POWL based Inbox as it allowed additional work item container parameters to be dynamically inserted via the Action configuration, but Fiori My Inbox moves back to transaction SWFVISU for visualisation, but without the XML config that the Portal supported which allowed you to map these parameters. This is problem #1.

Problem #2, which is more annoying than a problem, is that the use of Object Based Navigation is not an option. e.g. Since the Fiori Launchpad moves to Intents as opposed to Portal/NWBC OBN's; I'm assuming a decision was made to not allow OBN's to be processed in the Fiori Launchpad for older transactions (very non S/4 requirement I know).

So with that knowledge, I've been toying with the approach today, and just wanted to run it by the community (mainly because it works, but I really wish SAP had done this, so I didn't have to request an implicit enhancement).

Solving Problem #2 is easy, as all we need to do is remove the OBN layer and point directly at the Web Dynpro application (or similar). Of course, this is not simple to do since the OBN is hidden in menu roles (ignoring Portals and focusing on NWBC). Luckily, there is a simple program to find navigation targets (OBN.02 Failed to Resolve Object-Based Navigation - SAP NetWeaver Business Client - SAP Library) but you still need to search around a little to find the menu item in question.

So with that, we just move the underlying menu item and the configuration from the POWL Actions configuration into transaction SWFVISU for the task in question. Now we are just left with Problem #1 in cases where additional workflow container data is required to launch the visualisation.

So my main issue is to do with Web Dynpro ABAP visualisations.  I looked into the code which does the visualisation, and it's quite clear that it will only convert across 2 hard-coded dynamic parameters. Looking through SCN, SMP, Google and talking to others; it was clear that for Fiori My Inbox - There is no hidden functionality to address this, so I then resorted to....A post-method implicit enhancement!

Post Method Implicit Enhancement

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I think this is the same as a modification, and you really need a strong business case if you are doing to do an implicit enhancement, but I have a sexy new Inbox with 50+ tasks to get up and running; and just no way to achieve all of these as UI5 based approvals in the near future; so I think I have a temporary business case if there is no other way.

Anyway, the code is pretty straightforward (and below is my first cut at just seeing this will work for first level Work Item Container data) In short, it's just quickly scanning the returned parameters, and if it detects a ${ITEM.SOMETHING}; then it will get all work item container variables then replace them in the returning parameters table:

METHOD IPO_ZENH_BADI_MYINBOX_EXECPAR~GET_WD_PARAMETERS.
*"------------------------------------------------------------------------*
*" Declaration of POST-method, do not insert any comments here please!
*"
*"methods GET_WD_PARAMETERS
*"  changing
*"    value(RE_PARAMETERS) type TIHTTPNVP . "#EC CI_VALPAR
*"------------------------------------------------------------------------*  data:    lt_parameters type IBO_T_WF_CFG_INBOX_TS_ATTR.  loop at re_parameters ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<ls_parameter>).    IF <ls_parameter>-value cs '${'.      " Get parameter to replace      append <ls_parameter>-value to lt_parameters.    endif.  endloop.  if lines( lt_parameters ) > 0.    try.    data(lt_dynamic_task_attributes) = cl_ibo_wf_inbox_facade=>get_task_container_params(      iv_workitem_id     = me->core_object->m_wiid->*      it_attribute_names = lt_parameters      ).      LOOP AT lt_dynamic_task_attributes ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<lv_attribute>).        CONCATENATE '${ITEM.' <lv_attribute>-name '}' INTO DATA(lv_name).          LOOP AT re_parameters ASSIGNING <ls_parameter>.            IF <ls_parameter>-VALUE = lv_name.              REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF lv_name IN <ls_parameter>-value with <lv_attribute>-value.            ENDIF.          ENDLOOP.      ENDLOOP.    catch cx_ibo_wf_error cx_ibo_wf_abort.    endtry.  endif.
ENDMETHOD.

Is there a better way?

So that's it - But is there a less drastic way to do this? Will SAP release a backwards compatible note with better code than above to help us out (or have they already)? Whatever the outcome, I hope this helps you if you also go down this path in the near future! Thanks for reading.

I have completed creating the hands-on script for the INT260 Adapt and Extend My Inbox for Your Own Workflows.

Join the TechEd hands-on session if you would like to learn how to extend My Inbox for your custom workflows.

Please add "I like, I wish" comments after or before the hands-on session.

SAP TechEd Las Vegas | September 19&amp;#8211;23, 2016 | Home

SAP TechEd Bangalore | October 05&amp;#8211;07, 2016 | Home

SAP TechEd Barcelona | November 08&amp;#8211;10, 2016 | Home

There are more session for My Inbox & Workflow related one.

• INT260      2H Hands-on     Adapt and Extend My Inbox for Your Own Workflows                                                      
• INT200      1H Lecture        Innovations for Business Workflow in SAP S/4HANA    
• UX128      1H Lecture         What Have You Done for Me Lately? Workflow in SAP solutions and SAP S/4HANA    
• INT600     1H CodeJam      Process Insights on Business Workflows in SAP S/4HANA
• INT264      2H Hands-on     Build User Interfaces Based on SAP Fiori UX for Processes with SAP BPM

INT260 Adapt and Extend My Inbox for Your Own Workflows

Type: 2H Hands-on

Level: Intermediate (There is no programming in this session)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1       Admin role - Check system setup.

     1.1         SAP Fiori apps reference library.

     1.2         Check the installed components.

     1.3         Check user settings.

2       User role – Run My Inbox.

     2.1         Approve a Notification of Absence.

3       Consultant role – Configure My Inbox scenario.

     3.1         Capture workflow template information.

     3.2         Display business data by configuring dynamic column.

     3.3         Define action buttons.

     3.4         Update business data by implementing a Business Add In (BAdI)

4       Developer role – Develop a custom Fiori app.

     4.1         Look at developed sample app.

5       Consultant role – Configure visualization.

     5.1         Create a task specific tile. Part 1 - Define Scenarios.

     5.2         Create a task specific tile. Part 2 – Create a catalog and a tile.

     5.3         Call the custom app from My Inbox. Part 1 - SWFVISU configuration.

     5.4         Call the custom app from My Inbox. Part 2 - Define target mapping.

6       User role – Test the workflow.

     6.1         Test End-to-End flow.

7       Consultant role – Other extensibility options.

     7.1         Search info in SAP Community Network.

     7.2         I Like, I Wish.

Here are some of screenshots. You will implement those.

Display the dynamic column data.

Add action buttons and implement update logic.

Replace the view with custom app.

10. SAP Fiori Manage Source lists app

     SAP Fiori ‘Manage Source lists’ app enables users to create, edit, delete, or manage source lists from their mobile devices. Instantly search and view source lists based on various criteria, such as plant, material, or supplier details. You can also use purchase info records to define the sources of supply for a purchase requisition or purchase orders.

9. SAP Fiori Approve Purchase Contracts app

     SAP Fiori Approve Purchase Contracts App empowers end users to search for specific contracts, display details against each contract, approve contracts or forward it internally for further processing.

8. SAP Fiori Service Entry Sheets app

     SAP Fiori ‘Service Entry Sheets’ app provides the ability to navigate to other fact sheets such as supplier, service master data or Purchase order in order to gather information about its related key facts i.e. total value, unplanned costs and status of the service entry sheets.

7. SAP Fiori Schedule Purchasing jobs app

     SAP Fiori Schedule Purchasing Jobs app enables end users to schedule and monitor recurring, purchase-related activities, automatically create of Purchase Orders from Requisitions and schedule agreement releases.

6. SAP Fiori Order from Requisition app

     SAP Fiori Order from requisition app enables end users to match purchase requisitions from a list of appropriate suppliers, thereby allowing users to create a purchase document with reference to the requisition in turn to issue them back to supplier.

5. SAP Fiori Manage Purchase Requisition app

     SAP Fiori “Manage Purchase Requisition” app helps you optimize internal procurement process, displays the details about the supplier, thereby allowing users to create PR. Allows users to make changes, manage suppliers, edit PR details at user’s convenience.

4. SAP Fiori Approve Requisitions app

     SAP Fiori Approve Requisition Approvals app allows managers and decision makers to view pending purchase requisitions and approve them. Alternatively, you may forward approvals to a different employee for further processing.

3. SAP Fiori Track Purchase Order app

     SAP Fiori Track Purchase Order Overview app empowers users to track order fulfillment status, quantities, PO quantity and value, also provides a graphical view of purchase order flow while allowing managers to take more informed procurement decisions while on the move.

2. SAP Fiori Manage Purchase Order app

     SAP Fiori Manage Purchase Order app provides comprehensive purchase order details and insights for procurement managers and decision makers to take instant procurement decisions – Enter time, date and location, search and release unreleased PO documents, review, manage, and add relevant documents pertaining to PO.

1. SAP Fiori Approve Purchase Order app

     SAP Fiori “Approve Purchase Order” app empowers managers and decision makers to easily track, approve or reject purchase orders instantly. Additionally, it allows employees to forward purchase orders and requisitions within the organization if needed.

I participated in the free OpenSAP course  "Build Your Own SAP Fiori App in the Cloud – 2016 Edition".

You can check some statistics from the last course  Build Your Own SAP Fiori App in the Cloud – 2016 Edition

For my Design and Build Challenge I chose to use some functionality from transaction SU01 and create Fiori app from it for unlocking users and resetting passwords.

Here is my story...

Story

My target is people working on Service desk that need to unlock and/or set new initial password for SAP users outside working hours.

Service support team can perform unlocking of SAP users directly from their smartphone without need to connect via laptops to perform task.

Persona

User Experience Journey

POV (Point of View)

Emily the Service desk specialist needs a way to quickly unlock user and set new initial password so their users can continue to work in SAP without spending too much time while waiting this task to complete.

Mockup

Study

https://standard.experiencesplash.com/home/projects/e552de8d3ec343cd0ba222e5/research/participant/0ff050fb0a2848cb0ba85e…

Video

Build Your Own SAP Fiori App in the Cloud – 2016 Edition - YouTube

Application description:

Build Your Own SAP Fiori App in the Cloud – 2016 Edition.pdf - Google Drive

SAP WEB IDE export:

ZUNLOCKUSER.zip - Google Drive

All feedbacks , comments and suggestions are welcome

Greetings from SAP User Experience & Design (UXD) team!

SAP continues to make significant investments in bringing consumer grade and mobile experiences to enterprise software. Looking into the future, we would like to get your inputs and understand how your user experience needs are evolving and where we can support you. Your experience and perspective via this quick survey, will help SAP shape its User Experience Strategy to better support your needs .

SAP values your relationship and we hope the SCN community continues to grow and thrive

Please take the Survey

Thanks and regards,

SAP UXD – Customer Office

In the past, applications focused on very large transactions covering many functions for a single business object. Multiple users would have to work in one of these large transactions, and each user had to identify the parts that were relevant to his or her task.

SAP Fiori marks a paradigm shift in the way we design and develop applications. With SAP Fiori, apps began to concentrate on specific use cases for specific role. Design and development now revolves around roles and the tasks that users needed to accomplish, with the ultimate goal of providing an app that’s optimized for a specific task.

With this change, we were forced to rethink the way we deliver, manage, and navigate apps in a more modular and flexible environment.

First Assumption: We Need to Manage a Larger Set of Applications

Designing and developing specialized apps that perfectly suit the requirements of a specific role leads to a larger number of apps. This, at least, is the assumption we made based on our experience offering the original transactions in addition to the new SAP Fiori apps.

However, we don’t know if this assumption holds true over the time. There are also factors that might counter that trend by reducing the fragmentation of scenarios over multiple transactions. For example:

• By being more targeted, these apps might combine the functionality that was previously covered by a number of individual transactions.
• The modular nature of SAP Fiori apps caters to the fact that the same app can be used in different user flows.
• Some transactions that are available in existing systems might become obsolete and might then not be distributed via new apps.

Even if there were a larger number of individual apps available in the system, the number of apps used by the individual user doesn’t necessarily increase. If anything, the use of role-specific apps will see this number actually decrease for users. Therefore, any additional complexity will mainly be on the side of the administrator,who will have to ensure that a larger number of apps are configured, managed, and distributed.

Figure 1: The home page of the SAP Fiori Launchpad with the personalized set of tiles representing the applications the user accesses frequently.

From a user experience perspective, it is crucial that this additional complexity is not exposed to the user. Administrations should therefore:

• Avoid placing every app on a user’s homepage by default. Instead, let users add apps themselves if something is missing.
• Focus on selecting an appropriate minimal set of apps.
• Avoid showing apps to the user that are not designed for his or her role.
• Invest in optimizing catalogs to better match the business roles of the company.
• Make sure the user can personalize the home page to his or her needs. This point is crucial and can’t be emphasized often enough. The home page is the place for the user and should be as personal as possible. Administrators give away control here, but it should pay off, at least for most users.
• Make sure app search works.

When you are migrating an existing system into SAP Fiori you should consider the following:

1. Make use of your knowledge about users’ favorites: you can take the user favorites from the user menu or the portal favorites as candidates for the user’s home page.
2. Don’t overwhelm the user: avoid pushing all role contents (or even only subsets) to the home page. This will render the home page difficult to use. Keep the role contents in the catalogues and allow the user to discover these through the AppFinder.
3. Keep the user in control of the home page: keep all personalization features for the home page enabled. The home page should be the place the user designs.

With SAP Fiori 2.0, we plan to introduce a number of enhancements that will help users to manage a larger offering of apps:

• The home page will be able to display more apps with improved navigation, smaller tile sizes, and a link area that only displays the app name as a link, which uses less space.
• The navigation menu will offer a set of enhanced navigation options, such as hierarchical navigation to step upwards in the information hierarchy of the app, cross-navigation to related apps, and a full structured hierarchy of all assigned apps.
• Personalized navigation lists in the Me Area will offer access to recent apps and frequently-used apps.

All of these options should help the user to navigate within a larger set of applications without creating a large, fixed structure navigation on the screen that would force the user into static hierarchical menus and side navigation panels of an L-shape navigation.

Second Assumption: We Have to Ensure That We Assign the Right Apps to the Right Users

Figure 2: AppFinder target design offering the possibility for the user to discover required apps or apps that are suitable for his role. For IT this offers a way to control and manage access and roll-out to apps for specific user groups.

Since apps are designed to fit a specific user role, care has to be taken to assign the correct apps.

In enterprise environments, administrators assign applications to user roles. In general, roles are used as a vehicle to manage authorizations and content at the same time. These roles are primarily administrative, if not entirely technical. In many cases, these roles are broadly configured, containing more apps than needed in order to avoid too many roles and secondary work to assign additional access rights.

Either through a portal or another client, these applications are offered to users in a predefined, often hierarchical structure. If roles are configured in such a way that they contain many applications, the structure can become comprehensive containing applications that the user doesn’t need.

With SAP Fiori, SAP delivers apps in catalogs that are based on business roles. These are the roles that are defined as part of the initial design process in the discovery phase. Catalogs are primarily used by users to select applications that they need and to place them on the home page in case they need the applications on a regular basis. With SAP Fiori 2.0, we plan to introduce an option to structure and organize larger sets of applications (navigation menu); however, this should remain a secondary and complementary option to the home page.

This approach is designed to cater to the role-based paradigm that we follow with SAP Fiori. The administrator assigns catalogs based on a user’s business roles. Users refine this assignment by selecting those apps that they actually use by placing them on the home page. The user can also organize the apps in groups that are meaningful. This way, we can ensure that the apps really fit the user.

In SAP Fiori, we ensure an optimal fit between user and apps by combining catalogs that are based on business roles and the personalization of the most relevant apps on the home page.

For users, this means that they can define a personal set of apps and arrange them according to their individual needs. For administrators, this means that they should make sure that catalogs are defined in a way that they provide a reasonable selection for the user, but, for fine-tuning, administrators can rely on personalization of the home page. In general, administrators should make sure that:

• Catalogs represent the needs of the business roles in your organization. Ideally, you can work together with the business areas to define them.
• Users can benefit from the personalization capabilities of the home page and avoid unnecessary restrictions (e.g. locked groups).
• Users can leverage the “save as tile” functionality to even further optimize the usage of the homepage by creating personalized worklists and sets of navigation targets.

Finally, with Fiori 2.0, we will also start offering a tool that helps to further improve a targeted delivery of the right apps to the right users. The AppFinder relies on the established concepts of an app store to make apps discoverable to the user. Even though users will not download apps, they will be able to learn more about apps that are available to them and start apps from there (for single usage) or put them on the home page (for frequent usage). Today, the AppFinder still is in an early stage and offers basic catalog functionality. But, for the future, it holds the potential to serve as a vehicle for IT to do targeted rollout to specific user groups, provide recommendations and features, capture and share best practices, as well as gather user feedback.

The AppFinder might become the tool that can help administrators optimize the management of user roles driven by users and their needs that get captured in usage statistics, recommendations, and ratings.

Assumption 3: A flexible navigation structure is more powerful and content-driven than a fixed menu

Figure 3: The declarative navigation structure will be exposed in the navigation menu. This complements the personalized navigation paths through the home page, overview pages, or search that avoid complex navigation structures in favor of task-driven navigation (product design might vary from this visualization).

In a typical enterprise environment, users have access to many transactions, reports, and apps, usually, way more than they need. To structure the huge amount of apps, apps are organized in categories and subcategories. These categories are in most cases determined by the roles and the system landscape that usually is hidden by portal installations.

Since the 2000s, the navigation structure of SAP systems is organized around roles and work centers (see an explanation of roles and work centers or the design evolution of work centers in SAP Business ByDesign). A role is used as a folder to bundle content (e.g. applications, reports, tasks) that can then be assigned to people. Within a role, several work centers can be included, each of which represents a specific area of responsibility. For example, the role of a C-level manager might contain work centers for corporate performance, area management, fixed assets, and so on.

Work centers usually have a fix set of possible content elements such as an overview, worklist, references to apps and reports that are arranged in a consistent way. The navigation structure of the user’s environment therefore is constructed out of a hierarchy of roles, work centers, and content within the work centers, and it is visualized in comprehensive navigation menus either on the top and / or on the left side on the screen.

This structure is extremely logical and predictable and allows the user to form a mental model of the complex environment. So, why have we decided to not follow this model with Fiori anymore?

• Complexity– the work center navigation concept makes the entire complexity of the environment part of the experience. To get access to required functionality, the user has to find his way through a lot of information that is not needed in that situation.
• Segmentation– work centers might split scenarios that belong together and place them into two different silos. In many scenarios users cut across multiple work centers without users even knowing.
• Rigidity– work centers have a very rigid structure in order to achieve consistency. This structure sometimes leads to the situations where functionality is offered because of consistency and not because of the user needing it. Also, this structure is superimposed on the user without being able to alter it much.
• Space– the entire fix navigation is available on the screen either permanently or on demand, but, due to its complexity, these hierarchical structure require space, which is rarely available on mobile devices or could be used differently.

In SAP Fiori, every navigation is rooted in the user’s personal home page. On this home page, the users can place apps that they use on a regular basis. They also get an immediate overview of specific KPIs that alert users to action when needed. According to the research that we did with a number of our customers and the usage statistics in their portals, most users don’t actively use more than 30-50 apps on a regular basis. With the enhanced features of the SAP Fiori 2.0 home page, it will be even easier to accommodate and scan 100 apps in an easy way. The home page is a simple and content-driven entry page to the user’s work environment; it is simple, responsive, and fully personalized. Apps from any role, area, or system can be combined in groups, overcoming the classic segmentation into work centers.

However, in some cases, users need structure and content that is richer than the launch tiles on the home page. To provide users with such a place where they can get an overview of all information about a specific bundle of tasks or a domain, we have designed the overview page.

The overview page is very similar to a work center but way more flexible in the types of content it can support. As with every aspect of SAP Fiori, the overview page contents are driven by the user’s role and the tasks he or she has to accomplish. Therefore, the overview page can contain different information from different apps that supports users in their specific tasks. This might include parts of reports, work lists, links to apps or contents, analytical visualizations and KPIs freely arranged and defined by the user. Each overview page can focus on a specific context so that all content is restricted to that context. From the overview page content, users can directly navigate to individual items or full reports or even take immediate action in place.

Users can have as many overview pages as they need, and there is no structural implication of these. This means that in order to reduce the number of tiles on their home page, users can place the tiles on the overview page and then navigate to the individual apps from there. If they don’t need the overview page, they can place the relevant tiles for the apps on the home page and directly navigate to them from there. There is no hierarchical relationship or structure superimposed on these apps. In the same way, users can create variants of the overview page and store them individually on the home page.

Figure 4: Typical navigation path from the home page into an overview page and further to the applications. An overview page can bundle the access of multiple apps into one context.

In addition to that, some roles might have specific apps that serve as an entry point or dashboard for specific bundles of tasks, such as work lists or dashboard applications that combine information and action into a powerful tool for that specific user.

The combination of a personalized home page and role-specific overview pages, work lists, or other optimized overview applications provides a personal and content-driven navigation structure that is simple, coherent, flexible and responsive.

With Fiori 2.0, not only will we offer additional content types and layouts for the overview page, but we will also offer additional, structural navigation possibilities like the navigation menu and the AppFinder that will provide the user with the option to browse and discover specific apps in a larger portfolio of apps.

Take Aways

With SAP Fiori, we have not only changed a design or technology, but we have fundamentally changed the way how users work with business software.

Instead of excessive navigation menus and content structures, SAP Fiori gives users the freedom to select only the contents and the structure they need while avoiding unnecessary complexity and rigid structures (or at least leave them optional).

This also requires more attention to the way content is predefined, packaged, and assigned to different user roles. The more individual apps are tailored to specific roles and use cases, the more critical the assignment of the apps to the right people becomes. This is more crucial than with the generic, multi-purpose transactions in classic environments.

Although we are introducing slightly more structure with some of the new features of Fiori 2.0, such as the navigation menu, the Me Area, and the AppFinder, we are maintaining the philosophy of simplicity and responsiveness that makes SAP Fiori so appealing to our new generation of business users.

Hi All

In this blog, I have tried to cover the data flow process in Fiori system landscape when user makes a request via Fiori Launchpad. Also about run time data flow in Front-End server and Back-End server.

Above architecture by SAP.

Front-end server− Web server and OData Proxy.

Back End server− OData provider.

Fiori Data flow in Front End server

SAP ABAP Front-End server contains all the UI components of Fiori system and NetWeaver gateway. These UI components consist of central UI add on, SAP UI5 control library and SAP Fiori Launchpad. When Launchpad is called, the app reads Launchpad definition via OData service call.

• It contains all the OData services, UI and Launchpad objects.
• Users are defined and required roles are assigned in Front End server.
• It interacts with Back End server using trusted RFC connection and system alias to communicate with Back End.
• Fiori apps gets data by calling OData service. The data from Back End is pulled in the apps through the Front End gateway system.

Fiori Data flow in Back End server

SAP ABAP Back-End Server contains the SAP business suite which provides business logic and the back-end data.

• The back-end server is based on SAP NetWeaver.
• It contains users, roles and authorizations.
• Users should have an authorization S_RFCACL that performs Authorization check for RFC users, particularly for trusted systems.

Want to check data flow in SAP Fiori Launchpad ?

Go to Launchpad, right click on Tile → Inspect Element.

  For example: My Leave Request

It opens into developer options screen. Click the Network tab, initially you will not find anything as below.

Refresh the Launchpad browser link, you can see the call to different services as below.

Open the OData service URL in new tab.

You can now search for the My Leave Request in OData service details.

Thanks & Regards

Sabina Paskuraj

Friends,

Earlier I posted a query Re: Fiori launchpad not accepting email id for log in

After posting, I investigated this further and found solution my self.

Solution is, We need to change authentication method of service /default_host/sap/bc/ui2/flp from Standard SAP User to Internet User. Screen shot below for reference.

I hope this helps some one else.

This series of blogs discusses aspects of SAP’s latest iteration of the SAP Fiori design language: SAP Fiori 2.0. In this article, I will discuss the idea of the overview page in the context of the SAP Fiori environment, and how it can be used to bundle information and functionality centered around one task context for a specific user role. This new floorplan has been introduced with SAPUI5 version 1.32 (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-68528).

This article will not touch on the implementation aspects of the overview page, but will purely focus on the design and motivation. It will give ideas on why we took certain design decisions, as well as what are the things we are planning to change.

What is the Overview Page?

When we started with SAP Fiori, our goal was to provide highly focused and simple apps for the most frequently-encountered use cases. Initially, SAP Fiori comprised 25 of such rather simple apps that were mainly independent. Many of them targeted different roles and had hardly any overlap or cross-navigation. Within the first releases of SAP Fiori, this picture changed drastically, and within a year’s time the portfolio grew to several hundred apps that could often be recombined into longer process flows where the user could navigate from app to app carrying over context.

The initial SAP Fiori Launchpage with a very limited set of applications

With a larger number of applications, SAP Fiori now became more capable of covering entire business flows. The interdependency between the apps increased. Users now started to use several apps that addressed different aspects of the same task. We started to see a need to bundle apps and information around specific tasks or areas of responsibility in one place, and at the same time provide richer interaction and information possibilities on that level.

To achieve this, we evaluated two main options:

1. Widgets– Enhance the homepage with richer content elements that allow us to show things such as “top n items”, interactive charts, actionable content, and more, in a way that’s similar to the widgets in the Android home screens.
2. Overview Page– Introduce an additional layer of information or a separate page type that bundles information and functions around a specific task, and which allows the user to navigate away from the home page.

We ran these options through most of our stakeholders as we felt this was an important decision that we needed to take jointly. We also opened the discussion up to collect additional ideas, which we then evaluated. After several workshops, we came to the joint conclusion that the overview page was the most promising approach:

• Using a separate page to focus on a task area would allow us more options to provide rich content and functionality than any transitional layer or integration into other pages.
• A separate page could also be used as alternative entry page by the user. A user could directly bookmark it and navigate to it directly, or package it for mobile or offline usage.
• An overview page could be represented as a tile on the home page and de facto work as a folder binding together multiple apps, therefore reducing the amount of individual apps on the home page itself.
• Using widgets on the home page would provide more possibilities on the home page, but it would also increase visual complexity, personalization, and performance of that page.

As a result of that discussion, we decided to introduce the overview page as a page type that aggregates and collects multiple apps, thereby creating an intermediate step between the home page and the applications.

The overview page can be used to gather all information for a specific task group. This also allows the user to reduce the number of tiles on the home page

Design Choices

What do we want this overview to be? The overview page should serve as a place where detailed or aggregated information from different apps could be displayed in one context. It should act as an intermediate dashboard where the user can get an overview of a certain domain or task set. From here, the user should be able to navigate into the apps to see more details and to take action. Ideally, we would be able to offer quick actions as well so that the user is able to complete tasks without navigating away from the overview page.

These ideas ended up as a list of the following high-level requirements (in addition to the overarching design principles of SAP Fiori, one of which is the requirement for responsiveness and usage across devices):

• Provide one context
• Display individual items
• Display collections of item
• Display aggregates (in different visualizations)
• Navigate to items
• Navigate to apps (or lists)
• Provide small actions
• Allow personalized arrangements

We evaluated several options for page layouts that would allow us to flexibly structure this page, with everything ranging from a card-based newspaper layout, to a freely resizable grid-based layout, and a row-based layout.

Different layout options for the overview page: newspaper, grid, flow-layout

While we clearly saw the need for a layout that supports information components of variable sizes (as this is supported by the grid-based layout), we decided to start with the column-based card layout as this promised most flexibility with the least technical side effects.

The card-based layout would allow us to invest into the design of different individual card types to support different content requirements such as displaying individual items, lists, or aggregates. The dimensions of cards are limited so that we could make sure an overview page would also run on a smartphone without issues. A column-based layout would be easy to manage without running into issues with white spaces.

Cards

The design metaphor of a card is something that became popular with Google Now or Pinterest. The idea is to have independent and focused information modules. As opposed to tiles with one-click interaction as we use them on the home page, cards can have multiple interaction areas and even actions. The form factor of these cards usually fits on the screen of a smartphone or can be smaller. The content of different cards can be diverse as long as there is a common basic structure.

This way, content diversity doesn’t conflict with the user’s ability to discover and scan. The content should nevertheless remain sufficiently simple so that a page full of cards doesn’t get too busy and complex. Cards can be delivered to the user standalone or as part of a page context.

Cards in the SAP Fiori overview page usually have three interaction areas:

1. Header area– Identifies the card and allows the user to navigate to the app information. In the card, it represents a filtered list. Selecting the header navigates the user to the app with this filter still applied.
2. Content area– Contains the information payload, such as attributes, list items, or an analytical visualization such as a chart. Selecting an item in a list will navigate to that item.
3. Footer area– Displays secondary information such as the total size of the data set beyond that which is visible, as well as actions.

Basic structure of a card in the overview page with three main areas: header, content, and footer

Imagining the cards as self-contained information modules that can be arranged on a page seemed to be a perfect metaphor for the overview page. To support the different information requirements identified above, we were able to design dedicated cards that could best represent these different information types.

	Object Card The object card displays information about a single item. This is similar to the quick view contents both in scope as well as in behavior. Usually, this will contain attributes of the object and it will provide access to actions for the corresponding object. Selecting the header opens the app to display the full object context.   This card should be used to display information about an object of permanent interest in the given context. As the current concept doesn’t support personalization beyond the selection predefined contents – meaning the user can’t place additional objects here other than those that have been predefined – there are only few examples of where this applies.
	Table Card The table card displays information about multiple objects in a tabular structure. The amount of columns is limited to three in order to reduce the risk of truncation. The limited width of the card further restricts the amount of content that can be displayed. Selecting a line brings the user to the corresponding item.   This card can be used to list numeric or status attributes of a limited number of items. Here, you should avoid having long text strings or text strings of varying length. This, of course, is not a replacement of an accounting table, but merely provides a preview of the underlying data. It is crucial to identify the right set of items to be displayed here.
	List Card The list card displays a list of items and some of the key attribute of those items. This can be used for few but longer attributes, or for attributes of varying length. A typical use case are named items such as products with some additional meta data.   With the bar chart list card, the list card is enhanced with an additional bar below the content visualizing one numeric value as a bar in one color, or using semantic colors.
	Analytical Card The analytical card displays a key figure and a more detailed visualization of aggregated data points in various charts, including: Donut chart Line chart Bubble chart Column chart Stacked column chart Vertical bullet chart The analytical card should be used to visualize analytical information in a highly condensed manner. Using several analytical cards, the overview page can be used to create a dashboard that navigates to transactional data or to other analytical apps.

Link Card

The link card as list with icons, images and as carousel with images

The link card is a special card type that displays a set of links either as list or in a carousel with images. This can be used to reference items or links to applications in the overview page. This way, the overview page can be used as a navigation hub to various applications in a domain.

Currently, these links are provided as part of the application data services and follow the application lifecycle. However, we are currently evaluating the possibility of offering such links out of the content configuration lifecycle using the same content configuration as the role catalogues.

Stacked Card

Finally, the stacked card is used to visualize a stack of instances. These instance cards unfold into a so-called object stream in an overlay, offering the possibility of quick actions at instance level.

While this idea may have sounded convincing and intuitive at first, user testing revealed that this concept is generally not well understood by the users. The main issues are the uncertainty about the total numbers of items (as a stack only shows a subset of the total items matching the stack criteria, otherwise the object stream would become too crowded), and the advantage of the progressive disclosure (which was seen to have limited value), while the overlay was perceived as disruptive. Testing revealed that a navigation to a list would have been preferred. Therefore, we are currently re-evaluating and redesigning this to make it easier to use and more efficient.

Further card types are in planning and there are constant efforts to improve and optimize the cards with regards to consistency and enhancements of useful features.

Context

The cards are perfect way to offer content in a way that is not only easy to digest, but which is also rich enough to inform the user’s further actions or to even take action directly on the card. However, while the overview page represents content stemming from one domain or a single bundle of related tasks, there might be further dimensions by which a domain might be segmented.

Let’s take the example of a Material Planner who uses an overview page that provides an overview of the different aspects of the material stock. If this user is only interested in a certain material group, he or she should be able to narrow down the scope of the overview page to that material group. Also, the user might only be responsible for certain factories or warehouses and needs to be able to restrict the perspective to this scope.

The overview page for a purchaser. On top of the page, the filter area offers two filter options: Time and Supplier.

Using the filter, the context for the overview page has been set to suppliers that start with “t”. All cards react to this filter by showing just the data that is related to suppliers starting with “t”.

To allow this, we have introduced a filter on top of the overview page by which the user can define the scope of the overview page. Similar to the list page, this filter can contain several filter criteria which can be applied to restrict the contents of the overview page. The user can define variants to easily switch between different filter sets.

By setting this context, all cards should react and reduce the scope of their content to the defined scope. This means that, in the case of the Material Planner, all cards should only show the data for the selected material group for specific factories or warehouses.

Using the established “send to home” feature for variants, the user can easily create a selection of differently scoped overview pages and add this to the home page as tiles.

Though currently not possible, we are also exploring ways to allow the selection on one card to influence the content of other cards. This might be useful if one of the cards is a data visualization such as a chart or map where individual data points can be selected. In this case, we would like to avoid controlling the dependencies by linking individual cards. Instead, we would foresee that this master card controls the context and through selection sets the context to which the other cards then would need to react.

Personalization

The personalization of the overview page resembles the personalization of the home page. Users can rearrange cards using drag and drop. New cards can be selected from a set of available cards, and visible cards can be hidden using a simple personalization dialog. This allows each user to decide which information should be displayed, and how it should be arranged.

Currently, users cannot add contents to the overview page that haven’t been defined at design time. Therefore, it is not possible to drag a tile on an overview page or add it from the catalog as is the case with the home page currently. This is intentional as the overview page is hard-coded as an application and has a different lifecycle than the content of the launchpad. However, we are also exploring other options to see if content from the overview page could also be combined with other content, and if this content could be used in other places.

Using the filters and the variants, the user can define different scopes or contexts for overview pages and save them as variants. These variants can be referenced and referenced as tiles from the home page.

In the current column-based layout, cards cannot be resized. However, as we are working on other layouts such as the grid layout, we are also exploring the possibility of allowing the user to resize different cards.

Designing Overview Pages

Currently, overview pages are implemented as SAP Fiori Elements (aka smart templates) using OData annotations. The user interface is therefore entirely driven through the data that is loaded into the application. This means that the decisions that you have to take designing an overview page are primarily content decisions. You only have to choose the right card type and the right content elements.

What are the things you have to take care of when designing the content of an overview page?

• Make sure that the content is centered around one domain or one set of tasks. Cards on the overview page should belong together and fit within a single context. Overview pages should not be used to collect arbitrary content.
• The tasks that an overview page supports can also be seasonal in nature. For instance, there could be an overview page just supporting the performance management process that takes place in some companies only once a year.
• The user enters an overview page to get an overview of a domain or a set of tasks. The user will be looking to either take action or to get an idea of the required parts of the domain. In most cases, the user will navigate from the overview page into applications where the actual work takes place. Therefore, the overview page is a central hub in the navigation into a domain, and you should make sure to support this use.
• In general, there are different types of use cases that can be supported with the current overview page. Each of these different use cases requires a different mix of analytical data, contents and navigation:
  • Dashboard: The user needs an overview of various key figures and analytical visualizations, and continues on to deeper analytics in dedicated applications (analytical cards).
  • Monitor: The user tracks the status of multiple items and key figures to take action where required (list cards, analytical cards, stacked cards).
  • Work list: The user tracks the contents of one or several lists of actionable items and takes action (list cards, analytical cards).
  • Navigation hub: The user needs the overview page to locate the appropriate apps with which the user can actually work. Cards can be used to structure apps of one domain (link cards). Caution: Being an application, the overview page contents are defined at design time. Currently we do not support cards that can consume configuration or role content).
• Display the correct information on the cards. Are the relevant attributes being shown? Have you chosen an appropriate visualization for the data?
• Think about the way you structure the content. Should dimensions be comparable in different cards on the screen (if used in parallel), or is it a context dimension that should be accessible through the filter (if used exclusively)?
• Users should be able to personalize the content. Think about the information superset. This will allow the user to hide unnecessary information. The user will not be able to add contents that you haven’t foreseen.

The overview page is an extremely flexible and powerful page type. We are continuously working on enhancing it. We’re also aiming to provide additional layout options, such as the grid layout.

While we are doing our best to design cards and contents that support as wide a range of use cases as possible, we realize that we will never be able to cover all of them. Therefore, it might also be a valid option to take the idea of an overview page as a hub or entry point to a domain, but to use different approaches to structure the content.

Example use case: There might be a domain that consists of multiple phases (for example, marketing), where it makes sense to show to the user what apps should be used in what step. This could be supported with a visualization of that process including the corresponding applications and probably the supporting analytics. This is nothing we offer with the off-the-shelf overview page, but it theoretically could be built as a free-style application and used in the same way as an overview page.

It’s important to understand that most design concepts have two levels:

1. The role this concept plays in the overall design environment or in the information architecture of the design system;
2. The concrete design of an artifact that can fill this role (and its implementation).

With SAP Fiori, the home page of the Fiori launchpad is the home of the user and it should be the one home for the user. The application on the other hand represents the concrete task or use case. In between those two resides the place that represents a domain or bundle of tasks, and the overview page is one instance for that.

• Home page --> User
• Overview page --> Domain, task bundle
• Application --> Task

There could be other instantiations of that concept representing a specific domain with very specific requirements. Applications can therefore also provide these overview pages on their own following a different design than the overview page concept presented here.

One example would be the project overview app (https://boma0d717969.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#/detail/Apps('F0720')) that shows an overview list of key figures for all projects that a project manager is responsible for. In this case, there is only one object type in focus, making the card metaphor less useful. This app follows an approach similar to a list page. In the information architecture of this role, such a page nevertheless plays the role of an overview page.

In short: the overview page is not the only floorplan or page type that can play the role of a domain overview for a user.

Take Aways

The overview page offers you a way to design places where the user can get an overview of a domain or of a set of tasks. With that, the overview page fills an important gap in the information architecture of the SAP Fiori design language and can help to guide users to better understand their domains and the available tools within that domain.

• An overview page should provide the user with all the necessary information to understand the state of a domain and what actions are required.
• With the overview page, you can design the structure and the priorities within a domain, thereby offering more guidance to the user than is possible with the home page.
• The content of an overview page is modular using a card metaphor. Cards can show different types of content and expose actions, but with a rather limited level of detail in order to reduce complexity.
• The overview page provides a means to define and differentiate between contexts so that the user can get an overview for a specific context without the need to run multiple independent reports and analyses.
• An overview page can serve as a navigation hub to direct the user into other applications so that these apps don’t have to be shown on the home page directly, thus reducing the number of tiles on the home page.
• While we are offering a growing set of specific design patterns for overview pages today, the role of a domain-specific overview can also be fulfilled by other design patterns where applicable. If a domain has a clear structure that can be visualized and given to the user as guidance, this could also be done by other means (other than the overview page floorplan) when necessary.

The overview page is a highly flexible and modular way to create a coherent picture of a domain and to provide guidance to the user. For many scenarios, the overview page could be considered an integration point for content that is not important enough to be shown on the user’s home page, but which should be accessible in the context of a certain domain. In the language of the traditional SAP design environment, overview pages are closest to the work center concept, but provide much more flexibility and diversity.

On August 26, 2016 we kicked off the very first SAP Fiori Roadshow!

Michael Falk and Jan Rüssel, product managers and ambassadors for user experience and SAP Fiori at SAP SE, well spend the next twenty days traveling around Asia and Australia. On their journey, they will meet with customers and partners, speak at various conferences, and share insights into the future of SAP Fiori. Aside from spreading the word about SAP Fiori, the goal of the SAP Fiori Roadshow is to learn about the needs of customers and how SAP Fiori can help them run simple.

SAP Fiori Roadshow stops include:

• Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (August 29, 2016)
• Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (August 29, 2016)
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates (August 30, 2016)
• Singapore (September 1, 2015)
• Sydney, Australia (September 5-6, 2016)
• Auckland, New Zealand (September 8-9, 2016)
• Perth, Australia (September 12, 2016)
• Canberra, Australia (September 14-15, 2016)

Stay tuned for new entries in this travel diary or on www.experience.sap.com/news/sap-fiori-roadshow .
Or do you want to become a part of the next SAP Fiori Roadshow? Let us know via SAPUXandFioriPM@sap.com.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

August 29, 2016

Michael: We reached the first destination of the SAP Fiori Roadshow and Riyadh gave us a warm welcome: a balmy 42°C temperature!

Nevertheless, the SAP Fiori Roadshow is about to start and customers and partners in Riyadh are curious to learn more about the latest partnership between SAP and Apple, which aims at nothing less than taking the SAP Fiori user experience to the next level by combining the world-renowned user ecperience of the iOS platform with SAP's expertise in business process and software.

After passing by in the SAP Riyadh office, we visited our first customers to discuss how Design Thinking and SAP Fiori can help them becoming more efficient and end user focused. First feedback we got is that "mobilizing" User Interfaces and making use of the native device capabilities is one of the key criteria to make companies and their end users successful in KSA. The new partnership between SAP and Apple and in particular Fiori4iOS was very well received and seems to have the potential to solve a lot of the current challenges customers are facing.

Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

August 29, 2016

Jan: No time to unpack my luggage - SAP Fiori will be in the spotlight for the next three weeks.
While Michael meets customers in Riyadh, I'm on my way to Jeddah. At the coast of the Red Sea, I'm meeting with customers to discuss the SAP user experience strategy and roadmap, the SAP Fiori design language, and how we can enable designers and developers to deliver apps suited to the roles of their users.

During our great meeting, I could see that customers perceive the user experience for S/4Hana as very attractive, which will play a key role in their plans to move to the cloud. Furthermore, they appreciate the value propostion of SAP's cloud offering as well as the tools and services on HCP (e.g. SAP WebIDE and BUILD). And they find that SAP Screen Personas is a great solution to simplify the user experience for the business suite.

In this blog I am going to share the issues faced during the implementation of SAP Fiori My Timesheet App Version 2 and various SAP notes available to fix them.

First things first. Here is my system support package information.

Backed ECC system

Front End Gateway System:

Before you get your hands on on to the application, you might encounter some errors mostly message starting with 'RFC Error...'.

This particular error appears in different scenarios. One being the value help fields not available, conversion errors like ALPHA conversions with fields.              There might be some other reasons as well.

• Some Important Notes:

So if your system is having service packs SP02 or SP03, then there are some SAP notes which addresses all the known issues. Below are the notes.

      2223505 - My Time sheet V2(ODATA): Consolidated fixes

      2209905 - My Timesheet V2(ODATA): Corrections on top of SP02 & SP03

Note 2223505 is having the below prerequisite notes and these notes should be implemented in the same order mentioned below.

      2223506 - My Timesheet V2(ODATA): UDO report for note 2223505

      2221429 - My Timesheet V2(ODATA5): Consolidated bug fixes

• Value Help for WBS element

    Whenever the value help is chosen for WBS element, the system throws an error message "RFC Error exception condition "NOT FOUND" trigerred.

    Implement the below SAP notes to fix this issue.

        2290522 - Issue with value help for WBS Element

        2298144 - Issue with WBS Element ID value help

• Customer specific text fields in CATS0009 exit:

      When you have implemented customer specific text fields like  CATSFIELDS-DISPTEXT1 and  CATSFIELDS-DISPTEXT2 as part of CATS0009 exit, you will face the same RFC error as mentioned in the below screen shot.

          Implement the below SAP note to fix this issue

          2302090 - CATS Fiori My Timesheet: Run time error when EXIT CATS00009 display fields are used

• RFC error in Sub operation value help field :

          Choosing the value help for sub operation field will throw you the below error.

          Implement the below SAP note to address this issue with value help of sub operation field.

          2298182 - Error when selecting value help for sub operation field in Time entry fields

• Warnings message not shown in Timesheet application:

      Though the data entry checks under user profile is having 'Warning' for collisions, Fiori app will not show any warning messages. Please implement the below SAP notes.

              2295307 - CATS Fiori: Warning messages are not displayed in time sheet

              2293728 - CATS Fiori: Warning messages are not displayed in time sheet.

• Order of Fields in Application:

We can change the order in which the fields appear on the screen. Create an implementation for the BAdi HCM_B_TSH_FIELDRANKINGS

Populate the parameter 'FIELD_RANKINGS' of the implementation as mentioned below. These field names are the corresponding fields of the  screen elements in the application.

              ls_rank-field_name = 'BEMOT'.      " Accounting Indicator

              ls_rank-rank = 1.

              APPEND ls_rank TO lt_rank.

              ls_rank-field_name = 'LSTAR'.      " Account Type

              ls_rank-rank = 2.

              APPEND ls_rank TO lt_rank.

              ls_rank-field_name = 'RAUFNR'.    " Receiving Order

              ls_rank-rank = 3.

              APPEND ls_rank TO lt_rank.

• Mixed content error when accessing application from external URL/Custom Theme loading:

    When you are accessing the app from the external URL, you will encounter a mixed content error as

    Mixed Content: The page at....was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure XMLHttpRequest endpoint.

    Implement the below SAP note to correct this issue.

          2230117 - Theme is not loaded in SAP Fiori launch pad

I am working on few requirements which needs enhancements at entity sets level. I will keep updating this blog as and when I come across something worth sharing.

  Looking forward for the feedback..Thanks

The August 30th update of the SAP Fiori Road Map is available now.

We are now moving to a quarterly cycle for updating it, to better reflect the fact that many of our products ship new features each quarter. The largest updates were made for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, since the 1608 release has just become available end of August. The road map contains the road map for 47 roles in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and 87 roles for SAP S/4HANA. Other lines of business and cloud solutions have updates, along with design and technology updates; we now include SAP Screen Personas and SAP Fiori for iOS for the first time.

We've also introduced a new navigation approach within the presentation, which makes it easier for you to get to specific areas of interest to you - and back again.

If you want to have a look at a video of the new Fiori 2.0 based user experience for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608, and also a preview of what is planned for 1611, have a look at my blog Great User Experience for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1608 with SAP Fiori 2.0.

I'd be interested to hear any feedback you may have to the road map - content, but also format and navigation - does it make it easier for you?