1 Remote ABAP Content Consumption

Former Member · ‎06-01-2015

This blog is for portal content administrators who would like to learn about the new features developed in the latest Enterprise Portal support package for Fiori launchpad (FLP) on EP, their added value, and the configuration required.

Pre-requisites:

The following minimum required SP for EP: NW 7.31 SP16, NW 7.40 SP11.

For Remote ABAP content consumption scenario, the pre-requisites are:

SAP Web Dispatcher or any other reverse proxy, which is responsible to dispatch the requests between the ABAP Frontend Server (FES) and Java server (EP)

Note: only one FES is supported as of today.

Minimum required SP for your ABAP GW server is:
- for ABAP GW server NW731 you need UI Add On 1.0 for NW 7.03 SP12
- for ABAP GW server NW7.4 SP11 you need SAP_UI 740 SP12 component

Administrators need to activate the following OData services in the Customizing activity to enable the Remote Content editor:
- /UI2/INTEROP
- /UI2/FIORI_CATALOGS.

An ABAP FES user has to assign catalogs/groups to one of the his roles (from transaction SU01 open the tab Roles, choose a role, open tab Menu, open the rightside dropdown list of Transaction button, choose Catalog or Group, search for the required catalogs/groups and assign them to the role).

For additional information please refer to SAP note 2031108.

1 Remote ABAP Content Consumption

Administrators can consume catalogs and groups from an ABAP Frontend Server (FES), so that end-users can see them in the tile catalog and the home page. Tiles are rendered in a similar manner, regardless of whether they are based on portal content or remote ABAP content.

For this, administrators can use the new remote content editor to add catalogs and groups from ABAP FES to portal roles.

Using the editor, administrators can assign ABAP catalogs to portal categories. This allows tiles from both existing portal categories and ABAP catalogs to appear together under the assigned category in the tile catalog.

The ABAP groups can be consumed together with the corresponding catalogs. These groups can be assigned to portal categories. If a category contains a tile configured to appear in the Home page (so called pre-defined group), the ABAP group will be merged with the pre-defined group and thus appear in the home page.

End users can personalize remote ABAP content in the same way as portal content: they can add tiles, remove tiles, reorder tiles, create groups, delete groups, etc.

To enable Remote ABAP content consumption, follow the steps below:

1. In Framework Page Configuration select Fiori Framework Page in dropdown list and set the property SAPUI5 Library Source to ABAP (please click on the picture for better reading):

2. Define a destination corresponding to an ABAP FES and establish the connection:

Use the link https://<server>:<port>/nwa and search destination in search window

Define a new destination for the ABAP FES of type "http". In the Destinations window, enter a new URL in the syntax: <protocol>://<front-end server host>:<front-end server port>/sap/opu/odata/UI2/FIORI_CATALOGS/

Choose your logon type in Logon Data tab. For the type Basic provide an FES user (and password) to which the catalogs were assigned

Choose Ping Destination button to check the connection.

Note:

Destination name can contain alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), special characters (underscores (“_”), hyphens (“-”), parentheses, and tildes (“~”))

Destination name cannot include spaces

FIORI_CATALOGS service should be activated on FES

ABAP FES authorization should be granted for the EP administrative scenario (details).

3. Go to portal content:

Open a role for edit

Verify that an Entry Point property is set in the role structure

Click on Add Remote Content button

Add remote catalog(s)/group(s)

Save:

4. Launch the Fiori framework page URL alias not with the EPserver URL, but with SAP Web Dispatcher URL (with an end-user who is assigned to the relevant portal role). Go to the Tile Catalog to see new category with the name exactly as maintained in the Fiori Launchpad Designer (FLPD):

5. Optional: Assign an ABAP catalog to an existing EP category using the Assign Categories button. The ABAP catalogs will be merged with existing tiles assigned to the categories or assigned to an “empty” category:

6. Add an ABAP group and assign it to a locked group on the home page using the Assign Categories button:

2 Locked Group

Administrators can configure a locked group of tiles which cannot be personalized by end-users.
Only one locked group can be configured for a home page. A locked group always appears at the top of the home page.

Any administrator’s changes to a locked group are automatically reflected on the home page, in contrast to predefined groups, which users need to reset to see updates.

In the example above, an ABAP group is added to the locked group called Company Locked Area and the result looks like this:

To support this capability, the following configuration is required:

1. In Framework Page Configuration select Fiori Framework Page in drop down list and select the Enable Locked Group checkbox:

2. Open Portal Content->Portal Users->Standards Portal Users->iViews->Fiori Launchpad->Fiori Launchpad Categories. Search for Locked Group ID and Locked Group Title properties; enter a title and an ID for the locked group:

3. Choose a role/role folder/workset which content is to be displayed in a locked group, and mark it as an Entry Point. Make sure that no role/role folder/workset above the chosen one is marked as an entry point as well (like in the example below: the folder ESS_WDJ is marked as an entry point, and the main role FFP_Demo_SP16 is not.)Open the role/role folder/workset properties editor and select Lock Group checkbox under Personalized Launcher category. Only iViews or pages which are one level below the relevant container are added to the locked group.

3 Dynamic Tiles

Administrators can configure properties to enable iViews or pages to be rendered as dynamic tiles in FLP on EP. The information displayed on dynamic tiles could be pulled from back-end systems using OData services or component.

To support this capability, the following properties have been added to the Properties editor:

● Service URL: specifies a URL configured to a relative path of the service or component (not necessarily portal) that returns an OData structure

● Interval after the display is refreshed (in seconds)

● Unit label to be displayed (optional).

Note:

The dynamic tile will send a request to the server for update data according the refresh time interval. In order to receive valid response from the server the browser should allow server cache. For most browsers this option is
set by default, but for some browsers configuration is needed. For example, for IE 10 the following should be done:

Switch to F12 mode.

Open Cache menu and check Always refresh from server

For IE9 and IE11 this property is checked by default.

4 NetWeaver Business Client for Desktop and FLP on EP integration

The SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal is available in SAP NetWeaver Business Client for Desktop (NWBC).

Thisprovides an enhanced user experience to users who work with SAP GUI transactions. Tiles provide access to SAP GUI transactions with a native application look-and-feel. The Quick Launch in the home page can be used to search for and launch the applications. More about NWBC with FLP on EP can be found here.

5 SAP Fiori Client

SAP Fiori Client is a mobile application that can be installed on Android and iOS devices.

This application acts as an enterprise enhancement to the mobile browser when SAP Fiori applications are running. It provides more reliable asset caching (HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, and more) as well as, on iOS, an enhanced attachment viewing process. Therefore, the application is not affected by browser cache issues.

6 Enhanced Tile Configuration

The following properties have been added to the Properties editor to support the configuration by administrators of both static and dynamic tiles:

● Information

● Subtitle

● Keywords

These properties can be used in tile display as shown below:

Keywords can be used in the search field of the Tile Catalog (filter by a category). You can also search by keyword using the Quick Launch; once you press Enter, the results appear.

7 Enhanced Object ID of Device Group Administration

Administrators can now set the device type at the container level, such as role/role folder/workset. Previously, it was only possible to set the device type at the level of the specific iView or page.

8 Enhanced Action Mode

Action Mode allows end-users to personalize the home page. It can be activated as following:

1. By clicking an icon in right bottom corner on the home page

2. With an action Personalize Home Page from User Action Menu.

Action mode provides the following functions:

Remove a tile from a group

Move a tile from one group to another

Delete a group

Reset group content.

After activating Action mode, the following appears:

Now a user can move the tiles from group to group (excluding the locked group) or remove the tile from the home page:

Pre-defined group can be reset to see the changes done by the administrator. A group, which is not a pre-defined group, can be deleted.

9 System Updates

Cached resources are automatically invalidated during system updates, so that users do not need to manually clear the browser cache to see the changes. Please refer to note in Dynamic Tiles for the specific IE10 behavior.

To learn more: