Dynamo Infotech

Today we discuss SAP Fiori, the buzz word in SAP landscape. Here we will learn about what is SAP Fiori, types of Fiori apps, architecture and benefits.

Let’s start with brief intro on SAP Fiori

SAP user interface had more than 3 lakh screens with various functions in it. SAP checked the most frequently used apps and then decided to renew these applications. That’s how SAP Fiori was born.

The word Fiori literally means “Flower” in Italian (that’s the reason when you open a home page sap Fiori application, we will see a picture of flowers). SAP Fiori is a Leading design for all SAP software and applications. It comprises a set of applications like work approvals, calculation apps, financial apps, and self-service apps etc. It enables multiple device applications (A user can start a process on mobile/tablet and continue the same process on desktop/laptops) and also provides role-based applications (300+) like Human Resources, Finance, Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, R&D, Engg, Asset Management, etc.

So

1)What is SAP Fiori?

SAP Fiori is a new user experience (UX) developed by SAP based on User Interface UI5 and OData services. It enables employees to work with SAP simply, quickly, and easily by eliminating the complexities involved in the SAP Landscape. SAP Fiori apps make SAP available in multiple devices like Mobile, tablets, etc and that helps the organizations to build productivity easily. Using modern design principles, Fiori apps provides customized, responsive, straight forward client experience and also delivers a role-based, consumer-grade user experience across all lines of business, and tasks. Being SAP Fiori stateless applications except for database operations you can execute each and every functionality at client side browser. Fiori apps performance better than ABAP screens, because Fiori apps is a lightweight browser-based screen, had more than 150 screen elements and also consumes less memory during execution.

2) Business Benefits

  1. You can access SAP Fiori app from anywhere and also from any device like mobile, desktop, tablet etc.
  2. Reduces training costs, and ramp-up time required for new user and allowing them to reach full productivity as soon as possible.
  3. With Fiori apps, end user can get the access to the data they needed to perform their job. This in-turn reduces the additional burden of technical/HR support.
  4. SAP Fiori and SAP Fiori Launchpad provides equivalent user experience (UI) across all SAP Products and a single interface to all enterprise apps. This UI helps to speed up incident resolution.
  5. With SAP web IDE, it reduces the time to develop mobile apps ( SAP Fiori).
  6. With minimum number of screen elements SAP Fiori user interface can avoid the potential cost incurred in fixing data errors in most cases.
  7. Avoid unnecessary costs to replace software because of unsatisfied end users.
  8. The simple and modern user interface of Fiori apps has the capability of motivate employees to utilize Shelf-ware licenses.
  9. SAP Fiori reduces time to perform day-day activities by automating, which results in greater employee productivity rather than manual paper based processes.
  10. SAP Fiori apps supports OData services for database interaction such as  OData External, OData Hana & Odata ABAP Services.

3) What is SAP Fiori Design Principle?

There are 5 design principles for SAP Fiori UI5

  1. Role-Based:- SAP Fiori decomposes various sap transactions and changed them into beautiful user-interactive applications, which helps to show only relevant information to the users.
  2. Responsiveness:- SAP Fiori delivers unmatched application response and query executions time when combined with SAP S/4 HANA services.
  3. Simple:- SAP Fiori is designed to match user demand.
  4. Seamless Experience:- all SAP Fiori apps are based on the same language and no matter deployment and platform you are into.
  5. Delightful:- Fiori apps are designed to work with ECC 6.0 to make it easy to deploy on the existing sap system and to the users.

4) What are SAP Fiori Apps?

SAP Fiori apps are classified into 3 types

  1. Transactional
  2. Fact Sheet
  3. Analytical

Each differentiated by their focus and infrastructure requirements

When installing SAP fiori apps, separate the front-end components with the user interface (UI) layer from the back-end components, which contains the business logic and the back-end data.

Make sure the access is sure, all SAP Fiori apps can be accessed over the intranet(inside the corporate network) and the internet (outside the corporate network),

Note:-

*use sap web dispatcher as reverse proxy server for fact sheets and analytical apps.

1) Transactional Apps:-

These apps let you perform transactional tasks such as creating a leave request for an employee. They represent simplified views and interaction with existing business processes and solutions and also run best on an SAP HANA database, but can also be ported to other databases with acceptable performance.

2) Fact Sheet:-

These apps display contextual information and key facts about central objects used in your business operations. From a fact sheet area (tile), you can drill down into its details. You can navigate from one fact sheet to its related fact sheets.

Eg:-

you can navigate from a document to the related business partner or to the master data and SAP S/4HANA On-Premise 1809 Upgrade.

Note:-

You cannot access SAP GUI or Web Dynpro transactions through the SAP fiori Launchpad from mobile/desktop.

Fact sheets run only on an SAP HANA database and require an ABAP stack. They cannot be ported to the SAP HANA live (2-tier) architect.

Read more:-

https://help.sap.com/doc/saphelp_hba/1.0/en-US/ec/a941524a6b6760e10000000a423f68/content.htm?no_cache=true

5) SAP Fiori Architecture Overview

Find the key components of SAP Fiori architecture

1) SAP Web Dispatcher (Reverse Proxy):-

*It is the first point of contact in sap Fiori architecture and also handles all web browser requests for end users.

*It is an entry point for all https/http requests and defines if a system has to accept or reject the requests and the server where the request should go. It can reject or accept connection to SAP Fiori system.

Note :- Both Fact sheets & analytical apps runs only on SAP HANA database to run but, transactional apps can run on any database

2) SAP ABAP Front-End Server:-

It contains all the user interface (UI) components of Fiori system and NetWeaver gateway. Inturn these UI components comprises central UI add on, SAPUI5 control library, SAP Fiori Launchpad and product specific UI.

3) SAP NetWeaver Gateway :–

It is used to set up a connection between SAP business suite and target clients, platform and also offers development and generation tools to create OData services to different client development tools.

4) SAP ABAP Back-End Server:-

It is used to store the business logic and the back-end data. Both search model for fact sheets and sap business suite is stored in this server.

5) SAP HANA database and HANA XS Engine :–

It is used to run all analytical apps in SAP Fiori and also contain Fiori apps content and virtual data-model reuse content, which is provided through SAP HANA live.

Two components of HANA XS Engine

  1. HANA Live App content for Business suite.
  2. Smart Business component with KPI Modeler.

6) SAP Fiori Architecture for SAP S/4HANA

SAP Fiori Architecture for SAP S/4HANA comprises only one archetype and also supports for all transactional, analytical and search in SAP Fiori apps.

7) Key features and capabilities of SAP Fiori LaunchPad

SAP Fiori Launchpad

1) Role-Based :-  

          *Apps assignment via role-specific business catalogs.

          *Predefined groups for FLP home page.

2) Personalized :-

          *Add / remove apps from home page.

          *(Re)arrange tiles and groups.

          *Change titles.

          *Select custom themes.

 3) Search :-

          * Across apps and business objects

 4) Navigation :-

          *fast, easy and contextual navigation

 5) Responsive :-

         * Adaptive design to run on multiple devices

         * Configuration allows to start device specific apps

 6) Theming and branding –

         * via UI theme designer

8) SAP Fiori Launchpad Architecture

SAP Fiori launchpad being a runtime container supports intent based navigation for SAPUI5 Components, Web Dynpro ABAP or SAP GUI apps, and External URLs. Fiori launchpad provides platform independent service APIs with adapters for different front-end servers (ABAP, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP HANA Cloud Platform) and local consumption (Sandbox for testing in SAP Web IDE, mobile offline).

SAP Fiori Launchpad Architecture

Read More:-

https://experience.sap.com/documents/sap-fiori-ux-architecture-for-s4h.pdf

9) SAP Fiori Apps Product Design Qualities & Technical Capabilities

    Product Design :-

  1. Role-Based:- Deliver the right information at the right time via multifaceted user interfaces.
  2.  Adaptive:- Get instant insights across devices ( mobile apps/ desktop)
  3. Simple:-  Zero in on your most important tasks, functions, and activities.                     
  4. Coherent:- Deliver a consistent UX across the enterprise – whether you need to fulfill a sales order, review your latest KPIs, or manage leave requests.
  5. Delightful :- Enrich your work experience with intuitive, easy-to-use SAP Fiori apps.

Technical Capabilities :-

  1. Availability – On Demand and On Premise.
  2. Support for multiple devices and form factors – Maximize usability using a desktop PC, tablet, or smartphone.
  3. Central Access via SAP Fiori launchpad – Access your SAP Fiori apps from a central launchpad (navigation, personalization, support, and configuration).
  4. Role-based authentication and authorization – Harness role-based single sign-on (SSO) mechanisms for secure access.
  5. Secure provisioning and consumption of data – Provide access to business logic (SAP back-end system) data via OData services.
  6. Corporate identity theming – Simply and effectively implement themes for SAP Fiori apps and SAP Fiori launchpad
  7. Embedded Analytics – efficiently include compelling KPIs, charts, and analytical tables in your SAP Fiori apps providing real-time insights and offering immediate actions.
  8. SAPUI5 based – Enterprise-ready UI development toolkit based on HTML5 and JavaScript.
  9. App Extensibility – Enhance your SAP Fiori apps using templates in the SAP Web IDE.
  10. Custom development – Rapidly design, build, and deploy SAP Fiori apps for browsers and mobile devices in the SAP Web IDE.