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Enterprise Search is a great way to start a task when you have been asked for information about a specific document such as Supplier, Customer, Purchase Order, Sales Order, or so on. It can enable you to search for a specific application as well. SAP S/4HANA delivers over 300 search connectors out-of-the-box. You may want to optimize the searches activated in a Fiori client by identifying the exact list of search connectors that are required by your business or industry.
For a deep-dive into how to restrict searches, check out the blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA –Limit Search Object Access in Fiori Launchpad made easier by Jocelyn Dart.
This blog explains a few strategies to identify the search connectors for an SAP Fiori application.
Understanding the 2 types of Search Connectors
There are two types of searches,
- Classic Index-based searches
- Newer CDS View-based searches (don't require indexing)
You can used both or just the CDS View-based searches. See SAP Help - Setting Up Enterprise Search for ABAP CDS-Based Search Models and SAP Help - Enterprise Search Guide in SAP S/4HANA. To end-users the searches look exactly the same but they use different technologies on backend.
For a list of Classic Searches available in SAP S/4HANA, check SAP Note 2513435 - Enterprise Search models available for S4HANA On Premise release
Note: For a list of mapping between the two types of searches, check SAP Note 3122697 - Equivalence between CDS views and classical search models. There are more searches have a mapping between Classic Index-based and CDS View-based search connectors in S/4HANA 2023.
Starting from SAP S/4HANA 1909, you can use SAP Fiori App F3036 Manage Search Models to manage CDS-based search connectors.
Scenario 1: Classic Index-based Search Connector for Fiori App is available in Fiori Apps Reference Library
In this case, the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library has information about the search connectors for the application.
Let's take the example of F1758 Display House Banks or House Bank Fiori application. We want to find all search connectors that we need to activate to be able to search for this application.
1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.
2. Search for the F1758 Display House Banks or House Bank Fiori application.
3. Go to Implementation Information tab
4. Open “Configuration”
5. Classic Index-based Search Connector details are under “Search Connector” section. The search model is HOUSEBANK_H under software component SAPAPPLH.
6. Search connector HOUSEBANK_H can be activated using the GUI transaction STC01 and running the task list SAP_ESH_INITIAL_SETUP_WRK_CLIENT. You can administer Classic Index-based search connectors using the GUI transactions ESH_COCKPIT and ESH_DASHBOARD.
Scenario 2: CDS View-based Search Connector for Fiori App has the same Semantic Object as the Fiori App
According to Jocelyn Dart's blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA –Limit Search Object Access in Fiori Launchpad made easier , if a Fiori application's Tiles and Target Mappings use the same Semantic Object as an activated CDS View-based search connector's Semantic Object, then the Fiori application will appear in search results.
If you want to find which Fiori applications in your SAP S/4HANA system are assigned to a particular Semantic Object, you can use the Fiori Launchpad Content Aggregator tool (GUI transaction /UI2/FLPCA). For more information, check Use Case 2 in Jocelyn Dart's blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – 3 simple use cases for Launchpad Content Aggregator .
Example 1: Let's take the example of F3664 Display Journal Entries in T-Account View . We need to find the CDS View-based search connector that has the same Semantic Object as this Fiori application.
1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.
2. Search for the Fiori App Display Journal Entries in T-Account View (F3664)
3. Go to Implementation Information tab.
4. Open “Configuration”
5. Find Semantic Object for the Fiori App under “Target Mappings”. The Semantic Object is AccountingDocument.
6. To find the CDS-based search model for the app, navigate to SAP Fiori App F3036 Manage Search Models
7. Search for “Accounting Document”. No search results appear. We need to adjust the search.
8. This app is related to General Ledger Journal Entries search object. Search for “Journal”. A list of search models will appear. In this case, the “Journal Entry” search model seems similar to the search object we are looking for. Click on “Journal Entry”
9. Go to “Navigation” tab. The Semantic Object for this search model is “AccountingDocument”. This matches the semantic object of the Fiori app. "Journal Entry" search model needs to be activated so that Fiori application Display Journal Entries in T-Account View shows up in the search results.
10. Journal Entry search model can be activated using program ESH_TSK_SETUP_ESH_CONNECTOR in GUI transaction SA38.
Example 2: In this example, we are looking at a SAP GUI for HTML application Create Sales Orders (VA01) . Again, we want to find a list of Semantic Objects for the Tiles and Target Mappings of this application. Then we want to match the Semantic Objects with the Semantic Objects of the CDS View-based search models in SAP S/4HANA.
1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.
2. Search for the Fiori App Create Sales Orders (VA01)
3. Go to Implementation Information tab
4. Open “Configuration”
5. Find the list of Semantic Objects under “Target Mappings”. The semantic objects are CreditMemoRequest, DebitMemoRequest, SalesDocument and SalesOrder.
6. To find CDS View-based search models for this application, navigate to Fiori app F3036 Manage Search Models.
7. The search models that need to be activated are Credit Memo Requests, Debit Memo Requests, Sales Orders.
8. The CDS View-based search models Credit Memo Requests, Debit Memo Requests and Sales Orders can be activated using program ESH_TSK_SETUP_ESH_CONNECTOR in GUI transaction SA38.
Let us know your experience with finding search connectors for Fiori applications and if the above strategies are helpful.
Getting Support
The SAP support component for Enterprise Search is NetWeaver Enterprise Search (BC-EIM-ESH).
It is recommended to check for the latest improvement and SAP Notes related to Enterprise Search in SAP for Me (https://me.sap.com) using the component BC-EIM-ESH.
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