SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) 5.0 : Release...

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Oct 09

Yes, finally SAP NWBC 5.0 is available!

Prerequisites

Software

Microsoft .NET 4.5 - if necessary, available here: Download Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 (Offline Installer) for Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Wi...
Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012. Note: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 is included in NWBC 5.0. If you do not have this, it is automatically installed with NWBC 5.0.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0, 9.0, 10 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 for the desktop. If higher versions can be used, this will be published in SAP PAM (Product Availability Matrix), product instance Frontend
SAP GUI for Windows 7.40 This is part of the common installer with NWBC 5.0. NWBC 5.0 is not supported with SAP GUI 7.30. (Corollary to the above: NWBC 4.0 and NWBC 5.0 can run on the same front end, but SAP GUI 7.30 and 7.40 are exclusive.)

Hardware

For desktop installations, the same requirements apply as for SAP GUI installations. For more information, see Note 26417.
We recommend at least 1 GB of memory. The actual memory consumption depends on the number of windows that are open.
We recommend a minimum screen size of 1024x768, but larger if possible.

Relevant SAP Notes

Software, operating system and browser requirements as well as restrictions are listed in SAP Note 2066345. Planned release dates for the next patch can be found in SAP Note 2023658.

Documentation

SAP Help Portal: NetWeaver UI Add-Ons 1.0: SAP NetWeaver Business Client

Download and Installation

Download from Service Marketplace:

http://service.sap.com/installations

-> A - Z Index -> "N" -> NETWEAVER BUSINESS CLIENT -> NWBC NW BUSINESS CLIENT 5.0 -> Installation:

You will see two options:

Generally, we strongly recommend that you choose the first option (in red), since this offers you the joint installer with both NWBC and SAP GUI (which is kind of the point 😉 ). (The other option is intended mainly for testing or patching purposes).

What's New

Well mainly, if you install NWBC 5.0 and open it up, it looks remarkably similar to 4.0. This is because most of the interesting new developments are under the hood. We’ve tried to minimize disruption for end users be keeping most of the visual idioms of 4.0 – Corbu theme, tabbed browsing, etc – and focused this time on installation and configuration. So – what exactly has changed?

Common installer

The first thing you may have noticed is that you only download one installation file for both SAP GUI 7.40 and NWBC 5.0 – SetupAll.exe. BTW, once you open this file up, there are still checkboxes for each component – so you can still patch one component without the other, or just install one for testing purposes:

Common infrastructure

Before, you had to create system connections for NWBC manually – even if you had already created these connections in the SAPLogon pad. Now, SAP
GUI/SAPLogon for Windows , SAP GUI for Java and NWBC all share their system connection information. There are just two files: admin and user.

So now, if you create a new system in NWBC, the system reconciles this automatically:

One access point to all systems regardless of release

NWBC 4.0 (and earlier) required all systems to be 7.0 or later. NWBC 5.0 consumes content from all SAP ABAP systems - 6.20, 4.6C etc. (See the documentation for a complete list of system requirements.: SAP Library: NWBC Versions .

Much tighter SAP GUI integration:

These are arguably smaller features taken individually but together they add up to a much more closely integrated desktop client, so that the number of reasons for choosing SAP GUI standalone over NWBC is dramatically reduced:

GUI transactions always open in NWBC tabs - in 4.0, if you opened one transaction from another (eg to display a role from User Maintenance (SU01), the new transaction opened in standalone SAP GUI. Now, it opens in a new tab.

SAP Shortcuts open in NWBC tabs - that is, these:

Stop transaction from context menu of tab - you could always access this function from the menu of a stand-alone SAP GUI window. Now, it 's also on the context menu of the tab hosting the SAP GUI session.

Use SAP GUI theme - In SAP GUI 7.3 standalone (Signature theme), you could set different color themes for different systems - eg to distinguish between ERP and HCM, or DEV and PRD. In the NWBC Corbu theme, these color systems were lost. Now you can retain them:

Other features:

Easy entry - In 4.0, the default entry page was the index page. Now you can choose between: Index page, first pinned tab, New Tab page, First Work Center Page (eg Page Builder entry page, or Power List (POWL)). The Work Center title is now a live link, so you can open the work center entry page / POWL without having to open the work center.
Favorites - you can now structure favorites in folders (and sub-folders) and manage your structure using drag and drop:

Side Panel - we've made the side panel symbol more more obvious (just for you, skemp 😉 ). Also, you can personalize your settings so that the side panel opens by default (if available) when you open a new tab.

In summary, For the first time, SAP NetWeaver Business Client and SAP GUI are released in step, with one common installer and infrastructure, and much tighter integration. For more information on the new SAP GUI 7.40 release, see the following blog :

Announcing SAP GUI 7.40: New Features

And see the following video: NWBC 5.0

Former Member · ‎2014 Oct 09

Thanks Julie, well done in getting this out so quickly, I look forward to trying it out soon. I particularly like the Easy Entry, Favourites and of course the bigger Side Panel button 🙂

former_member204767 · ‎2014 Oct 09

Fantastic news and keen to see this in action soon.

christianpunz · ‎2014 Oct 09

Thanks a lot! will try the installation tomorrow afternoon after the FIORI/Personas-presentation to be held at a customer site...too much to do on the UX-side these days :wink:

br

christian

_IvanFemia_ · ‎2014 Oct 10

Just in time for my new customer :smile:

Florian · ‎2014 Oct 10

Hi everyone,

does anybody else cannot connect to various systems with SAP Gui 7.40?

Cannot be more precise, because I got a lot of different customers and I just got one system located it doesn't work :sad:

With SAPGui 7.30 everything works fine :???:

Do I need to change something on the serverside too?

~Florian

TammyPowlas · ‎2014 Oct 11

Florian - I didn't change anything and everything works fine. That is strange you are having this issue

Florian · ‎2014 Oct 11

Really strange.. I had to uninstall 7.40 because I did not find any solution or even the reason... It is a 7.02 ERP System. 7.30 is working perfect without doing anything to it.

~Florian

Former Member · ‎2014 Oct 12

Hi Florian,

I have this issue as well. It is because the developers haven't taken into consideration that some users might be using custom applications in their SAP logon pad. The unified NWBC login and GUI in NWBC only works with a group/server selection. I have made SAP aware of this and they said they would correct it.

Florian · ‎2014 Oct 12

Hi Jakob,

a moment I thought i'm the only one facing problems with it :lol:

Thanks a lot.

~Florian

IngoD · ‎2014 Oct 12

Great job, great blog... keep going Julie :smile:

LeonardoAraujo · ‎2014 Oct 14

Great news.

I've installed it already and it looks great.

What is the MAC strategy? Any news on a really functional GUI for MAC? (apart from the GUI for JAVA that doesn't even have NWBC or screen painter)

Thanks

darenaddison · ‎2014 Oct 15

Hi,

Has anyone used this with the central connections file yet?
For Example: NwbcremoteOptions.xml points to a centrally located nwbcoptions.xml file.

As the connections files are now SAPUILansdcape.xml & SAPUILandscapeGlobal.xml should I be centrally locating these files and amending the path in our NwbcRemoteOptions.xml file?

I did some testing by copying in the previous NWBCOptions.xml into users profile and they were successfully converted to the new file type.

Thanks

Daren

TomVanDoo · ‎2014 Oct 15

Hmmm

Initially I had quite some trouble getting my SAPlogon.ini migrated.

After migration all SID's had disappeared. (not that I need them to login though)

Now I'm facing a new issue.

when I use NWBC to open up a ABAP-server NWBC connection (/sap/bc/ui2/nwbc/) my navigation tree is not loaded

When I try this manually via the browser, I get an empty XML

<host:port>/sap/bc/ui2/nwbc/~api/getnavigationtrees gives

<asx:abap xmlns:asx="http://www.sap.com/abapxml" version="1.0">

<asx:values>

<NAVIGATION_TREES/>

</asx:values>

</asx:abap>

In the NWBC, I get an error message

Whereas I know, that I have quite an extensive menu (it used to work in NWBC4)

any ideas?

Edit:

solved. apparently I had been clicking on checkboxes I shouldn't have clicked...

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Oct 16

PHew! Glad you got that solved Tom . To everyone else, I'm out of office now till Momday, but I will try to be on here more from now on.

BEst wishes Julie

rommel_tiongco · ‎2014 Oct 22

Looking forward to trying it out!

john_r_robinson · ‎2014 Nov 06

So with v5.0 is Windows 8.1 now supported? I can't find it in PAM specifically.

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Nov 06

Hi John,

Not yet. We will be implementing this in a future patch. Several customers have asked about this.

As soon as that patch is available, I will announce it here.

Best wishes

Julie R Plummer.

TomVanDoo · ‎2014 Nov 06

Actually, I'm running it on a windows 8.1 on daily usage.

Although I must say it crashes frequently on NetWeaver 7.0 systems. More precisely in the developer workbench, when I try to open an object source code with the new front-end editor.

If I stick to the old front-end editor, it works fine.

On NetWeaver 7.02, 7.31 and 7.40, no issues.

Well, that is apart from the issues (and fixes) I already documented over here

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Nov 10

Hi Tom, That's good to know. However, as you no doubt are aware, this does not yet mean that 8.1 is supported ;-). I will let you all know as soon as it is supported.

Just fyi, everyone.

Julie

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 14

I just installed and tested it and in my opinion this is a giant step forward in exactly the right direction! Very well done!

I had one issue installing though: I got SAPGUI 7.40 from the Software Corner, but somehow could not install NWBC 5.0 with it. I then installed the NWBC using the download from Service Marketplace.

Did I overlook something? I thought there would be also a common installer available in th Software Corner.

Best regards,

Marc

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Nov 14

Hi Marc, No, NWBC 5.0 is not yet in SW Corner. To be on the safe side, if you have any problems at all, can you please deinstall your separate 5.0 and 7.40, and then reinstall from the SetupAll.exe from Service Marketplace? Just to make sure your registry settings etc are complete. This is just if you have any problems.

Otherwise, I am glad you like it.

Best wishes, Julie R Plummer.

john_r_robinson · ‎2014 Nov 14

Hi Marc,

As Julie says this worked fine for me.

First if not already installed, install .NET 4.5.

Then run 'SetupAll.exe' from the following media location

50127120_6\BD_NW_7.0_Presentation_7.40_Comp._1_\PRES1\GUI\WINDOWS\WIN32

Select SAP NetWeaver Business Client 5.0 from the very top of the component list as well as the GUI components you require.

Kind Regards,

John

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 17

OK, thanks for the info!

Best regards,

Marc

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 17

Does anyone know when PL3 is actually available and what changes are included? It was announced with note 2023658 for KW46 (10-14.11.2014), but in the support portal it is not yet ready (via SW-Download > Installations and Upgrades > A - Z Index > ...)

Best regards,

Marc

LeonardoAraujo · ‎2014 Nov 19

Guys, Any idea on when SP1 will be available (for the GUI)?

I love the new interface and NWBC integration, but I am having problems opening ABAP editor. It hangs.

I may need to downgrade to 730. ;-(

Leo

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hi everyone,

For NWBC patches: PL3 should be available soon. As soon as it is, we will announce this here, in this space.

For SAP GUI patches, please post in the SAP GUI space; that is the fastest way.

Thanks and best wishes,

Julie R PLummer.

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hello Julie,

I am currently in the process of upgrading to SAP GUI 7.4 from 7.3 for my organisation.

I tested standalone 7.4 and it works perfectly fine similar to 7.3 w/o any issues.

For providing something new on the UI space, i tried installing GUI with NWBC. It gets installed and looks great . But I am facing problem of configurng the system connections. for SAP GUI.

I have saplogon.ini ,sapmsg.ini and services file ready from my SAP GUI 7.3.

How am i supposed to integrate it with NWBC? it says we only have 2 XML files now and i tried doing it that way but no result.

I am new to NWBC space and could not breakthrough.

Creating manual entry also does not help as it throws an error while connecting.

Hope i get some help here?

Thanks,

Deep Desai

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hi Leo,

first: known problems with the ABAP Editor in notes

2081798 http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2081798
2081078 http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2081078

second: For the release dates for SAP GUI for Windows see note 1053737. SAPGUI 7.40 Patchlevel 1 is expected to be shipped in week 50 (8th - 12th of December 2014)

Best regards,

Marc

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Thank you Julie for the response.

Br,

Marc

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hi,

please see note 2035293 for known and open issues of SAP GUI for Windows.

Best regards,

Daniel

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hello Deep Desai,

i´m not from SAP, but IMOO saplogin.ini and other files are not longer the regular config-files if using SAPGUI 7.4 with NWBC 5.0.

Have look at some other threads, there are some known issues with the new config-files.

SAPUILandscapeGlobal.xml Entries for NWBC and SAP GUI
Announcing SAP GUI for Windows 7.40
- snip: "Note: At the moment, these new configuration features are only available when using SAP GUI together with NWBC. However, in the long run, this procedure will become the default for all SAP GUI installation and configuration scenarios. Thus, with SAP GUI for Windows 7.40 you have the option to either run SAP GUI standalone with the old configuration files (fully compatible to SAP GUI for Windows 7.30) or run SAP GUI embedded into NWBC with the new SAP UI Landscape format."

Hope it helps,

Marc

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 19

Hi Daniel or everyone,

thank you for the link. Do you know a similar note for NWBC 5.0. I found the note 1378659, but it contains no know or open issues specifically for NWBC 5.0.

Best regards,

Marc

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 20

Hi Marc,

I haven't found such a KBA for NWBC.

However, there is three notes I've subscribed in order to stay up to date:

- 2030419 - Patches NWBC 5.0: CLIENT ONLY- SAP NetWeaver Business Client

- 2023658 - SAP NetWeaver Business Client 5.0 expected releases

- 2066345 - NWBC for Desktop 5.0: Prerequisites and restrictions

Best regards,

Daniel

Former Member · ‎2014 Nov 25

Every time I see the use of the drug and drop functionality and this makes me again and again proud in Top Tier (sold to SAP in 2001) and its patented technologies.

julieplummer20 · ‎2014 Nov 26

Hi Leonardo,

Currently, for NWBC Desktop, we cannot provide support for operating systems other than Windows. Microsoft provides an IE control, which is used for displaying all Web-based content (ie non-SAP GUI content). NWBC is also tied to IE security settings. For this reason, broadening support to include other browsers would be extremely
resource-intensive, effectively ruling out Mac support for the foreseeable future.

Sorry about that,

Julie R Plummer.

Former Member · ‎2015 Jan 29

Hi all,

We are currently using NWBC 5.0 at a customer and they have requested to display the T-CODE technical name in the service map. It has been activated in personalisation to appear in the side panel, however when we enable Folders within a PFCG role to be a service map, the t-codes within them only display the description within the main panel. Is there a way to concatenate the tcode technical name (similar to how it is done in the side panel) ?

Many thanks,
Cuneyt

julieplummer20 · ‎2015 Feb 23

Hi Cuneyt,

Sorry about the delay. AFAIK, this is not possible.

melinda.ludanyi - would you like to add anything?

Best wishes,

Julie R Plummer.

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 04

Hello

I just installed the NWBC 5.0 PL2.

And now Index page is no more displayed, even if in my options I choose Index page as initial page.

Any solution to have this index page with roles ?

Thanks

Xavier

julieplummer20 · ‎2015 Mar 09

Hi Xavier, Can you provide a screen shot of what you can now see? Thanks Julie.

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 11

Hi Julie,

Actually I figured this out by debugging the NWBC runtime. If you want the Tcode ID to be displayed in the main window (i.e. on the service maps etc), each user must set their preferences in SAP GUI via Extra's->settings->Display Technical names.

This then allows NWBC runtime to render the main application window for the service maps with the tcode desciprtion + tcode ID. Similar to how it is presented in the Side Panel.

Cheers,
Cuneyt

julieplummer20 · ‎2015 Mar 11

Hi Cuneyt, Sorry I didn't get back to you in time; it is pretty hectic here. I'm glad you sorted this out.

Best wishes,

Julie.

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 11

Hi Julie

Here is the screen shot where Index page is missing.

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 11

Hi Xavier,

it seems that you are connected to the system via DIAG and not through HTTP(s). Please keep in mind that with NWBC 5.0 your system selector contains connections from SAP Logon (DIAG) and NWBC (HTTP). The Index Page is only part of the NWBC/HTTP connections were the role information can be retrieved from the backend and rendered into the index and new tab page.

Best Regards,

Thomas

Former Member · ‎2015 Mar 12

Hi Thomas

Thanks !

manuish02 · ‎2015 Jun 05

Hi Julie,

Would it support The Websocket Architecture for Webdynpro Applications?

Regards,

Manish

julieplummer20 · ‎2015 Jun 30

Hi Manish,

I see no reason why not.

However, this is a question for the Web Dynpro forum.

Please post a new discussion there.

Thanks Julie.

former_member205445 · ‎2015 Jul 22

Hi Julie,

When we are using NWBC 5.0, the new session is not displayed in a new tab, but a new window. For example, when displaying a user through SU01 and double click a role, the role detail is shown in a new window, not the a new tab.

In personalize settings, we did not check the checkbox for 'Open session in new window'.

Appreciate for any idea to enable the display of new session in a new tab.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Bill

Former Member · ‎2015 Jul 22

Hi Bill,

the new window seems to be a SAP GUI window and not a NWBC window. That happens for example if the feature of opening a new GUI session within a new NWBC tab is not available. Can you please check your SAP GUI version ? You need to install SAP GUI 7.40.

Best Regards,

Thomas

former_member205445 · ‎2015 Jul 27

Hi Thomas,

Thanks so much for the feedback!

We are on SAP GUI 7.30 and this should be the root cause of our issue.

Best regards,

Bill

Former Member · ‎2015 Jul 29

Hi Julie,

when will NWBC 5.0 and SAPGUI 7.40 support Windows 10, do you have details when this will be done?

Best regards,

Marc