Note: this blog was updated in July 2024!
This blog provides you with important information you should know about SAP Enterprise Portal on NetWeaver 7.5. In general SAP NetWeaver 7.5 is available since October, 2015. You can visit this blog as landing page to be the central place to point to new and relevant content.
Concerning SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5, it is recommended by us (Enterprise Portal Product management team) as the new go-to-release for on-premise customers by leveraging latest enhancements and improvements of the SAP NetWeaver stack. SAP Fiori is the leading user experience in SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 allowing customers to easily adopt a simplified SAP Fiori experience and renovate their application portal as a modern user centric entry point. Customers can also benefit from easy integration and consumption of SAP applications and of SAP S/4HANA apps via wizard and pre-configured content packages.
News
- The mainstream maintenance of NW 7.5 Java stack is going through December 2027, with extended maintenance until end of 2030 (SAP note 1648480). The end of mainstream maintenance dates for SAP EP versions 7.4 and older remain unchanged, and maintenance for these products will end on December 31, 2020. See also the following SAP Note: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2912858.
- SAP also fully aligns the maintenance strategy for SAP NetWeaver 7.5 with SAP Business Suite 7. More information in Karl Kessler's blog on SAP Community.
SAP Portal on NetWeaver 7.5 Overview
Check out also the product page on SAP Community about SAP Enterprise Portal.
SAP Enterprise Portal Roadmap
Please note that no functional enhancements are planned anymore for SAP EP on SAP NetWeaver 7.5 (starting with SAP NW SPS17). A roadmap is also not available anymore. You can also check the release notes to get updated about released features (see section Features in Detail).
Standards Based Framework Pages
For Enterprise Portal 7.5, we highly recommend that you change your framework page to one of the following standards based framework pages:
- Ajax Framework Page standards mode (AFP Standards)
- Fiori Framework Page (FLP@EP)
- Custom Standards based framework page
For more information, see this blog.
SAP Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal
Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal 7.5 was being renovated according to the Fiori design paradigm and it was one focus of the development for NW 7.5. All important features of Fiori 1.0 and 2.0 found their way into Enterprise Portal, for example "Me Area", notifications, overview pages etc. Note that regarding Fiori 3 not all features will be available for Enterprise Portal (see section Features in Detail SAP NW 7.5 SPS17).
You can still have two flavors on one Portal platform: the Ajax Framework page for intranet or administration scenarios (desktop only) and the Fiori Framework page for cross device scenarios (responsive design) and optimized for Fiori launchpad.
Note that Fiori Framework Page works only with standards mode in all browsers since it is based on UI5 technology.
You might ask yourself: why not access Fiori Launchpad directly from Frontend server? Why do we still need a Portal? There are very good reasons to run the launchpad on SAP Portal with the Fiori Framework Page:
- In the Portal you can consume (almost) all the UI technologies that SAP used in the past 15+ years, while with the launchpad on the ABAP Frontend server you have limitations
- Assume that you are running BW/BI/BOBJ reports and you want to integrate them to the launchpad – the best integration will be achieved with the Enterprise Portal
- Assume that you are running WebDynpro Java apps (custom or SAP delivered) and you want to integrate them to the launhcpad – the best integration will be achieved with the portal and Fiori Framework Page
- If you are using the Portal for SSO, complex roles, etc. – in many cases this can be achieved only with the Portal
All in all we provide you the options and it is up to you to select the best option for your specific business needs.
Recommended reading:
Enterprise Portal and Fiori Launchpad Central Note
Overview Information on Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal
Read also this story about a customer journey to Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal.
Maintenance note 2261419
Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal and Best Practices
Learn how you can map your traditional Portal navigation with the navigation on the Fiori launchpad.
Learn how to implement SAP Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal: Recommendations and Frequently Asked Questions.
Features in Detail
In the following blogs and release notes you can find detailed information about support package stacks which are available.
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS01
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS02
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS03
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS04
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS05
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS06
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS07
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS08
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS09
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS10
SAP NetWeaver 750 SPS11
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS12
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS13
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS14
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS17 with some Fiori 3 features and support for SAPUI5 1.71 as well as with SAP Quartz Light theme for SAP Fiori 3:
- Note that not all Fiori 3 design elements and features are available for SAP Enterprise Portal (the spaces and pages concept will not be available). Until now there are no plans to add additional Fiori 3 features.
Version Interoperability between SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver 7.5
For version interoperability between SAP NetWeaver and SAP Business Suite consult SAP Note 1388258. We recommend to check out the slide Adjusted Version Interoperability for SAP Business Suite, which is added to the note as attachment.
Content and Business Packages
You might wonder if Business Packages are still working on SAP NetWeaver 7.5? For details and what needs to be done, read this SAP Note: 2304435 - SAP ERP for SAP NetWeaver 7.5 hub systems.
With the consumption of Fiori content into Enterprise Portal, we also consider Fiori content as the "new business packages". Fiori content can be consumed from ABAP Frontend server by using the remote catalogs integration procedure: you use the remote content editor to assign content from front-end servers to a role. You can also use the editor to search for content, such as SAP Fiori catalogs and SAP Fiori groups, in the available remote system, and then assign them to categories.
With the release of the SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition, additional remote catalogs and groups are now available. Administrators can use the remote content editor to assign SAP S/4HANA content to portal roles.
I also recommend portal content administrators reading this blog and learn about the administration tasks required for enabling SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal. It contains pre-configured sample content that you can import into your portal. In only a few steps you can easily run the SAP Fiori launchpad experience within the SAP NetWeaver Portal environment. Give it a try!
Theming and Branding
In SAP NetWeaver 7.5 the UI theme designer is the only theming tool in Enterprise Portal and it will fully replace the theme editor.
Wikis and Forums
The wiki and forum application is not available in SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 add-on. However, you still can technically install and use the 7.4 based version of the wiki application (as of SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SPS 13 (Java SPS12) and higher) on top of SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5.
Check out these notes for wikis and forums.
Read this SAP documentation for wikis and forums.
All of the above means that the end of maintenance for wikis & forums was December 2020, which was the official end of maintenance date for EP 7.40 and the add-ons on EP 7.40.
Depricated Features
Also other features are deprecated in SAP NetWeaver 7.5, as for example Mobile Framework Page, Real Time Collaboration, Mashups im WPC.
Read notes 2447267 and 2204286 to get a list of all deprecated features
Portal Upgrade
Since the end of 2017 SAP NetWeaver 7.0X Java stacks are no longer supported (see PAM for more information and SAP Note 1648480). SAP highly recommends upgrading to SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5, which has the longest maintenance period, and which includes many new features including the Fiori Framework Page and other features that are only available in the latest releases.
Use this page as central information. It includes all the relevant links to the relevant pages/documentation, such as: upgrade master guide, troubleshooting guide, business packages support, etc.
Read also:
Why Should I upgrade my SAP Enterprise Portal
Troubleshooting guide after SAP Enterprise Portal Upgrade
The Future of SAP Enterprise Portal ?
When you consider about upgrading your Portal, this consideration might also be connected with a decision on the future of your Portal in general.
As a general strategic approach, we recommend to transition your SAP Enterprise Portal use cases to SAP BTP, multi-cloud environment (cloud foundry). SAP BTP is SAP’s strategic unified, business-centric platform with an open architecture that turns data into business value.
Going forward we recommend SAP Enterprise Portal customers considering a transition to SAP BTP multi-cloud environment, in particular to SAP Build Work Zone.
SAP Build Work Zone unifies SAP Launchpad service and SAP Work Zone into a single offering empowering business users to build & publish business sites. It is offered in two editions: standard edition (formerly known as SAP Launchpad service) and advanced edition (formerly known as SAP Work Zone).
SAP recommends adopting SAP Build Work Zone (standard or advanced edition) for new projects, and a gradual transition of existing SAP EP based scenarios to SAP BTP.
See also: SAP Build Work Zone on SAP Community
Documentation
Documentation SAP NetWeaver 7.5
Fiori Launchpad scenario documentation
SAP Portal on SAP Community
Visit the SAP Portal Community Topic Page
You have a question on SAP Enterprise Portal? Discuss your questions in the SAP Portal Community: Create your question on https://answers.sap.com/index.html and tag it with “SAP Enterprise Portal”.
