Technology Blogs by SAP
Learn how to extend and personalize SAP applications. Follow the SAP technology blog for insights into SAP BTP, ABAP, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP HANA, and more.
cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

NWBC, Fiori UX, and UI Client Convergence: Roadmap Update

julieplummer20
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
‎2015 May 12 5:58 PM
11,344

UPDATE 29th September, 2015: The name of our new release has changed. It is now SAP Business Client 6.0". That is, it is the next, incremental release after NWBC 5.0; we are dropping the "NetWeaver" to comply with new guidelines - many products, including SAP Gateway and SAP Enterprise Portal, have done the same thing. Also, I will be covering these topics in detail at Teched.

NB: SAP Business Client 6.0 requires SAP NetWeaver 7.5, or NW UI Add-Ons, v2.0 SP1.


This has been a hot topic for some time, but now is probably a good time to formalize some informal discussions, and outline the latest version of the roadmap. Now, firstly because ingo.deck of this parish is releasing the latest version of the UI Roadmap soon, and secondly because I had the opportunity of addressing the ASUG UX Special Interest Group just before Easter (27th March), and presented this information to them.

The last time I presented a roadmap was Teched in November. The overall strategy was clear then, and hasn't changed, either in my lecture (UXP106 : "What's New in NWBC"), or in Nis Boy Naeve's talk (TEC104: "SAP's User Experience Strategy"):

- in particular: "The SAP Fiori launchpad (FLP) will become the web-based entry point for SAP business applications across platforms and devices" . If you look closely, this included a "Desktop" capability, ie support for SAP GUI for Windows native.

The challenge was to put some flesh on these bones, which we are now doing with the new roadmap. This represents less of a revolution, more an incremental change from the previous roadmap (Teched November 2014), but I think it is worth discussing here in some detail, because we have had so many queries on this topic, and I promised to keep you all informed.

Planned innovations

The first big news is this (from "Planned" in the roadmap slide):


I talked about this at TechEd 2014, but we have now moved it to "Planned", so it should be available much sooner. This means that, for the first time, we will soon officially support Fiori content in NWBC. (;-) !). Users can access all their usual content (SAP GUI native, WD ABAP etc) and their Fiori apps from one index page:

There are limitations:

... but for a simple ESS/MSS app, this still represents a big step forward.

This is our first step in realizing the vision of NWBC as a bridge between the established and new worlds, which we first introduced at Teched 2014.

Requirements: NWBC 5.0 or later, latest patch level; plus EITHER SAP NetWeaver 7.5, OR NW UI Add-Ons V2.0 SP0.

Catalog apps

All apps are available, but you need to configure the intent (=semantic object+action) in the Fiori Launchpad Designer.

See Configuring Navigation for more details.

Requirements: NWBC 5.0 or later, latest patch level; plus EITHER SAP NetWeaver 7.5, OR NW UI Add-Ons V2.0 SP0.

Future Vision

And the next big step is this:

So what's changed?

  • First of all: NWBC for Fiori UX is an unofficial, working name for a concept that I alluded to at Teched 2014, but for which I can now offer more details:
    • Specifically, NWBC for Fiori UX SAP Business Client 6.0 will enable you to launch all your  Fiori content and your SAP GUI for Windows transactions directly from the Fiori Launchpad.  This is also the main idea of the first bullet point: "Fiori Launchpad in NWBC with SAP GUI native experience"
  • "Fiori Launchpad configuration for content" - enables you to maintain assign catalogs, groups, etc, directly in the Fiori Launchpad configuration environment
  • The third point is a corollary of this: "Enable business experts, not administrators, to configure content" - ie allowing customers to split authorization and content configuration -> making life simpler for both the LOB experts and the IT teams. This is something that many customers have been asking for for some time, so it's good to get this implemented.
  • And similarly, the fourth point is also a corollary of the second:"Integration of content from SAP HANA" - ie by using Fiori Launchpad catalogs to access HANA content. Please note that this is not part of the first release of SAP Business Client 6.0.

This could look something like this:

Open your Fiori Launchpad, click on the "My Sales Orders" tile...

and the intent-based navigation points to a SAP GUI for Windows transaction, which opens in a new tab.

The main limitation is that Desktop support is planned for Windows; we are not planning to offer a native Fiori desktop client for Macintosh (eg OS X), or Linux.

Requirements: SAP Business Client 6.0+ SAP NetWeaver 7.5 or SAP NetWeaver UI Add-Ons, SP1.

Summary

So the final step remains the same: Fiori Launchpad will become the Web-based entry point for SAP business applications across all platforms and devices. In addition, it will (as announced at Teched) be available in 3 flavors:

  • Browser - zero footprint, default for all, available for some time
  • Mobile - also available for some time, offering device integration and optimizing performance
  • Windows - offering SAP GUI for Windows support; available in future

... so your options look roughly like this:

Requirements: SAP NetWeaver 7.5, plus SAP Business Client 6.0.

I hope this clarifies our overall UI Client strategy. I will be updating have updated our overview slides accordingly.

33 Comments
Labels in this area
Popular Blog Posts