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With many employees working remotely now, we are receiving requests from customers who want to use SAP Screen Personas to empower people to access their SAP ERP systems from their home computers, including tablets and smart phones. SAP Screen Personas 3.0 Service Pack 11 (SP11) fulfills this need with new functionality to simplify flavor creation for business analysts, departmental power users, and IT professionals. To continue aligning our support with SAP S/4HANA, we too have extended our support through 2040. Some of my favorite new features in SP11 include:
Clipboard make flavor developers more productive
It has long been possible to merge information from different tabs. We have included this in several of our SAP TechEd hands-on exercises. A common usability complaint was the people did not want to click through multiple tabs to find or enter information.
The previous process was easy enough. Drag the information you want to combine into a blank part of the canvas, hide the tab containers, and then drag into the final position. When you are working from home on a laptop, this becomes more difficult as there is often not enough screen real estate to park the controls. The clipboard or “parking lot” addresses this issue. It allows you to copy multiple controls to a separate space that is not constrained by your screen size. The result is that it is much easier to build flavors that combine information from multiple tabs in the same transaction.
Numerical keyboard streamlines data entry
When entering data on your phone or tablet, you sometimes need to toggle among different keyboards to access numbers or special characters. Most people are used to this and don’t think too much about it. But, if you are entering a number into a field, why not go straight to the numerical keyboard to speed the process and save keystrokes. This is what we have provided with this new feature in SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11
Framework-specific flavors simplify maintenance
People like to work the way they like to work. This means that some prefer the SAP GUI for Windows, some the SAP GUI for HTML (Web GUI), some the SAP GUI for Java (Java GUI), and some the Slipstream Engine. The same flavor displayed in each of these rendering engines looks slightly different.
We have simplified how you can maintain these flavors by allowing you to define a default flavor for a specific framework in the admin transaction.
Typeahead makes building flavors faster
When adding custom controls to the flavors, you can now enable Type-ahead functionality for the controls associated with F4 functionality. This will allow users to select the values as they type based on the suggested values for the F4 help.
Accessibility options allow visually impaired employees to use SAP more easily
We want all our customers to benefit from the simpler screens that SAP Screen Personas enables. To extend the reach of our flavors, we have added some additional accessibility options, including the high-contrast theme in SAP Fiori 3.
Even more SAPUI5 versions are now supported for Slipstream Engine Applications
With the SP11 release we not only introduced support for additional SAPUI5 versions such as version 1.71 and 1.72 and support for the SAPUI5 Fiori 3 Dark theme, but we also completely redesigned the internal Slipstream Engine SAPUI5 version management. The new design enables us to deliver support for new SAPUI5 versions more rapidly. We also provide version support for previous service pack releases. For example, we are happy to announce that SAP Screen Personas SP10 now supports SAPUI5 version 1.71.
Compare various versions of SAP Screen Personas.
Support extended through 2040
I really hope this one makes customers, partners, and colleagues realize that SAP Screen Personas is a key part of SAP’s long-term user experience strategy. SAP Screen Personas remains a fast, easy, cost-effective, and low-risk way to provide the SAP Fiori user experience for SAP GUI transactions.
Here is our current support strategy for SAP Screen Personas 3.0.
System requirements
SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11 works on a variety of systems from SAP S/4HANA to some much older versions. Specifically:
For SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11, the supported kernel releases and their corresponding minimum and recommended (as of May 22, 2020) patch levels are listed below. You do not need to update your kernel to move to the latest version of SAP Screen Personas, if your system is on a supported kernel release.
Kernel release 777 --> No minimum patch level --> Recommended patch level 100 or higher
Kernel release 773 --> No minimum patch level --> Recommended patch level 201 or higher
Kernel release 753 --> Minimum patch level 27 --> Recommended patch level 615 or higher
Kernel release 749 --> Minimum patch level 400 --> Recommended patch level 800 or higher
Kernel release 722 --> Minimum patch level 400 --> Recommended patch level 900 or higher
See the SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11 Master Note 2919666 for more details and updated recommendations.
For SAP S/4HANA 1809 and 1909 customers who use Slipstream Engine
There is a known Slipstream Engine compatibility issue when backend sessions cannot be created due to a kernel limitation in the SAP Stack Kernel version 773 and above. Unfortunately, the kernel compatibility issues are introduced on components outside our scope of responsibility, and measures are currently being taken to address the problem with high priority. Please consider creating a BC-PER incident ticket to discuss the possible solutions.
Continuous improvement
We already have some exciting things planned for SP12, so please send us your requests (via email or as a comment to this blog) for anything you would like to see in SP13 and beyond.
Next Steps
For the SAP Screen Personas product team, peter.spielvogel.
- Clipboard to “park” controls as you combine screen elements from different tabs.
- Numerical keyboard for mobile devices saves keystrokes when you need to fill a numerical field on your phone
- Framework-specific default flavors based on different members of the SAP GUI family
- Typeahead options for virtual controls
- Accessibility options with high-contrast SAP Fiori 3 theme
- More SAPUI5 versions supported
- New keyboard shortcuts for undo and redo help improve the flavor editor experience
Clipboard make flavor developers more productive
It has long been possible to merge information from different tabs. We have included this in several of our SAP TechEd hands-on exercises. A common usability complaint was the people did not want to click through multiple tabs to find or enter information.
The previous process was easy enough. Drag the information you want to combine into a blank part of the canvas, hide the tab containers, and then drag into the final position. When you are working from home on a laptop, this becomes more difficult as there is often not enough screen real estate to park the controls. The clipboard or “parking lot” addresses this issue. It allows you to copy multiple controls to a separate space that is not constrained by your screen size. The result is that it is much easier to build flavors that combine information from multiple tabs in the same transaction.
Numerical keyboard streamlines data entry
When entering data on your phone or tablet, you sometimes need to toggle among different keyboards to access numbers or special characters. Most people are used to this and don’t think too much about it. But, if you are entering a number into a field, why not go straight to the numerical keyboard to speed the process and save keystrokes. This is what we have provided with this new feature in SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11
Framework-specific flavors simplify maintenance
People like to work the way they like to work. This means that some prefer the SAP GUI for Windows, some the SAP GUI for HTML (Web GUI), some the SAP GUI for Java (Java GUI), and some the Slipstream Engine. The same flavor displayed in each of these rendering engines looks slightly different.
We have simplified how you can maintain these flavors by allowing you to define a default flavor for a specific framework in the admin transaction.
Typeahead makes building flavors faster
When adding custom controls to the flavors, you can now enable Type-ahead functionality for the controls associated with F4 functionality. This will allow users to select the values as they type based on the suggested values for the F4 help.
Accessibility options allow visually impaired employees to use SAP more easily
We want all our customers to benefit from the simpler screens that SAP Screen Personas enables. To extend the reach of our flavors, we have added some additional accessibility options, including the high-contrast theme in SAP Fiori 3.
Even more SAPUI5 versions are now supported for Slipstream Engine Applications
With the SP11 release we not only introduced support for additional SAPUI5 versions such as version 1.71 and 1.72 and support for the SAPUI5 Fiori 3 Dark theme, but we also completely redesigned the internal Slipstream Engine SAPUI5 version management. The new design enables us to deliver support for new SAPUI5 versions more rapidly. We also provide version support for previous service pack releases. For example, we are happy to announce that SAP Screen Personas SP10 now supports SAPUI5 version 1.71.
Compare various versions of SAP Screen Personas.
Support extended through 2040
I really hope this one makes customers, partners, and colleagues realize that SAP Screen Personas is a key part of SAP’s long-term user experience strategy. SAP Screen Personas remains a fast, easy, cost-effective, and low-risk way to provide the SAP Fiori user experience for SAP GUI transactions.
Here is our current support strategy for SAP Screen Personas 3.0.
- SAP Screen Personas 3.0 is aligned with SAP S/4HANA support. This is now through 2040.
- We support the current as well as the two previous Service Packs. What does this mean to you?
- SP11 will receive continuous innovation
- SP10 will get important fixes and selected down ports
- SP09 will receive emergency fixes
- SP08 and earlier will no longer be supported (time to upgrade!)
System requirements
SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11 works on a variety of systems from SAP S/4HANA to some much older versions. Specifically:
| Basis | Minimum Service Pack | Additional Notes Required? | Supported Kernels |
| S/4HANA | All | No | 749+ |
| 750 | All | No | 749, 753 |
| 740 | SP03 | Yes | 749, 753 |
| 731 | SP07 | Yes | 722 |
| 702 | SP09 | Yes | 722 |
| 701 | SP10 | Yes | 722 |
| 700 | SP25 | Yes | 722 |
For SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11, the supported kernel releases and their corresponding minimum and recommended (as of May 22, 2020) patch levels are listed below. You do not need to update your kernel to move to the latest version of SAP Screen Personas, if your system is on a supported kernel release.
Kernel release 777 --> No minimum patch level --> Recommended patch level 100 or higher
Kernel release 773 --> No minimum patch level --> Recommended patch level 201 or higher
Kernel release 753 --> Minimum patch level 27 --> Recommended patch level 615 or higher
Kernel release 749 --> Minimum patch level 400 --> Recommended patch level 800 or higher
Kernel release 722 --> Minimum patch level 400 --> Recommended patch level 900 or higher
See the SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11 Master Note 2919666 for more details and updated recommendations.
For SAP S/4HANA 1809 and 1909 customers who use Slipstream Engine
There is a known Slipstream Engine compatibility issue when backend sessions cannot be created due to a kernel limitation in the SAP Stack Kernel version 773 and above. Unfortunately, the kernel compatibility issues are introduced on components outside our scope of responsibility, and measures are currently being taken to address the problem with high priority. Please consider creating a BC-PER incident ticket to discuss the possible solutions.
Continuous improvement
We already have some exciting things planned for SP12, so please send us your requests (via email or as a comment to this blog) for anything you would like to see in SP13 and beyond.
Next Steps
- Watch the Productivity Power Play video about SP11.
- Upgrade to SAP Screen Personas 3.0 SP11 (requires valid NetWeaver License).
- Take the free Introduction to SAP Screen Personas openSAP class to get a foundation for starting your project.
- Extend your knowledge with the Using SAP Screen Personas for Advanced Scenarios openSAP class to go deeper into how to use the product.
- Extend your flavors from your desktop to all your devices with our Building Mobile Applications with SAP Screen Personas
- Learn more from our new product support portal with articles and videos on a variety of topics.
For the SAP Screen Personas product team, peter.spielvogel.
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