The SAP Fiori launchpad is the entry point to SAP Fiori apps. From a user perspective, it displays those SAP Fiori apps that have been assigned to the catalog designed for this user's role.
This presupposes that an administrator has made the necessary assignments in the launchpad designer to enable a user's access to the respective SAP Fiori apps in the SAP Fiori launchpad.
Setup of Catalogs, Groups, and Roles in the SAP Fiori Launchpad
SAP Fiori launchpad is the access point to apps on mobile or desktop devices. The apps are organized through the various entities and explained in the following text.
The figure shows the different building blocks of the application.
The following elements can be distinguished:
Elements of the Content Model
| Element | Short Naming | Schema Description |
|---|---|---|
| Business Role | BR | SAP_BR_<role> Role for topic |
| Business Catalog Group | BCG | SAP_BCG_<topic> Tiles for subtopic |
| Business Catalog | BC | SAP_BC_<topic> Tiles for duty |
| Technical Catalog | TC | SAP_TC_<area>_<subarea>_COMMON Tiles for area |
| Back-End Catalog | BEC | SAP_TC_<area>_<subarea>_BE_APPS Legacy app descriptors for area |
Technical catalogs (TC) still cut tiles and target mappings by solution area but no longer by technology. For legacy apps, there are now back-end catalogs (BEC) containing app descriptors. These are assignments of tiles and target mappings to transaction codes or Web Dynpro applications. Technical catalog roles (TCR) do no longer exist.
Business catalogs (BC) reference tiles and target mappings of technical catalogs (TC) and back-end catalogs (BEC) according to segregation of duty. Business catalog groups (BCG) now contain apps from various business catalogs (BC) merging a subtopic. Business roles (BR) replace business catalog roles (BCR) combining multiple business catalogs (BC) and business catalog groups (BCG) forming one topic.
The following are further explanations:
- Catalog
A set of apps you want to make available for one role. Depending on the role and the catalog assigned to the role, the user can browse through the catalog, choose apps from this catalog, and add them to the entry page of the SAP Fiori launchpad.
Technically, apps are represented by the following:
Tiles to launch the app.
Target mappings referencing the actual navigation targets.
- Group
A subset of the catalog that contains the apps visible on the SAP Fiori launchpad entry page. Which tiles are displayed on a user’s entry page depends on the group assigned to the user’s role. In addition, the user can personalize the entry page by adding or removing apps to predelivered groups or self-defined groups.
- Roles (PFCG)
Contains references to catalogs and groups and provides users with access to the apps in these groups and catalogs.
The entities delivered by SAP are divided into technical entities and business entities:
Technical catalogs and back-end catalogs contain apps per component.
Business catalogs, business catalog groups, and business roles contain apps for a specific role.
In the section SAP Fiori apps of the app-specific documentation, you find the catalogs, groups, and roles which are required for each of the SAP Fiori apps.
Entities in the SAP Fiori Launchpad
The following are explanations about entities in the SAP Fiori launchpad:
- Technical Catalog (TC)
- Technical catalogs contain all target mappings and app launcher tiles relevant for an application, for example, SD or SAP SRM. As an administrator, you can use them as a repository to create your own role-specific business catalogs.
- Business Catalog (BC)
Business catalogs contain a sample collection of target mappings and app launcher tiles relevant for a business role.
The content of the business catalog is a subset of the content of the technical catalog. This subset reflects the authorization requirements of a certain business user.
- Business Catalog Group (BCG)
Business catalog groups contain a set of applications from a business catalog that are displayed to a user by default on the entry page of the SAP Fiori launchpad. Users can adjust groups by adding or removing apps.
- Business Role (BR)
A business PFCG role contains references to business catalogs and business catalog groups. Once you—as an administrator—assign the business PFCG role to a user, the user sees the apps included in the business catalog group on the entry page of the SAP Fiori launchpad.
Through the business catalog referenced, users have access to further relevant role-specific apps. The user can select the apps from the catalog to make them available directly on the entry page.
The abbreviations in brackets behind the entities’ names are used as identifiers in the technical names of the actual object instances. For example, a Manager approval business role has the technical name SAP_FND_BC_MANAGER_T.
Use the technical catalogs delivered by SAP as repositories to create your own catalogs as an administrator. To display specific apps to a user by default in the entry page of the SAP Fiori launchpad, create a group. Then add apps from your catalog to the group.
Both the catalog and the group must be assigned to users. Do this by assigning groups and catalogs to users’ roles.
The business roles with the assigned catalogs and groups serve as examples based on which you can create your own business catalogs, groups, and roles.
