Understanding Rapid Activation

The figure, Dependencies of Entities, shows the dependencies between the following entities:

• The SAP Fiori UI entities define the SAP Fiori apps that are displayed to the user.
• The OData services retrieve the dynamic data to be displayed from the business logic for the SAP Fiori apps.
• The authorizations that are required to start and to use the business logic of the SAP Fiori apps. These authorizations are defined by the OData services.

A catalog is a set of apps that you want to make available and authorize for your users. The users can browse through the catalog, choose apps from the catalog, and add them to the entry page of their SAP Fiori launchpad.

Groups define the SAP Fiori launchpad entry page. The apps in the group are a subset of apps that are assigned to one or several catalogs. Which tiles are displayed on a user’s entry page depends on the catalogs and groups assigned to the user’s roles. If a group contains apps that are not assigned to the user by catalogs, the app is not displayed on the user’s entry page. In addition, if configured, the user can personalize the entry page by adding or removing apps to pre-delivered groups or self-defined groups.

Spaces and pages represent an alternative option to structure the layout of the home page of SAP Fiori launchpad compared to the group-based home page. The launchpad page is the central part of the launchpad, which structures the SAP Fiori launchpad content. Here, the users access all applications relevant to their business case. The apps can be SAP Fiori app or classic applications. A space is the unit that holds one or more pages. It is assigned to the user based on the work profile (user role). Users may see several spaces in their launchpad. The spaces are displayed in the navigation bar and if more than one page is available, a dropdown appears under the corresponding space and the user can navigate to a given page. In case there is only one page in a space, when clicking on the space, user gets directly to that page.

You can maintain these entities using the SAP Fiori launchpad content manager (catalogs only) or the SAP Fiori launchpad designer (catalogs and groups). SAP delivers technical catalogs which contain apps per application area. In addition, SAP delivers business catalogs and business groups as a sample collection of apps relevant for a business role.

More details on the data model is covered in the UX100 class. More details on the authorization concept in SAP Fiori is covered in the ADM945 class.

The following table outlines the elements that can be distinguished in the content model since SAP S/4HANA 2020:

Technical catalogs (TC) cut apps by solution area. TCs known as standard catalogs provide app descriptors consisting of tiles and target mappings for web applications like SAPUI5. TCs known as replicable or Back-End Catalogs (BEC) provide app descriptors for classic applications like ABAP transactions originating from back-end servers.

Business catalogs (BC) reference tiles and target mappings of TCs and BECs according to segregation of duty. Business catalog groups (BCG) contain apps from various business catalogs (BC), making a subtopic.

Business roles (BR) combine multiple BCs and BCGs in one topic. Spaces (SP) combine multiple pages (PG) in one topic, too. The space is then part of the BR of the same topic.

The aim of the rapid activation task lists is to help you get started exploring SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA as quickly as possible. This is particularly important in the early Explore phase of the SAP Activate methodology, where you are focused on understanding what apps have been delivered with your SAP S/4HANA system. This is the starting point for deciding which apps you will use, and how these apps fit your organization’s specific business processes and business users.

In the following, you will learn more about the individual steps of the rapid activation roadmap.

There are many sources of information around rapid activation for SAP Fiori – here are three good starting points:

• SAP Help Portal, section Rapid Activation of SAP Fiori at https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/22bbe89ef68b4d0e98d05f0d56a7f6c8/999528cc1c8844a899ec94b48b2940d4.html
• Blog series SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – New Rapid Content Activation by Jocelyn Dart (URL of part one is https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/sap-fiori-for-sap-s-4hana-new-rapid-content-activation-on-sap-s-4hana/ba-p/13418837)
• Blog series New Installation of SAP S/4HANA <release> – Part 4 – Rapid Activation for Fiori by Mahesh Sardesai (URL for SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 is https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blogs-by-sap/new-installation-of-sap-s-4hana-2023-fps1-part-4-rapid-activation-for-fiori/ba-p/13598500)

For SAP S/4HANA, different composite SAP Notes are available. You can find them in the overview SAP Note 2902673. When this course material was written, the following composite SAP Notes were available:

For SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02, for example, the proper composite SAP Note is 3469488. The figure shows the Reason and Prerequisites section of that SAP Note.

In the context of this learning offering, some of the requirements are already fulfilled in the training system:

• The product version of the training system is SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 or higher.
• The training system was deployed as embedded deployment.
• The SAP_ESH_INITIAL_SETUP_WRK_CLIENT task list was executed.
• The SAP_BW_SETUP_INITIAL_S4HANA task list was executed.
• SAP Web Dispatcher was installed and configured.

Task list SAP_GW_FIORI_ERP_ONE_CLNT_SETUP is for embedded deployments only. The task list consists of tasks for the SAP Gateway initial setup, SAP Fiori launchpad configuration, and OData service activation.

The task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 is supported for the following SAP S/4HANA releases:

• SAP S/4HANA 1809 FPS00 or higher
• SAP S/4HANA 1709 FPS01 or higher

Another requirement is that the SAP Fiori front-end server should be used with the Embedded deployment option. The task list does not support the Central Hub deployment option, that is, where there is a separate SAP Fiori front-end server (FES) system for SAP Fiori.

When you have the SAP Fiori Foundation in place, you use the SAP Fiori Content Activation task list to activate all the apps associated with your selected business roles. You can select one business roles, or activate multiple business roles together.

This task list is intended for sandbox systems. You can choose from SAP business roles (indicated by role name starting with SAP_BR). Optionally, you can also create test users with the generated SAP business roles.

This task list is intended for test systems. You can choose from all business roles (SAP and customer roles) with SAP Fiori catalogs assigned.

Similar to the task list for activation of SAP business roles and customer business roles, there is a task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CATALOG_ACTIVATION for activation of services on SAP Fiori catalog level. You use this task list to specify one or more customer or SAP-delivered business catalogs (in the scope definition step), and then, automatically activate SAP Gateway services and ICF nodes for these catalogs.

There is a blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Activating Apps by Business Catalog on task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CATALOG_ACTIVATION available at https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/sap-fiori-for-sap-s-4hana-activating-apps-by-business-catalog/ba-p/13571554.