Introducing SAP Fiori Catalog and Navigation Administration

In the On-Premise edition, when considering applications’ usage, architecture, and configuration, there are three types of SAP S/S4HANA applications:

1. Legacy apps are Web Dynpro and GUI for HTML Applications. They are not mobile-enabled but provide an SAP Fiori look and feel. Depending on their use case, these apps have different subtypes.
2. SAP Fiori Search is part of the SAP Fiori Launchpad and provides contextual search.
3. SAP Fiori SAPU15 apps such as Transactional Apps, Analytical Apps, and Object Pages also have their user interface deployed on the Front-End Server. It is not part of the central UI software component but needs specific product UI add-ons. Multiple apps for the same user group/industry are bundled into one product UI add-on (for example, HCM). All SAP Fiori apps and the SAP Fiori Launchpad use OData as the protocol for data transfer. The SAP Fiori Launchpad has several OData services that are called to run the SAP Fiori Launchpad and provide data such as groups, tiles, and personalization. OData service provisioning is done by the SAP Gateway Foundation (SAP_GWFND).

To call the user interface of SAPUI5 applications, the product UI from the Front-End Server must be called via HTTP / HTTPS.

SAP Fiori SAPUI5 apps have well-defined user interfaces and work with business data from the SAP S/4HANA Backend Server. The business data is transferred via the OData protocol. The OData service is, usually, part of the S/4HANA ABAP Stack (Backend Server). These OData services are registered on the Front-End Server via a trusted RFC ABAP Connection.

An SAP Fiori user needs an ABAP user on the Front-End and Backend Server with different authorizations.

SAP legacy apps such as Web Dynpro or GUI for HTML apps need an HTTP/HTTPS connection directly to the Backend Server. The predelivered Tiles, Spaces, Groups, and Catalogs are shipped with the product UI and accessed via HTTP/HTTPS or shipped via remote catalogs and groups on the S/4HANA Backend Server.

As discussed in the previous unit, standard SAP GUI transactions are called using either a role menu or directly via the transaction code window on the standard GUI screen. The transaction code is mapped directly to the corresponding program using transaction SE93 on the Backend Server.

The PFCG role contains the program's start authorization and required data access authorizations. Transaction SU24 maps the backend data access authorizations to the transaction code included in the role menu.

With SAP Fiori apps, access to the Back-End Server data occurs similarly. Fiori Catalogs and Fiori Spaces or Groups determine access to the SAP Fiori Launchpad and specific Fiori Tiles. In the SAP Fiori Launchpad, the tiles available to a user are displayed in a Space or Group. These Spaces or Groups are maintained on the Front-End Server. The tile definition and the specific target mappings that point to implementing each SAP Fiori app contain the Fiori catalog.

For a user to access a specific Fiori app, the user must have a PFCG role on the Front-End Server, which contains both:

• A Fiori Space or Group assignment containing the specific tiles assigned to the user.
• A Fiori Catalog assignment containing the specific tiles in the assigned Fiori Space/Page or Group.

In other words, the user needs the Front-End Space and Catalog assignments for the start authorizations and visibility of the tiles in the SAP Fiori Launchpad. Authorization is also required on the Backend Server to access the specific objects and data the Fiori app calls.

Administrators use the SAP Fiori Launchpad content manager to browse Launchpad content and to set up business catalogs according to their needs.

The SAP Fiori launchpad content manager lets you make system-wide or client-specific changes. System-wide changes are stored in the configuration scope, and client-specific modifications are stored in the customizing scope.

Depending on the scope of your changes, use the SAP Fiori app in the launchpad or one of the following transactions in SAP GUI:

• The client-specific customizing layer is addressed via the transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CUST.
• The configuration layer is addressed via the transaction /UI2/FLPCM_CONF and is cross-client.

SAP delivers predefined catalogs. The technical catalog, marked with the ID *_TC_" prefix, defines the tile and target mapping. SAP also provides samples and ready-to-use business catalogs as recommendations, marked with the ID *_BC_* prefix.

On-Premise and Private Cloud customers can define their catalogs by copying the tiles and target mappings from one of the SAP catalogs.

After this lesson, you can describe the basic SAP Fiori Architecture with SAP S/4HANA.