What is SAP Fiori?
SAP Fiori is a next-generation UI design system from SAP that provides an intelligent user experience (UX) across all SAP products. It focuses on user interaction with SAP applications, moving away from traditional, function-driven, and complex interfaces, such as SAP GUI, to a role-based user experience.
At its core, SAP Fiori is not just a collection of beautiful UI screens. It is a design system built on tools, principles, and guidelines that define interaction patterns, visual language, and the overall UX of SAP applications. It provides a unified look and feel, regardless of the underlying system used.
Core Features of SAP Fiori
Core features of SAP Fiori work together and focus on the modern, intuitive, and efficient design of applications and user experience across all SAP applications and devices.
Simplified and harmonized user interfaces
Fiori provides simplified, harmonized user interfaces for SAP, replacing complex SAP GUI screens with a clean, task-focused visual design. It provides a consistent experience, featuring modern typography, clear icons, ample whitespace, and a user-friendly interface. Fiori enhances navigation with fewer clicks, ensuring uniformity across SAP modules and systems.
Role-based relevance & access
Fiori applications are role-based, shifting from transaction codes to user-specific information. This narrows content to relevant data, hiding unnecessary functions to simplify the UI and boost productivity. SAP security, via PFCG roles and catalogs, manages access to applications and data.
Responsive & adaptive design
SAP Fiori applications provide an optimal user experience across all devices with responsive design. They automatically adjust layout and elements for smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Fiori adapts presentation and functionality based on device features, offering touch interactions and higher data density on desktops.
Machine-learning augmentation (Fiori 3, Joule copilot)
SAP is integrating AI and machine learning to enhance user experience. SAP Fiori 3 features recommendations and insights in the UI, like suggestions for key business actions. Its generative AI copilot Joule, a conversational assistant, enables users to ask questions, trigger actions, automate workflows, and receive personalized data and suggestions based on business needs.
Design and Experience Pillars
- Simple: Applications are designed in more manageable, simple steps, following the 1-1-3 UX rule, which means that one user, one use case, and not more than three screens to achieve it, removing unnecessary clutter.
- Coherent: The visual language and interaction patterns are coherent in all SAP applications, which reduces the learning curve.
- Delightful: Applications are designed in an efficient way that users can enjoy, which leads to user satisfaction and enhanced productivity.
- Intelligent: SAP Fiori applications aim to build intelligent applications for users by displaying only relevant insights and recommendations. They often leverage AI-driven and machine learning features to detect user requirements and provide suggestions and workflows to reduce manual effort.
- Consistent: Fiori applications are consistently built to ensure a predictable and unified user experience across all SAP products, regardless of underlying business processes or systems, reducing errors and enhancing productivity.
- Integrated: SAP Fiori focuses on seamless integration between different SAP modules and third-party systems, ensuring the user’s movement between applications and smooth data flow.
- Collaborative: It provides tools for collaboration to easily share information, communicate the context of business processes, and collaborate on tasks for better teamwork and decision making.
Goal: Consumer-grade UX across SAP products
Providing a consumer-grade UX experience across SAP products is the goal of SAP Fiori, maintaining the same level of simplicity that users expect from popular web services, such as social media applications or personal mobile applications, to achieve user adoption, enhanced productivity, reduced training costs, and overall satisfaction.
Supported UI Technologies
SAP Fiori supports several key UI technologies to achieve its design and deployment scenarios.
SAPUI5 framework
The SAP user interface for HTML5 (SAPUI5) is the foundation framework for building Fiori applications. It is a JavaScript UI library for creating responsive, enterprise-grade web applications. It offers a set of UI controls, features for data binding, and support for the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which makes it a primary choice for Fiori app developers.
UI5 Web Components
UI5 Web Components are lightweight, reusable UI elements based on web component standards, allowing developers to incorporate Fiori-styled controls into any web application, regardless of the underlying framework (e.g., React, Vue.js, or Angular), thereby promoting the broader adoption of Fiori design.
Mobile SDKs for iOS & Android
SAP recognizes the importance of mobile experience, offering SDKs for Android and iOS that enable developers to build Fiori-compliant applications with seamless SAP system integration for improved performance. Fiori’s strength lies in its modern, intuitive design and consistent experience across platforms. It’s not just a set of apps but a flexible system supporting various technologies, including web, mobile, iOS, and Android. SAPUI5 is the main SDK for web-based Fiori apps across all devices, while native SDKs for iOS and Android follow Apple’s and Google’s design guidelines, respectively, integrating Fiori’s principles.
SAP Fiori Benefits
SAP Fiori goes beyond a simple visual refresh, delivering a significant value proposition to organizations seeking to enhance their user experience, accessibility, development efficiency, and digital transformation.
Consumer-grade UX on any device
With the ultimate goal of SAP Fiori to provide a consumer-grade user experience across all SAP products, it delivers a consistent user experience across various device types, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Its simple, intuitive, responsive, and user-friendly design increases the adoption rate, improving overall productivity and enabling users to access business functions anytime and anywhere, thereby employing a true mobile workforce.
Low-code, rapid app development & customization
SAP Fiori enables organizations to rapidly develop and customize low-code applications by providing tools such as the SAPUI5 framework, which includes pre-built UI controls and development tools for quick app creation.
- Fiori elements is another framework that offers predefined templates and floorplans to automatically generate UIs based on OData services, thereby reducing manual coding requirements.
- SAP Build is another Low-Code/No-Code set of tools that further reduces app development efforts. It allows business users or citizen developers to build and extend Fiori apps in SAP with minimal or no coding.
Accessibility Boost via SAP’s “72” Typeface
Accessibility enhancement is another key value of SAP Fiori.
SAP’s award-winning “72” proprietary typeface is a font specifically designed for SAP Fiori, providing a modern and clean interface that enhances accessibility and readability across various applications, devices, and screen resolutions. It is aligned with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and enables organizations to comply with accessibility regulations.
Workflow Redefinition for Digital Transformation & AI
Fiori not only enhances existing processes and UI but also provides a reimagining of business workflows and digital transformation by offering a clean, simple, and role-based interface that encourages users to adopt new digital ways of working. It also streamlines the processes by reducing unnecessary steps and information presentation. Fiori also integrates SAP’s intelligent enterprise features, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, which enable the automation of tasks, provide predictive analytics, and offer proactive insights.
Fiori Design System and Resources
SAP Fiori offers an extensive design system with a wealth of resources, enabling developers and designers to build high-quality, user-friendly applications throughout the entire design and development lifecycle.
SAP Fiori Design System: Templates, Components, Patterns
SAP Fiori core design system consists of templates, components, and patterns.
Templates (Floorplans)
Floorplans are predefined page layouts that provide a standard structure for common business scenarios or application types. The List Report, Object Page, Worklist, Overview Page, and Analytical List Page are the predefined floorplans that SAP Fiori offers, which can be further customized to meet specific business requirements. Additionally, developers can create a freestyle SAPUI5-based app from scratch for enhanced flexibility.
Components (UI Elements)
Components are reusable individual controls, such as input fields, tables, buttons, cards, or charts, that are aligned with Fiori’s visual interaction guidelines and designed for accessibility, usability, and responsiveness. This ensures a consistent look and feel across applications. These predefined controls can contribute to increased development time and design consistency.
Patterns
Patterns in the Fiori design system define how multiple components are combined to solve specific user interaction issues. For example, a Filter Bar pattern dictates how search fields, filter options, and value help can be arranged and behave, or a list report pattern dictates how items can be displayed, sorted, and filtered. These patterns offer best practices for common UI challenges.
SAP Design System Portal and “What’s New” Hub
The SAP Design System portal is an online central platform for developers, designers, and product owners, providing access to all Fiori design resources. These resources include detailed documentation on Fiori design principles, standards, components, and pattern libraries, as well as UI elements. It also provides platform-specific sections, such as Fiori for web, iOS, and Android, as well as documentation on how to customize Fiori themes for a fresh and modern visual experience. The “What’s New” hub within the SAP design system portal keeps developers and designers updated on the latest enhancements, including new features, changes to the Fiori design system, and new standards.
UI Kits (Figma), Icon Explorer, Mentor app, Theme Designer
SAP provides a set of tools to facilitate the development and design process, such as UI kits on Figma, a cloud-based prototyping and design tool used for creating and testing web-based and mobile-based user interfaces for applications. This makes it a popular choice for product managers, developers, and UI/UX designers.
These kits can be used to create prototypes and mockups for Fiori applications. They provide tools like Icon Explorer, which enables designers to search and use the extensive SAP Fiori icon library. This kit also includes the Mentor app, which offers insights into the behavior of SAP Fiori components and patterns on mobile devices, acting as a quality assurance tool.
An SAP Theme Designer that enables designers to customize the visual appearance of Fiori applications to match their corporate branding, e.g., color schemes, fonts, and other visual UI elements, to create unique themes while still aligning with Fiori’s design principles.
Figure 1: Figma UI Designer
User-research & Design Thinking Communities
SAP encourages communities to engage in user research and design thinking by gathering feedback and understanding user requirements, enabling them to participate in research and future Fiori designs.
SAP also has its community, which provides a collaborative environment where developers and designers can share their prototyping and feedback loops, learn from each other, share best practices, and contribute to the evolution of the SAP Fiori user experience.
Fiori Development Approaches and Tools
SAP offers various development approaches and tools for developers to select from, enabling them to build customized applications tailored to their business needs, UX consistency, and specific requirements.
SAP Fiori Elements: Efficiency & UX Consistency
SAP Fiori elements is a framework that provides predefined UI templates, called floorplans, to automatically build Fiori applications, reducing manual coding needs and enabling developers to focus on data modeling and business logic instead of extensive coding. It uses OData services and metadata to create applications.
Floorplans
Floorplans are a template-driven approach that offers several benefits.
Below are the key floor plans provided by SAP Fiori Elements:
- Analytical List Page: A powerful data-driven floorplan combines transaction processing with analytical capabilities to allow users to gain insight, such as KPIs, using charts and smart filters from the data. Users can then drill down to individual items and perform further actions.
- List Report: A classic entry point floorplan shows a collection of items in list format, such as a list of business objects, e.g., sales orders or purchase requisitions. Users can then sort, filter, and navigate item details to view and manage them.
- Object Page: Provides a business object’s detailed view on a single page with all the relevant information, usually containing sections, sub-sections, forms, and tables to display information.
- Overview Page: Provides a high-level overview with key information such as a user’s specific responsibilities, roles, or business area. It utilizes cards to display information from multiple sources.
- Worklist: Shows a list of items or tasks that may require action from the user. Users can quickly process items with minimal navigation, making it ideal for scenarios such as pending items, tasks, or requests.
Freestyle App Development with Fiori Design Guidelines
Although Fiori elements floorplans provide standard, pre-defined UI templates for known use cases, there may be specific, complex business requirements that cannot be achieved using these floorplans. Developers can meet these requirements by building applications from scratch, strictly adhering to Fiori design guidelines using the SAPUI5 framework. This approach is called Freestyle App Development. This development approach can be challenging, requires more effort and coding, but provides maximum flexibility and control over page layouts, custom logic, or complex interactions. Developers can use custom controls or third-party libraries for their proof-of-concept applications.
Tooling Accelerators: SAP Fiori Tools, SAP Web IDE, SAP UI5
SAP provides a rich set of tooling accelerators to support both Freestyle app development and Fiori elements, thereby boosting developer productivity.
Tools include:
- project wizards for quickly setting up any project.
- page editors for application configuration,
- step-by-step guides for using features and functions,
- preview tools for viewing applications,
- deployment tools, among others.
SAP also provides integrated development environments, such as SAP Web IDE, which was initially a primary cloud-based tool for developing Fiori apps. Although still used in many projects, it has been surpassed by SAP Business Application Studio, which offers project templates, code editors, and deployment features.
SAP User interface for HTML5 (SAPUI5) is a UI framework for JavaScript, providing a set of tools, e.g., reusable UI controls, data binding, and architectural models like MVC.
SAP Fiori Launchpad
SAP Fiori Launchpad serves as the central entry point for all applications within an organization, providing a personalized, role-based homepage for users.
Tiles, groups, App Finder, “Me Area”
Fiori launchpad is a shell that hosts apps, core navigation, search services, and personalization, comprised of several key components and features such as:
- Tiles: Tiles represent business objects and applications, display live data, e.g., KPIs or number of open tasks and requests. Users can personalize these tiles by adding, removing, or rearranging them according to their specific requirements.
- Groups: Users can organize their tiles into groups to personalize their launchpad, such as My Work, Master Data, Daily Tasks, Monthly Reports, or Analytics groups.
- App Finder: A centralized tile catalog for all available Fiori applications, which users can search if they have access according to their assigned roles and can add to their homepage.
- Me Area: Critical feature in the user profile section, which provides quick access to personal settings, recently used apps, and activities, acting as a sort of individual preferences for quick navigation.
Target mapping & shell header bar
Target mapping and shell header bar are technical and design elements.
Target mapping defines backend configurations and application mapping for the Fiori launchpad, including object and action mapping to applications or navigation targets, such as linking tiles to their respective applications for technical implementation.
The Shell Header bar is a section in Fiori Launchpad that is always visible at the top of the page. It provides global access to cross-application functions, such as the Home Icon, which brings the user back to Launchpad, a page title of the current application or page serving as a navigational menu, enterprise search, the Joule Copilot icon, a notifications button, the Me Area, a product switcher, and a back button.
Figure 2 Shell Header Bar
Application Types
SAP Fiori applications are categorized into three main types, each designed to meet the specific business scenarios and user requirements.
Transactional Apps (Create, Change, Approve)
Transactional apps are designed for specific business-focused tasks, such as enabling users to create, change, approve, or submit business processes and documents, e.g., workflow initiation, data entry, or process execution. Examples include creating sales orders, approving purchases, changing master data, posting goods issues, or requesting travel expenses.
Fact Sheet Apps (360° Object View)
Fact Sheet applications provide a comprehensive 360-degree view of a business object, such as a customer, supplier, sales order, or product, offering users all relevant information related to that object. This view aggregates object data from various SAP sources. Primarily used for displaying consolidated information on a single entity with navigational and drill-down capabilities. Examples are:
- customer fact sheets, such as sales history, contacts, or open items;
- product fact sheets with stock levels, procurement information, or sales data;
- a sales order fact sheet with sales order details, status, items, delivery information, and related documents.
Analytical Apps (Real-Time KPI Insight)
Analytical apps provide real-time key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable users to monitor, analyze, and navigate business data, focusing on actionable insights via visualization and reporting, using charts, graphs, or tables. It enables users to access the most up-to-date information, with filtering and drill-down features. Examples include open sales orders, procurement overview, cash flow analyzer, and sales order fulfillment analysis.
Fiori Development Technology Stack
An intuitive Fiori application interface is only part of the equation if the backend isn’t secure and efficient, particularly for systems based on SAP S/4HANA, which depends on a technology stack acting as the bridge between the backend and the modern Fiori UI.
ABAP Programming Model for SAP Fiori (CDS, BOPF)
Core ABAP programming models are widely used for building Fiori applications, typically in conjunction with SAP Business Suite and early versions of S/4HANA.
Core Data Services (CDS) views are not just simple database views, they are modern and efficient data modeling infrastructure in the ABAP layer that enables developers to define rich data models directly in the ABAP layer, providing the OData services for defining data structure, relationships and calculated fields directly from database layer, reducing the need of extensive ABAP coding.
The Business Object Processing Framework (BOPF) is an ABAP-based framework for Fiori that handles everyday object-related concerns, such as transaction management, data consistency, authorization, and validation checks, using a consistent API. BOPF is often used as the underlying business logic layer between Fiori UIs and OData services for implementing business rules and manipulating data.
ABAP RESTful Programming Model (EML, cloud-ready)
The ABAP RESTful Programming (RAP) model is an evolution of the ABAP Programming model. It is recommended for developing cloud-ready OData services for Fiori applications on SAP S/4HANA, in both cloud and on-premises environments. RAP focuses on building RESTful services on a “code-push-down” approach, promoting as much logic execution as possible directly on database layers using CDS.
Entity Manipulation Language (EML) is a new ABAP syntax within RAP that allows developers to interact with underlying business objects, providing a standardized way to perform create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on data. Fiori applications consume OData services generated by RAP directly. When combined with Fiori Elements, RAP offers powerful CDS annotations, enabling highly customizable and efficient Fiori applications with reduced manual coding.
SAP Gateway and OData services
SAP Gateway is the technology that enables developers to create connections between SAP backend systems and external applications, including mobile applications, third-party applications, and SAP Fiori UIs, using OData services.
SAP Gateway is a central hub that handles authentication, authorization, routing, and OData services exposure.
The Fiori interface sends OData requests using methods like GET to read, POST for creation, PUT/PATCH for updating, and DELETE for deletion to the SAP Gateway. The gateway then translates these requests into calls to the ABAP system, and the data is returned to the Fiori frontend in a standard OData format, such as JSON or XML.
SAP HANA XS and KPI modeling
SAP HANA Extended Application Services (XS) is an application server integrated within the SAP HANA database. HANA XS Classic was used for application development directly on the HANA database, enabling developers to expose OData services directly from HANA for analytical purposes.
HANA XS Advanced (XSA) is a modern, cloud-native platform based on Cloud Foundry, allowing developers to build and deploy microservices and applications in multiple languages, including Node.js, Java, and Python.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) modeling is a method for defining and visualizing critical metrics that measure the performance of a business process or object.
Fiori analytical applications leverage HANA’s analytical features and CDS views, utilizing SAP Smart Business Service for modeling and exposing KPIs to Fiori Elements floorplans, such as the Analytical List page and Overview Page, with real-time visualization and insights for users. These efficient KPIs are the direct benefit of the SAP HANA database.
SAP Fiori Architecture and Deployment
SAP Fiori architecture and deployment vary depending on the organization’s environment, e.g., whether they are running SAP on-premises, in a private cloud, or using SAP’s public cloud solutions; however, the ultimate goal is to achieve a consistent Fiori user experience.
On-premises ABAP front-end server components
Fiori architecture involves a dedicated ABAP Front-end server (FES) for on-premises SAP and private cloud landscapes such as SAP ECC, SAP Business Suite, or SAP S/4HANA on-premises. For smaller organizations and specific development scenarios, FES components such as SAP Gateway, UI add-ons (e.g., SAPUI5), and the Fiori Launchpad can be installed on the same backend server, known as embedded deployment. This approach provides simplicity, reduced maintenance, and latency.
The other approach is called hub deployment, which means that the frontend server, including SAP Gateway, UI5, and Fiori Launchpad, is installed on a separate ABAP application server. This approach is recommended for larger and more complex on-premises environments with multiple backend servers. Hub deployment offers the benefits of independent upgrades and maintenance for FES and BES, increased security since BES is not directly exposed to the internet, and improved scalability.
Cloud Products (S/4HANA Cloud, SuccessFactors, Ariba) – ABAP-free UI Layer
SAP cloud products are designed with a different approach for their user interfaces. Cloud solutions, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, or SAP Ariba, utilize the Fiori UI layer, which is directly integrated into the cloud service and does not require the installation, configuration, and maintenance of a separate frontend server, thereby providing an ABAP-free UI layer. These services are provided to customers using SAPUI5 and Fiori Launchpad, along with backend services implemented as a microservices architecture, which SAP manages as part of its cloud offering. Fiori UIs are directly accessible to users through web browsers, and the entire backend stack, including UI-to-database interaction, is managed by SAP’s cloud infrastructure, simplifying operations.
Migration path: SAP GUI to SAP Fiori Launchpad
The migration path for organizations transitioning from old SAP systems involves moving users away from the traditional SAP GUI to the modern SAP Fiori Launchpad. The SAP GUI is a traditional desktop-based client for interacting with legacy SAP ECC systems or older S/4HANA versions, which are known for being complex, less responsive, and less intuitive.
SAP Fiori, on the other hand, serves as the future UX for all SAP solutions. The Fiori Launchpad serves as a single point of entry for all applications, whether they are Web Dynpro-based ABAP applications, Fiori apps, or classic SAP GUI for HTML.
Migration involves several phases, such as:
- Introducing Fiori Launchpad to users as the primary entry point.
- Enabling key Fiori apps for critical business processes to cover the existing functionalities.
- Integrating existing Web Dynpro-based ABAP applications and frequently used transactions of SAP GUI into Fiori Launchpad.
- Developing new custom Fiori apps for custom business processes that are not covered by Fiori Elements floorplans.
- Gradually reducing users’ reliance on SAP GUI client as more functions and processes are covered by Fiori.
Out-of-the-box Fiori in S/4HANA Cloud. Elective Adoption for Private-cloud/on-premises
The SAP Fiori adoption strategy varies depending on the deployment models of SAP S/4HANA.
Fiori is the standard and mandatory user experience in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud for all interactions via the Fiori Launchpad, with no SAP GUI available in the public cloud.
On the other hand, the adoption of Fiori is optional for SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud and on-premises deployments, although it provides complete control and is strongly recommended. Customers can continue using SAP GUI for flexibility alongside Fiori, rolling out Fiori in a phased approach by developing new and customized business processes related to Fiori apps. They can coexist with SAP GUI and Fiori Launchpad until they gradually or fully transition to the new landscape.
SAP Fiori History, Roadmaps and UX Updates
SAP Fiori is not static, but a continuously evolving UX design system, with significant milestones, strategic roadmaps, and regular updates that integrate AI and ML technologies for enhanced collaboration.
Release milestones
The evolution of SAP Fiori can be understood through its major version releases and key milestones.
2013 – Fiori 1.0 (mobile-first, 25 apps)
SAP Fiori version 1.0 was introduced in 2013, focusing on a mobile-first strategy to simplify and provide responsiveness for everyday business tasks. Initially launched with a limited set of 25 transactional apps, such as approving requests or viewing sales orders, it directly addressed the most frequently used user interactions.
2016 – Fiori 2.0 (enhanced navigation, notifications)
SAP Fiori version 2.0 was released in 2016, following the success of Fiori 1.0, with a significantly extended design. This included enhanced navigation, a more flexible Fiori Launchpad with improved personalization features, a notifications area, a Me Area, and new floorplans, such as the Overview Page.
2019 – Fiori 3 (Quartz & Horizon themes, ML)
SAP Fiori version 3.0 was released in 2019, marking a significant shift towards a unified Fiori UX across all SAP products. This version introduced features such as modern Quartz and Horizon themes, machine learning integration for proactive insights and recommendations within the UI, and a redesigned and simplified Shell Header Bar for global navigation.
Growth to 15,000 + apps
Launched with only 25 apps, SAP Fiori has since then experienced exponential growth. The SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library now showcases more than 15,000 Fiori apps across various SAP products, enabling almost every business line and industry to leverage standard transactional apps, analytical apps, and fact sheet apps, demonstrating the expansion of the Fiori design system.
Quarterly UX update series (e.g., Q1 2025)
SAP is continuously evolving Fiori and related UX services, introducing new features, design guideline updates, tool improvements, and integration with latest technologies.
SAP now provides quarterly UX updates via community blog posts and webinars, rather than waiting for major, multi-year releases, such as the Q1 2025 update.
Central UX services (AI, Joule)
The first couple of blogs in SAP’s quarterly UX update series focus on Central UX services, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence.
AI is directly embedded into Fiori apps, providing predictive analytics, automated insights, best action recommendations, and intelligent process automation.
The blog post also discusses SAP’s generative AI copilot called Joule, its improvement and integration in SAP’s enterprise solutions, and accessibility from within the Fiori Launchpad. Joule allows users to interact with it using natural language, ask questions, automate tasks, generate reports and cards, and retrieve data from cross-functional apps. For further information, please use the link below to access the AI and Joule-related SAP blog post.
Line-of-business focus
SAP’s quarterly UX update blog post series also discusses further enhancements and innovations in line-of-business industries, such as ERP, HR, spend management, sales, analytics, and platform, as well as UI Design and technology for web and mobile.
For further information, please refer to the links below.
- ERP: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2502 and SAP Fiori launchpad (AI, Joule and More).
- HR: SAP SuccessFactors (AI, Joule and More).
- Spend: SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass.
- Selling: SAP Customer Experience and SAP Industry Cloud – Retail.
- Analytics and Platform: SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform.
- UI Design and Technology for web and mobile.
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA
SAP Fiori is not an option as an add-on. It is the only way to leverage the full range of innovations, simplified processes, and intelligent technologies. It is the cornerstone for the user experience that SAP S/4HANA provides.
Getting started in new & existing S/4HANA systems
As discussed earlier, the implementation approach for SAP Fiori depends on the deployment approach of S/4HANA, such as private cloud, on-premises, or public cloud, as well as the migration approach.
In new S/4HANA deployments, also known as the Greenfield approach, where everything is built from the ground up, Fiori is the default and out-of-the-box UX, aligned with business roles. Users see the Fiori Launchpad and Fiori apps UI, which is focused on business roles and displays relevant Fiori catalogs and groups.
Existing S/4HANA environments migrating to new S/4HANA, as well as the migration from existing ECC to S/4HANA, also known as the Brownfield or system conversion approach, require an elective and gradual Fiori adoption process in phases, with coexistence with SAP GUI until the full transition is complete.
Change management processes are necessary for users’ training on the Fiori interface, moving them away from complex and cluttered SAP GUI screens.
“My Home” & release cadence (S/4HANA 2023 FPS01/FPS02)
SAP Fiori for S/4HANA is continuously evolving and enhancing via its modern release cadence. The new product page has introduced the “My Home” home page in Fiori Launchpad, which is a more personalized, dynamic, and intelligent central and initial point for users. It not only lacks tiles and groups but also introduces new sections, including “To-Dos” for workflows and tasks, quick access to recently used pages, a “Favorite” section for adding the most frequently used apps, and Insights and News sections.
SAP has introduced “My Home” in the SAP S/4HANA 2023 release, which features an annual release frequency of newer versions for SAP environments. SAP provides Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) within each yearly release, which are updated quarterly or semi-annually, focusing on delivering new functionalities, features, innovations, and enhancements. For example, SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 was the first feature pack, followed by FPS02 and subsequent releases, each introducing new improvements and updates related to Fiori Launchpad and Fiori apps.
Related SAP Technologies
SAP Fiori applications often require interaction with other SAP technologies to enhance deployment, functionality, the overall user experience, and backend business logic.
Following SAP Fiori supports SAP technologies.
BOPF (Business Object Processing Framework)
As mentioned earlier, the Business Object Processing Framework (BOPF) is an ABAP object-oriented framework that provides standard methods for defining and handling objects and their lifecycle, including create, read, update, or delete (CRUD) operations, as well as actions, determinations, and validation checks. BOPF is frequently used as the business logic layer for SAP Fiori applications, SAP Business Suite and earlier versions of S/4HANA. Now that the ABAP RESTful Application Programming (RAP) model is recommended, BOPF understanding remains relevant for Fiori applications still in use by organizations.
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
The SAP Business Technology Platform is a comprehensive development platform that enables organizations to integrate and extend SAP applications. It allows the creation and deployment of custom Fiori applications in both cloud and on-premises environments, utilizing SAP Business Application Studio, an IDE for developing Fiori applications. SAP BTP can be used to extend standard S/4HANA Fiori functionalities or to integrate Fiori apps with non-SAP systems using the SAP Integration Suite. SAP Build Process Automation can be used for process automation, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities.
SAP Enterprise Portal & SAP Fiori Client
SAP Enterprise Portal was historically the primary web-based entry point for integrating different SAP and non-SAP applications, providing a unique desktop experience that enabled users to access information and various systems from a single browser interface. As Fiori Launchpad is the future of SAP UIs, SAP Enterprise Portal serves as a container for Fiori content.
SAP Fiori Client, on the other hand, is a mobile application for iOS and Android that runs web-based Fiori applications on mobile devices, providing access to features such as GPS, barcode scanner, camera, or push notification capabilities.
SAP Screen Personas
It is a solution that enables organizations to simplify and personalize classic SAP GUI screens without requiring custom code. This allows users to create customized versions of existing SAP GUI transactions by removing unwanted fields, merging multiple screens into a single one, and automating repetitive tasks with scripting.
Screen Personas complement SAP Fiori, such as brownfield migrations to S/4HANA, which can utilize them to create highly customized SAP GUI transactions, bridging the gap for legacy processes and providing a more consistent user experience.
SAP Web Dispatcher
SAP Web Dispatcher is a software HTTP/HTTPS reverse proxy and load balancer that can be used with one or more SAP application servers, acting as an entry point for all HTTP/HTTPS traffic. The entry point URL of SAP Fiori Launchpad is provided by SAP Web Dispatcher for end users, distributing incoming requests across multiple Frontend or Backend servers to ensure high availability and optimized performance. Acting as a proxy, it protects SAP systems from direct external access by handling SSL termination, filtering requests, and authentication management. It also provides request routing to the correct backend system and can filter and rewrite URLs for simplification and masking internal system details.
SAP Fiori Additional Resources
SAP offers a comprehensive suite of resources, an active community, and robust support services to help partners and customers explore, implement, and tailor Fiori solutions.
SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library & product tours
The SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library is a publicly available online repository that allows users to browse Fiori applications by criteria, industry, line of business, and SAP products. It provides detailed information for each application, including its value, technical prerequisites, installation, and configuration steps.
SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library
SAP offers interactive product tours with guided walkthroughs of Fiori applications and functions, allowing users to experience Fiori UX without a live system. This is particularly useful for gaining an initial understanding and exploring Fiori features and capabilities.
SAP Community topics & AppHaus network
The SAP Community is an online platform where SAP experts, developers, and users can connect and share knowledge. The SAP Fiori dedicated topic page serves as a central hub for questions, answers, discussions, and blogs related to Fiori. The platform also utilizes forums for troubleshooting, updates, and best practices.
SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Topic Page
SAP AppHaus Network is a global SAP community dedicated to innovation spaces, design thinking methodology, and helping customers create prototype solutions and user-centric Fiori applications. It provides a collaborative environment and workshops where customers can work with SAP design and development experts.
Services – consulting, best practices, custom development
SAP and its partners offer a comprehensive range of services to support Fiori adoption, including consulting services for optimization and defining a Fiori roadmap, identifying relevant apps, and planning for overall UX transformation, along with best practices and extensive documentation for custom development.
Support: Long-term plans, embedded teams, self-service portal
SAP provides comprehensive support for Fiori, including long-term stability and ongoing assistance, as well as product roadmaps, to ensure continued support and maintenance for Fiori components. Additionally, SAP has embedded support teams for critical or large-scale projects. SAP provides a self-service support portal for knowledge base, incident management, tools, and release information.
SAP S/4HANA Support Through 2040
Learning assets: Blogs, books (SAP PRESS), videos
SAP offers a range of learning resources for Fiori, including Blogs, SAP Press Books, and Video Learning Content via its official YouTube channels and those of other SAP experts.
Blogs
The SAP community and other SAP-related websites offer blogs written by SAP product managers, developers, users, and consultants, covering a range of topics from basic to advanced Fiori concepts, including development techniques, feature updates, and troubleshooting tips.
Books
SAP offers a wide range of books on SAP Fiori via their official publisher, SAP Press, covering design guidelines, in-depth structured learning for SAPUI5 development, Fiori Launchpad administration, Fiori Elements, and S/4HANA UX.
Videos
SAP’s official YouTube channels, such as “SAP” and “SAP Developers,” regularly publish video tutorials, presentations, and demos on Fiori. OpenSAP is an online platform that offers free courses on Fiori design, development, and implementation. Additionally, numerous SAP experts offer their video tutorials on YouTube.
Watch Videos on SAP Fiori Design
Future Outlook
The SAP Fiori evolution is far from over, and its future is closely tied to major technologies shaping the enterprise software landscape. SAP has a broader strategy of an Intelligent Enterprise, which involves increasing the prominence of Artificial Intelligence in its applications, making the user experience more efficient, proactive, and intuitive for both developers and end-users.
Generative-AI-based development tools
SAP is heavily investing in embedding generative AI in its development tools, considering it an impactful area for Fiori’s future. SAP has already integrated its AI copilot, Joule, into user interfaces for user interactions and information-related tasks. Additionally, it plans to integrate Joule directly into development processes to increase app creation and productivity.
Natural language prompts can be used to generate code, snippets, or even entire Fiori Elements applications. It can be used to design data models, such as CDS views, by suggesting fields, annotations, and relationships based on business requirements. Testing can be automated using predefined scripts, and AI can be utilized for troubleshooting and providing debugging suggestions to resolve problems.
AI-assisted generators are already being incorporated into Fiori tools for application mockups and requirements. The aim is to enable citizen developers, such as business users with limited coding knowledge, to build simple Fiori applications or extend existing ones with the aid of AI.
Continuous design-system enhancements & co-innovation opportunities
SAP Fiori design system will be continuously receiving enhancements such as design guidelines, UX research and new features e.g. themes like Quartz and Horizon will evolve with global design trends, new floorplans and patterns will be introduced in Fiori Elements to fill the gap, with the AI already integrated into UX and its improvement, apps will become more intelligent and provide more proactive information and context aware help, user home pages will be more highly personalized. SAP emphasizes co-innovation and collaboration.
Fiori offers an in-app collaboration manager that facilitates seamless communication, task assignment, and documentation across different teams within Fiori applications. This feature will be expanded in the future to provide integration with external collaboration platforms, such as Microsoft Teams or Slack. SAP has already provided co-innovation platforms to customers and partners for development and design thinking, such as AppHaus Network, and will continue to enhance this ecosystem with the latest Fiori guidelines, tools, and AI features to drive further innovation.
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