In this short article, I would like to show how to configure SAP S/4HANA so that you can launch Create Maintenance Request (Fiori app) from within Asset Viewer (WebDynpro app). We use transaction LPD_CUST for configuration; as such, the information in this article pertains to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition as well as the on-premise system of SAP S/4HANA.

This article is motivated by the question that Maico Bosch asked in my recent article on 2022 release highlights of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition and SAP S/4HANA. Maico, thank you for asking the question.

Here is a 10-second demonstration of the result of the configuration I will describe below. As an aside, I am using the new Horizon theme, which is currently preview-only for the 2022 release (as of 2022-12-08).

Customizing Steps

Customizing steps are simple:

1. Go to transaction LPD_CUST
2. Find the entry in the table below, and double-click on it (Figure 1)
3. Create a new application by clicking on the “New Application” button and provide requisite parameters (Figure 2 and Figure 3)

Figure 1. Transaction LPD_CUST: Overview of Launchpads

Figure 2. Adding a New Application

Figure 3. Parameter Detail

All the values should be visible in the images above, except this one:

This is it. You save the added application and refresh the browser for Asset Viewer. You will see your newly added application in the drop-down menu as I demonstrate in the video above.

Please note that in this demonstration I am not passing the ID of the technical object I select in Asset Viewer. I am getting the indication that this should be possible by passing the correct parameters, but that’s out of the scope of this article. If someone already knows how to do this and could share their knowledge, that would be immensely appreciated.

Reference and More Technical Detail

How this customizing technically works is described in detail in EAM Web UI Implementation Guide, especially Chapter 6 on Object-Based Navigation and Launchpads. I thank my colleagues Melanie Kleber and Sagarika Mitra for helping me out on the configuration detail in this article (but any error is mine).

The configuration uses Object-Based Navigation. The interesting element is that it can be used for Fiori applications — this fact might be new to many in the community. I will be honest: I did not know. Again, as an aside, I believe this is the part relevant for OBN and Fiori apps in the linked on-line documentation above — if I misunderstood how this worked, I’d appreciate it if someone corrects me. I will happily update this part.

If running inside of an FLP shell, the navigation can be automatically switched to a generic intent-based FLP navigation if the target application type supports a generic intent (i.e. Web Dynpro ABAP) in customizing the setting parameter MAP_LEGACY_TO_IBN is switched on and the user has as a prerequisite a generic intent assigned. For further details, see Legacy Navigation to IBN.