Note: this blog was updated January 2021!
This blog provides you with important information you should know about SAP Enterprise Portal on NetWeaver 7.5. It will also be updated by me when new interesting information is available.
In general SAP NetWeaver 7.5 is available since October, 2015. You can visit this blog as landing page to be the central place to point to new and relevant content.
Concerning SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5,it is recommended byus (Enterprise Portal Product management team)as the new go-to-release for on-premisecustomers byleveraging latest enhancements and improvements of the SAP NetWeaver stack. SAP Fiori is theleading user experience in SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 allowing customers to easily adopt a simplified SAP Fiori experience and renovate their application portal as a modern user centric entry point. Customers can also benefit from easy integration and consumption of SAP applications and of SAP S/4HANA apps via wizard and pre-configured content packages.
News
- The mainstream maintenance of NW 7.5 Java stack is going through December 2027, with extended maintenance until end of 2030 (SAP note 1648480). The end of mainstream maintenance dates for SAP EP versions 7.4 and older remain unchanged, and maintenance for these products will end on December 31, 2020. See also the following SAP Note: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2912858.
- SAP also fully aligns the maintenance strategy for SAP NetWeaver 7.5 with SAP Business Suite 7. More information in Karl Kessler's blogon SAP Community.
- SAPUI51.71 will be the last supported long-term release for SAP NetWeaver Java platform. It is planned that no further UI5 version above 1.71 will be delivered and supported with NetWeaver java and respectively with Enterprise Portal. More information in the following SAP notes:https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2261419and2673298 - Mapping support package of SAPUI5 CLIENT RT AS JAVA 7.50 to UI5 versions - SAP ONE Support...
SAP Portal on NetWeaver 7.5 Overview
If you are interested in a general overview on Portal on NetWeaver 7.5, check out this presentation (an updated version will be available soon in Q1 2021).
Check out also the product page on SAP Community about SAP Enterprise Portal.
SAP Enterprise Portal Roadmap
Please note that no functional enhancements are planned anymore for SAP EP on SAP NetWeaver 7.5 (starting with SAP NW SPS17). A roadmap is also not available anymore. You can also check the release notes to get updated about released features (see section Features in Detail).
Standards Based Framework Pages
For Enterprise Portal 7.5, we highly recommend that you change your framework page to one of the followingstandards based framework pages:
- Ajax Framework Page standards mode (AFP Standards)
- Fiori Framework Page (FLP@EP)
- Custom Standards based framework page
For more information, see this blog.
SAP Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal
Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal 7.5 was being renovated according to the Fiori design paradigm and it was one focus of the development for NW 7.5. All important features of Fiori 1.0 and 2.0 found their way into Enterprise Portal, for example "Me Area", notifications, overview pages etc. Note that regarding Fiori 3 not all features will be available for Enterprise Portal (see section Features in Detail SAP NW 7.5 SPS17).
You can still have two flavors on one Portal platform: the Ajax Framework page for intranet or administration scenarios (desktop only) and the Fiori Framework page for cross device scenarios (responsive design) and optimized for Fiori launchpad.
You want to know about thebenefits you can expect by implementing SAP Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal? Then check out this one pager.
Note that Fiori Framework Page works only with standards mode in all browsers since it is based on UI5 technology.
You might ask yourself: why not accessFiori Launchpad directly fromFrontend server? Why do we still need a Portal? There are very good reasons to run the launchpad on SAP Portal with the Fiori Framework Page:
- In the Portal you can consume (almost) all the UI technologies that SAP used in the past 15+ years, while with the launchpad on the ABAP Frontend serveryou have limitations
- Assume that you are runningBW/BI/BOBJ reports and you want to integrate them to the launchpad – the best integration will be achieved with the Enterprise Portal
- Assume that you are running WebDynpro Javaapps (custom or SAP delivered) and you want to integrate them to the launhcpad –the best integration will be achieved with the portal and Fiori Framework Page
- If you are using the Portal for SSO, complex roles, etc. – in many cases this can be achieved only with thePortal
All in all weprovide you the options and it is up to you to select the best option for your specific business needs.
Recommended reading:
Enterprise Portaland Fiori LaunchpadCentral Note
Overview Information on Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal
Read also this story about a customer journey to Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal.
Fiori Launchpad on Enterprise Portal and Best Practices
Learn how you can map your traditional Portal navigation with the navigation on the Fiori launchpad.
Learn how to implement SAP Fiori launchpad on Enterprise Portal: Recommendations and Frequently Asked Questions.
Features in Detail
In the following blogs and release notes you can find detailed information about support package stacks which are available.
SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SPS17 with some Fiori 3 features and support for SAPUI5 1.71 as well as with SAP Quartz Light theme for SAP Fiori 3:
- Note that not all Fiori 3 design elements and features are available for SAP Enterprise Portal (the spaces and pages concept will not be available). Until now there are no plans to add additional Fiori 3 features.
- Note that also no further UI5 version above 1.71 will be delivered and supported with NW Java platform and with SAP Enterprise Portal. Check out this SAP note 2261419 - Maintenance Strategy for FLP on Portal - SAP ONE Support Launchpad.
Version Interoperability between SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver 7.5
For version interoperability between SAP NetWeaver and SAP Business Suite consult SAP Note 1388258.We recommend to check out theslideAdjusted Version Interoperability for SAP Business Suite,which is added to the note as attachment.
Content and Business Packages
You might wonder if Business Packages are still working on SAP NetWeaver 7.5? For details and what needs to be done, read this SAP Note:2304435 - SAP ERP for SAP NetWeaver 7.5 hub systems.
With the consumption of Fiori content into Enterprise Portal, we also consider Fiori content as the "new business packages". Fiori content can be consumed from ABAP Frontendserverby using the remote catalogs integration procedure: you use the remote content editor to assign content from front-end servers to a role. You can also use the editor to search for content, such as SAP Fiori catalogs and SAP Fiori groups,in the available remote system, and then assign them to categories.
With the release of the SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition, additional remote catalogs and groups are now available. Administrators can use the remote content editor to assign SAP S/4HANA content to portal roles.
I also recommend portal content administratorsreading this blog and learn about the administration tasks required for enabling SAP Fiori launchpad on Portal. It contains pre-configured sample content that you can import into your portal. In only a few steps you can easily run the SAP Fiori launchpad experience within the SAP NetWeaver Portal environment. Give it a try!
Theming and Branding
In SAP NetWeaver 7.5 the UI theme designer is the only theming tool in Enterprise Portal andit will fully replace the theme editor.
Wikis and Forums
The wiki and forum application is not available in SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5 add-on. However, you still can technically install and use the 7.4 based version of the wiki application (as of SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SPS 13 (Java SPS12) and higher) on top of SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5.
Check out these notes for wikis and forums.
Read this SAP documentation for wikis and forums.
All of the above means that the end of maintenance for wikis & forums was December 2020, which was the official end of maintenance date for EP 7.40 and the add-ons on EP 7.40.
Depricated Features
Also other features are deprecated in SAP NetWeaver 7.5, as for example Mobile Framework Page, Real Time Collaboration, Mashups im WPC.
Read notes 2447267 and 2204286 to get a list of all deprecated features
Portal Upgrade
If your SAP Enterprise Portal release is still on 7.0x there is time to start upgrading: at the end of 2017 SAP NetWeaver 7.0X Java stack will no longer be supported (see PAMfor more information and SAP Note 1648480). SAP highly recommends upgrading to SAP Enterprise Portal 7.5, which has the longest maintenance period, and which includes many new features including the Fiori Framework Page and other features that are only available in the latest releases.
Use thispage as central information.Itincludes all the relevant links to the relevant pages/documentation, such as: upgrade master guide, troubleshooting guide, business packages support, etc.
Read also:
Why Should I upgrade my SAP Enterprise Portal
Troubleshooting guide after SAP Enterprise Portal Upgrade
The Future of SAP Portal ?
When you consider about upgrading your Portal, this consideration might also be connected with a decision on the future of your Portal in general.
As a general strategic approach, we recommend to transition your SAP Enterprise Portal use cases to SAP BTP, multi-cloud environment (cloud foundry). A transition to the Neo environment of SAP BTP and to the Cloud Portal service is not recommended anymore. SAP BTP is SAP’s strategic integration and extension platform. SAP follows a multi-cloud approach, which enables organizations to run the platform and its services on the cloud infrastructure of selected hyper-scaler partners (Alibaba, Amazon, Google, Microsoft). To help driving innovative digital experiences initiatives, SAP further invests in flexible UX services, tools and UI technologies to develop custom apps and extensions using SAP Business Application Studio and SAP Fiori tools.
Going forward we recommend SAP Enterprise Portal customers considering a transition to SAP BTP multi-cloud environment, in particular to the Launchpad service. As SAP puts major investments in SAP BTP, customers automatically get the latest SAP Fiori UX innovations (for example SAP Fiori 3). SAP recommends adopting SAP Launchpad service for new projects, and gradually transition existing SAP EP based scenarios to SAP BTP. For more information about SAP Launchpad service, see this overview presentation and the product page on SAP Community. More information and recommendations about EP transition to SAP BTP will be added here in the next months.
Documentation
Documentation SAP NetWeaver 7.5
Fiori Launchpad scenario documentation
SAP Portal on SAP Community
Visit the SAP Portal Community Topic Page
You have a question on SAP Enterprise Portal? Discuss your questions in the SAP Portal Community: Create your question on https://answers.sap.com/index.html and tag it with “SAP Enterprise Portal”.
