SAP Fiori App Types and Database Requirements
SAP Fiori has three app types, each distinguished by their focus and infrastructure requirements:
Transactional apps
Fact sheets
Analytical apps
When installing SAP Fiori apps, we recommend separating the front-end components with the UI layer from the back-end components that contain the business logic and the back-end data. For more information about this deployment option, see Implementation Overview.
All SAP Fiori apps can be accessed internally via the intranet. The transactional apps can also be accessed externally via the Internet.
For fact sheets and analytical apps, we recommend that you use SAP Web Dispatcher as reverse proxy server. Other options are possible but will not be described in the documentation.
Transactional Apps
These apps let you perform transactional tasks, such as creating a leave request for an employee. They represent simplified views and interaction with existing business processes and solutions. They run best on an SAP HANA database, but can also be ported to other databases with acceptable performance.
The following figure shows an overview of the system landscape for transactional apps.
Overview of System Landscape for Transactional Apps
For the transactional apps, the ABAP front-end server contains the UI layer with the product-specific UI components for the products (for example, ERP Financials (ERP-FIN), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM)) as well as the infrastructure components. The infrastructure comprises the central UI component with the SAP UI5 control library and the SAP Fiori launchpad as well as SAP Gateway with the OData enablement.
The front-end components have access through a trusted RFC connection to the ABAP back-end server containing the business logic. The underlying database can be an SAP HANA database, or any database, and is accessed from the back-end server.
Fact Sheets
These apps display contextual information and key facts about central objects used in your business operations.
From a fact sheet area (tile), you can drill down into its details. You can navigate from one fact sheet to its related fact sheets. For example, you can navigate from a document to the related business partner or to the master data.
From fact sheets, you can start transactions by navigating to transactional apps, or by accessing the back-end system directly. For example, from a document fact sheet, you can access the back-end system to display document details or to edit the document in SAP GUI or Web Dynpro.
Some fact sheets are delivered with an integration feature for a geographical map.
Note
From mobile devices or tablets, you cannot access SAP GUI or Web Dynpro transactions through the SAP Fiori launchpad.
End of the note.
You can call up the fact sheets from the search results displayed in the launchpad, from other fact sheets, or from transactional and analytical apps. The displayed data is consumed immediately from the SAP HANA database, mainly through search models.
Fact sheets run only on an SAP HANA database and require an ABAP stack. They cannot be ported to the SAP HANA live (2-tier) architecture.
The following figure shows an overview of the system landscape for fact sheets.
Overview of System Landscape for Fact Sheets
For the fact sheets, the ABAP front-end server contains the UI layer with the central UI component and the product-specific UI components for the products used (for example, ERP-FIN, CRM, SCM) as well as SAP Gateway. The central UI component contains for example the SAP UI5 control library and the SAP Fiori launchpad.
The front-end server has read access to the ABAP back-end server through a trusted RFC connection. The ABAP back-end server contains the SAP Business Suite with the business logic, search models, OData services, and the model provider.
SAP Web Dispatcher is the entry point for HTTPS requests into your system. SAP Web Dispatcher selects the appropriate server for HTTPS requests, for example for the INA search protocol requests to the search models in the ABAP back-end server.
Analytical Apps
These apps let you get a role-based insight into real-time operations of your business by collecting and displaying key figures directly in your browser. Analytical apps combine the data and analytical power of SAP HANA with the integration and interface components of SAP Business Suite. They provide real-time information on large volume data in a simplified front end for enterprise control. With analytical apps, you can closely monitor your most important key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time and react immediately on changes in market conditions or operations.
To do this, you can easily use the pre-delivered KPIs and insight-to-action scenarios or define your own ones based on the KPI modeling framework.
Analytical apps run on an SAP HANA database and use virtual data models (VDM).
The following figure shows an overview of the system landscape for analytical apps.
Overview of System Landscape for Analytical Apps
The ABAP front-end server contains the UI layer with the infrastructure and the product-specific UI components for the products used (for example, ERP-FIN, CRM, SCM). The infrastructure comprises SAP Gateway with the OData enablement and the central UI component with the SAP UI5 control library and the SAP Fiori launchpad.
The front-end components have access through a trusted RFC connection to the ABAP back-end server with the business logic. The underlying database can only be an SAP HANA database. SAP HANA XS also contains the SAP Fiori app content for the different Business Suite products and the KPI modeling framework and the generic drill-down app as well as the Virtual Data Model (VDM) reuse content.
SAP Web Dispatcher is the entry point for HTTPS requests into your system. SAP Web Dispatcher selects the appropriate server for HTTPS requests, for example for the OData calls to the ABAP front-end server or SAP HANA XS.
