¶ 060. Integrating SAP Fiori Elements with SAP BW and Data Warehouses
SAP Fiori Elements has revolutionized SAP application development by providing metadata-driven, consistent, and user-friendly interfaces. While primarily designed for transactional applications connected to SAP S/4HANA or SAP Business Suite systems, SAP Fiori Elements can also be effectively integrated with SAP BW (Business Warehouse) and other data warehouse systems. This integration enables organizations to create analytical and operational reports with modern, intuitive UIs that empower users to explore complex business data effortlessly.
This article explores approaches and best practices for integrating SAP Fiori Elements with SAP BW and data warehouses to unlock actionable insights with a great user experience.
¶ Understanding the Integration Landscape
SAP BW and data warehouses are designed for analytical processing, handling large volumes of historical and aggregated data. Traditionally, BW users accessed data via tools like SAP Business Explorer (BEx) or SAP Analytics Cloud. However, integrating BW with SAP Fiori Elements enables a modern analytical UX leveraging Fiori Elements templates such as the Analytical List Page (ALP).
The foundation of integrating SAP Fiori Elements with BW is to expose BW Queries (BEx queries or CompositeProviders) as OData services consumable by Fiori Elements apps.
- Use SAP Gateway or SAP NetWeaver Gateway for BW to publish BW Queries as OData services.
- Alternatively, leverage SAP BW/4HANA capabilities to expose queries via ODP/OData interfaces.
SAP Fiori Elements relies heavily on annotations to generate UI components. For BW integrations:
- Use Annotation Models that define which BW query fields are filterable, selectable, and visible.
- BW queries can include metadata annotations to guide UI generation.
- Custom annotations may be required to tailor the UI for specific BW use cases.
The ALP template is designed specifically for analytical apps, combining charts and tables with filtering and drill-down capabilities.
- It supports KPIs, charts, and detailed lists linked to BW query data.
- Users can slice and dice data, pivot views, and explore aggregations directly within the app.
¶ Step 1: Create and Test BW Query
- Design a BW Query in the BW system focusing on relevant KPIs and dimensions.
- Test the query results using BEx Analyzer or BW Query Designer.
- In SAP Gateway, create a new project and register the BW Query as an OData service.
- Test the OData service with SAP Gateway Client or Postman to ensure data retrieval.
- In SAP Business Application Studio or SAP Web IDE, create a new SAP Fiori Elements app using the Analytical List Page template.
- Connect the app to the BW OData service.
- Adjust annotation files to define filters, charts, and table layouts.
¶ Step 4: Deploy and Run the App
- Deploy the app to the SAP Fiori Launchpad.
- Users can now consume BW data with modern filtering, search, and visualization features.
- Unified User Experience: Users get a consistent look and feel across transactional and analytical apps.
- Faster Development: Metadata-driven UI reduces development effort compared to custom analytical dashboards.
- Interactive Analytics: ALP offers interactive charts, tables, and drill-down features.
- Mobile-Ready: Fiori Elements apps are responsive and accessible on any device.
- Reduced Training: Familiar Fiori UI makes it easier for business users to adopt analytical tools.
- Optimize BW Queries: Ensure queries are designed for performance with necessary aggregates.
- Use Proper Annotations: Accurate and rich annotations improve UI quality and usability.
- Leverage CDS Views for BW/4HANA: When using BW/4HANA, CDS views can be an alternative to BW Queries.
- Test on Real Data Volumes: Performance testing is essential, especially for large datasets.
- Security: Enforce appropriate authorization checks both at BW query and OData levels.
¶ Challenges and Considerations
- Complexity of Annotations: Mapping BW metadata to Fiori Elements annotations can be complex.
- Performance: Large datasets require optimization at query and OData layers.
- Feature Gaps: Some advanced BW analytical features may not be fully supported in Fiori Elements.
- System Landscape: Requires proper configuration of SAP Gateway, BW, and Fiori Frontend Server.
Integrating SAP Fiori Elements with SAP BW and data warehouses bridges the gap between powerful analytical backends and user-centric frontends. By exposing BW queries as OData services and leveraging Fiori Elements templates like the Analytical List Page, organizations can deliver intuitive, responsive, and interactive analytics applications. This integration supports faster decision-making, better user adoption, and a unified SAP user experience across transactional and analytical domains.
Organizations investing in this approach can modernize their SAP analytics landscape without replacing existing BW investments, driving significant business value with a modern UX layer.