As enterprises embrace cloud-first strategies, SAP SuccessFactors has emerged as the leading cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) suite. At the same time, SAP Fiori Elements offers a rapid, standardized way to build enterprise-grade applications with minimal UI coding by leveraging metadata and annotations.
Integrating SAP Fiori Elements with SAP SuccessFactors enables organizations to create lightweight, scalable applications that extend or complement SuccessFactors functionality. This article explores how to effectively achieve this integration and deliver modern, personalized HR experiences.
SAP SuccessFactors delivers powerful out-of-the-box capabilities, but organizations often need to:
SAP Fiori Elements, with its metadata-driven approach and support for OData V2/V4, is well-suited for building these custom extensions efficiently.
There are two primary ways to integrate SAP Fiori Elements with SAP SuccessFactors:
SuccessFactors exposes data via secure OData APIs (V2) that can be consumed by Fiori Elements apps.
Fiori Elements apps can be built and deployed on SAP BTP, acting as the middleware between SuccessFactors and the user interface. SAP BTP provides tools like the SAP Cloud SDK, SAP Cloud Connector, and Destination service to streamline integration.
SAP SuccessFactors exposes a range of APIs via the OData API Data Dictionary and the API Center. Common APIs include:
PerPersonal – Personal dataEmpJob – Job informationFODepartment – Organizational unitsLearningUser – Learning recordsUse tools like Postman or API Hub to test endpoints and understand the data schema.
Example destination config:
{
"Name": "SuccessFactorsAPI",
"Type": "HTTP",
"Authentication": "OAuth2SAMLBearerAssertion",
"URL": "https://api<datacenter>.successfactors.com/odata/v2",
"ProxyType": "Internet"
}
PerPersonal, EmpJob, etc.Although SuccessFactors APIs don’t support CDS-based annotations, you can:
LineItem, SelectionFields, etc.).firstName, lastName, jobTitle.Example annotation.xml snippet:
<Annotations Target="PerPersonal">
<Annotation Term="UI.LineItem">
<Collection>
<Record Type="UI.DataField">
<PropertyValue Property="Value" Path="firstName"/>
</Record>
<Record Type="UI.DataField">
<PropertyValue Property="Value" Path="lastName"/>
</Record>
</Collection>
</Annotation>
</Annotations>
Integrating SAP Fiori Elements with SAP SuccessFactors allows organizations to build powerful, user-centric HR applications that are fast to develop, easy to maintain, and fully aligned with SAP’s UX strategy. By leveraging SuccessFactors OData APIs and deploying apps on SAP BTP, developers can deliver modern, responsive, and secure applications that extend the capabilities of SAP SuccessFactors in meaningful ways.