SAP Enable Now Custom Web Assistant content creation & consumption on S/4HANA 2020 On Premise System

[Vivek_Hegde]

Purpose

This blog is for customers who are looking for the below scenario;

1. Creation and consuming Web Assitant Content
2. Using S/4HANA On-premise Software
3. Using Enable Now On Premise Manager (Hana Edition)
4. In an Isolated Network

This article explains the procedure for Creating & Publishing Custom Web Assistant content on S/4HANA 2020 On Premise System using SEN On Premise Manager (Hana Edition).

With the latest S/4HANA 2020 FP01, the Web Dispatcher is no more needed, this is a huge step forward in adopting Web Assistant content as part of User Enablement in SAP S/4HANA On Premise projects.

There are 3 scenarios in consuming & creating Web Assistant;

Sceanrio 1. Standard: You just consume SAP published help content via Web Assistant framework

Sceanrio 2. Extensibility: You add/modify extra content to the SAP delivered help content

Sceanrio 3. Custom : You wish to create & consume your own Web Assistant help content ( for any Fiori apps which are deployed on S/4HANA 2020 On Premise System)

This blog is for scenario no.3 mentioned above.

In this article I am using examples from Embedded Deployment of Fiori UI with S/4HANA On Premise back-end and Gateway/Fiori Fronted deployed on the same system.

Software versions used in this Use Case article:

1. S/4HANA 2020 FP01

 

1. SEN On Premise Manager (Hana Edition)

Procedure

Part A - SEN Manager Settings

 

Note: I have used following server names for this article as an example;

Manager On Premise Server name: starwargalaxy

Manager Deployment Name: stormtrooper

Manager On Premise Port: 8080

URL Protocol: HTTP

Work Area Name: webassistant

Work Area ID: webasst

 

Hence my SEN On Premise Manager URL is ;

http://starwargalaxy:8080/stormtrooper

 

Follow the SAP Note 3025218 - Serve Web Assistant for SAP S/4HANA On Premise from local Landscape to download the .dkp file ( https://webassistant.enable-now.cloud.sap/web_assistant/framework_download/web_assistant_framework.d...)

Create a dedicated Web Assistant work area in the manager ( in above note, SAP suggests to import .dkp file into System work area, however I suggest to have a dedicated work area and not use System workarea. I created a workarea called "webassistant" ( WA ID webasst)

Add users to the Workarea permissions. It is important that at least 2 users need to be added, one Anonymous user( for content consumption) & another named user who has Master Author role assigned (for creating/publishing custom web assistant content)

Import the Web Assistant DKP file into this new workarea either from Manager Web UI or from Producer. After import of dkp archive, publish the Web Assistant framework resource.

Framework files should be visible under Resources > Adaptable Resources & should be in status Published.

• Maintain Server Settings

In the Manager, Administration > Server settings; add below 2 Supported features field

Supported features = anonymous;DISABLE-CSRF-PROTECTION

Enable CORS and add your company domains to the allowed sites list

 

Verify that Web Assistant framework files are accessible in the browser. Access the below link on the Chrome browser and you should be able to see the content of Component.js file without any login pop up.

http://<manager_server>:<port>/<manager_Deployment>/wa/<WorkArea_ID>/~tag/published/adaptable/web_as...

In my case;

http://starwargalaxy:8080/stormtrooper/wa/webasst/~tag/published/adaptable/web_assistant_framework/u...

Part B : S/4HANA 2020 FP01 GUI Settings

Configure Web Assistant without WebDispatcher Configuration in SAPGUI front-end system

1. Start transaction /n/ui2/flp_cus_conf

2. Select folder Launchpad Configuration Set ENABLE_HELP = true

3. Select Launchpad Plug-Ins

4. Click on new Entries, and enter WEB_ASSISTANT_HELP_PLUGIN Enter in URL field http://starwargalaxy:8080/stormtrooper/wa/webasst/~tag/published/adaptable/web_assistant_framework/u...

and save your changes.

URL Format : http://<manager_server>:<port>/<manager_deployment>/wa/<WorkArea_ID>/~tag/published/adaptable/web_as...

5. Click on Folder Configuration and add following Parameters & values

BUTTON_LOCATION	head
LEARNING_APP_BACKEND_URL	https://launchpad.support.sap.com/
NO_HELP_MODE	carousel
PARAMETERS	resourceUrl=http://starwargalaxy:8080/stormtrooper/wa/webasst/~tag/published/adaptable/web_assistant_framework;d...;
PRODUCT	SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE
SERVICE_LAYER_VERSION	WPB
SHOW_WHATS_NEW	TRUE
USE_GLOBAL_HELP	TRUE
VERSION	2020.latest

 

Now log into Fiori Launchpad URL

http://<S4HANA_ON_PREMISE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>/sap/bc/ui2/flp#Shell-home

 

Please note, if your SEN On Premise Manager is using HTTP as Port protocol, then you need to log into Fiori Launchpad too via HTTP protocol only. If Manager URL is using HTTPS then, please use HTTPS protocol for fiori launchpad URL as well. Otherwise you will get Mixed Content error and Web Assistant Framework files will not be loaded from backend. It is always suggested to use HTTPS protocol for both SEN Server and S/4 Server URLs. Since I am using a Sandbox environment, I am accessing URLs via HTTP protocol in this article.

After logging into Fiori Launchpad, now you will see the ? Help Icon loaded on the top right corner. Since we have enabled Anonymous access to Web Assistant framework files on the SEN On Premise Manager backend, there is no user/password asked for consuming the Web Assistant contents on Fiori Launchpad.

 

Part C : Creating Custom Web Assistant content for a Home Grown Fiori Apps

 

We are using a homegrown Fiori App and would like to create Custom Web Assistant Content. The standard SAP Content or Extensibility options are not applicable for our scenario hence decided to create and publish our own Web Assistant contents.

To create/edit Web Assistant Custom content , go to Edit mode URL on the Fiori Launchpad URL by appending help-editor=true to URL parameters.

URL Format: http://<S4HANA_ON_PREMISE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?help-editor=true#Shell-home

This time, you would need to enter the Username/Password of the Master Author user of Manager ( If you have SSO enabled on SEN On Premise & on S/4HANA, this user/password pop up will not be shown)

Click on ? Icon and use the Pencil button to enter the Edit mode of Web Assistant.

Once you are in Edit mode, use the + icon to create the content.

For example, I am creating a Help Tile for the SAP logo

After creating the Web Assistant content, click on Save

Publish the Help content to Manager .

That's all !

[KristinaKunad]

Vivek, thank you for this comprehensive blog! I think it makes setting up the Web Assistant with the new option of downloading the framework for on-premise use cases very easy.

[Vivek_Hegde]

Thanks, I have been searching and reading contents to help my unique use case scenario for quite sometime. Since I could not find any relevant help article, I thought of putting everything together in one place.

My use case was;

Using Web Assistant in In Isolated Network environment  without Web Dispatcher for S/4HANA OP 2020 FP01 to create Custom Web Assistant Content on SEN On Premise Manager

[rauno_veberson2]

Hi Vivek,

Your blog is now almost a year old and some of the information might not be quite up to date but I was wondering if you did anything special with anonymous user permissions. Because I am able to load content from Manager but when I switch to Edit mode (help-editor=true) I don't get a login prompt and I am instead greeted with this message:

Editing Not Allowed

I understand that I'm not supposed to be allowed to edit the content with the user Anonymous and thus this message is correct. However, there should at least be a pop-up or prompt for login like you mentioned in your blog.

We are running 2206HF version of Manager in our environment. We also haven't set up any SSO between out SEN Manager and our S/4 environment.

[Vivek_Hegde]

I too had such issues, then I noticed when I switch to edit mode in the already logged-in browser (where anonymous is already active)  this issue shows up. So what I did is, in another browser/incognito mode, directly accessed the EDIT URL;

http://<S4HANA_ON_PREMISE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?help-editor=true#Shell-home

This time id asked for the Fiori login and after that, another login pop up for the Manager appeared.

[rauno_veberson2]

We already tried this method and it doesn't work either. However we found a workaround:

1. Regular users shouldn't be able to change the help content and thus "anonymous" mode is always active by default.


2. If a developer needs to create some content through web editor then he first logs in to the "Enable Now" environment with a developer user and then opens the launchpad in edit mode.

This method has proved to be efficient enough.

[thomas_knobloch]

Hi,

I started the FLP in help-editor edit mode. But I can't see the plus button. Is this because of missing authority? Which authority object with which values would I need then?

Thanks and best regards, Thomas