Announcement: New release of content and central entry point for SAP BTP Solution Diagrams

[fabianl]

Intro

We’re delighted to share the new BTP Solution Diagram repository and BTP Solution Diagram guideline (PDF) which is available now.

This new repository serves as a central access point for SAP BTP Solution Diagrams.
It features:

• an updated design guideline (online and as pdf) for creating BTP Solution Diagrams
• multiple diagram examples from different domains to give context
• editable diagrams for draw.io and PowerPoint as well as svgs
• Several libraries for the necessary components needed to craft or recreate an SAP BTP Solution Diagram

The official new target design for SAP BTP Solution Diagrams is based on the SAP Fiori Design System and consuming the recently announced official SAP BTP service icons for BTP. You can find all information and details at the new GitHub page (link).

The new release continues the great work (blog) of Bertram dating back as far as 2018, when the 1st version of the “official” BTP (called SCP then 😉) Solution Diagram guideline had been announced.

We received a lot of feedback and questions from the community  and were encouraged to update and deliver a new version of the BTP guideline and icons to build BTP Solution Diagrams with the same look and feel across the SAP eco-system.

Based on feedback - also from the session XP286v held by Carsten at SAP TechEd 2023 last year - we took the opportunity to re-iterate and now provide a version which we offer to the community and the whole SAP eco-system. It is not a 100% finalized version but instead we’re counting on you to collaborate with us via GitHub discussion or issues. If you see things that are missing or would benefit from changes – please let us know!

As you may know, SAP actively contributes to open source. For more details take a look at the SAP Open Source report (2023 Year-In-Review Report). As we are also frequently using the open source draw.io diagramming tool, we decided to provide multiple draw.io libraries in addition to the already available PowerPoint (TBD link) templates. These stencils support you with standardized content, for example  the correct SAP product names and service icons / shapes.

Please also read the blogs on the SAP community explaining different ways to create appealing and easy to understand BTP Solution Diagrams:

• Create SAP BTP solution diagrams with Draw.io (Diagrams.net) | SAP Blogs (by mauriciolauffer)
• Creating architecture diagrams with code | SAP Blogs (by ajmaradiaga)

 

The Repository and Tools

Diagrams can be created either with draw.io or Powerpoint. The assets are made available via SAP Open Source on a central GitHub repository. In addition we use the new public GitHub page as central entry point for updates on the topic and to bundle general information for internal and external audiences:

https://sap.github.io/btp-solution-diagrams/

Draw.io

The elements referred to in the guideline are available as draw.io library which can easily be integrated:

Pre-Load libraries with web based draw.io

You can also use the web version of draw.io and directly load the BTP service icons using the clibs parameter. Please check the official draw.io documentation that describes this procedure here.

Bu using the clibs parameter the final URL look like this (with one pre-loaded library):

https://app.diagrams.net/?splash=0&clibs=Uhttps%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2FSAP%2Fbtp-soluti...

Finally you can find here the URL with all libraries pre-loaded.

Powerpoint

We recommend to use draw.io because of its flexibility but you could still use ppt templates which are to be found in the repository as well.

Call to action

While using the libraries in the described way is fine for now, we believe it would be better to have a more intuitive draw.io integration with the assets offered out-of-the box. To make this happen, we ask you as the community to vote on this GitHub issue:

https://github.com/jgraph/drawio/issues/4199

 

Online Guideline and Examples

To help you get started we provide examples at different granularity levels tailored for your audience. As of now diagram detail levels range from Level 0 (L0 – audience with least technical knowledge) to Level 2 (L2 – Most technical knowledge):

L0 Diagrams

A representative L0 diagram example (as shown below) is a high-level solution diagram featuring BTP Services and simplified flows without complex technical details. In this type of diagram, connectors are not specifically annotated and the content is streamlined to essentials. Therefore, there is no need for a dedicated legend. However, a brief description is recommended.

L1 Diagrams

L1 Diagrams offer greater detail, featuring elements such as connector annotations that provide a description of flows, and the differentiation of various paths within the diagram. The use of color helps to distinguish between different flows. Below is an example that describes a setup for SAP Task Center. A legend is advisable for easy comprehension.

L2 Diagrams

Finally, L2 diagrams are rich with technical specifics, making them particularly insightful for architects and others with high technical proficiency. A legend is advisable for easy comprehension.

 

Layout and Style guidance

The SAP BTP Solution Diagram Design Guideline adheres to the atomic design system approach, using SAP Fiori UI Design System to ensure uniform user experience across all SAP interfaces. It offers comprehensive guidance on best practices, defining patterns and semantics rooted in industry standards and targeted expert feedback.

Atoms characterise fundamental colors and lines; molecules comprise elements like shapes, connectors, or texts. Organisms embody grouped components, ranging from text-filled boxes and icons to complete diagrams.

The Atoms  (referred to as Foundation) guidance contains advice for colors, line styles and spacing:

The Molecules (referred to as Diagram Components) guidance addresses diagram elements like area types, connectors and annotations and is available as draw.io and powerpoint library.

Organisms (referred to as Component Groups) contain smaller or bigger groups of Molecules. In the repository we also provide some examples for organisms and they are constantly enhanced by additions from the community which are being reviewed and approved by both architects and designers and finally made available as editable diagrams for you to reuse.

 

Outlook

In the coming weeks we will start to create additional blogs to share some tips & tricks which will help you to build nice BTP Solution Diagrams. As we want to also get and incorporate your feedback, please feel free to comment on this blog! Maybe you even want to write a blog post about your experience creating a SAP BTP Solution Diagram based on this new repository and guideline!

Cheers,

@VisuaLiza & @fabianl 

Update 26.02.2024:

Fo all of those, who want to have ready to use archive for the icons, svg's or examples.

We introduced now assets as part of any new release:

https://github.com/SAP/btp-solution-diagrams/releases/tag/btpsd-v1.0.1

Thx @lechnerc77 

[Rajen_Patel]

Great blog! The provided guidelines for creating visually appealing SAP architecture diagrams are comprehensive and helpful. The GitHub provides an easy-to-follow central entry point for SAP BTP content. Stencils in DRAW.IO is also a great open-source tool. Appreciate the effort in making complex information more visually appealing and accessible to users. Well done!

Thanks @VisuaLiza & @fabianl for adding Zip files that can be directly used in DRAW.IO. Much appreciated!

[UxKjaer]

Thanks for sharing this Fabian, I've also released a blog about a place for the community to share their reference architectures. 

[Bernd_Reichel]

Hello Fabian, 
thanks for this informations.
I have one question about the SAP ICON inside draw.io, is it possible to share them for own diagrams (internal diagram). I think this will be helpful for all EA and SolAr. 
Best regards
Bernd

PS: if there is an exisiting link to the ICON/symbols, please share them as a comment. Thanks a lot.

[ajmaradiaga]

I also updated the fork of the diagrams Python library in case you are interested in generating your diagrams using code... https://github.com/ajmaradiaga/diagrams. Check out how - https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/quick-update-on-creating-your-sap-btp-architect....

Note: I also created a PR in the main diagrams repo - https://github.com/mingrammer/diagrams/pull/974... hopefully they will be merged soon and you can use the new icons by running a simple pip install instead of using the fork.

[Bernd_Reichel]

Sorry for my question, I found the link to the symbols/icons.

"wer lesen kann ist im Vorteil" - "Who can read, have an advantage" (free own translate) 🤣

[SandipAgarwalla]

This is great news, much needed to create these solution diagrams faster. 

Regards

Sandip

[MKM]

Exciting news! The long-awaited feature is now available in one place for BTP. 

Can the web version of draw.io also be used for Diagram libraries like the desktop app?

[fabianl]

@MKM Yes why not, you can also easily integrate the libraries there:

Step 1: 

File > Open Library > GitHub:

Authorize :

Select your "fork" of the repository:

Navigate then to the target folder of the libraries:

And finally use it:

Cheers,

Fabian

[MioYasutake]

Hi @fabianl ,

Can we save the settings of imported libraries in the web version of draw.io? When I refresh the browser after importing libraries, the libraries disappear.

I tried setting it up in configuration, but unfortunately it was not reflected. It would be nice if there was a way to import multiple libraries at once, as it is cumbersome to do so each time.

{
  "language": "",
  "configVersion": null,
  "customFonts": [],
  "libraries": "general;uml;er;bpmn;flowchart;basic;arrows2",
  "customLibraries": [
    "Hmiyasuta%2Fbtp-solution-diagrams%2Fmain%2Fassets%2Fall-in-one-starter-kits%2Fdrawio%2Flibraries%2FAnnotations_SAP_BTP.xml"
  ],
  "plugins": [],
  "recentColors": [],
  "formatWidth": "240",
  "createTarget": false,
  "pageFormat": {
    "x": 0,
    "y": 0,
    "width": 827,
    "height": 1169
  },
  "search": true,
  "showStartScreen": true,
  "gridColor": "#d0d0d0",
  "darkGridColor": "#424242",
  "autosave": true,
  "resizeImages": null,
  "openCounter": 1,
  "version": 18,
  "unit": 1,
  "isRulerOn": false,
  "ui": ""
}

[jrondorf]

Is it possible to embed the used fonts inside the PPT template, or use fonts available both on Mac also?

 

[TomD]

Glad to see an update to these! For me the main question remains whether we can expect Visio support for this? It remains a key tool for a lot of our diagrams and having a published stencil would be great. I'd settle for just being able to fetch a zip of decent PNGs though. 🙂

Should we assume that we won't see a return to icons for SAP SaaS solutions? We seem to only have "branded texts" these days. The old icons for SFSF, Concur, Ariba and the like were useful to maintain a consistent style.

[fabianl]

@MioYasutake You can make use of the AIO config here:

https://sap.github.io/btp-solution-diagrams/docs/solution_diagr_intro/intro/#add-sap-colors-btp-icon...

You can then add globally the libraries w/o adding anytime the lib's again (only in case of changes/new icons)

Did this help?

thx and best,

Fabian 

[MioYasutake]

@fabianl 

Thanks for your reply.

I made the configuration in my draw.io desktop , close the app and reopened it, but the configuration was not taking effect, although the configuration was still there. Am I missing any steps?

[audreyzhang]

Hi Fabian,

Thank you for sharing, this is going to be a very useful tool. May I know if Github import is also available to draw.io desktop version? It seems your instructions above only applicable to online version.

Appreciate for your time to answer.

Best regards,

Audrey

[VisuaLiza]

@jrondorf Thanks for reaching out - we will update the template soon to use standard fonts only since it is too complicated to use them in publicly used templates. If you want to proceed you are welcome to use Microsoft Arial instead.

kind regards

Liza