Few notes on SAP Screen Personas 3.0

I introduced SAP Screen Personal some time ago here. The Personas is powerful framework to simplify and beautify SAP user interface in particular its screens and transactions. Meanwhile (mid of 2014) the Personas evolved with version 3.0 which bring s lot of new features.

Most important to me is that it doesn’t leverage Microsoft Silverlight anymore for rendering. The Personas 3.0 is integrated fully into HTML as it is part of the SAP GUI for HTML. One down side is here though. Due to technology change a migration of flavors between Personas 2.0 and 3.0 is required. Also the Personas 3.0 is still not officially supported on mobile devices. It is considered as desktop technology. But there are discussions on SCN saying that at least on android based devices it works quite well.

Also scripting in the Personas is very advanced. It includes now more JavaScript language constructions like nested IF conditions and looping.

While using calls to remote enables Function Modules do not forget to perform whitelisting of such a FM. It involves entering the FM into table /PERSONAS/C_RFCW. Whole procedure is very easy and is described here.

Following are few remarks on famous P icon or button of SAP Personas:

Blue bar on top of the page in WebGUI:

or an P icon/button in WebGUI:

or an P icon/button in SAP GUI:

All these indicate that Personas are actually installed in particular SAP system.

SAP Screen Personas

SAP came few times with initiatives how to simplify and even reduce number of SAP screens and fields on the screens. There are options within different SAP products e.g. in customizing where particular screens/fields can be hidden if not used for that customer or SAP implementation. These initiatives are really important. SAP software is covering a lot of industry solutions basically we would hardly found some major industry which is not covered by SAP. Therefore all the screens are really very advanced supporting needs of different industries. Downside is that such as screens/fields are heavy containing a lot of features tied to wide functionalities.

Other initiative was GuiXT. Provided by 3^rd party company (Synactive) it is a way how to  customize SAP GUI user interface enabling to narrow down no of screens/fields without touching coding (e.g. ABAP or dynpros). More details about GuiXT see here.

In 2012 SAP came with another possibility. It is called SAP Screen Personas. Basically it is aiming same goal. In contrast of GuiXt it is browser based tool for personalizing SAP Dynpro screens. Notice that Personas works on most of dynpro screen. However it doesn’t work on webdynpros based apps (e.g. app like SAP CRM web client or SAP SRM). It can run as far as you accessing SAP backend system via web browser. It is compatible with SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) as well as with old ITS. Personas are supported by Microsoft Silverlight (app framework for writing and running rich Internet applications; similar Adobe Flash) and HTML. Personas are part of SAP’s User Experience strategy – they enable improving of SAP screens. In lights of other new SAP initiative like SAP Fiori (which aims to renew widely used SAP user scenario) and SAP UI5 (UI to create new SAP apps) Personas are complementary. Again no programming is involved in Personas deployment.

Screen Personas are delivered as SAP NetWeaver software Component called PERSOS; means it is add-on which needs to be installed into your NetWeaver backend system. NW kernel 7.21 is required. You can customize SAP Personas via TA SPRO -> SAP Customizing Implementation Guide -> Cross Application Components -> SAP Screen Personas.

SAP Screen Personas, version history:

2013 July: Personas 2.0 and Personas 1.0 SP2

2013 April: Personas 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

2012 December: SAP Screen Personas 1.0

Coming back to GuiXT: As per note 1825312 (Maintenance strategy of GuiXT) GuiXT is still supported and there are currently no plans to remove it from SAP GUI installation.

SAP Personas Resources:

1826286 - FAQ/How-To Guide for SAP Screen Personas

1884539 - Considerations when using SAP Screen Personas

1776739 - Release strategy for the ABAP add-on PERSOS

SAPScreenPersonas.com

Personas SCN wiki

Intro video

Personas 2.0

Fact Sheet