Lesson 1 of 5
Fiori app types and test focus
9 min
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SAP Fiori is the user experience of SAP S/4HANA: a browser-based launchpad of tiles and links, each opening an app built with SAPUI5. For a tester, Fiori changes three things compared with SAP GUI. Apps are smaller and role-specific, so there are many more of them. What a user sees depends on launchpad content assigned to their role. And the same app runs in different browsers, on different screen sizes, with different personal settings. A good Fiori test approach covers function, content and usability, not just whether a document posts.
The app types
SAP has long described three types of Fiori apps, and the distinction still drives what you test.
| App type | What it does | Contoso example | Main test focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Creates or changes business objects; often draft-enabled | Manage Sales Orders, Manage Purchase Orders, Create Supplier Invoice | Posting logic, validations, drafts, follow-on documents, authorizations |
| Analytical | Shows KPIs, aggregates and charts over live data, with drill-down | Trial Balance, overdue item and spend analysis apps | Calculations against independent expected values, filters, drill-down, currency and units |
| Fact sheet / object page | Displays one object with related information and navigation | Object pages for a customer, product or purchase order | Correct data shown, links and navigation to related objects, authorization on related data |
In SAP S/4HANA, the classic stand-alone fact sheet apps of the Business Suite era have largely given way to object pages inside SAP Fiori elements apps, so you will mostly test "fact sheet behavior" as the display and navigation part of a list report or object page. The launchpad can also start classic UIs such as SAP GUI for HTML transactions and Web Dynpro applications as tiles. These look different and need the same functional tests as in SAP GUI, plus the launchpad checks covered in the next lesson.
Floorplans you will meet
Many SAP S/4HANA apps are generated with SAP Fiori elements, which provides standard page layouts called floorplans. Recognizing them helps you reuse test ideas across hundreds of apps.
- List report and object page: a filter bar and a results table; clicking a row opens the object page with sections and, in edit mode, drafts. Manage Purchase Orders follows this pattern.
- Worklist: a list of items to process, often without a complex filter bar.
- Overview page: cards summarizing several topics for a role, each card navigating to a detail app.
- Analytical list page: a chart and table together, with visual filters, for analysis and action.
Finding an app's technical identity
Many apps have similar names, and several versions of an app can exist. Testers need the app's exact identity. Two places give it. Inside the launchpad, open the user menu and choose About: the dialog shows the app's name, technical name, version and SAPUI5 version, and on current releases the app ID and application component. Outside the system, the SAP Fiori apps reference library lists each app with its ID (a code such as an "F" followed by digits), the required business catalogs and roles, the OData services, supported devices and the releases it exists in.
- Open the appStart it from the launchpad as a role-based test user.
- About dialogNote the app name, technical name, app ID, version, SAPUI5 version and component.
- Reference libraryLook up the app ID for your release.
- Extract test inputsRequired roles and catalogs, OData services, supported devices, successor app.
- Plan testsLaunchpad, authorization, device and functional tests for that exact app.
Why posting tests still end in the backend
A transactional Fiori app is a new front end on familiar backend logic. When Maria creates a sales order for 50 CMC-ALT-100 in Manage Sales Orders, the same pricing, availability check, credit check and output determination run as they would from SAP GUI. So the expected results are the same too: an order with the right price, a delivery that can be created, a billing document with a journal entry. Do not let a polished screen replace the end-to-end checks. Use the app's own related-documents or process flow section where it has one, and fall back to the document flow when it does not.
What would you do?
Contoso adopts an analytical app that shows overdue purchase order items by supplier for plant 1710. The tester writes a test: "Open app, see chart, PASS". What should Priya ask for instead?
- Transactional apps need posting and validation tests; analytical apps need independent checks of numbers; object pages need data and navigation tests.
- Most S/4HANA apps use SAP Fiori elements floorplans, so test ideas transfer across apps.
- The launchpad also starts classic UIs, which need their usual functional tests plus launchpad checks.
- Get the app's identity from the About dialog and the SAP Fiori apps reference library.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What is the main test focus for an analytical Fiori app?
2. Where in the launchpad can a tester see an app's version and SAPUI5 version?
3. Which resource lists an app's required business catalogs, OData services and supported devices?
4. Manage Purchase Orders follows which SAP Fiori elements floorplan?