Introduction

SAP Screen Personas were introduced by SAP to generate different flavors for classical SAP GUI screens thereby simplifying complex SAP Screens. But with Increasing demand to render these screens on mobile devices, it was time to build a mechanism to enable the same on mobile devices. The SAP Screen Personas Slipstream Engine was introduced in Personas 3.0 SP06 and renders your flavors on mobile devices.

SAP Screen Personas Slipstream Engine is a UI5 application that runs in a browser. Screen definitions are obtained by the Slipstream Engine from backend through ITS (Internet Transaction Server). But then rendering of the screens by the engine is done on client side thus separating the two. Screens rendered on mobile devices using Slipstream engine are Fiori-like. Slipstream engine is a component of the SAP screen personas and not a standalone product. There are separate SICF services for SAP screen personas and Slipstream Engine (/SAP/BC/PERSONAS and /SAP/BC/SE/M).

It is recommended to be on SAP_UI 751 to use Slipstream engine. Slipstream engine is available on Personas 3.0 SPS 06.

Uses and Advantages

Slipstream engine helps to effectively render Screens on mobile devices.

The rendered screens are Fiori-like, which means it will Improve end users’ productivity and satisfaction. The reduced time and expenses involved in training helps save overall costs.

Simplification of screens allows all users to access the system effectively and not just Business experts.

Slipstream engine Flavored T-codes can be triggered via the Fiori launchpad just like we do a Fiori App.

If Slipstream engine is run from SAP Fiori client, then it allows access to all native device capabilities such as camera (barcode scanning), GPS (location services) etc. Although you can always allow or block access to these native capabilities.

Limitations

• Blacklist v/s Whitelist of Transactions – If a T-code is blacklisted, Slipstream engine does not allow the user to launch the transaction and displays an Error. If a T-code is whitelisted, Slipstream engine allows user to launch the Transaction successfully without any errors. If a T-code is not there in either of the above lists, it means that it is not fully supported and thus will be allowed the execution along with a warning.
• Slipstream Engine is a browser-based rendering engine and does not support Microsoft office integration.
• Right-to-left languages are currently not supported by Slipstream Engine.
• Screen Personas flavor editor on Slipstream Engine is limited and Theming in Slipstream Engine is not provided.
• At this point, not all of the GUI frontend-services are supported via slipstream engine.
• Please refer SAP note 2557076 for more details.

Future Commitment by SAP

SAP Screen Personas SAP Support will now align its support to SAP S/4HANA which means the Screen Personas support commitment has been increased to 5 years (2022). For future, the plan is to provide more advanced tools for developers. Also, a Cloud deployment option is in the pipeline for SAP Screen personas.