The blog post is part of the series Side-by-Side Extension of SAP Asset Performance Management.

In this blog post, we shall walkthrough the steps for integrating an externally hosted (non SAP Business Technology Platform) web based custom or third-party application into the custom launchpad, alongside the standard applications of SAP Asset Performance Management (hereinafter referred to as “APM“ for brevity).

The following diagram shows the resulting state of the solution landscape on completion of the procedure described in the blog post.

Figure 1: Solution landscape for integrating external applications into custom launchpad * Click to enlarge * if applicable

Prerequisites

1. A custom launchpad has been built using SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition (hereinafter referred to as “Build Work Zone“ for brevity) and standard applications of APM have been added to it. See previous blog post Build Custom Launchpad in the series.
2. The externally hosted HTML application is accessible through URL over the internet. To keep the blog post simple and focus on procedure, we shall use the APM application help documentation on SAP Help Portal as an example external application. Below is the URL

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_APM?locale=en-US

Procedure

1. In the SAP BTP Cockpit, launch the Site Manager tools. In Site Manager, on the left-side menu, choose Content Manager and navigate to My Content section. See previous blog post in the series for details and/or recap.
2. Click on New, then choose App.
   
3. Enter details in the Properties and Navigation sections. Click save. Note that the external application URL has been entered in Properties section.
   

4. In Navigation section, enter Semantic Object and Action fields with text that best describes the main business object and functionality provided by the application.

   
5. Assign the application to the one of the Groups, which was created in previous blog post of the series. Or create a new group and assign to it. To keep it simple, we shall assign the application to a new group called Extensions.
   
6. Assign the application to the one of the Roles, created in previous blog post of the series. Let’s assign the application to Reliability Engineer.
7. Assign the application to the one of the Catalogs, to organize it in the App Finder.
8. Open the custom launchpad by navigating to the Site Directory and clicking “Go to site” button.
   
9. In the custom launchpad, a group section titled “Extensions” would be visible with the tile for the external application.
   
10. Click on the application tile to launch the application, which opens the configured URL passing the parameters.
    

Integrating Various Types of Applications

While in this blog post we focused on URL based integration of application, the Work Zone provides possibilities to include application of other types. Have a look at the help documentation.

Enabling Single Sign On (SSO)

When an externally hosted application is integrated into custom launchpad, enabling SSO for seamless access to that application by the end users becomes important. To achieve SSO, the subaccount hosting the custom launchpad (as well as subscribing to APM) should be connected to same Identity Provider (IdP) that is provisioning users to S/4HANA, custom and third-party applications. This is typically the corporate IdP, where all the end users are centrally managed and federated to applications through trusted and secure communication.

Here are some helpful resources to understand typical security configuration with IdP in BTP,

Use custom identity providers for better integration and policy enforcement

Establish Trust and Federation Between UAA and Identity Authentication

Enable SSO Between Azure AD and SAP Cloud Platform Using Identity Authentication Service | Tutorials for SAP Developers

Identity Authentication | SAP Cloud Identity Services | SAP Community

Conclusion

With the successful integration of externally hosted custom or third-party applications, let’s look into one of the procedures for building custom application on BTP and integrating it into the custom launchpad in the next blog post, Build Custom Application with SAP Business Application Studio.

Related Content

Build Custom Application with SAP Business Application Studio

Build Custom Launchpad

Side-by-Side Extension of SAP Asset Performance Management: Overview

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