App Finder

Users open the app finder from the user actions menu in the launchpad shell bar, or from the Add Tile option while editing a page. It can show up to three tabs:

The Catalog tab is the default. The two SAP Easy Access tabs appear only if an administrator has enabled and connected them, and they are not supported on phones. Tiles in the app finder show a layout preview without live data. A user at Alder Manufacturing who holds a purchasing role therefore sees the purchasing catalogs, whether or not any page shows those apps. The app finder is the complete inventory of what the user may start, not a curated view.

The app finder adapts to the launchpad layout model:

• Spaces mode: each app shows whether it is already on one of the user's pages. Adding it opens a list of pages; the app lands in a Recently Added Apps section at the top of the page, from which the user can drag it into other sections. That section disappears when it is empty.
• My Home: users add their preferred apps to the personal My Home page through the app finder or bookmarks.
• Classic home page (deprecated): apps are added to groups instead of pages.

Personal additions take precedence over the administrator's layout, but they never change what the user may access. An administrator who later removes the catalog also removes the app from the user's page, because pages only show apps the user's catalogs contain. In spaces mode, the app finder is a personalization tool that works within the boundaries of catalogs and pages.

On-premise and in Private Edition, the app finder is governed by launchpad configuration parameters, set client-specifically in /UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF:

• HOMEPAGE_PERSONALIZATION (default true): when false, users cannot rearrange pages, and the app finder is disabled too, unless APPFINDER_ENABLED overrides it. This setting does not affect My Home.
• APPFINDER_ENABLED (default false): when true, the app finder stays available even if personalization is switched off.
• APPFINDER_EASYACCESSMENU (default true), with _SAPMENU, _USERMENU and _ON_TABLET: show or hide the SAP Easy Access tabs.
• APPFINDER_SEARCH_CATALOG and the matching Easy Access search parameters: show or hide the search field per tab.

The Easy Access tabs need more than a parameter: RFC destinations in SM59 per back-end alias, OData services in /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE, and either a role-based or a role-free setup. The role-free variant, available since ABAP Platform 1909 FPS01, uses the customizing parameter FLP_EAM_ALIASES. In Public Edition, the app finder is reached from the user profile; check the SAP Help Portal for which of its settings administrators can change there. Deciding these parameters is a decision about how much self-service the app finder should offer.

Work from the role to the app:

1. No catalog: the business catalog containing the app is not in any of the user's roles. /UI2/FLPCA_USER lists the catalogs a user actually receives.
2. Wrong device: the app or its target mapping does not support the current device type, so the app is hidden on that device.
3. App finder switched off: personalization is disabled and APPFINDER_ENABLED is not set, so the menu entry is missing entirely.
4. User Menu tab empty: in PFCG, the role's menu options hide the menu from the launchpad, or the menu entry points to an RFC destination. SAP recommends replicating a back-end catalog from the remote system instead.
5. SAP Menu tab slow or timing out: the SAP menu cache is not active or not filled; schedule the report /UI2/EAM_BUILD_CACHE to run periodically.
6. Duplicated tiles in the SAP Menu tab: expected behavior, because entries come from both the menu and launchpad app descriptor items.

A practitioner habit worth keeping is to check the user's catalogs before suspecting the app finder. Nearly every missing app in the app finder is a catalog or role assignment issue.

No. The Catalog tab mirrors the business catalogs in the user's roles, so it can only show what roles already grant. Two consequences matter for security design:

• Every catalog app is discoverable. An app that is in an assigned catalog but placed on no page is still found through the app finder and launchpad search. Hiding an app means removing it from the user's catalogs, not from pages.
• The SAP Menu tab is role-independent. It lists every transaction of the connected system for every user. Starting a transaction is still subject to the back-end start check on S_TCODE, but the list itself can confuse users and reveal more than intended.

A clear decision criterion follows: enable the SAP Menu tab only where users are expected to work across the classic transaction landscape, and rely on catalogs everywhere else. The app finder reveals the effect of role design; it never replaces it.