SAP Fiori Launchpad

The SAP Fiori Launchpad is a shell: it holds no business logic of its own, but hosts applications built with different UI technologies and gives them common services.

• Navigation: every app start is an intent (semantic object plus action) that the launchpad resolves through target mappings.
• Search and discovery: the search field and the app finder list the apps a user may start, grouped by catalog.
• Shell bar and notifications: a common header with search, notifications and the user menu for settings and profile.
• Personalization: users can add, remove and rearrange apps and sections on their pages, within what administrators allow.
• Device awareness: apps that do not support the current device type are not offered.

Because every app runs inside the same shell, users switch between an SAPUI5 app and a classic transaction without changing tools. The launchpad can itself be embedded in other UI clients, such as SAP Business Client, or have its content consumed by SAP Build Work Zone. The SAP Fiori Launchpad is therefore the runtime frame around apps, not an app in its own right.

Three kinds of launchpad content meet at runtime, and all of them reach the user through roles:

1. Catalogs define which apps the user may start. Every app in a catalog assigned to one of the user's roles can be found through search and the app finder.
2. Spaces and pages define the layout. A page shows a curated selection of those apps in sections; it does not show everything the user can access.
3. Target mappings in the user's catalogs decide which application actually opens when a tile or link fires an intent.

This split explains a frequent support question. An app that appears in search but not on the page is a layout gap, not an access gap. An app that appears on the page but fails to open is a navigation gap. An app that is missing everywhere is a catalog or role gap. What a user sees in the SAP Fiori Launchpad is always the intersection of role assignments with these three content types.

• On-premise and Private Edition: the launchpad runs on the SAP Fiori front-end server. For new installations SAP recommends the embedded deployment, in the same system as SAP S/4HANA; the standalone hub deployment is deprecated. The launchpad is served from the ICF node /sap/bc/ui2/flp, and SAP recommends publishing it under an external alias created in SICF.
• Configuration parameters: cross-client values delivered by SAP are displayed, read-only, in /UI2/FLP_SYS_CONF. Client-specific overrides are maintained in /UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF and are not recorded in transports automatically.
• Content tools: the launchpad app manager (/UI2/FLPAM) creates tiles and target mappings in technical catalogs, the launchpad content manager (/UI2/FLPCM_CUST) manages business catalogs, and the Manage Launchpad Spaces and Manage Launchpad Pages apps define the layout. The launchpad designer is deprecated, and SAP's 2025 FPS02 documentation states that it must no longer be used.
• Public Edition: SAP operates the system and delivers the launchpad content. Administrators work through apps such as Manage Launchpad Spaces, Manage Launchpad Pages and Maintain Business Roles. Manage Launchpad Settings changes a defined list of parameters, such as the company logo, app finder access, session timeout and the system information bar.

The SAP Fiori Launchpad is set up once per system; most ongoing work is content and role maintenance, not configuration.

The original launchpad home page arranged apps in groups. SAP introduced spaces and pages as its successor with SAP S/4HANA 2020 and has flagged the groups-based home page as deprecated since then, with removal announced for a future version.

• Public Edition: spaces and pages arrived with release 2005. From release 2302, new systems no longer offer the classic home page and open on My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud; with release 2408, the classic home page was removed for all systems.
• On-premise and Private Edition: spaces are switched on with the launchpad parameter SPACES. The ABAP platform's coded default still shows the classic home page; check /UI2/FLP_SYS_CONF for the value your SAP S/4HANA release delivers. My Home in SAP S/4HANA is available from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 and is activated through launchpad parameters.
• Migration: the Create Launchpad Pages from Groups app (/UI2/FDM_GTP) turns existing groups into editable pages, and users can import their personalized home page into My Home.

Any new SAP Fiori Launchpad design should start from spaces and pages, not from groups.

Work from access to layout to navigation:

1. Missing everywhere, including search: no catalog that contains the app is assigned to the user's roles. Check the roles, then the catalogs; /UI2/FLPCA_USER lists the catalogs and spaces a user receives.
2. Found in search but not on the page: the catalog is assigned, but the app is not on any page in the user's spaces. Add it to a page or let the user add it.
3. Visible on the page but navigation fails: the intent does not resolve. Run /UI2/FLIA for the affected user to see which target mappings the launchpad considered.
4. Inconsistent or broken content: run /UI2/FLC to check delivered and customized launchpad content for consistency. From ABAP platform 2025, SAP deprecates it in favor of the content manager issues view and /UI2/FLPCA.
5. App opens but shows no data or an authorization error: the launchpad content is fine; backend authorizations or the OData service activation are missing.

Diagnosing in this order avoids editing content when the real cause is a role. Most SAP Fiori Launchpad problems are assignment problems, not defects in the launchpad.