The German software giant SAP offers a graphical user interface for users with SAP GUI under Windows 10 – with a long tradition because SAP GUI has existed since the 90s. But what exactly is SAP GUI
Why is an installation on your own computer necessary? How does an installation process work under Windows 10? An overview.
WHY USERS BENEFIT FROM SAP GUI ON THEIR OWN WINDOWS 10 COMPUTER
Most people who work with SAP or one of the software giant’s programs (parts) limit this to the company. No wonder, after all, everything is already installed on the company computer and the user hardly has to worry about anything – there is an administrator or a service desk for all matters relating to software and hardware. So why install SAP GUI on your own computer at all?
There are two answers: On the one hand, a separate installation allows you to use SAP GUI independent of working hours and you also get an insight into the installation process itself and thus a little background knowledge. On the other hand, many often have no choice at all: In the context of SAP training, further education, courses of study, or self-learning with tutorials, there is simply no company computer with SAP – nevertheless, the learners have to prepare themselves for handling this program. The private computer is the most obvious option here.
WHAT IS SAP GUI ACTUALLY?
SAP GUI is the name of software from SAP, which is part of the architecture of an SAP system at the level of the presentation layer is located. The abbreviation “GUI” or “Graphical User Interface” shows this, which translates as “graphical user interface”. SAP GUI presents data and accepts input, the user does not need to be able to program or understand the data models behind it – everything runs comfortably and ideally intuitively via the graphical user interface. Of course, several users can work with one and the same system via several clients or SAP GUI installations: All requests to the SAP system from the SAP GUI are handled via a dispatcher and forwarded to the task handler or the message server. With a dual-stack instance, the Java server processes can also be triggered.
The vast majority of SAP users in a company work with exactly this program for the most part. This is exactly why it is so important in education, especially in the context of industry-related courses or further training: previous knowledge of SAP GUI gives the knowledgeable an advantage when looking for a job and makes the career path a little less rocky.
HISTORY AND FUNCTIONAL SCOPE EXTENSION OF SAP GUI
SAP GUI for Windows has existed since the early 1990s and has been continuously expanded with new features over the decades. In January 2021, for example, new quartz themes, scaling across multiple monitors and many other improvements, especially graphic ones, were recently added. Incidentally, a theme is a design that changes basic display components such as the background color for the entire program – for example the “dark mode” that is available in many programs other than SAP GUI.
SAP GUI starts either as part of a network installation or via a local installation on your own computer. The entry or the first user interaction takes place after the successful installation via SAP logon. The user selects an SAP system here with which he would like to connect.
HOW DOES THE INSTALLATION OF SAP GUI WORK ON WINDOWS 10?
If you want to install SAP GUI on Windows and really want to do something with it, you should have access to an SAP system – this is also essential for educational purposes since SAP GUI does not provide any deeper functionality by itself. It basically just forms the “window” to an SAP system. The educational institution usually offers a corresponding test system – and also SAP GUI itself.
DOWNLOAD SAPGUI
A corresponding SAP GUI installation file is required for the installation of SAP GUI under Windows 10. The educational institution provides these as well as the test system. After downloading the installation file, it still has to be unzipped depending on the download. The installation process starts with a double-click on the corresponding .exe file; it may be necessary to confirm the admin message from Windows.
INSTALLATION PROCESS: THE FIRST STEPS
After unpacking the data for the installation, a window opens with the SAP Front-End Installer, which first prompts you to close all running SAP applications.
By clicking on “Next” the user can select the components to be installed. By default, all available packages are selected here, but in most cases, this can be left as-is unless the educational institution requires otherwise.
Another click on “Next” starts the actual installation process, which can be terminated after a short wait by clicking on “Finish”. With that, SAP GUI is installed on Windows 10! However, it has not yet been set up or an SAP system has not yet been connected. This happens in the next step:
INITIALIZATION: CONNECTING SAP GUI TO A SAP SYSTEM
With the first start of the installed SAP GUI via the link on the desktop, the connection manager opens due to missing connections to SAP systems. In this window, a new connection can be created by clicking on “New connection”. In most cases you leave it at the default settings and first click on “Next” until the parameters for the system connection have to be entered: This requires the definition of a connection type and a description. The educational institution provides the necessary data on:
- Application server
- Instance number
- System ID
- SAProuter string
Once this data has been entered, the connection can be finalized with “Finish”. It may be necessary to repeat the setup steps for a connection to an SAP system if other systems are to be connected.
The connected system can now be selected with a double-click – users can log on to the system with a username and password, which users also receive from the educational institution or company. This completes the installation and setup of SAP GUI.
ALTERNATIVE TO SAP GUI: WEB BROWSER
If you want to avoid the SAP GUI, you also have the option of working with the SAP system via the web browser or carrying out the corresponding processes, depending on the possibilities of the SAP system. However, inquiries about this are no longer distributed via the dispatcher, but via the Internet Communication Manager of the SAP system to the internal instances (such as ABAP and Java). However, the web functions are less extensive and dependent on the browser.
