The latest update to SAP Screen Personas 3.0 with Service Pack 20 (SP20) introduces several powerful enhancements designed to make flavor creation, maintenance, and device-specific adaptation easier and more flexible than ever.
Below is a summary of the key improvements and how they benefit administrators, developers, and flavor builders.
1. Copy a Flavor to Multiple Target Flavors
The former “Copy to Application ID” option has been enhanced and renamed to “Copy to Application ID or Flavor ID”.
With this improvement, you can now copy a source flavor to target flavor. You can also you can apply the same source flavor to several target flavors in a single step, making mass flavor updates faster and more efficient.
When screens or transactions share similar layouts, you can reuse an existing flavor instead of starting from scratch.
For example: If you have a Display flavor and want to create a Change flavor, you can copy the Display flavor, adjust the fields that differ, and quickly finalize the Change version. This ensures consistency and significantly reduces development time.
Prerequisites
Personas Administrator role is required
Target flavors must already exist (either empty or with changes)
Source flavor must not contain an adaptive stack
BDT (Business Data Toolset) transactions often share identical detail screens but have different entry screens.
To support these scenarios, an additional option has been introduced for BDT app flavors where the entry screen changes can be skipped during the copy process.
This allows flavor updates to be applied efficiently without impacting initial-screen behavior.
2. Adaptive Flavors for Custom Industrial Devices
Administrators can now define their own device list for adaptive flavor creation in SAP GUI for HTML and Slipstream Engine.
Until SP19, the device list was static and maintained exclusively by SAP. With SP20, administrators can register custom industrial devices used within their organization and specify attributes such as device width and pixel ratio. These values determine how an adaptive flavor is rendered for that specific device. The newly added devices will be available to choose from list of devices while creating new adaptive flavors.
Additionally, in Slipstream Engine,the custom device created by the administrator becomes available in the Device Preview list, allowing designers to preview exactly how a flavor will appear on a custom company device.
Benefits
Enables greater flexibility in optimizing the user experience for rugged devices, handheld scanners, industrial tablets, and other specialized hardware.
Ensures that flavors are responsive and visually optimized for the intended device landscape.
Streamlines the design cycle and reduces trial-and-error.
3. BDT Mode Enabled by Default
With SP20, BDT Mode is now enabled by default, simplifying setup and configuration.
This means there is no need to manually set the ENABLE_BDT_MODE parameter in /PERSONAS/ADMIN when creating flavors for Business Data Toolset (BDT)–enabled transactions, such as Business Partner (BP) screens.
To support legacy flavors created without BDT mode enabled, a new parameter—DISABLE_BDT_MODE—has been introduced.
This ensures that administrators can preserve previous behavior and that legacy BDT flavors continue to function correctly after the SP20 upgrade.
For more information, refer note 2451049
4. Message Toast Support
In SP20 , a new scripting API command has been introduced for displaying non-interactive popup messages in SAP GUI for HTML similar to the “toast message” in SAPUI5. Scripting API command was available only in slipstream engine with SP19. With this new command, you can now easily implement message toasts for simple scenarios, allowing for streamlined feedback that aligns with SAP Fiori standards. This addition helps enhance user experience by providing subtle, non-disruptive messages in SAP Screen Personas.
Example: session.utils.showMessageToast(“This is a toast message”);
How it works
Shows a small popup message that disappears after a few seconds.
The message stays visible if the user hovers or taps on it.
Conclusion
The SP20 release brings meaningful enhancements that streamline flavor management, improve BDT handling, and provide greater flexibility for device-specific adaptations. Whether you’re managing complex environments or designing mobile-friendly screens, these features help deliver a more efficient and tailored user experience.
SP20 related notes: : https://me.sap.com/notes/3672078
Online training. The best way to learn the basics about SAP Screen Personas (Adapt UI for classic applications) is to take our free training course on the learning.sap.com platform: https://learning.sap.com/courses/adapting-the-ui-in-sap-s-4hana-cloud-using-sap-screen-personasConnect with your peers. Every other month, we have a group of customers that gather online to share best practices, demo their flavors, and answer each other’s questions. Experts from the product team also join to explain how to use the latest functionality. If you are interested in joining, you can sign up online to join the SAP Screen Personas practitioner forum. This will add you to the mailing list for the monthly meeting summaries. Please contact “Peter Spielvogel“ or me directly if you want to join the monthly calls.
Going forward with SAP Screen Personas
If you are on SP18 or earlier, we recommend you upgrade now, ideally going directly to SP20.
Worried that we won’t support it into the future? Don’t be. We are supporting SAP Screen Personas functionality through at least 2040.
Have other concerns about the roadmap for SAP Screen Personas? See if we answer them in our latest roadmap blog post.the ability to adapt the UI of classic apps is something important to us.
Have other concerns about the roadmap for SAP Screen Personas? See if we answer them in our latest roadmap blog post.
The latest update to SAP Screen Personas 3.0 with Service Pack 20 (SP20) introduces several powerful enhancements designed to make flavor creation, maintenance, and device-specific adaptation easier and more flexible than ever.Below is a summary of the key improvements and how they benefit administrators, developers, and flavor builders.1. Copy a Flavor to Multiple Target FlavorsThe former “Copy to Application ID” option has been enhanced and renamed to “Copy to Application ID or Flavor ID”.With this improvement, you can now copy a source flavor to target flavor. You can also you can apply the same source flavor to several target flavors in a single step, making mass flavor updates faster and more efficient.When screens or transactions share similar layouts, you can reuse an existing flavor instead of starting from scratch.For example: If you have a Display flavor and want to create a Change flavor, you can copy the Display flavor, adjust the fields that differ, and quickly finalize the Change version. This ensures consistency and significantly reduces development time.PrerequisitesPersonas Administrator role is requiredTarget flavors must already exist (either empty or with changes)Source flavor must not contain an adaptive stackFor more details, refer to Copy a Flavor to a Different Transaction in the documentation. Additional Options for BDT app flavorsBDT (Business Data Toolset) transactions often share identical detail screens but have different entry screens.To support these scenarios, an additional option has been introduced for BDT app flavors where the entry screen changes can be skipped during the copy process.This allows flavor updates to be applied efficiently without impacting initial-screen behavior.2. Adaptive Flavors for Custom Industrial DevicesAdministrators can now define their own device list for adaptive flavor creation in SAP GUI for HTML and Slipstream Engine.Until SP19, the device list was static and maintained exclusively by SAP. With SP20, administrators can register custom industrial devices used within their organization and specify attributes such as device width and pixel ratio. These values determine how an adaptive flavor is rendered for that specific device. The newly added devices will be available to choose from list of devices while creating new adaptive flavors.Additionally, in Slipstream Engine,the custom device created by the administrator becomes available in the Device Preview list, allowing designers to preview exactly how a flavor will appear on a custom company device.BenefitsEnables greater flexibility in optimizing the user experience for rugged devices, handheld scanners, industrial tablets, and other specialized hardware.Ensures that flavors are responsive and visually optimized for the intended device landscape.Streamlines the design cycle and reduces trial-and-error.For more information, see Devices.3. BDT Mode Enabled by DefaultWith SP20, BDT Mode is now enabled by default, simplifying setup and configuration.This means there is no need to manually set the ENABLE_BDT_MODE parameter in /PERSONAS/ADMIN when creating flavors for Business Data Toolset (BDT)–enabled transactions, such as Business Partner (BP) screens.To support legacy flavors created without BDT mode enabled, a new parameter—DISABLE_BDT_MODE—has been introduced.This ensures that administrators can preserve previous behavior and that legacy BDT flavors continue to function correctly after the SP20 upgrade.For more information, refer note 24510494. Message Toast SupportIn SP20 , a new scripting API command has been introduced for displaying non-interactive popup messages in SAP GUI for HTML similar to the “toast message” in SAPUI5. Scripting API command was available only in slipstream engine with SP19. With this new command, you can now easily implement message toasts for simple scenarios, allowing for streamlined feedback that aligns with SAP Fiori standards. This addition helps enhance user experience by providing subtle, non-disruptive messages in SAP Screen Personas.Example: session.utils.showMessageToast(“This is a toast message”);How it worksShows a small popup message that disappears after a few seconds.The message stays visible if the user hovers or taps on it.ConclusionThe SP20 release brings meaningful enhancements that streamline flavor management, improve BDT handling, and provide greater flexibility for device-specific adaptations. Whether you’re managing complex environments or designing mobile-friendly screens, these features help deliver a more efficient and tailored user experience.SP20 related notes: : https://me.sap.com/notes/3672078 Learn more about SAP Screen PersonasOnline training. The best way to learn the basics about SAP Screen Personas (Adapt UI for classic applications) is to take our free training course on the learning.sap.com platform: https://learning.sap.com/courses/adapting-the-ui-in-sap-s-4hana-cloud-using-sap-screen-personasConnect with your peers. Every other month, we have a group of customers that gather online to share best practices, demo their flavors, and answer each other’s questions. Experts from the product team also join to explain how to use the latest functionality. If you are interested in joining, you can sign up online to join the SAP Screen Personas practitioner forum. This will add you to the mailing list for the monthly meeting summaries. Please contact “Peter Spielvogel“ or me directly if you want to join the monthly calls.Product documentation. The SAP Screen Personas documentation, provides more clear , comprehensive and the latest information about the product.Going forward with SAP Screen PersonasIf you are on SP18 or earlier, we recommend you upgrade now, ideally going directly to SP20.If you are not currently using SAP Screen Personas, why not?Worried that we won’t support it into the future? Don’t be. We are supporting SAP Screen Personas functionality through at least 2040.Have other concerns about the roadmap for SAP Screen Personas? See if we answer them in our latest roadmap blog post.the ability to adapt the UI of classic apps is something important to us.Have other concerns about the roadmap for SAP Screen Personas? See if we answer them in our latest roadmap blog post.SAP Screen Personas is now available with the Default Installation Stack of SAP S/4HANA 2025, Private Cloud Edition Read More Technology Blog Posts by SAP articles
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