Say Goodbye to the SAP AJAX Portal, and Hello to HTML5

It wasn’t long ago that I was singing the praises of the new AJAX Portal from SAP. Or maybe it was long ago?

Since then, I’ve been thinking: why not really rework these screens with the latest and greatest in web technologies? I’ve been spending a lot of time working on HTML5 and have really come to love the Twitter Bootstrap framework.

I know that companies don’t want to install new hardware or sign up for more licensing. They just want to take advantage of what they have, and make it better, and make it work for them.

So this is what we set out to do, redo the SAP Portal, on the SAP Portal.

You can preview it here: https://mindsetstg.wpengine.com/solutions.html

A few things I absolutely wanted:

• no iFrames – I hate multiple scroll bars. There should only be one.
• Responsive Design – The screen should work in all sorts of resolutions, and on devices like iPads.
• Dynamic content – Deploying Java to the Portal isn’t very fun. Updating the PCD is easy. Everything should work with the same roles, worksets, and iViews that people are used to.
• No extras – This sounds odd in the software world, but I think the problem with the Portal today, is there is too much. And it makes it slow.

Also of note:

• You can still launch SAPGUI, which is I think what most companies really like to do anyway, given the single sign-on advantages of Portal.
• Further, the design is responsive. Additionally, as you shrink it, it reformats. Beautiful.
• But I think the key is that we really cut out the clutter. There is no iFrames.