SAP GUI is the graphical user interface client in SAP ERP's 3-tier architecture of database, application server and client. It is software that runs on a Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh or Unix desktop, and allows a user to access SAP functionality in SAP applications such as SAP ERP and SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW). It is used for remote access to the SAP central server in a company network.
| Release | Release date | Latest patch | End of life | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | First "GUI" for SAP software; no graphical elements like checkboxes, radiobuttons and icons | |||
| 1.1 | Field length indicated by background colors; fast paths in menus | |||
| 2.0 | New GUI for Windows 3.1; System and Application Toolbar added; icons in System Toolbar | |||
| 2.1 | New graphical elements: checkboxes, radiobuttons, group boxes and push buttons on screen | |||
| 3.0 | Table control introduced; icons added to buttons | |||
| 3.1 | 1996 | Windows95-look with flat buttons; tabstrip control and ABAP List Viewer (ALV) introduced | ||
| 4.0 | Screens contain more information to reduce navigation | |||
| 4.5 | Active X elements introduced; ALV is now based on grid control | |||
| 4.6D | July 2000 | GUI is re-designed; multiple-areas are introduced to reduce need for screen changes | ||
| 6.10 | July 2001 | |||
| 6.20 | March 2002 | December 31, 2010 | Scripting added [2] | |
| 6.40 | June 2004 | December 31, 2010 | Unicode support extended; accessibility and usability improved | |
| 7.10 | February 2007 | April 12, 2011 | Support for Microsoft Vista and Office 2007; new "Tweak SAP GUI" tool; new ABAP front-end editor | |
| 7.20 | April 2010 | 17 (final) | April 09, 2013[3] | Support for Windows XP; Windows 2003 Server; Windows Vista; Windows 2008 Server; Windows 7 and Office 2010; Built with Visual Studio 2008[4] |
| 7.30 | June 2012 | 15 | July 15, 2015 | Usability enhancements; new customization features; built with Visual Studio 2010 |
| 7.40 | October 2014 | 19 | November 9, 2019 | Replaces Corbu with Blue Crystal; integrates SAP GUI for Windows 7.40 and Netweaver Business Client 5.0 |
| 7.50 | May 2017 | 15 (final) | April 9, 2019 | |
| 7.60 | February 2019 | 15 | April 12, 2022 | Introduces Belize theme, aligning GUI's visual design with the rest of SAP's Fiori applications. Retires Enjoy / Streamline / Tradeshow / SystemDependent themes. |
| 7.70 | January 29, 2021 | 16 | April 09, 2024 | |
| 8.00 | January 27, 2023 | 8 | January 12, 2027 | The 64bit version; Quartz themes: Modernization of rendering engine and some additional features; HTML Control based on Microsoft Edge: Improvements; Usability improvements in many components; Improvements for SAP Logon; Branding images per system and client |
| Release | Release date | Latest patch | End of life | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.10 | October 2007 | 21 | |||
| 7.20 | December 2009 | 10 | January 31, 2013 | Supported OS – openSUSE, Fedora Core, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, AIX, OS X Lion, Fedora, Ubuntu | |
| 7.30 | December 2012 | 10 | March 31, 2015 | ||
| 7.40 | December 2014 | 13 | March 31, 2018 | ||
| 7.50 | February 2020 | 9[5] | |||
| 7.70 | March 2021 | New themes with HiDPI support |
SAP GUI on Microsoft Windows or Internet Explorer can also be used for single sign-on. There are several portal-based authentication applications for single sign-on. SAP GUI can have single sign-on with SAP Logon Ticket as well. Single sign-on also works in the Java GUI.[6]
SAP is a distributed application, where client software (SAP GUI) installed on a user's workstation is used to access the central SAP server remotely over the company's network. Users need to authenticate themselves when accessing SAP. By default, however, SAP uses unencrypted communication, which allows potential company-internal attackers to get access to usernames and passwords by listening on the network. This can expose the complete SAP system, if a person is able to get access to this information for a user with extended authorization in the SAP system. Information about this feature is publicly accessible on the Internet.
SAP offers an option to strongly protect communication between clients and servers, called Secure Network Communications (SNC).[7]
In total, the vendor has released 25 security patches (aka SAP Security Notes). One of the most notorious vulnerabilities was closed among the set of fixes released in March 2017. The vulnerability in the SAP GUI client for Windows allows remote code execution.[8] Also, researchers who identified the security issues pointed out that the vulnerability allows an attacker to download ransomware on the SAP server that would be automatically installed on every workstation within a company.[9]
Since 1998 SAP GUI screens (so-called "DynPros") can be adjusted and customized with GuiXT. Now this can also be achieved with "SAP Screen Personas". Personas is installed on one of the SAP NetWeaver ABAP 7.0x or 7.3x servers in the system landscape. Then it can be used on all SAP NetWeaver ABAP servers with a kernel of 7.21 or higher, including on NetWeaver ABAP 7.11 systems (on which Personas cannot be installed directly).
Native iOS and Android implementations of SAP GUI are available from GuiXT.