TechnologyDriven

First demo’s of “Project Muse”, SAP’s new user-interface, were shown at the SAPPHIRE in Orlando. Now some technical details were unveiled for the SDN-community in a blog.

The most important facts:

• “Project Muse” is installed locally, but based on web-technology, namly Macromedia’s/Adobe’s Flash technology (more precisely, it is based on Adobe’s new Apollo)
• “Classical” GUI-transactions, WebDynpros, web-applications, BW-reports and so on can be included as transactions within the GUI
• The role-based menu, logon, Single Sign-On are handled by a Portal-Runtime (i.e. a Portal-Runtime is always needed for Project Muse)
• Unlike the classical SAPGUI, “Project Muse” runs on Windows, but also on Mac OS and Linux (thanks to being Flash-based), and in future shall also be able to run on mobile devices

Knowing all that, I think “Project Muse” could be seen as an alternative user-interface for the NetWeaver Portal, by-passing some limitations web-browsers implicate for professional applications.

The question is, why does SAP not rely on open standards (like AJAX or the Flash-alternative SVG), but makes itself dependent on a third-party vendor in such a central functionality?