When a user logs on to an AS ABAP system, he sees all the roles that are assigned to his user name in the system. This is also the expected default behavior when the user logs on to the Business Client. However, in many cases, the user wants the Business Client to display a mini-application consisting of a small number of roles.

This mini-application should only display the roles belonging to its application (the roles that are tailored to the specific task and that are tested and documented together). The new development of a solution management process can serve as an example here: All of the roles can be given an indicator specifying that they belong to a certain cockpit.

As soon as the user now accesses the system using the Business Client cockpit, only the roles assigned to that cockpit are sent to the client and displayed. This means that the user only has a restricted view of the specific roles that belong to the displayed application. For more information, see chapter 5.4 Menu Options.

From a symbolic point of view, a cockpit is simply the name of an application that consists of one or more roles.

From a technical point of view, a cockpit is defined as a node in the ICF service tree.

This is the central point of access to the application and to AS ABAP. As soon as a request for a cockpit is received, all roles that are assigned to the current user run through a filter. Only a small subset of roles that are assigned to the specific cockpit are output. On the other hand, if no special roles are assigned, a general cockpit is displayed. In this case, all roles that are assigned to no specific cockpit are made available on the client. This gives the user a generic view of all roles that are usually visible, without the roles of the mini-application. For more information, see Creating and Configuring an ICF Service.

From a security point of view, cockpits have an extremely important role. A cockpit is a central point through which an application within AS ABAP can be accessed depending on whether it is active or inactive.

The ICF node of the relevant cockpit must be active to enable access to AS ABAP using the cockpit path. This technology is similar to the procedure for BSP applications or Web Dynpro ABAP applications. The cockpit node in the ICF service tree has to be active for the logical application with which the cockpit is associated to be active. For more information, see Activating and Deactivating ICF Services.

In summary, a cockpit can be seen as a logical application that filters all roles assigned to the user so that only the roles that belong to the application remain.