BO-BW by Ingo

`I left beautiful Vancouver (it was not raining today) to go to Frankfurt for two weeks (the forecast was rain and snow). So I am sitting here in the Lufthansa plane writing my first in a series of blogs I am planning to write over the next couple of weeks.

I will focus on the current integration between SAP and Business Objects products and will try to outline some of the great options that we can offer in the BI area.

Myself - I started with Seagate Software (later Crystal Decisions) in 1999 as a Crystal Decisions trainer and moved to Walldorf to work with the development group from SAP and Business Objects on the OEM partnership between both of them. I had great 4 years in Walldorf and made some great friends (greetings to Ingo and Falko). I was given then the opportunity to move to Vancouver and in my latest role I am working on the SAP Education for Business Objects employees and partners.

So here are the topics I would like to cover in my blog series

1. Overview on current SAP connectivity integration with the Business Objects product suite

2. Crystal Reports and SAP BW

a. Creating a simple report with a SAP BW query

b. Using BW variables in Crystal Reports

c. Using hierarchies in Crystal Reports

3. Crystal Reports and SAP R/3

a. Using InfoSets in Crystal Reports

b. Using tables and ABAP functions in Crystal Reports

4. Web Intelligence and SAP BW

a. Building a universe on top of SAP BW

b. Using BW variables in Web Intelligence

c. Using hierarchies in Web Intelligence

5. Xcelsius and SAP datasources

a. Creating an Xcelsius dashboard with Crystal Reports

b. Creating an Xcelsius dashboard with Web Intelligence

c. Creating an Xcelsius dashboard with web services

The idea behind all these topics is to give you a brief overview of the capabilities and to provide a quick outline of how you can use this functionality in your own environment. I will try to use existing SAP content as much as possible so that each group can follow my steps in their own system.

As part of my first blog I will describe the available connectivity options for the Business Objects product suite.

This diagram shows the available sources from SAP R/3 and SAP BW.

Depending on the tool you are using you can either use all of the shown datasource or only some of them.

In the next diagram you can see the available options for Crystal Reports.

Crystal Reports is offering the following connectivity for SAP R/3

An InfoSet connection providing access to classic InfoSets and SAP queries

Table, cluster and ABAP function connectivity

Crystal Reports is offering the following connectivity for SAP BW

Access to SAP BW queries and SAP BW cubes

Direct access to SAP ODS objects

This diagram shows the current options for Web Intelligence.

Web Intelligence is offering connectivity to SAP BW queries and SAP BW cubes. As shown, Web Intelligence does not offer direct connectivity to SAP R/3 but instead works in combination with our Data Integrator product and our available Rapid Marts. In this way we can provide a data mart solution on top of SAP R/3 which then can be used in combination with Web Intelligence.

I hope this gave you a quick overview on the available connectivity for Crystal Reports and Web Intelligence in combination with SAP R/3 or SAP BW.

I would really appreciate suggestions for further blogs and would like to hear what is of most interest to people. I will then try to provide the information in the form of a short blog entry

Stay tuned for more on Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, and Xcelsius on top of SAP R/3 and SAP BW.

PART 2

There seems to be huge interest in the BusinessObjects product suite. So, after the great feedback on my first blog I will try to complete my series on the BusinessObjects products in combination with SAP products more quickly.

In this blog I will focus on Crystal Reports in combination with SAP BW queries.

This screenshot shows the query I will use to demonstrate Crystal Reports.

The query is based on the SAP Demo Sales and Distribution Overview cube (0D_SD_C03).

In the rows I will request information for the Calendar Year / Month, the Customer (Sold-to-party) and the Material.

In the columns I will request the key figures Open Orders and Open Orders Qty.

BEx web reporting provides this result set:

Building a report with Crystal Reports based on this BW query is simple.

After the installation of the SAP Integration Kit there is a new toolbar in Crystal Reports. This toolbar is specifically designed for integration with SAP BW and allows you to use the typical role menus from the SAP BW system.

By using the SAP toolbar in Crystal Reports I can leverage the standard role menus and select the BW query for a new report.

After selecting the query, the requested information is available in the field explorer from Crystal Reports.

As shown in the image above, Crystal Reports received all the key figures and all the characteristics.

The following is a quick overview of how Crystal Reports treats elements from a BW query:

Characteristics are being returned as separate fields with a key and description in the field explorer (for example: Material (SAP Demo) Key and medium name)

Free characteristics are being treated in the same way as any other characteristic in Crystal Reports and can be used for reporting

Key figures from the BW query are being returned with up to three fields representing the numeric value, the unit, and the formatted value based on the user preferences (transaction SU01).

Display attributes are treated as separate fields in Crystal Reports but can be used independent of the characteristic itself (for example: Material Group (Key and Name) and Gross Weight)

Variables from the underlying query are resulting in parameters in Crystal Reports (more in my next blog entry).

Now I can use all of these elements and have the complete functionality of Crystal Reports.

In the first step I select the menu "Insert > Group" and create a group based on the Calendar Year / Month characteristic.

I then add the Open Orders Value and Open Order Qty key figures to my report and select the context menu "Insert Summary" to create two new group summaries for my grouping based on the Calendar Year / Month.

I then insert a chart showing the Order value for the year (menu Insert - Chart)

I then create an additional grouping (menu Insert > Group) based on the Customer and select the menu Report > Group Sort Expert to use a Top 10 condition.

This creates a report showing me the Order Value and Order Qty for each month and it allows me to drill down on each month to see the Top 10 customers for the selected entry.

Here the start of my report:

And the view after a drill down on March:

All screens are taken from the Crystal Reports Designer tool. The user can also view all the reports via the BusinessObjects Enterprise platform in a web client and still use the same navigation functionality.

This was just a short introduction showing how Crystal Reports can leverage a BW query. I focused on explaining how elements from a BW query are returned to Crystal Reports (rather than focusing on report design). In my next blog I will explain formatting capabilities in more detail and demonstrate how to easily create a balance sheet as well as using highlighting and alerting functionalities with Crystal Reports.

Ingo Hilgefort is a Group Product Manager with Business Objects, an SAP company focusing on the topic of Embedded Analytics Add to: del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit

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Showing messages 1 through 17 of 17.

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Hierarchy Variables from BEx in Crystal Report2008-04-03 17:59:01AlfredoBorunda Business Card [Reply]

I am trying to use a Bex query that has a cost center hierarchy with a variable that allows users to select specific nodes or even cost centers at run time.

In Report Designer, this query behaves by providing users with a drop down menu so they can select the nodes, just like it would in BEx Analyzer.

Can this be done in Crystal? If so, how? I looked at the blog 3 and it has an example for a static hierarchy embedded in the report, but not for a variable. Thanks for your help and great blog!

Alfredo Borunda

Hierarchy Variables from BEx in Crystal Report2008-04-07 09:57:48IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Alfredo,

yes - the combination of a hierarchy and a hierarchy node variable is possible as well.In the Crystal Reports designer tool you receive a static list that could be updated manually. When viewing and distributing the reports via BusinessObjects Enterprise you receive a online list shown as a tree control

ingo

drag and drop functionality is available?2008-03-10 23:14:52venkats Business Card [Reply]

nice blog,i want to know wheather there is drag and drop functionality like adding and removing columns in the run time

So interesting...2008-02-22 09:38:16MarisolLopez Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Your blog couldn't be more opportune, and the examples show the great capabilities of Business Objects, so I would like you tell us a little more about how will be the BW interface, I'm talking about if the acces will be through business objects interface or SAP interface??

This point is being covered by the Business Objects Kit??

Thanks a lot.

So interesting...2008-02-22 13:43:14IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Marisol,

all our tools - in combination with the SAP Integration Kit - are using SAPs BAPI function to retrieve the metadata or data from SAP BW.

Are you looking for specifics ?

Ingo

So interesting...2008-02-25 13:56:01MarisolLopez Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Ok I got it,

What about the user interface? In your examples, we can see SAP Toolbar included in Crystal Reports...

It is being designing any interface that combines the features of both SAP BI as Crystal Reports?

I mean for example: A new version of Query Designer,BEx Analyzer, etc.

Crystal light2008-02-21 11:03:40PavelAfanasiev Business Card [Reply]

Ingo,

great examples. As the BI platform has been released (https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/b050d131-7ebc-2a10-57a3-99f7554953bb), it talks about Crystal Reports Light. Can you provide us with any information on how it will be different from the existing models, and how it will integrate into the existing BW environments?

Thanks

Pavel

great blog!2008-02-20 04:21:48IgnacioHernndez Business Card [Reply]

Glad to rediscover Crystal Reports, It would be great the inclusion of Bussines Objects product suite in an Sneak Preview Version or SDN Subscription . Regards,Ignacio.

Good information2008-02-19 05:46:54BhanuGupta Business Card [Reply]

I think it would also be helpful if you can compare the features and capabilities of Crystal with the BEx Report Designer.

Thanks,Bhanu

Good information2008-02-19 07:12:14IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Bhanu,

what I would suggest is that you look at the combined product roadmap which is available in the Business Objects area.You will recognize that the BEx Report Designer is being replaced with a product called Crystal Repors light.

Ingo Hilgefort

Good information2008-02-19 07:25:35BhanuGupta Business Card [Reply]

Thanks a lot Ingo...that should be good and I'll take a look at it.

Regards,Bhanu


for everybodies benefit here the the link to the

Joined product roadmap

Ingo

Good information2008-02-20 07:38:17AnthonyAndreacchio Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

great information. Will there ever come a time when Crystal will read the BI cubes directly? or must one always build an SAP Query first before using Crystal.

thanks again


Hi Anthony,

our tools can leverage a query or the cube directly but please keep in mind that when accessing the cube directly you will loose some major functionality :

- no variables- no restricted keyfigures- no calculated keyfigures- no navigational attributes

and in addition you can not leverage authorization variables.

ingo

Good information2008-04-01 05:01:42EmmanuelJaikumar Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Pertaining to your message to Anthony,

1.Does this mean that BO continues to use the OLAP features of SAP BI if Bo tries to access via a BW query?

All Below listed features come into picture during OLAP calculations in SAP BW:

variablesrestricted keyfigurescalculated keyfiguresnavigational attributes

2.So the frontend part of existing SAP BW example, WEB rendering from OLAP data_get(to be precise its RRK_DATA_GET olap module) and component ET-RT(the frontend runtime for both excel and web components) be REPLACED by BO reporting?

Thanks and Regards,EmmanuelET-BEX-WEB developer!

Crystal Report connection to BEx Query2008-03-06 21:35:38MaryHuang Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Thanks for the infomation. The last time I have come across Crystal Report up front and personal was on BW 3.2/3.5 (do not remember which version of Crystal) before it was acquired by BOBJ.

Back then Crystal Report interact with BEx Query via OLE DB for OLAP. Is that still the case? Also is Crystal fully working with BW hierarchies and can it work with multiple hierarchies in one query?

Thanks,Mary

Good information2008-02-20 09:14:07AnthonyAndreacchio Business Card [Reply]

thanks Ingo,

I've heard there is a 30 day trial for this. Is that on the SAP or BO site? and does it include the Kit for BI or is that a separate download?

regardsAnthony

PART4

In my previous blogs I did focus on how Crystal Reports can leverage BW queries as a datasource.

In this blog I will explain how Crystal Reports is able to leverage data from an R/3 system.

Crystal Reports has several options to connect to an R/3 system.

Crystal Reports is able to connect to:

InfoSets

InfoSet Queries

ABAP Functions

Tables (via Open SQL)

When Crystal Reports is connecting to R/3 system via the InfoSet connectivity, the user needs first to decide if the report should leverage an InfoSet or an InfoSet query.

In the second step the user needs to decide if the report should be based on a local InfoSet / InfoSet query or a Global InfoSet / InfoSet query.

After connecting to the InfoSet, Crystal Reports is offering all available fields in the field explorer and the user can now use all available fields to build the report.

The second option is to connect to the R/3 system via the OpenSQL interface.

The first step in Crystal Reports is to select the datasource.

The Data Dictionary allows Crystal Reports to retrieve all tables from the R/3 system.

The second option is to retrieve a list of ABAP Functions

The third option is to leverage a ABAP data cluster in Crystal Reports

When using the Data Dictionary option, Crystal Reports is showing a list of tables from the underlying R/3 system and the user can use the tables for reporting.

Here Crystal Reports is showing a list of tables from the sales and distribution area.

Crystal Reports is using the OpenSQL interface (not a direct connection to the database) to retrieve the data.

In addition to a native connectivity of Crystal Reports on top of the SAP R/3 system, BusinessObjects is also offering a solution with Data Integrator, where the data is being extracted into a data mart.

BusinessObjects has created a large set of pre-build Data Marts (called Rapid Marts) which allow a very quick implementation of a data mart solution on top of SAP R/3.

I hope this short description gave you a good overview how you can use Crystal Reports in combination with SAP R/3.


I would like to receive suggestions for further blogs to make sure I write about the most requested topicsComment on this weblog



Looking forward to your WEBI session.2008-03-24 00:28:32PeterZhou Business Card [Reply]

Helpful as usual.And I am looking forward to your WEBI session.

Two questions:1) Can we create one universe based on two or more SAP BW Cubes/MP?2) What is the functionality of "add class/object" in the universe designer?

Thanks!Peter

Looking forward to your WEBI session.2008-03-24 00:34:05IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Peter,

I did post the first WebI part just 2 min ago.

Today you can create a Universe based on a query or a cube. In case you need multiple cubes in one universe right now the solution would be to build a multiprovider and then to build a universe on top of the multiprovider.

Adding a class / object allows you to create your own objects in the universe. A class is like a container where you can add multiple objects.A object can be a dimension, a formula, a measure...

Ingo

Looking forward to your WEBI session.2008-03-24 00:33:35PeterZhou Business Card [Reply]

3)why are there two levels for each 'class'?

Looking forward to your WEBI session.2008-03-24 00:37:05IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Peter,

see part 5 - just posted.

Level 0 represents the "all" member for the characteristic and could be used for Drill Down.

Ingo

PART5

In case you missed the first parts of my blog series I have included the links to them here:

BusinessObjects and SAP Part 1BusinessObjects and SAP Part 2BusinessObjects and SAP Part 3BusinessObjects and SAP Part 4

In my previous blogs I did focus on how Crystal Reports can leverage data from a SAP BW or from a SAP R/3 system.

In the next couple of blogs I will focus on how simple it is to use Web Intelligence on top of SAP BW.

Web Intelligence is able to leverage SAP BW queries and SAP BW cubes. This connectivity is using the OLAP BAPI interface to build universes.

Universes allow the user to create a rich semantic layer (metadata) on top of the underlying datasource and share this data representation with all users.

To be able to use Web Intelligence I first have to build a new Universe based on the SAP BW query.

To build the universe I have first to create a new connection based on the SAP BW connection type.

In the next step I need to provide the details of the SAP server

The option "Authentication Mode" allows to specify the type of authentication that will be used for this connection. I am able to specify to use a specific user and password or to use Single-Sign-On.

In the next screen I am able to browse all available cubes and queries from the BW System.

After I selected my query I can build the universe. The Universe Designer is retrieving all available metadata from the SAP BW system and is creating a new Universe.

I will try to explain how the universe is matching the objects from SAP BW based on a concrete example.

This query contains several characteristics in the rows, several keyfigures in the columns and a filter for the characteristic Country (value = USA).

A new Universe based on this query looks like shown in the image below.

The cube dimensions are resulting in a class in the OLAP Universe (for example, cube dimension Customer shown in the image).

Each characteristic from the query results in a class with a dimension and one or more detail objects.

Each characteristic is represented by a Level 0 and a Level 1 object in the universe, where the Level 0 object represents the aggregated view on this characteristic (representing the "All" member from the underlying cube).

Each characteristic is also represented by one to several detail object (shown as green objects in the image) representing the key value, short, medium and long description, and the display attributes for the characteristic.

Each key figure is represented with a measure object in a class Key Figures.

In the case the keyfigure is configured in SAP BW with a unit, an additional dimension object will be added representing the unit information (in my example the Order Amount Unit).

The formatted value represents the numeric value formatted as a string value, following the user-specific formatting settings.

After I create the new universe, I can export the universe to the BusinessObjects Enterprise platform. After doing so I am able to use Web Intelligence to create a new report.

I am starting InfoView and use the SAP authentication method so that I can use my SAP credentials and will be able to achieve Single-Sign-On.

In InfoView I start Web Intelligence and select the universe I just created.

In Web Intelligence I can use all components from the universe to create a query and a report. The query defines which data is being retrieved from the BW system and the report defines the layout.

In the area Query Filters I can create additional filters for this report.

After executing the query the data is presented to me in the report.

I hope that this short description gave you a good overview on how a Universe and Web Intelligence can leverage SAP BW queries.

The products I used for this are :

BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 3.0

Web Intelligence XI Release 3.0

BusinessObjects Integration for SAP Solutions XI Release 3.0

In the following blogs I will go into more details on hierarchies, variables, attributes, and structures and how they will be leveraged in the universe.

I am always open for suggestions for additional blogs. let me know which topics is of most interest for you.Comment on this weblog



Great work2008-07-01 11:24:41RameshI Business Card [Reply]

wonderful work , ingo.It has helped us a lot in understanding the roadmap.now i'm more clear on it.

i just had few more questions.My client is already having all the reports built in SAP BI. but he is keen on moving to SAP BO to standized all reporting.how much would be additional efforts say in % or any other unit for creating a SAP BO query directly over a SAP BI infocubecreating a SAP BO query over a SAP BI Query.

i know it is difficult to comment on this. but just a guess work.

moreover , i already have a SAP BI license, & also a BO XI license. But do i need additional license for having this SAP BI-BO integration kit.

thanksramesh

Preconditions of integration BW and BO reporting2008-06-13 06:36:42Eva MariaSchaan Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Thanks for the information on the integration of BO and BW. However, I cannot find anywhere a complete set of preconditions and versions necessary to connect BO and BW. We are currently working with BW 3.5 and want to connect an existing BO to provide reporting with BO. Is this possible and what technical preconditions are necessary?

Unfortunately, the information I could find is on such a high level that it can mean all or nothing. Would you - from a more technical and consultant's point of view recommend this connection?

Thanks and best regards, Eva

Navigational and Display2008-04-24 08:04:03ChittiBabu Business Card [Reply]

Ingo,

how should we work out how many object need to be navigable or display? Should we have more navigable for BO or more display for BO?

What are the pros/cons of each?

Many thanksChitti

Availability and Costs of Replacement Tools2008-04-18 12:29:34JohnSkrabak Business Card [Reply]

I appreciate the indo on using Bus Obj with BW. I've seen the Roadmap document about what Netweaver BI tools will be replaced by BO tools.

We just completed an upgrade to BI 7.0 but are still using 3.5 fronend tools. The big question that I have not seen answered anywhere, and I hear many SAP customers in the same position ask, is this - if SAP is replacing a BI 7.0 feature, e.g. such as the Formatted Reporting with Crystal Base?

I understand some BO tools may be part of a premium bundle, but which BO tools would be included at no charge as part of my existing licensing, and when can I order them? Or will there be additional licensing costs to get a replacement BO component?

Availability and Costs of Replacement Tools2008-04-30 08:42:11Lus Miguelda Costa Soares Business Card [Reply]

Great Question with no answer yet.Also very interested in hearing from SAP about this.

What is available with cube access?2008-04-04 05:03:27DaisyWoodhams Business Card [Reply]

Are all master data attributes, restricted & calculated key figures, variables, etc available if the Universe is defined on a cube instead of a query? Also, what about BW security on query naming conventions when a BW query is not being executed?

What is available with cube access?2008-04-07 10:32:03IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi,in case you connect to a BW cube directly you would lose the following items right now:

- Navigational Attributes- Restricted keyfigures- Calculated Keyfigures

Ingo

What is available with cube access?2008-07-09 06:16:05RobertZovic Business Card [Reply]

What about the related variables? If you connect directly to an infoprovider from BO would you still have access to these? I assume not.

Robert

Cube or Query Advantage?2008-03-26 08:27:55AnthonyAndreacchio Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

great information in all your blogs. Since the Web Intelligence tool can access both Cubes and Queries the following question arises. Is there an advantage using one over the other (cubes vs queries)? Is there a performance issue that needs to be taking into consideration? I am trying to understand why you would create a query if the tool can access the cube directly. regardsAnthony

Master data & Hierarchies, Drill down to R/32008-03-25 11:55:13BalajiShanmugam Business Card [Reply]

Hi,I would like to know how BO handles Hierarchies and master data ? Also if it provides functionality like RRI to an R/3 transaction system.

Thanks.

Master data & Hierarchies, Drill down to R/32008-03-25 14:25:10IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi Balaji,

could you elaborate a little bit more what exactly you looking for ?

Based on the BW query we can use all the hierarchies and master data.

thanksingo

How to build connection with SAP Query, not SAP Cube2008-03-24 02:50:14PeterZhou Business Card [Reply]

Hi, Ingo

Thanks for your information here.As you mentioned above, Universe can be built on both SAP Cubes and BW Query.

I know how to connect Cubes, but I can NOT find where to build connection with BW Query.

Can you please inspire me the details on this?Thanks in advance.Peter

How to build connection with SAP Query, not SAP Cube2008-03-24 03:14:34IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi,after configuring the server details you should see a OLAP Browser showing the cubes and when opening up the folder for your cube you should see all the queries.

if not - make sure the query is "realesed for external access" in the query properties in the query designer

Ingo

Would love to see a blog on Xcelsius!2008-04-09 14:07:24AlexanderSchuchman Business Card [Reply]

This is great stuff, I'm trying to do the same for Xcelsius. Would love a little jump start from you.

-Alex

Would love to see a blog on Xcelsius!2008-05-07 07:03:45SimonKranig Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,same for me. Can you post a blog on how to directly connect an Xcelsius Model to a BW Query?

Thanks,Simon

Would love to see a blog on Xcelsius!2008-06-04 06:17:31ScottSweeney Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Keep up the good work.

Just checking when your blog on Xcelsius connecting to BW will be available?

Thanks

Scott

Would love to see a blog on Xcelsius!2008-07-09 09:48:10JavierCompany Business Card [Reply]

Hi Ingo,

Good work!

When will your blog on Xcelsius connecting to BW Queries be available?

Thanks

Javier

PART6In my previous blogs I did focus on how Crystal Reports can leverage data from a SAP BI or from a SAP R/3 system and how you can build a Universe for Web Intelligence on top of SAP BI.

This time I would like to explain some new functionality that was added in our XI Release 3.0 version of Web Intelligence.

First I would like to explain the functionality of "Delegated Search" for the list of values and in the second part I will focus on "database delegated measures".

Delegated SearchDelegated search is a feature where you can configure a list of values (list of members for a variable) to be enabled for a server-side search, enabling the user to leverage the underlying backend system for a faster search of values.

Following the steps described in my previous blog I created a new Universe on top of a SAP BI query where the query also contains a SAP Variable.

In this case the variable is referencing the characteristic Country.

In the universe you will then find two hidden entries for the list of values- one references the key of the characteristic and one references the description.

By double-click on the list of values (select the "Base" list of values) you can view the properties.

By selecting the option "Delegate search" you enable the user to leverage the more powerful backend system to search for specific members, which is especially very helpful in case of very large list of values for variables.

After exporting the changed Universe to the BusinessObjects Enterprise system you can now create a new Web Intelligence report and you will recognize the changes in the prompting UI.

You can recognize that first of all no members of the list of values are being loaded and that the user has to leverage the search to retrieve valid values that can be selected.

In this case I entered the search criteria "A*" and retrieved all countries starting with an "A".

Database delegated measuresMost of the measures in a universe will be additive measures but there is also the need to have measures that are semi-additive.

Two typical examples for a semi-additive measure are an Inventory level of a product or the headcount of employees. An inventory level might be additive along the product dimension or the plant / warehouse dimension but will not be additive along a time dimension.

In a universe, any measure can hold a projection function (Sum, Min, Max,Count, and Avg). The projection function is used to aggregate the measure locally in Web Intelligence when the number of dimensions displayed in a report is smaller than the number of dimensions in the query result set.

Non-additive measures, such as ratio, average, and weight, can only be shown at the same aggregation level as the query result set. Therefore, non-additive measures generally have their projection function set to None in the universe.

The projection function Database delegated allows you to delegate the aggregation of a non-additive measure to the database server. These are called smart measures in Web Intelligence. A smart measure has its projection function set to Database delegated on the properties page of the object properties

Lets use a concrete example. For the year 2006 we have the following inventory numbers per month.

Year MonthStock

2006January5

February4

March3

April6

May7

June8

July2

August3

September1

October5

November6

December3

So then summarizing the inventory per quarter and year without considering the semi-additive measure would result in a wrong summary where the total of the year would be too high.

YearQuarter MonthStock

2006 106

Q112

January5

February4

March3

Q221

April6

May7

June8

Q36

July2

August3

September1

Q414

October5

November6

December3

The correct result would be:

YearQuarter MonthStock

2006 53

Q112

January5

February4

March3

Q221

April6

May7

June8

Q36

July2

August3

September1

Q414

October5

November6

December3

To configure the property "Database delegated" for a measure in the universe you only need to double-click the measure object and navigate to the tab "Properties".

You can now set the Function used for aggregation to "Database delegated".

When creating a report leveraging such a measure you will identify that the "Summary" function in the Web Intelligence UI is limited to the "Default Aggregation" which in this case results in a database delegated aggregation.

I hope this is giving everyone a good introduction to the database delegated search feature and the database delegated measure feature in Web Intelligence XIr 3.0.


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Authorizations/BEx Variables2008-08-27 16:08:41SreekanthMaddipatla Business Card [Reply]

Hello Ingo,

Thanks a lot for the very informative Blog series.

Could you please explain how the BEx reporting variables are used in the Crystal reports or in the OLAP Universe? Especially the User exit variables which are calculated based on the user inputs.

Authorizations/BEx Variables2008-08-27 16:10:56IngoHilgefort Business Card [Reply]

Hi,you should be able to find the information in the first parts of the blog series:

Part #1 : https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8560Part #2 :https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8686Part #3: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8760Part #4: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/9051Part #5: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/9052

Ingo

pPART7

I hope you followed my blog series so far. If so by then you should be able to create Crystal Reports and Web Intelligence content on top of SAP NetWeaver BI and SAP ERP.

This time I will focus on very important features of our BusinessObjects XI Release 3.0 for Web Intelligence, which is Change Management for OLAP Universe.

In the Universe Designer in the menu "View" you will now find the item "Refresh Structure" which allows you to update the OLAP Universe based on changes - to take an example - in the BI Query.

The following is a concrete example:

I created a BI Query which contains two characteristics and some keyfigures:

In the next step I created a new universe on top of this BI query:

To show the change management functionality I now change the BI query by

- removing the characteristic Customer

- Adding the characteristic Distribution Channel

- Adding a variable for characteristic Product

And I change the keyfigure "Net Sales" in the Universe to have the description "Net Sales Revenue".

I now go to the menu View > Refresh Structure in the Universe Designer:

The "Keep" options are used when users want to keep the manually made Universe modifications like I did by changing the description of the keyfigure Net Sales

The "Delete obsolete objects" option will remove items from the Universe that are no longer valid based on the data source.

The "Hide obsolete objects" option will hide items that are no longer valid. In addition, these items will be configured with the prefix /##/.

Based on the changes I did to the BI query the Update wizard shows the summary of the changes that will be done to the universe.

In addition the customization of the name for the keyfigure Net Sales has not been changed back based on the choices we made when starting the update wizard.

So the universe has been update in the following way:

o The class customer and all related objects are hidden and the prefix "##" was added

o The class Distribution channel has been created with all related objects for the characteristic

o The variable has been added as a filter

o All customization have not been changed

There is a setting in the connection dialog that plays an important role during this workflow:

The setting for the Connection Pool Mode allows you to configure the underlying connection for the universe. In the case where this setting is - as an example - set to 10 min you might experience a behavior where the update wizard is not receiving all changes you did to the BI query when doing the steps directly after each other.

This is because the OLAP BAPI interface builds a metadata cache on the client side every time a connection to BW is established. This cache is only emptied when the connection closes.

When working in parallel editing SAP BW Queries and mapping new universes to these queries, it is recommended that you close Designer (so that universe connections are also closed and the metadata cache is emptied) before building any new universes to take into account changes that were just made on the SAP BW Query side

By using the universe designer in combination with the update wizard you are able to build OLAP Universe, customize them based and your needs and requirements plus keep them up-to-date in a very simple way.

I hope this gave you a quick introduction to the update wizard for OLAP Universe and I would like to hear from everyone which topics are of most interest around BusinessObjects with SAP so that we can share the knowledge in this great community.

PART8

TechED in Las Vegas is coming up in a few days and BusinessObjects will setup a special Business Objects Community Xcelsius Challenge for everyone at TechEd giving you the chance to win some prizes. We will provide you with the necessary software and will hand out a task for you to build a Xcelsius dashboard.

So to increase everyone's chance to win a prize I will provide this week each day more details about Xcelsius and how simple it is to connect Xcelsius to SAP ERP or SAP BI data.

Xcelsius is a tool focused on data visualization that allows you to build strong interactivity as part of your analytics. In terms of data connectivity Xcelsius is able to leverage the following:

XML data

Web services

Query as a Web Service (will explain it later on)

Live Office

Because Xcelsius is able to leverage Query as a WebService (which is a web service on top of a Universe) and Live Office, Xcelsius is able to leverage SAP ERP and SAP BI data.

The following diagram shows all the different options to connect Xcelsius to data in an SAP system.

Xcelsius is able to leverage the web service created by the tool Query as a webservice on top of a universe, which provides the connectivity to SAP BI.

Xcelsius is also able to leverage Live Office documents. Live Office is a product that is able to integrate Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence and Universes into the Microsoft Office environment. Based on that, Xcelsius is able to leverage the connectivity from Crystal Reports and Web Intelligence to connect to SAP ERP as well.

Overall here the list of available SAP sources for Xcelsius:

SAP ERP

Tables and Cluster (Open SQL).

ABAP Functions.

Classic InfoSets.

SAP Queries and InfoSet queries.

SAP BW

Tables and cluster (Open SQL).

ABAP Functions.

DSO / ODS objects

BW queries and BW cubes.

This is only the start of this week and I will provide more details every day:

How to leverage Live Office to provide SAP data to Xcelsius

How to leverage Query as a WebService to provide SAP data to Xcelsius

How to setup simple interactivity in combination with SAP variables from a BI query

All these items will also be part of my hands-on workshop on the Community Day in Las Vegas.

You can find the agenda here: https://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/CICUAQ

On Monday at 11:15 am I will start the first part of the End-to-End scenario session which will show how to use Xcelsius in combination with SAP BI data.

Ingo Hilgefort is a Group Product Manager with Business Objects, an SAP company focusing on the topic of Embedded Analytics PART9

In case you missed my previous blogs here a quick overview:

Part #1https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8560BusinessObjects and SAP - Overview

Part #2https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8686Crystal Reports and BI Queries

Part #3https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8760Crystal Reports and BI Hierarchies

Part #4https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/9051Crystal Reports and SAP R/3

Part #5https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/9052Web Intelligence and SAP BI

Part #6https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/10794Web Intelligence - Delegated Search and Delegated Measures

Part #7https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/10834OLAP Universe Change Management

Part #8https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/10871Xcelsius Overview

To continue my blog series around BusinessObjects on top of a SAP landscape I will explain this time how you can leverage Crystal Reports and Live Office to connect to SAP data sources and leverage this connectivity inside of Xcelsius to create a dashboard.

Lets assume we created a BI query on top of the cube DALSEGNO

And we created a report using Crystal Reports showing the following data......

The report is showing the products and the Sales amount broken down by month.

After I saved the report to BusinessObjects Enterprise I can now start Microsoft Excel with Live Office and create a new Live Office document connecting to the Crystal Report document.

I navigate to the menu Live Office > Options to configure my authentication. At the "Enterprise" tab I select the option "Use specific logon criteria"

At the web service URL I enter the URL in the syntax http://APPSERVER:PORT/dswsbobje/services/session where the APPSERVER and PORT stands for the server where you deployed the web service from BusinessObjects Enterprise.

As Authentication method I am selecting "SAP" so that later on I can achieve Single-Sign-On from the Xcelsius Dashboard to Live Office and the Crystal Reports object.

Use your SAP Credentials in the format [System ID]~[Client]/[Username] to authenticate (exampleCIM~003/i819882)

Now I can select the menu Live Office > Insert > Crystal Reports content

Because I configured SAP as the authentication method I can use my SAP Credentials in the format [System ID]~[Client]/[Username] to authenticate (example : CIM~003/i819882)

After I authenticated I can select the previously created report from the BusinessObjects Enterprise system

and leverage the wizard to receive the data from the Crystal Report object inside of Live Office.

Now I select the menu Live Office > Publish to BusinessObjects Enterprise > Save to BusinessObjects Enterprise to save the newly created Live Office document to BusinessObjects Enterprise.

Now I can start the Xcelsius Designer and create my new dashboard.

As first step I configure my data connectivity and select the menu Data > Import from Enterprise.I am logging on to my BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

And select the previously created Live Office document

Now I need to configure the details of my connection in the Data Manager. To do so I select the menu Data > Connections.

and Click Add to create a new connection.

In my case I select Live Office Connections and select the newly created connection.

On the "Definition" tab I replace the entry with my webserver name and on the "Usage" tab I set the property "Refresh on Load" so that the Live Office document and the Crystal Reports document are being refreshed each time the Xcelsius dashboard is being loaded.

Now I can build my Xcelsius object and leverage the data that is being returned. I include a "stacked bar chart" to my Xcelsius canvas and open the properties via double-click.

I select the data range next to the Data Values and mark the data in the Live Office document.

Now I click on Preview and are being asked to authenticate myself. This is because right now the Xcelsius designer doesn't allow you to authenticate with your SAP credentials and therefore you Xcelsius object is asking you for SAP credentials. After I provided those credentials I can view my chart item.

This was just a very quick introduction on how you can leverage Live Office and Crystal Reports in combination with Xcelsius for creating data visualization and dashboards

I will provide more details on my next blogs on how you can leverage universe and Query as a web service to provide data to Xcelsius.

PART10In the previous blog I described how you could leverage Crystal Reports and Live Office to connect Xcelsius to SAP data source. This time I will try to describe how you can leverage OLAP Universes on top of SAP NetWeaver BI and use Query-as-a-WebService to leverage the data inside of Xcelsius.

I will assume that you are familiar with the creation of a Universe on top of a BI Query. In case this is new to you feel free to look at the previous blog:

Web Intelligence and SAP NetWeaver BIIn the next step we are going to create a Query-as-a-WebService and we will expose the universe as a webservice which we then can use in Xcelsius.

I am starting the Query as a Web Service tool and because I have not setup my system I need to first add my system definition.

For the "Name" entry I enter the name of the server where I deployed the web services from the BusinessObjects Enterprise system and the URL part will automatically getting filled in. I also enter the name of my Central Management Console (CMS) and the user account that I want to leverage to logon to my BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

After logging on I can now create a new Query-as-a-WebService.

As the first step I need to setup the name of my web service and to configure the Advanced parameters.

... where I can configure the web service to use the SAP Authentication (secSAPR3) mechanism so that later on I can use my SAP credentials when refreshing the Xcelsius dashboard.

In the next step I select the Universe I created previously.

After this I am presented with the query panel which allows me now to select the elements of the universe that I want to expose via my web service.

In my example I am using a very simple universe with a characteristic Region and some keyfigures.

I am adding the Region and the Order Amount to my query panel and moving to the next step where I am presented with a resultset to show what the resultset of the web service will look like.

Now I can click on Publish, which brings me to the last step and provides me with the URL for my web service.

I am copying the URL to a textfile so that I have quick access for the next step where I will use the URL in the Xcelsius Designer.

Now I start the Xcelsius Designer and call the menu Data > Connections as first step.

I click on the button Add and select the entry "Query as a WebService" and select the newly created connection.

Now I paste the URL from the created QaaWS web service into the field WSD URL and click Import.

The web service returns the data in a table format and shows that each row in this example returns a value for the characteristic Region and a value for the keyfigure Order Amount.

Now I need to configure where the resultset of the web service is being returned. To do so I click on the row folder of the Return Values and click the icon next to the range.

I then mark a range in the Excel spreadsheet which fits the resultset - in my example I need 2 columns and several rows.

Then I select the Usage tab of my connection

And set the Refresh on Load property.

Now I can drag and drop a pie chart onto the canvas and configure the properties of my new chart.

I select the icon next to the Data Values and mark the complete range for the values - which in this example is identical to the range I marked as the target area for the column Order Amount of my web service. After this I do the identical step for the labels.

Now I can click Preview and after I authenticated myself with my SAP credentials I can see my new chart.

Now I go to the menu File > Export > BusinessObjects Platform to save the Xcelsius file as SWF File to BusinessObjects Enterprise

Now I can use InfoView and my SAP credentials to view the Xcelsius object in BusinessObjects Enterprise.

At the SAP Comunity at the TechEd in Las Vegas (Community Day Schedule) I will do a 2 hour hands-on session and during the TechED you can win some cool prizes by taking part in the Business Objects Community Xcelsius Challenge. Look at Jason's blog for the great prizes.

Hope to see you all at the Community Day in Las Vegas

Ingo Hilgefort is a Group Product Manager with Business Objects, an SAP company focusing on the topic of Embedded Analytics

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