SAP #BOBJ #BI 4.1 Upgrade Webcast Series 9: Web Intelligence Calculation Engine Changes

© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 1 Customer

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Upgrade

Webinar Series

BI 4.1 WebI Calculation Engine

Changes

Presenters: Pascal Gaulin,

David Francois Gonzalez

SAP BI Development

Brought to you by the Customer Experience Group


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Web Intelligence 4.1 Calculation Changes

The succession of corrective maintenance releases for Web Intelligence (XI R2, XI

3.x), included in 4.1, can sometimes lead to calculation result differences between

versions.

Important note…:

The calculation changes have so far impacted very few of our customers and for

these customers, a maximum of 1% of their document reports were impacted. This

was in 4.0.

In 4.1, many of the calculations changes have been fixed. Further, an on-the-fly

formula rewrite mechanism has been implemented (in 4.1 SP3), on migrated

documents, which lead to even less impacts.

If in doubt, SAP Consulting can help you identify which of your documents are at

risk.


Web Intelligence 4.1 Calculation Changes 3 Types of Calculation Changes

The calculation changes can be classified into 3 types:

1. Error correction: Web Intelligence returns now a correct result instead of an

error (#UNAVAILABLE, #COMPUTATION, etc.)

2. Wrong (or unexpected) result correction: Web Intelligence returns now a

correct result instead of one that was wrong before

3. Behavior adjustment for consistent logic: Web Intelligence returns now a

result that is consistent with the overall design and logic, instead of a non-

consistent result

Changes #1 will have no impact on documents which do not have the error

Changes #2 and #3 may impact documents and we have documented the major

changes (see http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-39973)






Example of change type #1: Calculation error correction


Before: the calculator would return #UNAVAILABLE when a delegated measure is

used against a dimension based on a computed URL

After: the calculator returns the expected result


Example of change type #2: Wrong result correction


Before: Week number of Dec 31th, 2012 = 53

After: Week number of Dec 31th, 2012 = 1


Example of change type #3: Behavior adjustment for consistent logic

Aggregation functions on an object participating to a merged object.

Before: The aggregation function (e.g.: Count, Min, Max...) applied to an object

participating to a merge, was calculated on the value set of the merged object,

instead of the value set of the object itself.

After: It is now processed on the value set of the object. To get the previous

behavior, replace the original object by the merged object.



Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism

Since version 4.1 SP03, Web Intelligence provides a mechanism that automatically

rewrites a selection of formulas, when these formulas match a defined pattern.

Formulas are rewritten when you open a document from a previous Web

Intelligence version.

After the rewrite operation, the formulas return the same results as before the

calculation changes.

Saving the document will then keep the new formulas no need to execute this

mechanism again!

Web Intelligence 4.1 Calculation Changes The Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism


The Automatic Formula Rewrite mechanism is available by default on documents

migrated to Web Intelligence 4.1 SP03 and newer, for the following formula

patterns:

1. Where() operator with a dimension as parameter in the condition

2. Running calculation on section

3. Merged object in aggregation functions

4. Running calculations with reset in cross-tables (since 4.1 SP3 patch 3)

This list could be extended in future releases with more formula patterns, as they

would be discovered.



Rewriting Rule #1 on the Where() Operator

Pattern: Where() operator with a formula based on a dimension, on a measure with

a condition

Example: =Max([Revenue] In([Year]) Where(DataProviderType(DataProvider([Quarter])) =

"Universe"))

Before: Dimensions (i.e. [Quarter]) were incorrectly added to the measure context

Now: Dimensions are only used for the conditional evaluation

Since 4.1 SP3, the above formula is automatically rewritten as: =Max([Revenue]

In([Year],[Quarter]) Where (DataProviderType(DataProvider([Quarter])) = "Universe“);[Quarter]))

Web Intelligence 4.1 calculation changes The Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism

Web Intelligence versions where this rule applies

XI 3.1 Before SP3 FP6, SP4 FP1 and SP5 FP1

BI 4.0 Before SP5


Rewriting rule #2 on “Running calculations on sections”

Pattern: Any running calculation within sections

Exemple: =RunningSum([Sales Revenue])

Before: the running calculation was reset for each new section value

Now: the running calculations will not automatically reset for each new section value

the value of the first cell of a block in a section instance is based on the last cell

value of the block from the previous section instance

Since 4.1 SP3, the above formula is automatically rewritten as: =RunningSum([Sales

Revenue];([State]))



XI R2 Before SP5 FP10


Rewriting rule #3 on “Merged object in aggregation functions”

Pattern: Aggregation functions on objects participating to a merge

Example: =Count([Lines]), with [Lines] participating to a merged object

Before: The aggregation function applied to an object participating to a merged

object, was processed on the value set of the merged object instead of the value

set of the object itself

Now: The aggregation function is applied to the value set of the object

Since 4.1 SP3, the above formula is automatically rewritten as:

=UseMerged(Count([Lines]))



XI 3.1 Before SP3 FP2


Rewriting rule #4 on “Running calculations with reset in cross-tables”

Pattern: Running calculations with a dimension as a reset context, in cross-tables

Example: =RunningSum([Sales revenue];([State]))

Before: When adding a dimension as reset context (2nd parameter), the running

calculation was improperly evaluated in a column based direction (‘N’ pattern)



Now: In this case, the running calculation is evaluated in a row based direction (‘Z’

pattern)

Since 4.1 SP3 patch 3: the above formula is automatically rewritten as:

=RunningSum([Sales revenue];ForceCol;([State]))



BI 4.0 SP2 patch 20 and 21, SP5 all versions, SP6 before patch 5, SP7

RTM

BI 4.1 SP1 before patch 2


1. Known calculation changes are collected by SAP R&D and reviewed by SAP

Support before being published on the SAP Community Network:


Caution: this document does not intend to be a complete list of all the calculation changes and only

focuses on the major known changes.

2. If you think that one of your Web Intelligence documents might be impacted by a

calculation change, check in the SAP Notes if it is a known issue and if not, get

in touch with SAP Support.

3. Finally, in order to improve the stability of the Web Intelligence calculator, we are

offering our customers to re-use some of their documents in our automatic test

suite. Please, contact us if you are interested.

Web Intelligence 4.1 Calculation Changes Take Away






© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Thank You!

Contacts:

Pascal Gaulin, Web Intelligence Product Expert, SAP France

David-François Gonzalez, Web Intelligence Customer Adoption Expert, SAP France


SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Upgrade

Webinar Series

BI 4.1 WebI Calculation Engine

Changes

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SAP #BOBJ #BI 4.1 Upgrade Webcast Series 9: Web Intelligence Calculation Engine Changes