After working through that presentation, you will be prepared to use Xcelsius dashboards accessing BI query data via SAP NetWeaver BW connection in

Transcription

1 After working through that presentation, you will be prepared to use Xcelsius dashboards accessing BI query data via SAP NetWeaver BW connection in your company. 1

2 Topics Learn how to build Xcelsius dashboards from scratch. Understand how to use the new connectivity to directly access SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse queries in Xcelsius. See how Xcelsius is used in SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations

3 Xcelsius is a tool where you can easily create interactive dashboards. Xcelsius can be used today and is suitable for enterprise-wide deployment. The dashboards can have appealing graphics and can be highly interactive. They can be connected to many data sources and like this you can present up-todate data. Furthermore, the dashboards are intuitive and easily be consumed by casual BI users like executives or managers. In the Xcelsius dashboads you display aggregared and summarized data which is rather high-level. Like this you can get an overview of the business performance of your company. So you see that Xcelsius gives you an overview, and with this knowledge we continue with the topic where Xcelsius is not intended for. 3

4 Xcelsius is not inteded to replace comprehensive BI tools where you can do your detailed operational reporting or OLAP analysis. 1. Xcelsius does not compete with operational reporting tools, and therefore some performance-optimizing techniques for large result sets are not implemented. E.g. If your query result returns more rows than you display in the dashboard, there is no paging which only transfers the rows which are displayed like in BEx Web. Instead of dynamic reloading from the server in case of scrolling down, Xcelsius transfers the entire result set already initially. Furthermore, the results cannot be exported to Excel. So you see that Xcelsius is not intended to replace a detailed reporting tool. 2. Second, detailed OLAP analysis cannot be done in Xcelsius, because in the dashboard it is already defined which drilldown- and analysis paths are posible. 3. Third, Xcelsius is not intended to be the framework for building applications, because there is no built-in persistence and state management. Like this it cannot save your analysis state until you re-open it again and always have to re-do your last analysis clicks. However, Xcelsius dashboards give the user a fast overview of the business performance. 4

5 How does the entire creation process look like? At the left side you see the creation process of a dashboards, where you require Xcelsius 2008 Enterprise and an installed Excel on your computer. During the generation of the flash file, the logic which is defined in Excel is converted to Adobe Flash, and therefore you do not require Excel at runtime. The same is true for Xcelsius 2008 Enterprise, which you only need to create the dashboard, and not anymore at runtime. The flash file can be published to a portal, which could be SAP NetWeaver Portal or also other portals like Microsoft SharePoint or IBM WebShere. Furthermore, the flash file can also embedded into HTML, Microsoft office applications or PDF. However, when using Microsoft Office or PDF, a refresh of the SAP NetWeaver BW connection is not supported. Finally, during runtime only a flash player is required and a connectivity to the backend system where the data resides. This could e.g. be a BW system. 5

6 Actually, there are many ways to connect your data to Xcelsius. You can e.g. use existing Crystal and Web Intelligence reports either by using Live Office or Query as a Web Service as connection layer to Xcelsius. You can also use existing Universes and connect them through a Live Office or Query as a Web Service connection. In your dashboard you can mix different data sources, e.g. SAP and non-sap data. In the past it was not straightforward in Xcelsius to display data from a SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (e.g. via Universe and Live Office / QaaWS). What is new now and available since July 2009 is that you can directly access SAP NetWeaver BW queries and query views without the need of a universe and Live Office / QaaWS integration. How easy the new connection is I will show in a demo later. You do not only have access to the query data, but also you can access all query information like characteristics, key figures, variables, and value help. Furthermore, you can access technical information of the query: InfoProvider, author, Further use case - Integration of Xcelsius Dashboards in the Business Suite: Xcelsius will be part of SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations 2010, where you can do analytics within your business process exactly where you need it to make informed decisions. Example: Blocked order analysis due to negative credit check. analyze credit history and credit status within your business application before deciding on canceling or releasing the order. 6

7 Note: If there are connection problems (e.g. Error 2032), this could be because with the latest version of Xcelsius the cross domain access is stricter. With changing the cross domain policy in the file crossdomain.xml) on the BW backend, you can adjust your system landscape to make the backend system accessible again. 7

8 To come to more details, we see here the functional scope of the SAP NetWeaver BW connection. As already mentioned, we can directly use BW queries and query views and can use all available query features like variables, filters, characteristics, key figures. By using the query, you automatically have the appropriate BW authorization checks. With the full integration into the SAP NetWeaver platform, you can pass the authorization for dashboard use (where a dashboard can use several queries which are individually checked). The Life Cycle Management of SAP NetWeaver integrates Xcelsius dashboards in the transport framework and allows you to transport dashboards between different systems. The standard multilingual support can also be used for texts in the dashboards. Using this feature, you can translate your dashboards and use the translation of the underlying master data in the BW backend system. There is also a tight integration possibility into the SAP NetWeaver Portal, where you can e.g. display the dashboard in the user-specific language. By using the SAP NetWeaver platform, you do not require a SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise installation. Use this option (SAP NetWeaver BW connection) for Pure SAP environment (no BOE) Multilingual requirement 8

9 For Building Dashboards SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 SP2 SAP GUI 7.10 including BI AddOn 7.X patchlevel 901 or higher Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 For Consuming Dashboards Flash Player 9 or higher Server side NetWeaver Platform SAP EHP1 for SAP NetWeaver BW 7.01 SP5 Java and ABAP Technical Details Data sources: BusinessObjects universes via Query As a Web Service or Live Office, SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence and Crystal Reports via SAP BusinessObjects Live Office, Microsoft Excel 2003/2007, XML compliant databases, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2003, SOAP-based Web services, Adobe LiveCycle Data Services, Flash Variables 9

10 Publishing means that it is saved to the BW backend system. Launch means that it is executed on the BW Java stack. 10

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13 Please note that you can only have one query per data connection. If you need the data of more than one query in the dashboard then you have to create a connection for each query. You have two different options of how key figures are retrieved from the BW system. Data can be retrieved as raw or as formatted. In the first case the BW system returns a pure numeric number without any formatting information (such as thousands separators) and the formatting is done in Xcelsius. In the latter case the BW returns a formatted string, including thousands separators, decimals, units (if necessary) etc. The system will use the user-specific settings for the decimal notation from the ABAP user. Note: Formatted output is useful e.g. for tables. However, formatted output should not be used as input for diagrams, because they require numbers and only a text string is delivered. For diagrams, you can do the formatting e.g. of the numbers in the mouse over in the component properties. A key feature of that connection type is that it allows you to retrieve both the query result and the list of values in a single execution. This greatly reduces the number of connections in your Xcelsius dashboard (e.g. providing master data for selector components). 13

14 tn the connection definition settings you find areas for the input values as well as for the output values. As input values you can set filter values or variable values (provided variables are available for this query). The system shows the characteristics for which filter values and variables can be set. You simply specify an Excel cell that holds the value for the filter / variable selection. The Output Values area contains all information that can be retrieved from the query. This information can again be used by linking the output to the relevant Excel cells. Cross-Tab Data contains the query result. Depending on your query definition (BEx Query Designer), the result will include: key columns, data columns, calculated key figures, restricted key figures, (sub-) total. Under the node Characteristics you find the relevant information about the characteristics (and key figures), such as the description, key and text of the current filter value. In addition you get a list of all possible characteristics values under Value Help. You can use that list as a source for selector components like a drop down list and bring more interactivity to your dashboard. This is a key feature of that connection because it allows you to retrieve both the query result and the list of values in a single execution. This greatly reduces the number of connections in your Xcelsius dashboard. (The following features are supported: (sub) totals defined in the query, Calculated key figures, Restricted key figures, Exception aggregations, Conditions, Filters, Variables, Default values. However, the following features are not supported so far: Hierarchies, Exceptions, input enabled queries, Planning features, interactive features know from the BEx frontends such as drill down and swap axes) 14

15 XComponents are SAP BusinessObjects and 3rd party driven solutions for Xcelsius. They are NOT designed for productive use. Terms and conditions of usage: As you probably know, Xcelsius does not provide a sophisticated hierarchy support. However, in Xcelsius 2008 you can develop your own add-ons in Flex using the Xcelsius SDK. Some of our customers and partners did that and they created so-called XComponents which support hierarchies. Unfortunately the shown two XComponents which you get for free expect a different layout of the data than it is provided by the query output. At the left hand side you see the data which you get out from the Value Help in the Output Values of the BW query: Parent Node ID, Node ID, Text. Then you need to shuffle this information around in Excel to created the input format which is required by the Xtree component. This can be done with the VLookup() function in Excel. Then you can use Xcomponents like Xtree to display your hierarchy. XTree for a selection of a value in a hierarchy. XTreeGrid similar, but in addition integrated with a data grid to display data corresponding to the selected value. Notes: You can use a VLookup formula to look up data from the master table. VLookup finds the relevant row where the text matches, and then you can return another column of that row. If you have Flex Builder 3 installed, you can use that version of the Eclipse plug-in to manage and develop your Xcelsius component projects, you just need to set your project to compile against the Flex SDK. Search for a query with hierarchy: PM_BI_VC_Q002 (*hier*) 15

16 Since Xcelsius Dashboards with BW connectivity run on the SAP NetWeaver BW Java server, they can easily be integrated in portals. For integration into the SAP Enterprise Portal, you do the following steps: Create an iview in the Portal Content Directory PCD Select the BEx Web Application iview template Enter a name and ID for this new iview Configure the BEx Web iview query string parameter to refer to the technical name of your published Xcelsius dashboard object For integration in Microsoft SharePoint: Build the Xcelsius dashboard as usual; it can then be accessed by the BEx Web launcher URL Configure an iview with the dashboard as described above Configure SSO between Sharepoint and SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal Configure a iview Web Part pointing to the iview you just created Integration in IBM WebShere Portal also posssible via iviews. If your query uses mandatory variables the variable window will pop up when running the query for the user to enter variable values. You can prevent the pop-up window by using url parameters in the start url of the dashboard. 16

17 SAP customers often operate in several countries and want to provide their information in several languages. With the integration of Xcelsius dashboards in the BW ABAP backend, you can enable translation support and specify which texts are relevant for translation. Like this, you can use the existing SAP translation tools for translation support, and you can translate your texts in the ABAP backend. In the Xcelsius dashboard, you can pass the language as URL parameter from the Portal to the dashboard, and the dashboard automatically launches in the country-specific version. For those of you who come from the administration side and know the ABAP transport mechanism, the text elements are stored as TLOGO objects in the ABAP backend together with the flash file.swf and the model.xlf. 17

18 Those of you who come from the technical side, will immediately see here how well Xcelsius dashboards are now integrated in the BW transport mechanism. In Transport Connection you find an object type Xcelsius Dashboard, and you can automatically collect all objects which belong to a certain dashboard. These are e.g. all objects like InfoCubes and Query elements which are required for executing the queries which are used in the dashboard. These collected objects can now be transported across different systems in the landscape. Alternative: The Xcelsius dashboard can be stored on the BW server as a separate object type (XCLS) and is fully integrated into the SAP BW system. This helps in making use of different features such as transport, translation support, where-used lists, and collection of dependent objects in the BW system. The stored dashboard objects can be transported across different systems in the landscape. (1. In the SAP BW system, go to transaction RSA1. Click on "Transport Connection". Click on "Object Types" and find "Xcelsius dashboards" (Object type XCLS) in the list. 2. Click on "Collection Mode" on the right side and choose "Collect Automatically". The option "Start Manual Collection" could be chosen for manual triggering of the collection process at a later time. 3. Choose "Only Necessary objects" under "Grouping". This is required if we want to limit the no: of objects being collected. 4. Select the display options to reflect "list".) 18

19 Please note that the system will read query information on each connection defined in the dashboard at the initial load, whether the connection is to be refreshed or not. This has an impact on performance and it is recommended to have as few connections as possible defined in the dashboard. Furthermore, there is no paging, and always the entire query result is transmitted, even if only a small fraction of the query result is displayed in the dashboard. Therefore, you should reduce the query result to significantly less than 1000 lines. If you replace the query in the connection by another query then all connections to Excel ranges where data is inserted or read from (see below) are cleared. (Make sure you have noted down which data is written into which Excel range!!!). When building up a dashboard, Xcelsius will read the necessary query information once the data connection is defined. If the query is changed from BEx Query Designer after that, Xcelsius Designer will not notice these changes. However, the BW web runtime will use the latest active version of the query when executing the dashboard. Thus the definitions in the dashboard might not match the query definition or structure anymore and problems may occur. It is highly recommended to check the dashboard anytime the query structure is changed and, if necessary, re-import the query information into the dashboard. To avoid this problem, instead of frequently changing queries you should prefer to make a copy of this query once it is suitable for the dashboard. Please notice: There have been performance improvements with SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP6 Patch 20: Variables can be used with a much better performance Parallel query execution is supported (RSTT = RS Trace Tool to trace the BEx query performance.) 19

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21 Central ideas Deliver Xcelsius dashboards as add-on to standard BI content Data retrieval via BI Queries Xcelsius content will be launched (parameterized) via Launchpad or directly in the application Xcelsius dashboards are fully integrated into BI content and leverage existing BI Content (investment protection) Business Suite Analytics Integration of BusinessObjects tools into the SAP NetWeaver BW landscape Data retrieval via existing BI queries (investment protection) Integration into existing SAP NetWeaver BW Lifecycle Mgmt and repository Integration into the Report Launchpad and SAP Enterprise Portal content of the Business Suite application with context awareness for the Business Content SAP content delivery: For Xcelsius, SAP develops, delivers & maintains standard content Customer s option: Customers can define their own dashboards based on existing BI content or threir own queries Scenario variants: Launchpad - WD ABAP application which can dynamically generate URL by adding text snippets to the URL If dashboard is used within an application, the application context can be handed over. 21

22 BI_CONT_EXT 7.05 contains Xcelsius dashboards and requires 7.02 BI_CONT 7.05 requires 7.0 Important: No BOE server required for using Xcelsius Analytics. 22

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24 At the left side you see the minimal required product versions 24

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27 Classic InfoSets are created in transaction SQ02 In transaction SQBWPROP you can release the InfoSet for BW analysis Level 1: Analysis Frontend: Xcelsius Level 2: Business Query: BW query Level 3: Business Data Provisioning (BW): a) Transient InfoProvider b) InfoProvider Level 4: Operational InfoProvider: a) InfoSet b) Data Source 27

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