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Hello there,

In this blog post ,i am going to tell about Translation manger client tool and its usage to convert let say from English

to French report.

First goto Business Objects client applications and open the translation Manager.Followed all are the screen shots pf

the steps of the Translation manager usage.

In the followed screen submit the credentilas and select the type of authencation and click OK.

In the followed screen,Import the Report to which Transaltion is required.

Translation Manager-Report Translation

Posted by Siva Sankar Jan 27, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 2/33

In the Followed screen ,select the report you want to do translation .and then Import the report to do translation.

In the followed screen ,First select the language you want to translate,in the language management.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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After doing so,Export the reporsitoy to the same lacation from where the report had been imported.

Thats it,then go to the infoview, and change the Infoview preferences ,and change the preferred viewing locale to

'French Canada' and Open the report.

You will see all the translated mask of the Report.

On Important Note:

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Translation manager is used to translate only Report Metadat or Unvierse metadata only.Its kind of preparing a Mask

of metedata in other language.

Data Translation Won't happen using Translation manager because Data is the Dynamic part of a Report which will

flow into the report from the Databases.

So if you want to see the Data Translation also ,Then the Two language objects should be present in the

Universe.Bring the two Objects into the report,and Using Ifelse logic you can display Objects accordingly.

Logic:=If(GetPreferredViewingLocale()="fr_CA") Then "Object_french" Else "Object_English"

Cheers,

Shiva

Business Objects Consultant.

1700 View s 1 Comments Tags: report, translation, w ebi_transaltion, deski_translation

Hello All,

In this post i am going to tell how to use Report Conversion Tool.

Going onwards SAP is planning to rule out Desktop intelligence or Full Client or Thick Client Report developing

tool.Actually, from BO 4.0 onwards

we don't see Desktop Intelligence Report development tool.

So Let say you are moving from BOXI 3.1 to BO 4.0, and you have lot of reports in Deski.Since BO 4.0 doesn't support

Deski reports, then what will you do to retain Deski reports.Here comes One Important Client tool in Business

Objects Called "Report Conversion Tool (RCT)".

First Convert All the Deski Reports, Using RCT and Using any Migration Tools like Import Wizard,or Upgrade

management Tool,or LCM migrate all the Converted reports.

The step by step process og how to use RCT is explined through below screen shots.

In the below screen,submit the credentials and click on " OK"

How to use Report Conversion Tool In BusinessObjects.

Posted by Siva Sankar Jan 27, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 5/33

In the below screen select the report or reports ,whihever needs to be converted.

Once "Next>" button is clicked the below scree will appear and this will show Report Converting status.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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If the report Converting results need to be saved, then the results can be written to Audit Database.In the below

screen ,by checking the Box

"Save conversion results in audit database" and selecting the connection to the audit database.

In the below screen shot,you can choose the target folder where you want to publish th report.by default ,wherever the

source is located,the converted webi report will also be exported or published to the same location.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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the below is the last step of completing the RCT.

Cheers,

Shiva

Business Objects Consultant.

3408 View s 8 Comments Tags: to, w ebi, conversion, deski, convergent

On WINDOWS

1. Create a directory : C:\Logs

2. Copy BO_trace.ini file inside this directory

3. Add two SYSTEM variables:

BO_TRACE_LOGDIR=C:\Logs

BO_TRACE_CONFIGFILE=C:\Logs\BO_trace.ini

4. Restart WIReportServer

5. You should have a log file in C:\Logs:

C:\Logs\WIReportServer_XXXX_trace.log

For each WIReportServer workflow, you should have XML files in : C:\Logs\wicdztrace

6. The easiest way to send the logs is to zip the full arborescence c:\logs.

So weget the WIReportServerXXXX.log and the xml files.

How to enable Webi Server (WI ReportServer)Tracing.

Posted by Sateesh Babu Chilamakuri Jan 17, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 8/33

On UNIX All

1. Create a directory /tmp/logs

2. Copy BO_trace.ini inside this directory

3. Export the following two variables at the *end* of the shell running WIReportServer:

${INSTALLDIR}/bobje/setup/env.sh

export BO_TRACE_LOGDIR=/tmp/logs

export BO_TRACE_CONFIGFILE=/tmp/logs/BO_trace.ini

5. You should have a log file in /tmp/logs: /tmp/logs/WIReportServer_XXXX_trace.log

For each WIReportServer workflow, you should have XML files in : /tmp/logs/wicdztrace

6. The easiest way to send the logs is to zip the full arborescence /tmp/logs/

So we get the WIReportServerXXXX.log and the xml files.

Inside Bo_trace.ini file you have to update as following.

active = true;

importance = '<<';

size = 10000000;

keep = true;

In the following scenarios, if there is any failure observed we require the traces to understand the root cause.

1. Viewing a Webi document

2. Editing a Webi Document

3. Scheduling a Webi Document

4. Drill-down a Webi Document etc..

1204 View s 1 Comments

We need to add an environment variable (System Variable)

BOE_LOGGING_ENVIRONMENT and its value –sdktrace –trace –loggingPath C:\logs.{ or any desired path}

Need to create the folder manually in which directory we want and we need to provide that information.

After that we need to restart the machine where logging is enabled.

Note: we should never give the location as the default logging folder.

These logs are required for the components which uses COM SDK

List of Components like :

1. CRDesigner

2. Xcelsius

3. Universe Designer

4. ImportWizard (XI3.x only)

5. Deski

6. CCM etc.

398 View s 2 Comments

How to Enable COM SDK Traces in BI3.x and BI4.0

Posted by Sateesh Babu Chilamakuri Jan 16, 2013

********** more BI4 Elite sessions are planned in various locations around the world in 2013 - more details here:

http://www.elite-enablement.com/ *********

The BI4 Elite Enablement Nov 5-9, 2012 for our BI customers and partners is in the books, I moved into Product

Management for the SAP Mobile Platform, but yet, I still get a lot of questions about BI4 Elite. So, here is my report

from the event.

Scores and Results

Participants' Quotes

The BI4 Elite Stats

BI4 Elite Enablement - Summary of a great event

Posted by Jens Koerner Jan 16, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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BI4 Elite Hands-on Content

BI4 Elite Blogs

Special thanks to

Scores and Results

I think it's fair to say we had an AMAZING event. The participants gave us a score of

4.85 out of 5 Check out the BI4 Elite video for some sound-bites from our participatns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=05hVmvW7qr4

We set out with 1 goal for the BI4 Elite Enablement:

Create BI black-belts to enable our BI4 customers to go-live

97.6% stated that BI4 Elite equipped them better to achieve their go-live:

with a dramatic shift in “belt color” towards “BI black-belt”:

0:00 / 1:30

#BI4 Elite Enablement: A Hands-on Experience

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Participants' Quotes

Here are some more quotes from our participants:

The BEST SAP training ever (Content, instructors, systems, logistics...) must happen in other locations.

What an event!

Experience felt like driving a Nascar, ride of a lifetime through advanced BI tools and the energy in the room was

amazing

A unique way to learn, network and have some fun.

Excellent.. surpassed my high expectations on the training. Best training experience ever!

Earn your BI b lack belt in one week.

Awesome!!!!

Elite Trainning, from an Elite company, for Elite Business Solution

BI Elite Enablement Rocks!

BI4 Elite Enablement was simultaneously the best training and the best conference I have ever attended in over

10 years of BI events.

Empowerment gleemed from SAP BO experts

Hard-core SAP BusinessObjects knowledge and interaction.

I was able to acquire very rich and practical content delivered in well thought pace

Very professional deep dive training

enlightening!!!!!

The BI4 Elite Stats

44 participants from 8 countries (Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, USA,

Canada)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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representing 16 customers

and 7 partners and SAP internals

87 registrations

5018 blog views

Over 500 tweets for #BI4Elite

11 SAP BI black-belt trainers

10 BI software developers participated

3 customer presentations (Department of Interior, HP, MolsonCoors)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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2 networking events: evening reception in the Executive Briefing Center on Tuescday and a full dinner and open

bar at Glowbal in the Afterglow launch on Thrusday

BI4 Elite Hands-on Content

We had our 44 participants hands-on with:

BI4 SP4 across all tools (including Webi, Explorer, Analysis for OLAP and Office, Dashboards, Crystal Reports,

Visual Intelligence)

Mobile BI

SAP HANA

SAP BW

Non-SAP back-ends

BI4 Elite Blogs

BI4 Elite Enablement - Vancouver - Nov 5-9, 2012

BI4 Elite: Featuring the Customer Stories #BI4Elite

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 1

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 2

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 3

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 4

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 5

BI4 Elite Enablement Day 5 – Seeing what is “Under the Hood” #BI4Elite

Getting Familiar with Web Intelligence on the iPad Mobile BI 4.4 (iPhone too)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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BI4 Elite Enablement Training - It's a Wrap!

Special thanks to

all the trainers

Vishal Dhir – Customer Solution Adoption

Patrice Le Bihan – BI Solution Management

Ingo Hilgefort – BI Solution Management

Ty Miller – BI Solution Management

Toby Johnston – Active Global Support (AGS)

James Rapp – Customer Solution Adoption

John Mrozek – Customer Solution Adoption

Sathish Rajagopal – BI Solution Management

Donnie McMillan – BI Solution Engineering

Harjeet Judge – Customer Solution Adoption

Saroj Parmar – Install Maintenance Support (IMS)

And of course a special thanks to the support

staff:

Victoria Harrison – KCI, Logistics

Bruno Ranchy – SAP, Infrastructure and Cloud

Rachel Floyd – SAP, Executive Briefing Center

Salina Siu – SAP Marketing shooting the customer videos

Brett Philpott - Exercise content management

Lastly, thanks to our great guest speakers:

Kirsten Sutton - Vice President and Managing Director of SAP Labs Canada

Don Wakefield - Vice President of SAP Technology and Business Intelligence

And finally, a very, very special thanks to Tammy Powlas from Fairfax Water for her blogs, tweets, postive attitude

and mentorship! What a great customer to have!

3113 View s 2 Comments

Tags: intelligence, businessobjects, xcelsius, reports, bi, sap, bi4, hana, crystalreport,

business_intelligence_(businessobjects), analytics, enterprise_data_w arehousing/business_w arehouse, mobile, sap_teched,

bi4.0, explorer, data, reporting, dashboards, sap_businessobjects_mobile, analysis, bobj, bi4_upgrade, business_intelligence,

bi4elite, sap_businessobjects_business_intelligence_platform_4.0, sap_businessobjects_w eb_intelligence_4.0

Performance isn’t the only thing that suffers as a result of poor universe optimisation and design. So too does ease of

use, user adoption and in the worse cases incorrect results are returned.

I’ve seen so many poorly designed universes and most customers are blissfully unaware of the dramatic and

negative impact they have. This was one of the reasons why I’ve developed a free web based training course so

customers can fix these issues and improve performance and user adoption.

Web based course objectives

The EGI course is designed for ‘Universe Designers’ using Relational (SQL) Universes for XI3 and BI4. On

completing the Expert Guided Implementation attendees will be able to improve their existing universes by either an

improved understanding of how best to design a universe or by implementing performance and optimisation

features explained during the course. Attendees will be able ‘try out’ new ideas or features and validate them within

their own environment

What is an EGI?

Expert guided implementation is a new delivery methodology. The methodology balances the combination of

training, practical experience and expertise on demand. Focus is to enable the customer to execute complex

activities with the help of SAP experts. It is important that during the delivery itself, the activity is executed as described

in the delivery slot.

Improve performance, user adoption and guaranteecorrect results (SQL Relational Universes XI3/BI4)

Posted by Matthew Shaw Jan 15, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 14/33

Expert guided implementation enables you to execute activities without being a subject matter expert. The

methodology closes the gap between class room trainings and consulting.

For more information on the EGI methodology please go to Support Portal > SAP Solution Manager > Services >

Expert Guided Implementation. At the very bottom of the page is also a calendar showing other EGI offerings by time-

zone.

Worth attending?

Those that have previously attended this free course, rate it very highly with the average rating of 9 out of 10 for “I

would recommend this EGI to others”. Some customers have seen dramatic performance improvements having

followed the course, for example a 20 minute query now taking just 3 minutes! Customer quotes include: ”Insightful

course, full of great tips on how to improve your universes.” “I have been designing universes for more than 5

years and I still learnt some great tips.”

If you've already attended why not comment about the course and the improvements you've made!

When? And how to register

The web based course runs over 3 days and requires 2 hours each morning

The course is available in different regions of the world. For a full list of dates and registration links please go to

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1809165

What’s the agenda?

Day 1

SAP Expert presents (2 hours morning webinar)

Checking for basic best practice

Universe size, descriptions and formats, list of values, index awareness, WHERE clauses

Execution by customer

Define object formats

Setup List of Values for best practice

Define Index Awareness on objects and in @Prompts

Move WHERE clause logic to the SELECT clause

Add comments to the table structure/Data Foundation

Day 2

SAP expert provides: (2 hours morning webinar)

Aggregations in the right place, non-additive measures

Checking for correct figures, SQL 'Chasm' & 'Fan' trap, Trust Cardinalities, Table Trees

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

Check aggregate is occurring in the right place

Layout universe table structure as a table tree.

Correct object SQL and context definitions to ensure correct results

Day 3

SAP expert provides: (2 hours morning webinar)

Advanced SQL and other optimization tips

Loops, Outer joins, Parallel SQL, Automatic creation of derived tables (inline view), ANSI92 SQL,

Shortcut joins, Tips & Tricks

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

Resolve loops, either with contexts, aliases, derived tables or a “WHERE” clause

Resolve any outer-join issues

Enable JOIN_BY_SQL if query database supports it.

Enable BOUNDARY_WEIGHT_TABLE to automatically create derived tables for very large tables.

Enable ANSI 92 SQL to move joins into the FROM clause.

1136 View s 17 Comments Tags: performance, bi4.0, sql, universe, optimization, xi3.1

Being in the IT/Software industry for close to 20 years I've seen a lot of troubleshooting sessions and late nights spent

trying to fix a problem.

With this experience came an understanding that with proper methodology it is possible to troubleshoot and find root

cause of any issue.

So what is the right methodology ?

I'll list what I use and you can comment on what you use. In the end we can create a set of steps that will resolve any

problem.

Here is how I start my troubleshooting :

How to troubleshoot any issue in your SAP BI 4.0deployment

Posted by Denis Konovalov Jan 14, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 15/33

1. Determine what is the exact workflow that is problematic. - I cannot stress enough how important this is.

A lot of time can be lost troubleshooting wrong problems....

You need to be sure you know when exactly, what exactly and how exactly a problem is happening. Do not trust

your user words !!!

Verify by asking to show you !! Users, for the most part, are not technical people, to them "report doesn't work" is

good enough description. You, as administrator, need more !!

If you do not have access to your user machine, have the user take a screenshot of the error message. Most

users know how to take a screenshot these days, and having the exact error message and error code helps to

search the "Error Messages Explained" document on help.sap.com. That can help the admin then target the

pieces involved.

2. Once you know what is happening - determine what pieces you're dealing with - how many servers, what's

installed on each, any proxies/ web servers and firewalls, any other devices are part of the workflow etc.

As administrator, you should have all the environments properly diagrammed and documented so this part

should be easy.

Work with your IT colleagues who manage network and servers to determine what sort of network latency is

between pieces etc.

Environment diagrams and proper documentation of your deployment is very useful when asking SAP support

for help.

3. Start simplifying the picture !!

Simplify to the lowest possible level (no web, no ssl, no proxies, no LB's, no network : single box etc) - is the

issue still there ?

If yes - concentrate on that last remaining piece , rest are not a factor !!

If no - let's add next piece and so forth !!!

(this works with any product or tool, adjust freely - use your imagination)

4. Once you know How exactly and Where exactly the issue is happening, only then go and look if the issue is

known, if there are KB articles, SCN posts, your internal knowledge base history etc. that are related to this

problem.

A lot of times, specially if you're using an established version of SAP product, the issue will be known and

documented.

5. When all of the above is done - here comes the technical part : traces, debug, head scratching, detailed

configuration reviews etc...

Now that we have covered the basics, what basic tools does the SAP BI4.0 administrator should utilize in

troubleshooting ?

SAP BI4.0 has an improved tracing functionality. You no longer need to restart services to enable various level of

tracing. Please see Admin guide for details

End to End trace functionality, explained in a great doc found here

Know how the product works, so you know which traces to enable.

Great place to start is to learn SAP BI4.0 process flows in Official Product Tutorials – SAP BusinessObjects

Business Intelligence Platform 4.x

Process Monitor and Process Explorer tools , which can be found on Microsoft Technet.

Here are some of the uses of this tools :

PEx - Use the handy TCP/IP Tab to watch live connections open/close between SAP BI4.0 processes

PEx - Use the Environment Tab to see ALL of the environment variables in use by the process

PEx - See all of the Handles and Libraries (DLLs) that a process loads and sort by directory, version, name,

etc...

PEx - See the complete hierarchy of processes to easily determine parent vs child processes

PEx - Drill in on the threads that are opened by a process. Look for the high CPU threads and note the Thread

ID. You can use the logs to determine what this thread is doing.

PM - Filter by a specific process to see all network, registry and file activity for a particular process

SAP BI4.0 Platform monitoring , you can find details about it in the Admin guide I mentioned before and in this

great blog.

Remote Support Tools. Learn about them here.

This set of tools and methods allows you, the administrator to see what happens in your deployment, they also

allow SAP support easy access in case you need help.

Speaking of SAP Support - they can be a great asset in your troubleshooting. If you provide them with correct and

full information (see beginning of this post ) they will be able to quickly identify the root cause and provide

solution.

3564 View s 9 Comments Tags: sap, beginner, mobile, bi4.0, explorer, troubleshooting, analysis, bobj, tracing

In the last blog, we reviewed the basics of the SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio.

In this blog, we will be reviewing the 3 solutions that can be regarded as native, multidimensional tools:

Understanding Native MultiDimensional Clients

Posted by Blair Wheadon Jan 10, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 16/33

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP

These products are all new to the portfolio starting with BI4. So if you’re on an older solution, you’re probably

wondering what these solutions are for.

BackgroundWhen BusinessObjects was acquired by SAP in 2007, BusinessObjects inherited the responsibility for renewing the

SAP NetWeaver Business Explorer (BEx) product lines.

These included 3 core products:

BEx Analyzer

BEx Web Analyzer

BEx Web Application Designer

There was a fourth BEx tool called BEx Report Designer which was not adopted very widely. Customer of that tool are

directed to use SAP Crystal Reports instead.

These BEx solutions are still supported as part of SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0, however SAP is not investing in new

features in them. They needed modern replacements that incorporated mobility, the latest in user interface design,

and support for SAP HANA.

So starting with SAP BusinessObjects BI4, we included the Analysis products: SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition

for Microsoft Office is an Office addin that extends both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP is a web based tool that is part of the BI4 platform.

Then in late in 2012, we released SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio.

Here’s how these solutions relate to the old BEx tools:

BEx Solution SAP BusinessObjects BI Premium Alternative

BEx Analyzer SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for

Microsoft Office

BEx Web Analyzer SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP

BEx Web Application Designer SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Multi-Dimensionality

What does it mean to be a native, multi-dimensional solution?

Lets compare how these solutions access data with two well known SAP BusinessObjects reporting solutions: Web

Intelligence and Crystal Reports.

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You can see from this slide that there is no local storage of the data in the Multidimensional analysis tools. They

behave as ‘windows’ on to the multidimensional data, with each action such as filtering, drilling down, drilling up, etc

triggering a round trip to the OLAP server.

The advantage of this architecture is that it works well with big data, and there’s no need to translate the OLAP

server’s representation of the data to a local representation of the data.

The reporting tools like SAP Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence are not native

multidimensional tools. They both operate off their own local copy of the data, in their own proprietary format. This

introduces a translation between the OLAP representation of the data and how the solution presents it.

This does not mean that SAP Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence are ‘bad’ for multi-

dimensional data. We have many customers that are successfully using these solutions for reporting of SAP BW and

other OLAP sources.

However it does mean that the reporting solutions are not the best if you want to take full advantage of capabilities of

the multi-dimensional server.

For example, the reporting solutions can only support a single hierarchy on a given dimension. So you can have the

Product hierarchy in the rows of your data, or Geography in the rows of the data, but you cannot combine the Product

and Geography hierarchies in your rows. This is possible with the native multidimensional solutions.

ConclusionIf putting the full power of a multi-dimensional database in the hands of your end users, then select the appropriate

multi-dimensional client for your use case.

If you want to access multi-dimensional data and format in a report, then a native multi-dimensional client is not

necessary and solutions with their own internal data representations like SAP Crystal Reports and SAP

BusinessObjects Web Intelligence will meet these requirements.

1237 View s 1 Comments Tags: bi, bi4, crystalreport, analytics, explorer, reporting, dashboards, analysis

In my meetings with customers, I hear a lot of questions with the same common theme – the new solutions and

features introduced over the past 12-18 months have made it challenging to determine which tool is appropriate for

their situation.

I usually have 2 questions back to customers like this: 'What are your use cases' and ‘What are your data sources’?

This blog will focus on the data source angle.

Note: These are suggestions only and not hard-and-fast recommendations. Your needs may dictate a solution

different from what’s suggested here. This should be seen as a starting point only.

The SAP BusinessObjects BI Suite For YourLandscape

Posted by Blair Wheadon Jan 10, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 18/33

Suggested Solutions for a SAP NetWeaver BWLandscapeThis includes SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA.

Discovery and Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP Visual Intelligence can be used under certain conditions when using

BW on HANA with BW 7.3. See this document for more details.

Dashboards and Applications

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Reporting

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

The Analysis editions and Design Studio are focused on being premium alternatives to the SAP NetWever BEx

solution set. The Analysis solutions include an add-in for Microsoft Office, and a web based UI. If you’re currently

using the BEx tools, then these three solutions are where you should start.

Reporting can be SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, SAP Crystal Reports, or both, depending on your

requirement for self-service adhoc reporting compared to traditional production reporting.

Suggested Solutions for an Agnostic (Non SAP)Landscape

Discovery and Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP Visual Intelligence

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP

Dashboards and Applications

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

Reporting

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

BI using Traditional relational and OLAP databases can be best addressed with this subset of the BI suite. Analysis,

edition for OLAP supports Microsoft Analysis Services and we plan to add support for Essbase in the future.

Suggested Solutions for an SAP HANA Landscape Discovery and Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP Visual Intelligence

Dashboards and Applications

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Reporting

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

When using SAP HANA as a full use database (and not just as an accelerator for BW), we can add SAP Visual

Intelligence as a recommended solution, otherwise this subset is very similar to what we recommend for SAP

NetWeaver BW.

SAP Visual Intelligence is ideal for accessing SAP HANA data because it can consume large analytic and calculation

views without downloading all the data. This enables access to huge data volumes while retaining the ease of use of

the desktop Visual Intelligence solution.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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The Future

In the future, you can expect the portfolio to continue to converge and simplify. We have already released a statement

of direction stating our intention to converge the Dashboards and Design Studio solutions into one. We will continue

to work to simplify our offerings and make them easier to understand, easier to use, and faster to deliver value.

2852 View s 0 Comments Tags: bi, bi4, hana, analytics, explorer, dashboards, analysis

A Simple Overview of the SAP BusinessObjects BI Suite

I have the privilege of meeting many of our Business Intelligence customers. One of the more common questions I

hear is how to best make use of the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform.

We’ve released many innovative solutions during 2012, so I completely understand where the question is coming

from. If customers aren’t active on ASUG or attending conferences, the portfolio now is hard to recognize compared to

that of 2-3 years ago.

So let’s take a step back and simplify things.

The portfolio can be divided into 3 main functional use cases:

Discovery and Analysis

Dashboards and applications

Reporting

Discovery and Analysis

These are solutions that are focused on answering business questions that cannot be anticipated ahead of time.

They are focused on empowering the business user to self-serve answers to their own questions, and enabling

access to large data sets through intuitive user interfaces.

The tools in this category are:

SAP Visual Intelligence

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis

Visual Intelligence and Explorer are data discovery solutions. Visual Intelligence is desktop based, and allows users

A Simple Overview of the SAP BusinessObjects BISuite

Posted by Blair Wheadon Jan 10, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 20/33

to acquire, manipulate, and visualize data. Explorer has a web and mobile version, and allows users to search and

explore information spaces that are predefined by the administrator.

The Analysis solutions allow end users to explore and analyze data in SAP NetWeaver BW, SAP HANA, and Microsoft

Analysis Services. These are native multidimensional tools that expose the full capabilities of the underlying

multidimensional database to the end user in an intuitive manner.

Predictive Analysis is an extension to the Visual Intelligence interface that allows you to design sophisticated

predictive models that can be executed on the SAP HANA platform. These models use advanced algorithms to allow

the user to correlate variables, extrapolate data trends, and identify outliers to get a better understanding of what is

driving the business.

Dashboards and AppsThe Dashboard and Apps category is focused on providing engaging experiences to create traditional dashboards

and custom visual applications.

There are 2 solutions in this category:

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius)

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

We created the Design Studio product to initially be a premium alternative to the existing SAP BEx Web Application

Designer product. Therefore it is focused on delivering dashboards and visual applications using data from SAP

NetWeaver BW and SAP HANA.

We have released a statement of direction documenting our long term plans to converge these two solution. We plan

to combine the great visualization technology in Dashboards with the superior multi-dimensional data access in

Design Studio over the next few years.

For now, our guidance is if you want to build a dashboard using SAP NetWeaver BW as a datasource, we recommend

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio, otherwise we recommend SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.

Both products are included with the same license, which means if you’re already licensed for Dashboards desktop

tool you will get Design Studio desktop tool for no additional cost.

Reporting

The reporting category is focused on distributing information around the organization. These are typically business

questions that can be anticipated ahead of time, with a report or Universe prepared by a business user or IT

developer that addresses these questions.

There are 2 solutions in this category:

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

SAP Crystal Reports is oriented more towards highly formatted production reporting. It uses a desktop client to

design the report which can then be consumed over the web.

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence is optimized for self service report creation and modification. You can design

reports over the web, or using the desktop client.

Given the widespread adoption of both of these tools, we have no plans to converge them.

ConclusionsUnderstand your functional use cases first, the pick the solution that best meets your needs from these three

categories. No single BI solution can cover all the BI needs in an organization. The SAP BusinessObjects BI Suite is

just that - a suite of solutions that when combined correctly will cover virtually all of your BI requirements.

15099 View s 11 Comments

PurposeHow to find in which report/structure particular InfoObject used

Step 1

Go to transaction code RSD1 and given relevant InfoObject and click Main Menu Edit-->Where-used list

How to find in which report particular InfoObject used

Posted by Nanda Anantha Jan 10, 2013

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Step 2It will list of objects where given InfoObject is used

326 View s 0 Comments Tags: in, to, used, infoobject, how , f ind, w hich, particular, report/structure

Easy way of selecting Infocube/DSO/Multiprovider and Infoset Info Objects for data display

PurposeEasiest way of selecting Infocube/DSO/Multiprovider and InfoSet InfoObjects to display data

Step 1Go to table RSDCUBEIOBJ and give relevant data target name for which you want display the data

Easiest way of selecting Infocube/DSO/Multiproviderand InfoSet InfoObjects to display data

Posted by Nanda Anantha Jan 9, 2013

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Step 2And Execute

Step 3Select the infoobjects for which you want see the data and paste in notepad and save the file as like list.txt

Step 4Now select data target (for which you want display the data), if particular data target contain more than 72 infoobjects it

will display information message as like below

Just ignore it and continue.

Step 5Instead of searching and selecting infoobjects, now directly click on “Read from file” which is available at top right

corner.

Step 6It will display the window to select file (select the file which we saved at Step 3 level) once file selected automatically

infoobjects selected (checked), which are listed in selected file.

Step 6Continue

Step 7

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The other one works exactly reverse

453 View s 2 Comments Tags: display, data, of, to, selecting, infoobjects, easiest, w ay, infocube/dso/multiprovider

Recently, we have built a dashboard for the customer who wants to have tooltip for the Combo Box.

I would like to share the technique how effectively we can utilize it for Help, Tooltip just using Icon, Image and Text.

Let me explain the step-by-step to implement it.

Icon Component : Icon has to be placed in appropriate location which is close to the component requires tooltip.

It helps to make the "Tooltip" while only you scroll over.

Property - General : Set the destination to be mapped to the spreadsheet cell which inturn act as input for displaying

the tooltip (Image and Text)

Property - Behavior : It has to input the value when "Mouse Over". Hence, it sets the value only when the mouse hover

it.

How to create Dashboard tooltip

Posted by Veeraraghavan Vijayarajan Jan 7, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Property - Appearance : Of course, finally we need to set the transparency to 100% as it will not be displayed to the

users.

Now, its turn to set the image. Choose appropriate image file to display as Help/Tooltip text outline image and set the

image proprty as follows,

The dynamic visibility has to be set based on the cell content of Icon output set in first place.

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Now we can set the Text which needs to in-line within the image set. Map the appropriate Help/Tooltip text from the

spreadsheet.

We can set dynamic text which will help the dashboard based on the components appear in the position. similar to

image, text property

has to be set for Dynamic Visibility.

Finally, we are ready to view the output. when we preview the dashboard, and scroll over the Icon, it may look like the

below output.

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The same can be utilized as Help file for the dashboard.

Looking forward for your questions, inputs and comments.

1131 View s 0 Comments Tags: xcelsius, dashboards, business_intelligence

Hi Every One,

This is my first blog in SAP, Here I am going to tell about the Events and it’s usage in the SAP Business objects. I

would like to say events are one of the most useful BO Flags to keep check on the scheduling’s.

Basically events are three types.

1. Custom Event

2. File event

3. Scheduled event.

First we will see what exactly each one is:

Events are like Flags or Check points which can give some information about the events or actions happened on the

server.

Custom Event: This can also be called as Manual event. This one has two properties one its name other is its

description.

File base Event: We can use this event based on some file placed in any path like say if file is placed in one of the

path in the server, based on this action, you can run reports by scheduling. In brief you can say placing some text or

any file in a path. Once this action is completed you can run reports.

In Business Perspective, let say all the required tables for reporting got loaded monthly/weekly/daily. Once this load

happens place a textfile in a path.

so once the file is placed this event gets triggered.

Scheduling Event: This event is used to run reports or any BI objects sequentially one after the other.This event

definition has three actions in it. Those are Success, Failure and Success or Failure.

It makes sense the status of any running objects could be either success, failure.

Now pictorially will see the events creation and their usage.

Creating Events: Login to the CMC. In the Define section, you can see the Events .

Click on the Events Icon.the followed screen appears in the window.

CMC\Events in Business Objects and It's Usage

Posted by Siva Sankar Jan 7, 2013

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Once you click the New Event The Following screen appears.

Here you can make selection on which type of event you are going to create.

Custom Event:

File Event:

Scheduled Event:

Once after creation of the Events.We need to assign the security to the users to use these events.

Do a right click on the event and select the properties and then select the User security as shown below.click on the

Add Principles button to add Users and User Groups to access these events.

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Once after done with the security.We can use these events to run BI Objects like Reports,Publications etc.

let say you are scheduling a webi report/publication.Do a right click on the report and Select shedule.The followed

screeb will appears.

Click on the Events in Navigation pane to view all the events.Now select the event to "Events to wait for" pane.let say

you selected custom event to this pane.

And now try to shedule the report with "Run Now" Option.Then you will see the instance status as Pending.It is waiting

for the event to get triggered.Then

goto the CMC\Events ,Do a right click on the event and select the "Trigger Event" .

Then come back and check the Instance status.the status will be changed to "Running".

In the above screen you can see "Avalable shcedule Events" and " Events to Trigger on Completion" here you can

select any sheduled event to trigger on. In the same way you can use this triggered event as kickoff event for another

shedule or Shedules.In this way We control/achieve Sequential shedules aswellas Parllel Shedules.

I welcome the feedback,comments and Complements.

Thanks

Shiva

Business Objects Consultant.

8783 View s 12 Comments Tags: events, f ile, schedule_publishing, trigger

Hi Readers,

This is one of the frequently asked question in our forum and most of the steps are already there in our forum. Since I

got a chance to work with this, am sharing the step by step configuration of Audit reports with screen captures.

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Auditor Configuration &Deployment End to End

Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Jan 7, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=165 29/33

Introduction BusinessObjects Enterprise Auditor provides you with a way to monitor and record key facts about your

deployment. Auditor also allows you to better administer individual user accounts and reports by giving you

more insight into what actions users are taking and which reports they are accessing. The information provided

by the auditor answers the following queries.

1. Who is using your Business Objects Enterprise system?

2. Which objects they are accessing?

3. Which groups within the company use our BusinessObjects Enterprise system the most?

And below are some of the auditable actions

Track when Objects are created, deleted of modified

Track when reports are opened, saved, refreshed, created, modified and deleted

Job monitoring and failure

Auditor Configuration In SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 auditing database schema was changed, improved. SAP BusinessObjects

Business Intelligence 4.0 does not include auditing sample Universe and auditing sample reports with the

installation.

Configuration in CMC

To configure Audit database in BI 4.0, you need to follow the steps below

1. Login to CMC and click on Auditing from Manage.

2. In the ADS database configuration select type of the database.

3. Provide the credentials of the database and click on save.

4. You need to restart the Central management server (CMS) hence log off from CMC.

5. Open Central configuration manager (CCM) and restart the Server Intelligence Agent.

6. Wait for some time so that all the servers will come up because the Adaptive processing server should

be running completely to enable auditing.

Auditor deployment package and contents

Compared to previous versions of BusinessObjects, Installation package will not come with a default Audit universe

and reports. But SAP comes up with as- is sample to help administrators and report designers to develop custom

auditing reports. This would be a starting point of the development of custom auditing universe and reports as per the

requirement. Please refer http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/40711187-04e8-2d10-

d190-851e20c7665a to know more.

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The Audit Sample package contains:

a) Seven sample auditing .UNX universes one for each of the following database types:

b) Thirty-eight sample Crystal Reports referencing the universe.

Deployment and configuration of Audit Universe

To deploy Auditing universe please follow the steps:

1. In SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Information Design Tool create a new project and retrieve the sample auditing

universe into it. This will result in a 3 objects appearing in your project: a connection, (.cnx or .cns), a data layer,

(.dfx), and a business layer (.blx)

2. In Information Design Tool create a connection (.cnx or .cns) to your auditing data store (for SAP Business Objects

4.0. Then change the connection of the dfx to use the one you have created.

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3. In Information Design Tool check integrity of the universe before re-publishing. Please ignore all cardinality and

unlinked table warnings.

4. In Information Design Tool publish the modified universe to your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system. If you

are using a .cnx, you will be prompted to create and switch to a secure, published .cns connection. You can publish

your .cnx connection to your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise repository to generate a secured .cns.

Deployment and configuration of Audit Reports

1. In Crystal Reports Design for 4.0 open the sample auditing reports

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2. Click the ‘Data’ menu and ‘Set Data Source Location’ to point the report to the auditing universe published in the

previous step.

3. Publish the sample reports to the SAP Business Objects Enterprise

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Audit reports are deployed in your BusinessObjects environment. You can now start using the deployed reports.

Hope this is interesting and useful. We will see BusinessObjects Monitoring in my next few blogs.

20554 View s 23 Comments Tags: audit, bo4.0

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