Hello,
Can anyone help me understand the new features with XI4?
I am currently working on BusinessObjects Data Services XI 3.2.
However i was interested in knowing the difference/enhancements with Data Services XI 4.0
Can someone please help me or ptovide me with the Links where I can get the differences?
More specific :- Looking for the changes/enhancements in Data Integrator for the XI4.0 version.
Thanks
Tarunvig 
(BOB member since 2011-01-18)
Hi Tarun,
yes,you can see the changes/enhancements in “what,s New in SAP Business objects Data Services XI 4.0 pdf” file,you can download this pdf from sap help portal
Thanks
Venki
ursfriend77 (BOB member since 2011-03-02)
The answer is very little has changed for the Data Integrator part, we’ve decided to not bother with this release for a while as there isn’t much gain but a whole lot of headache moving to use a Business Objects CMS for security.
rollinsa (BOB member since 2006-07-11)
Text Processing is something new. But never got a chance to work on that version still.
The Query Transform look and feel is changed/some features added
I would post if I know more
ganeshxp (BOB member since 2008-07-17)
Yeah text processing is a new feature, although can’t imagine it’s that useful for most people. There’s not much change to the Query Transform though if memory is correct, think it was just the FROM tab that’s slightly altered.
There are some benefits for DI but they’re all feel like minor tweaks to the platform to me i.e.
SAP ERP Extractors - most companies with ERP seem to use BW anyway so not sure how useful this will be.
SAP HANA support - Only just out and cost prohibitive for most.
Excel 2007+ support
Webservice improvements.
Nothing really feels like a leap forward for the DI side where you’d think a couple of major releases on they might focus on some really useful stuff
Better tools/visuals for performance tuning – in this day and age I don’t want to dig through the monitor logs
Better script support - the scripting in DI is basic and hasn’t expanded much in versions, for me it’d be good to be able to use python as a language with a lot more power, I presume it’s already integrated to the platform as DQ uses it.
Overall though 4.0 doesn’t seem to offer much over DI3.2 for DI users.
Plus, unless I’m missing something I see no benefit in using BOE for our security, just another set of services to run, maintain and look after and wasted resource as IPS uses around 1.3gb of memory - that’s a heavy jump for a slight improvement in security.
rollinsa (BOB member since 2006-07-11)
True I agree.
Major leaps are 64-bit Job Server which is out for the 1st time. Until 3.2.x.x we have only a 32-bit job server version.
I would say some support to older versions of support products are stopped. Not sure how much it affects someone. If I am correct, DI 14.0 wouldn’t support a Oracle9i Client (note I said Oracle Client and not Server!!!)
ganeshxp (BOB member since 2008-07-17)
Thank you guys,
This is what I could actually gather from Internet/Forums.
Data Services XI 4.0
A new version of the BusinessObjects Enterprise Information Management (EIM)
suite, Data Services, is released with XI 4.0 and includes enhancements to both
the Data Integrator and Data Quality components. In addition, Text Analytics is
added to Data Services XI 4.0 providing powerful data extraction and “sentiment
analysis” capabilities against unstructured data sources like email, web logs
and blogs. This session will show and explain the new features.
HANA (High-performance analytical appliance)
The new SAP High Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) is causing quite a buzz
in Business Intelligence circles with itÂ’s combination of in-memory database and
powerhouse hardware platform making real-time business intelligence a reality.
Analysis of millions of rows of data can be achieved in fractions of a second
changing the whole dynamic and landscape for business data analysis. See how it
works and how it is being applied in business situations today.
Event Insight
SAP Event Insight is another brand new solution delivered with BusinessObjects
XI 4.0. It is an integrated offering that combines business events and business
processes and analyzes and reports trends and exceptions with business
intelligence analytics providing true real-time visibility across the
enterprise. Operational or Event Driven Business Intelligence is in demand and
this session will show how Event Insight is positioned to meet that demand.
Crystal Reports 2011 & Crystal Reports Enterprise
Released in conjunction with BusinessObjects XI 4.0 are two versions of the
Crystal Reports product. Crystal Reports 2011 is a continuation of the universal
Crystal Reports client based development tool with further enhancements over
Crystal Reports 2008. Crystal Reports Enterprise is a newly developed version of
Crystal Reports that integrates with the new BO XI 4.0 platform and the new
universe and semantic layer. It has more graphical user interface features as
are found in the other integrated BusinessObjects tools. Features, functions,
differences and the roadmap for Crystal Reports going forward will be discussed
and shown in this session.
Auditing and Version Control
The new XI 4 release brings new features and functions both for Auditing and for
version control through Life Cycle Manager. Auditing and system monitoring has
taken a quantum leap forward in XI 4 with integration of all the content
providers and new dashboards that enable you to see what is happening from both
a load and performance perspective. This session will discuss and demonstrate
these new capabilities.
Integration with SAP
While BusinessObjects has good integration with all commodity data sources and a
wide range of the most popular applications, the new XI 4 release includes some
very special integration with SAP, both directly and through the SAP Business
Warehouse (BW). This session will discuss these new integration options which
clearly make BusinessObjects the business intelligence suite of choice for SAP
users.
Explorer
Explorer is a search based ad-hoc query tool designed to empower the general
business intelligence user to perform simple ad-hoc analysis with minimal or no
training. Using the new accelerated version, it is possible to handle
considerably larger amounts of data with very fast response times, which will
become faster still when used with the new in-memory HANA appliance. This
session will demonstrate and present how easy Explorer is to use and to set up.
What‘s new in Data Services 4.0
Superior SAP support
Text Data Processing
Enhanced Data Quality Management
New security model and much more
Superior SAP Support :
Data Services is the recommended ETL tool to load non-SAP data into SAP NetWeaver BW. This provides customers with :
-En easy-to use interface to access any data source without requiring to write code (no SQL/ABAP)
-Broad connectivity from files, databases, applications and even mainframe (via partner)
-Add trust to your data by cleansing and validating data before loading into BW
-Data Services can access SAP ERP data via a patented approach where ABAP programs are generated based on the graphical dataflow design created in Data Services Designer
-This allows non-BW customers to extract data from SAP via Data Services
-BW customers have direct access to SAP ERP data via the business content extractors, which provides better connectivity to SAP ERP then Data Services‘ ABAP approach:
–Extractor provide delta queues for simple changed data capture
–Extractors are -trusted- sources maintained and delivered by the business suite to guarantee consistent data
With Data Services 4.0 customers will be able to access the business content extractors natively (no BW required)
-No other tool –apart from BW –will be able to access these extractors.
-Benefits of using extractors :
-They are delivered by the SAP Business Suite team and are the recommended method for getting consistent data out of the SAP Business Suite apps.
-They include support for delta queues (changed data capture) .
–Note: in order to get delta queue support customer will also need to update to the latest NetWeaver versions.
-Simpler deployment : no ABAP programs created/uploaded to SAP, data is streamed (no file transfer)
-How extractors are used in Data Services 4.0 :
-Browse available extractors in the SAP system
-Select and extractor and import the definittion (metadata) in Data Services
-Drag & drop an extractor as a source in your dataflows
–Simple options are provided to define delta loads vs. full loads
–Extractors can be joined with tables in case they provide not all data required in your project.
BW customers
-Can now easily apply data quality transformations when loading SAP data into BW
-Can now use one single tool to define all extraction, validation and cleansing rules to load all data (SAP and non-SAP) into BW.
-Remark: BW customers can continue to access the extractors directly, they are not forced to use Data Services !
-Non-BW customers
-Now get nativeaccess to the Business Suite without requiring to go through BW.
SAP Business Suite
All 3rd-PartyData Sources
SAP BusinessObjects
Data ServicesSAP Extractors
DWH, data
Integrated Data Services connectivity in NetWeaver BW 7.3
-From within the BW workbench, browse external metadata through Data Services connectivity
-Auto-generate simple Data Services extraction jobs from to load data from any source into SAP BW
-Native loading in BW 7 datastores through new staging BAPIs
-No longer required to go via BW 3.5 emulation mode
SLD (System Landscape Directory) :
-During installation register Data Services components (Job Server, Access Server, and Management Console) in SLD.
-Provide customers a single place to see all SAP software installed in their landscape.
-Provide monitoring/performance statistics with CA Wily/Introscope
-CPU/memory usage and total execution time at job level as well as aggregated for job server and host.
-Predefined dashboards for Data Services delivered as part of Solution Manager content.
Text Data Processing
Access text data in log files, spreadsheets, surveys, comments fields and in similar places
-Sort through the noise of unstructured content by automatically identifying what your text content is -about-
-Who, what, where, when, how much, etc
Native Text Data Processing on the Data Services platform with the Entity Extraction transform to extract :
-Predefined entities (like company, person, firm, city, country, Â…)
-Sentiment Analysis (e.g. Strong positive, Weak positive, Neutral, Weak Negative, Strong Negative)
-Custom entities (customized via dictionaries)
-Languages supported (for version 4.0)
-English
-German
-French
-Spanish
-Japanese
-Simplified Chinese
Enhanced Data Quality Management
Data Quality Management on the Data Services platform includes :
Data Cleansing: automatically correct your data based on reference data and data cleansing rules
-Address cleansing
-Data Cleansing
-Data Enhancement: enhance the data with additional attributes.
-E.g. geocoding : adding latitude and longitude information
-Match and Consolidate: finding duplicates and merging records into one consolidated record
Address Cleansing
-240 countries covered of which 37 with country specific directories
-New in Data Services 4.0 : street level validation for China
-Geocoding
-Support for United States, Canada, UK, France and Germany
-New in Data Services 4.0 : adding Austria and Switzerland
Empowers data stewards/domain experts to develop custom data cleansing solutions for ANY data domain
-Allows users to:
-Enhance and change regional cleansing packages for person and firm data
-Easily and quickly develop new data cleansing solutions for non-party data
-AUTOMATICALLY creates the dictionary
lists, rules, and patterns in a single
repository which is published to the
Data Services Data Cleanse transform
New security model and much more
This integration offers many new features to the Data Services customers :
-Single location to store all users, passwords and connections to repositories
-Advanced user management with password policies and advanced security features
-Use external authentication mechanisms like Active Directory, LDAP or SAP NetWeaver
-Manage permissions to control access to repositories and administative tasks to more granular level.
Customer already using the BI and EIM solutions from SAP BusinessObjects can now maintain all users and permission in one central CMS (Central Management Server).
-Customers who don‘t have SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.0 will be able to use the SAP BusinessObjects information platform servicesfor their Data Services user management. Information platform services is :
-A mini-version of SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform with only the CMS and related sercices (no reporting or dashboard engines)
-Offers all platform functionality from like user management, authentication, authorization, scheduling, job processing, …
-Available for all Data Services customers from their Data Services download.
I have to give a seminar on “What’s new with Dataservices 4.0”
Please let me know if there is something else that I am missing.
Thanks for all your Inputs Guys… Much Appreciated… 
Tarunvig (BOB member since 2011-01-18)
See also:
dnewton (BOB member since 2004-01-30)