I’ve been doing B.O. WebI report development for 2 years, using XI Web Intelligence for 18 months and now BI 4.2 for about six months. (25 years Oracle SQL before that).
I just now started using Rich Client and love it, since it’s, well, rich, and much cleaner imo. I assume it doesn’t time out like the Launch Pad/Web Intelligence does.
What do most people use? At first glance, I’m like “Well, this is what I want”, so what’s the general consensus? To me, it’s a lot cleaner, and more IDE-like, and I’m going to start using it until I find a limitation. But already I see advantages.
WebI Rich Client isn’t Desktop Intelligence…I use both WebI via the Launchpad and WebI Rich Client - it just depends what I am doing. One of the problems with the Rich Client is the delay between opening a document and, well, it opening. You can create and empty report with nothing in it, save it then watch and wait while WRC takes its time about opening it. I suppose it is a bit old fashioned, as SAP gradually moves towards the cloud I wonder if its days are numbered.
I use the thin client about 99% of the time, if not more. I only use WRC when I have to.
Most of that is probably habit. I automatically just launch BI launch pad whenever I’m going to be working in WebI. We use SSO, so just typing in the URL will bring me right to the Documents view within a couple of seconds. From there I can double-click into a report and start working.
WRC is focused on local files. If I want to work on a report that’s not local,
it first has to be downloaded. It may not be clear when you hit “Save” if you’re saving to a local file, to the server, or both.
I used WRC more in XI3, when large reports could choke the server. But I’m hardly using it at all in BI4.
One limiting factor to deploying WRC is that it’s not included with all licenses. If you have a Concurrent User License, usage of WRC will consume one Named User License.
Not that I’m opposed to WRC - it definitely does have its benefits. One is that it uses the “old-fashioned” search, and not Platform Search (which should be put out of my misery).
It defeats the object of having SAP BI in a low admin environment. i.e. you have to install it and patch it and sometimes people can get confused as to whether it`s running in 2 tier or 3 tier mode too.
ok, very good, thank you. So my takeaway is it’s old-school’ish and doesn’t have too many (if any) advantages over Launch Pad / WebI, and long term it’s not a high priority for support and use.
In my company, there are a couple of cases I can see a strong case for using it. So I think I will start using it and come up with my own reasons for and against.
In the last 6 weeks, I’ve taken to using WebI Rich Client, and I think it’s fantastic, and I used it 95% of the time. There are several key features that are “must haves” that I don’t see in WebI.
I could be mistaken on some of these things, but this is my takeaway and I love Rich Client.
Here are my Top 4 - all of which are must-haves for me:
The biggest pro is that it doesnt time out! Just like Universe Designer, it will keep your connection all day (or overnight).
You can sort reports by date modified in the file browser! This doesnt seem to be available in WebI.
I found charting much smoother (like any client tool). For example, in Category Axis and Value Axis, there is a Title option, but this is not available in WebI (see attachment).
The Data Preview Panel STAYS CLOSED for your connection period
so when you’re going back and forth between the Report window and Query window, you don’t have to keep hiding the Data Preview panel like you do in WebI
Two small downsides of using WebI Rich Client
It’s quicker to pop up a report in WebI than Rich Client. So for quick access, I go to WebI.
You can’t do Document Linking in Rich Client
Other benefits of using WebI Rich Client
The Query panel opens in a separate window.
- You can’t modify the Report window (while the Query panel is open), but at least you can look at it while modifying the Query.
The Query Script viewer a lot better:
o it is more IDE-like, as it presents the SQL in a code-like window.
o the window is expandable, whereas in WebI it is not. This makes code viewing much easier.
o you can click the button “copy” to copy out all Sql, whereas in WebI you have to first hightlight, then press CTRL-C
Multiple reports work, just a tad different.
o Choose New and then you can start a new document or browse to an existing document.
Being a long time Deski user, I much prefer the WRC interface. Like gadsden_consulting, I find the data preview panel a waste of space, and loathe the time outs when you’re report building and need to go away and do some research. (Mind you, I’m referring here to Webi 3x RC not 4x RC - we haven’t got access to 4x RC yet.) Agree too it’s annoying not being able to see created/last modified dates, but my take is that 4x thin client is aimed more for end user consumption of finished reports rather than concentrated report development so the created /modified dates aren’t useful there.
But it takes so long to open the simplest of reports in WRC 4.x I can open the same report in WebI, make a change and save it, WRC 4.x is still chugging away doing anything but actually show the report.
And what really bugs me is that you don’t get any warning whatsoever when thin client times out. You just get told you can’t connect to the server when you try and do something. I’m having to waste time saving the report whenever I make a significant change so I don’t loose too much work when it inevitably times out.
See my summary at 14 Jul 2017 07:53, it still holds true. However, I noticed some slight improvements in WebI over Rich Client when we just upgraded to SP04 in 4.2. The first one I noticed was in charting.
imo, it’s not the setup, it’s the steps. With WebI, you log in, and your recent reports are there, so bam, you’re back in the saddle. Then you quickly open up other reports and they’re all “right there” in a separate WebI tab. I might have 5-6 documents open, but in on WebI browser tab - so it’s easy to flip back and forth.
With Rich client, you log in, then select the server, THEN browse, then open your report. To open another report, again - select the server, then browse, and then it’s in a new BROWSER tab. So now you’re juggling multiple windows, and spending a lot of time flipping through to find the right window.
So I would say if you’re doing a lot of little things on multiple reports, use WebI. If you are working heavily on one or two documents, definitely use Rich Client.
I’d say that your use case isn’t common - most people work on one server and then have their reports promoted through environments to maintain CUIDs, or just because they’re operating an ITIL environment and don’t care about CUIDs.
(BOB member since 2015-06-18)
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
(BOB member since 2015-06-18)
I can open the same report in WebI, make a change and save it, WRC 4.x is still chugging away doing anything but actually show the report.
