XI 4.0 Changes to "Webi"

[system]

I just saw this in their documentation for download from SAP. I believe this must have posted it very recently since I have been looking over their documents for the past two weeks. Here is the cut-n-paste from the What’s New document:

6.3.6.1 SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis
SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis (formerly Web Intelligence) is a query, reporting and analysis
tool used to build reports from relational and OLAP data sources and to analyze data using features
such as filters, conditional formatting and data tracking.

6.3.6.1.1 Hierarchical data
You can now build queries and perform analysis on data organized hierarchically using the following
report objects - analysis dimensions, hierarchies, levels, attributes, named sets and calculated members.
In queries, you can select data members from a hierarchy explicitly or by using functions.
You can explore hierarchical data in reports by expanding and collapsing hierarchy members, and
measures are calculated according to their position in the hierarchy. All existing features (for example,
sorts, data synchronization, and breaks) work with hierarchical objects.

6.3.6.1.2 New data sources
You can now build queries on the following data sources:
• Universes in the new (UNX) universe format.
Note:
Using universes, you can access data from relational and OLAP data sources.
• SAP InfoCubes using BEx queries.
• Advanced Analysis workspaces.
36 2010-11-05
New and modified features in existing SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise products

UNX universes
Universes with the new UNX file extension are created using the Information Design Tool, new in SAP
BusinessObjects XI 4.0. You use them to access data from relational and OLAP data sources.
(You can also access relational and OLAP data using legacy UNV universes.)

SAP Info Cubes using BEx queries
When you access the data in SAP InfoCubes using BEx queries, SAP

BusinessObjects Interactive
Analysis presents its data as standard universe objects such as hierarchies, levels, and dimensions in
the Query Panel. You build a BEx query in the same way as you build a query on a universe.

Advanced Analysis workspaces
You can build queries on Analysis Views exported from SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis.
Analysis Views appear in the Query Panel as standard universe objects.

6.3.6.1.3 Re-designed interface
The SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis interface now provides greater UI consistency between
the Java and Web interfaces (formerly the Java Report Panel and Web Intelligence Interactive), and
with other BI Client tools such as SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise and

SAP BusinessObjects Advanced
Analysis.

6.3.6.1.4 Enhanced copy and paste
You can copy queries, variables, tables and charts from one document to another. When you copy an
object, all its dependent objects are copied. For example, all the queries, hierarchies, dimensions,
measures and variables that supply data to a table are copied when the table is copied.
Tables and charts can be copied with or without formatting or data.
Enhanced copy and paste is available in the Java interface and in Interactive Analysis Desktop.

6.3.6.1.5 Default style
The default report style has been enhanced and provides additional control over formatting. It can define
most formatting attributes of sections, tables, forms, table cells, section cells, free cells, headers, and
footers. Existing documents can be updated with the new default style.
The default style is now stored in a cascading style in the folder <installation_drive>\Program
Files\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\images\We
biDefaultStyleSheet.css on the server, or on the local machine in the case of Interactive Analysis
Desktop.

6.3.6.1.6 Formula language
The formula language contains a set of new functions and operators that operate on hierarchical data.
Some existing aggregation functions also accept sets of hierarchy members to provide the calculation
context of a measure.

New and modified features in existing SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise products
6.3.6.1.7 New charting capabilities
The following are the new charting capabilities introduced in this release:

New chart types
• Pie chart with depth
• Scatter charts
• Bubble charts
• Box plot
• Heat map
• Tree map

Support for hierarchical display
• Dedicated hierarchical charts (treemap)
• Visual display of hierarchies in axis labels
• Hierarchical levels are supported as feeds

New workflows for building charts
• No need to go to Structure Mode to feed a chart
• Charts displayed in gray when feeding is incomplete

Flexible visualization
• Bar and Line charts can share the same value axis
• Use of Measure Name Dimension allows new configurations (for example Measure Name as a
category axis)
• Independent axis stacking allows definition of stacked bar and line charts
• More control in feeding (for example, associating a dimension to region shape in the scatter)
• Flexible measure type transformation (Bar, Line, Area)
• Possibility of stacking measures

Interactivity
• Tooltips
• Chart Rotation
• Chart areas are selectable for editing

Formatting
• Automatic adjustment of chart properties to the object size
• Quick formatting using the Toolbox (palette and style)
• Dialog box for advanced formatting
• More choices for display
• Formulas in titles / axis scaling Min/Max values
• More control on Data Values
• More attractive bar types, more control on line and markers
• Light and shadow effects
• Transparency and gradients

New and modified features in existing SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise products
• Legend items can be grouped by dimension
• Grid display of hierarchies or stacked dimensions
• Height and width of chart areas are adjustable (as an absolute or relative value) – allows better
management of long axis labels
More display choices
• Formulas in titles / axis scaling Min/Max values
• More control of data values
• More attractive bar types, more control on line and markers
• Light and shadow effects
• Transparency and gradients
• Legend items can be grouped by dimension
• Grid display of hierarchies or stacked dimensions
• Adjustable height and width of chart areas (as absolute or relative values) to allow better management
of long axis labels

6.3.6.2 Interactive Analysis Desktop

Interactive Analysis Desktop (also known as Web Intelligence Rich Client), is the desktop interface for
SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis.

In-repository editing
Interactive Analysis Desktop now allows you to edit documents directly while they are in the repository.

6.3.6.3 Personal Data Provider
Personal Data Provider provides the following new features:
Excel 2007 support for Personal Data Provider
Interactive Analysis Desktop supports creating interactive analysis documents using Excel 2007 as a
data source.
Refreshing Interactive Analysis documents based on PDP/CDP data sources
You can refresh an interactive analysis document created from personal data providers such as text,
Excel files, and from custom data providers such as Web Services from BI launch pad on all UNIX
platforms. In previous release, this was possible only from the Windows platform.

New and modified features in existing SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise products

Configuration and Deployment changes for CDP Framework Plug-ins
• In the previous release, the webi_customds_extension.xml configuration file was used for plug-in
identification and loading. In XI 4.0, the configuration file is removed and the plug-in look-up and
loading is done by parsing plug-in configuration file in the resource directory META-INF/services
of the plug-in binary file. The name of the configuration file is a fully-qualified binary name of the
plug-in’s entry point implementation. The plug-in’s class-path dependency is fetched from
MODULE-PATH attribute in META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file of the plug-in binary. The other details
of the plug-in are fetched from the implementation of the CDSExtensionDescriptor and CDSEx
tensionBaseDescriptor interfaces.
• In the previous release, you could deploy plug-in binaries in any location. In XI 4.0, you must deploy
the plug-in binaries in <SAP_BOBJ_INST_DIR>\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
4.0\java\lib\PersonalDPPlugins folder.
• In the previous release, it was not necessary to have the User Interface entry point implementation.
The default User Interface implementation was provided if the plug-in had entries in the configuration
file for the Data Provider Source entry point. In XI 4.0, the User Interface entry point implementation
is mandatory.

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CalDoug (BOB member since 2009-01-12)

[system]

Wow.Good to see…

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JaiSimha (BOB member since 2010-12-19)

[system]

gud to see…whats the need to change web Intelligence to Interactive analysis…

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sreenivas_bo (BOB member since 2009-12-08)

[system]

Really Good …

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prashants (BOB member since 2010-12-23)

[system]

Really Good… thanks CalDoug for sharing

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Vills (BOB member since 2007-10-24)

[system]

Note that there is no mention of a TimeStampDiff function,
no mention of comments and developers’ notes
no mention of user defined functions that can be called by other user functions.
No mention of a sort function
Wonder if they will ever give us back the abilities to

1. Number pages consecutively, at present every page starts at 1
2. Selectively print pages
3. Supply an editor that accepts and keeps tabs, other whitespace, hard carriage returns, colour coded display or the ability to use third party editors.
4. Ability to save a style as a default style
5. Ability to choose a style from a set of styles and apply them to the whole document or selected parts of a document
6. A paint brush that will select styles and then apply them to other selected areas just like Word and Excel
7. Ability to use local data sources

I am sure that more ideas will come to mind, none of these suggestions are earth shattering, they are just the difference between a good product and an also ran.

Mick

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mikca (BOB member since 2005-12-16)

[system]

@mikca

7. A paint brush that will select styles and then apply them to other selected areas just like Word and Excel
8. Ability to use local data sources

Local data sources have been available since XI 3.x, and I think the format painter is in 4.x.

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Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

[system]

Hi Dave,
Are local datasources available in WebI?

Mick

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mikca (BOB member since 2005-12-16)

[system]

Webi Rich Client can use local data sources, when run locally.

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Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

[system]

Can someone tell me whether the use of freehand-sql is better supported in WEBI with BO 4?
This time I try to migrate our DeskI-Reports to WebI (XI 3.1), but there are many reports on the basis of freehand-sql and thats a great problem.
There is no universe, because the data structure is very complex and it is much better to solve with SQL.
Is there any tool to use instead of SQL?

Kindly regards

Klaus

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KlausBarthels (BOB member since 2004-08-19)

[system]

@sreenivas_bo

gud to see…whats the need to change web Intelligence to Interactive analysis…

I thought that, following users’ comments, SAP had decided to retain the ‘WebIntelligence’ product name?

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anorak (BOB member since 2002-09-13)

[MarkP]

@KlausBarthels

Can someone tell me whether the use of freehand-sql is better supported in WEBI with BO 4?
This time I try to migrate our DeskI-Reports to WebI (XI 3.1), but there are many reports on the basis of freehand-sql and thats a great problem.
There is no universe, because the data structure is very complex and it is much better to solve with SQL.
Is there any tool to use instead of SQL?

Kindly regards

Klaus

There is a workaround - create, say, 10 dummy objects for each data type in a universe with the correct connection, then add them into a query and edit the SQL, pasting in your custom SQL.

[system]

@KlausBarthels

Is there any tool to use instead of SQL?

Crystal. Crystal offers the ability to write whatever you want with SQL, and the newer version is much more user-friendly.

Webi still does not support free hand SQL, but it’s one of the top two requests that SAP is looking at.

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Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

[system]

I have just posted the list here…

120×120 10.4 KB

This has been covered in an ASUG webinar last month. Basically, these are the DeskI features that are planned in future WebI releases: – Freehand SQL – Custom grouping – User-defined hierarchies – Split-canvas – Templates, personal lists, personal variables – Excel data provider on the server-side And these are the DeskI features that are NOT planned in future WebI releases: – Visual Basic data provider – XML data provider – Multiple VBA macros – Complex filters – value-based breaks …

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substring (BOB member since 2004-01-16)

[system]

Thank you to everyone who answered me to my question.
I think the best will be if I wait a little longer.
It seems right now that some things in development.

Kindly regards

Klaus

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KlausBarthels (BOB member since 2004-08-19)

[system]

We are currently creating reports in Deski and are having to transfer over to WebI.

The main issue is that we can’t seem to re-create a certain graph (which is pretty important to the purpose of the report) that being a stacked column chart combined with a line graph (ie 5 values stacked with 1 value on a line chart)

All the advice and info I have heard is that can’t be done in WebI 3 and might not be available in WebI 4 either.

Does anyone know anything about that bring included in WebI 4?

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Micky Jay (BOB member since 2007-06-21)