Transcript BIIT_2011_Berg_Xcelsius_WAD_v3

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Xcelsius, Web Application
Designer, or SAP NetWeaver
Visual Composer:
A Detailed Guide to Choosing
the Right Tool for Your
Dashboarding Needs
Dr. Bjarne Berg
Comerit
© 2011 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
In This Session …
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You will see three demos of different dashboarding tools
Learn how to build Web application designer, Xcelsius® (now
called SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards), and SAP NetWeaver®
Visual Composer dashboards (three demos)
Learn when to pick one dashboarding tool over another
Find out the limitations of each tool and what skill sets are needed
to be successful
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What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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The Big Picture …
With the merger between SAP and Business Objects, we got
access to new “best-of-breed” tools
Since there are varying
experience levels in the
audience, we assume no
prior knowledge in either
SAP BusinessObjects or
SAP BEx tools and will
cover all from a high-level
standpoint
We will take a closer look
at each tool in the demo
sections
Source: SAP
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The SAP NetWeaver Legacy Toolset
The SAP BI legacy SAP
Business Explorer (SAP
BEx) tool includes the
Web template
development environment
known as Web Application
Designer (WAD)
Source: SAP
This tool has been used
extensively by the SAP BI
community for the last 10
years
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer is part of the SAP NetWeaver Composite
Environment (SAP NetWeaver CE) and is not affected by the new SAP
5 tool set
BusinessObjects
What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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Web Application Designer
BEx Analyzer/
Query Designer
Web Application Designer
Web application
designer is an intuitive
tool to build powerful
Web applications and
to interact with portals
and custom templates
OLAP Processor
Web Service
Charting Engine
Dashboards and
Web Templates
HTLM Templates
InfoProvider
BW queries can be
manipulated in Web
application designer
for better display
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The Web Application Designer Template
Web templates are
used to simplify
navigation, add
graphs, and create
dashboards
Basic dashboards
can be developed in
a few hours and
provide low cost
dashboards with total
flexibility and native
connectivity to SAP
NetWeaver BW
Web application designer templates can be simple or complex
– Think of Web application designer as a complete Web
development environment
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The Web Application Designer Template — Edits
Once a Web template is developed, it is easy to edit it. You can
change graphs, and present the data from a query in many ways.
We can add navigation items (buttons, listbox, radio buttons) to
make the dashboards more interactive.
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Web Application Designer Template — Changing Graphs
By clicking on a chart item and
selecting “Edit” you can use a wizard
to modify the graph type. There are
almost 100 pre-delivered graph types.
Plan on spending a substantial
amount of time with your user
acceptance team to validate the
way you present data
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Web Application Designer Template — Controlling Properties
Every object can be
controlled in-detail in
the property pane
The available properties
depends on the type of
object:
List box
• Analysis item
• Chart item
• Document
• Label
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An item can be displayed
with scrolling, headers, and
navigation features turned
“off/on” in a code-free
development environment
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Web Application Designer Template — The Use of Queries
Once you have built a Web template, it is easy to
copy it and change the data provider or query that
are being used
The developer's favorites, history,
and InfoArea are displayed, and
the queries are organized by roles
as configured in BW
Do not develop dashboards on basic
queries without performance testing
them. You should consider using a
naming convention for queries used in
Web application designer to avoid
people changing them
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Step-By-Step Demo of Web Application Designer
Example 1: Building a Web Application Designer Template — Getting Started
Step-1: Create a blank template
Step-2: Drag an analysis item into the canvas
Step-3:
Create a
data
provider
called “DP-1”
based on a
query
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Building a Web Application Designer Template — Adding Buttons
Step-4: Assign the analysis
item to the data provider
Step-5: Add a button
group. We will add
one button for
printing in PDF and
one for jumping to a
detailed Web query
Step-6: Use the
wizard to create
button-1: Export
the template to PDF
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Building a Web Application Designer Template — Adding Commands to Buttons
Step-7: Navigate to the command in the Wizard
(we will export the Web template to PDF).
Benefit: Using the Wizards, we do not have to
write any code
Step-8: We link the command to the
analysis item. We can change paper size,
orientation, headers, or footers, and
allow for an export dialog panel to be
displayed when the user presses the
button.
Note: This is the same command we use
to export the template to Excel.
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Building a Web Application Designer Template — Testing the Functionality
Step-9: Save the Web template
Step-10: Click “Run”
Step-11: Try the new PDF button
Step-12: Since we set this up in
step 8, the user sees a dialog panel
and can control their own layout
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The Result
If you have an idea on how a
BI Web site should work, you
can probably do this in Web
application designer
In the next example, we will
use a button to jump to a
detailed query
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Example 2: Adding a Jump-to from Web Template to Web Query
Step-1: We use the
second button from
the previous
example and call it
“start analysis”
Step-2: We use the command Wizard and select
the “transfer state” option. This transfers the
navigational status between the Web items
Step-3: Select
the item we want
to “jump-to”
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Testing the Functionality
Step-4: We have linked the Web
template to the internal link, the
data provider and the analysis
item – the work is all done!
Step-5: We save
the template, and
run it to test the
new functionality
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The Result
Step-6: We can jump between
templates and queries to see details
Key concept: Web template for
management and easy navigation, Web
queries for other users
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Summary — Web Application Development (WAD)
BENEFIT: Web application designer can be used to create powerful,
custom cockpits and dashboards with custom features. You are not
confined to standard SAP functionality
DRAWBACK: Requires more technical skills to develop good dashboards
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What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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Xcelsius
Dashboards can be built using
Xcelsius (now called SAP
BusinessObjects Dashboards)
Xcelsius was launched in March 2010,
and is the flagship product for data
visualization and dashboards
Web application designer is not
enhanced further beyond SAP
NetWeaver 7.1.
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Adding Interactivity in Xcelsius
To make dashboards useful for more than one person, you should
plan to offer navigation and interactivity instead of static images and
graphs
Adding Interactivity in Xcelsius (cont.)
Xcelsius — The Basics and Options
Xcelsius — Some SAP SDN Examples
Source: Chintan Doshi, SAP sdn, 2010
Xcelsius — Some SAP SDN Examples (cont.)
Source: SAP
What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Is a Tool to Visualize the
Data
SAP NetWeaver Visual
Composer is a browserbased modeling and design
tool for rapid application
development in a code-free
development environment
There Are Two “Versions” of SAP NetWeaver Visual
Composer
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer 7.0 is for SAP BI development, 7.2
is for the Composite Environment (CE). There are different SDN
forums and blogs for each – This can be confusing!
SAP and VC:"With the new version of SAP NetWeaver CE 7.2, you are
able to design and develop your "own practices" as business rule-based,
SOA-enabled, composite business processes & applications with the
Eclipse-based SAP Developer Studio" - SAP AG, 2010 (sap.com)
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Our Target Dashboard
We will build a dashboard based on two queries called country and
customer view, and present this with tables and graphs as well as
navigational links between them (passing variables between the
queries)
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer — Building a Complete
Dashboard
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer 7.0 and Xcelsius
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer 7.01 (or 7.02) SP5 or
higher allows you to use existing Xcelsius UI controls
and use them inside SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer
You can also use any Flex component made by Adobe
Flex Builder (Flex 2 SDK)
You can download flash objects and “how-to” on
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/16871
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External Web Services
External Web services such as email,
stock quotes, news services, and weather
maps can also be integrated into your
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer cockpit
External Data Providers — Web Services
Each Web service may require different input, so you have to spend
some time trying out what works for your site and how to format it
What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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SAP BusinessObjects Integration Options — BICS Connector!
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Notice that DF Facade and SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator are separate
products that are currently licensed separately from the SAP NetWeaver BW
licenses
Xcelsius
WebI
QaaWS
QT
Universes
SQL Access
MDX Access
Data Federator
RDBMS
BW
ODA
XMLA
Facade
DF Fascade
OLAP BAPI
ODBO
Analytic Engine
BWA
Source: SAP AG, Dec, 2010
WebI = SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, BWA = SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator
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What Tool to Select
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All SAP tools have strength and weaknesses
This is a subjective summary of each of the major dashboard
tools
Development
Capabilities
Tool
End
User
Power
User
Author
IT
Developer Graphing Navigation
External
data
External
web
services
Simplicity
OLAP
Ad-Hoc
querying
Longterm
Stategy
Web
Application
Designer
Dashboard
Designer
(Xcelsius)
Visual
Composer
Interactive
Analysis
(WebI)
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What We’ll Cover …
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Introduction
SAP Web application designer overview
Xcelsius overview
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview
Lessons learned and limitations
Wrap-up
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Resources
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Xcelsius® sample dashboards
 www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/xcelsius-samples
SAP BusinessObjects Community and blogs
 www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc
Evan Delodder and Ray Li, Creating Dashboards with
Xcelsius: Practical Guide (SAP PRESS, 1st Edition, 2010).
Carsten Bönnen and Mario Herger, SAP NetWeaver Visual
Composer (SAP PRESS, 1st edition, 2006).
How to Integrate Visual Composer Applications and BEx
Web templates
 www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uui
d/ad182ac7-0a01-0010-4fb88a4d217b19c1?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true
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7 Key Points to Take Home
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There is more than one tool for dashboarding, plan accordingly
RAD is always the preferred development methodology
Xcelsius (now called SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard) will be the most
common dashboarding tool for most companies (90% probability)
Ad-hoc analysis (SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence) is a great adhoc tool with some graphical capabilities
 It is not a dashboarding tool
Web application designer is a good tool for IT developers, but does not
have as many Web 2.0 features as Xcelsius, nor is the dashboards as
interactive and flexible
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer is an option for simple dashboards
Spend about 25-30% of the project on designing and User Acceptance
Testing (users don't know what they want until they see it)
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Your Turn!
How to contact me:
Dr. Berg
[email protected]
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Disclaimer
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet™®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their
respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product
and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by
SAP.
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