Excel Data Sources for Webi and Xcelsius

Although using Excel as a data source is not ideal, sometimes there is no other option. In this post I’ll go through what I believe are the best options for getting data from an Excel spreadsheet into Webi and Xcelsius (and Universes and Crystal).

Excel Data Sources for Webi and Xcelsius

Although using Excel as a data source is not ideal, sometimes there is no other option. In this post I’ll go through what I believe are the best options for getting data from an Excel spreadsheet into Webi and Xcelsius (and Universes and Crystal).

Read more »

Waterfall Charts in Webi

Although waterfall charts are not an option in Webi, with a little trickery it's possible to create something that looks and behaves as a waterfall chart should.

Read more »

Security on Components in Xcelsius

When you have a dashboard, usually any user that views the dashboard will see the same as any other user. You may be filtering your data based on row-level security in your data source, but what if you want some components to only be visible to some users?

In this post, I’ll explain how you can set up a dashboard that will allow certain users to adjust a target value used in a chart.

Read more »

Dynamic Measures in Webi (on Any Data Source)

Imagine that you have database that contains a number of different measures, and the reporting requirements call for many identical reports where the only difference is the measure. For example, the one report layout may be required to show either Revenue, Gross Margin, Net Margin, Volume, Average Sale, etc.

Rather than duplicate the reports that are shown, you can let the user decide which measure to show, and design only one report. Previously I’d written a post showing how to do this using a derived table in the universe. This post shows you how to get the same results without a universe (for example if your source is BEx or MSAS or you simply don’t have access to edit your universe).

Read more »

LifeCycle Manager (LCM) Walkthrough

 

LifeCycle Manager is a tool that can be used to promote content from one BusinessObjects system to another. It offers some significant improvements over the Import Wizard, but there are still plenty of users that haven’t made the switch. The purpose of this post is to introduce you to a few of the features of the tool and give you an idea of what’s involved in setting it up.

Read more »

Dynamic Measures in Webi (Using a Derived Table)

Imagine that you have database that contains a number of different measures, and the reporting requirements call for many identical reports where the only difference is the measure. For example, the one report layout may be required to show either Revenue, Gross Margin, Net Margin, Volume, Average Sale, etc.
Rather than duplicate the reports that are shown, you can prompt the user to show a particular measure, and design only one report. Here’s how…

Read more »

Sorting a List of Values Non-Alphanumerically

To sort a list of values (in a prompt in Webi) alphabetically is simple stuff. But sorting in some non-alpha way is a little trickier. In this example, I have a list of four product categories, which should be shown in a particular order: Bikes, Accessories, Components, Clothing. This is obviously not alphabetical. To get the members (values) of a dimension to sort in a specific order, follow these steps:


Read more »

Cascading Prompts

Prompting a user, when they run a Webi report, to select from a list of values, is easy stuff. But sometimes you may want to provide your users with a hierarchical structure in a prompt. This is easy to set up, but asked often enough that I thought a quick post couldn't hurt.

Read more »

Saving Scenarios in Xcelsius

In most instances, Xcelsius is used to display data, and considered a ‘read only’ tool. But for those occasions where there's a requirement to have data be user-editable and persistent, I hope that the steps outlined below are helpful.

The most common scenarios that I've seen for this are:

• I want to be able to update my KPI variables occasionally, but don't have them stored in a data-source.
  


• I want to be able to have a comment shown on the dashboard that I can update occasionally.
  


• I want to perform what-if analysis, and save the scenarios for later analysis.
  


• I want to perform what-if analysis, and share this with other users.

Read more »

Moving Average in Webi

A moving average is a nice way of smoothing out noisy data, giving a clearer indication of how something’s trending over time. I’ve seen the requirement a few times so here we go…
=(RunningSum([Revenue]) - RunningSum(Previous([Revenue]; 5))) / 5 

Read more »

BI4.0 Information Design Tool

In SAP BusinessObjects 4.0, one of the major changes is the new "Information Design Tool". A replacement for the old Universe Design tool (which is still installed with the client tools).

When I first sat down to get acquainted, it felt like the process had become overly complex, to the point that I considered just sticking with the old tool. But I'm glad I didn't.

So what follows is the creation of a universe in the least number of steps possible. I suggest going through all of the steps without worrying too much about the various options. You will then have something up and running with which to explore all the new features.

Read more »

Live Office vs. QaaWS vs. BI Services

If you’re building an Xcelsius dashboard, and connecting it to a database, you have three (main) options. Picking between the three is often a source of confusion. Hopefully this post will help explain some of the differences, and help you decide which is best for your scenario.
First up, an overview of each:

• Live Office. Live Office is a Business Objects tool that is installed as an add-on to Microsoft Office Excel. This allows you to connect the Excel spreadsheet within your dashboard to a Webi or Crystal report, which in turn connects to your data source.
  
• Query as a Web Service. QaaWS is a Business Objects client tool that creates a web service, based on a query, that connects directly to a universe.
  
• BI Services. BI Services is the (relatively) new kid on the block. It creates a web service from a report block in a Webi report, which in turn connects to your data source.

Read more »

Webi as a Dashboard

Let's start at the end…
This is a dashboard. In Webi.

I can hover over a chart to see more details:



Read more »

Xcelsius Interactivity: Chart Drill-Down

In this post, I’ll create a simple dashboard that will allow users to interact with the components to change what data is displayed on the screen.

I will have one chart showing revenue by country, and another showing revenue by sales category; clicking one chart will apply a filter to the other, and vice versa.

You can download the finished dashboard here, and get the xlf file here.


Read more »

Sorting Months in Webi

Sorting dates, and particularly months, in Webi can often seem quite difficult. Us humans believe that months are sorted January, February, March and so on. Machines will tell you that months are sorted April, August, December…
If you’re here reading this, you may have one of these problems:

1. My drop-down list of months doesn’t sort properly.
   
2. My report block doesn’t sort properly.
   
3. My chart doesn’t sort properly.

Read more »

Drill-down in Xcelsius using BI Services and Webi

BI Services allows you to publish a Web Intelligence report block as a web service. You can then consume this web service in Dashboard Design (formerly Xcelsius) to display the data in your dashboard. For many purposes, this can be used as a replacement for Live Office.

So, why not just use Query as a Web Service? Good question. If QaaWS service suits your needs, then use QaaWS, but in my opinion there a two big benefits to using BI Services over QaaWS:

1. You can apply logic and aggregation to transform your raw data into a more usable data set, better matched for the intended use in your dashboard.
   
2. You can schedule the Webi report, so that when you open your dashboard, data is being fetched from the Webi cube, not directly from your data source, providing faster load times.

Read more »

BI4.0 Xcelsius Queries - Interactive Components

In SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 (BI4.0), you can now create a query from within Xcelsius (aka Dashboard Design). In this post, I'll create two queries and two components. One query will write to the Excel sheet, the other will be bound directly to a chart. I'll assume you know how to create a query in BI4.0 Dashboard Design; if not, check this out.


Read more »

Configuring BI4.0 Connection: Advanced Analysis to Microsoft Analysis Services 2008R2

The process needed to get Advanced Analysis connected to a Microsoft Analysis Services cube is to copy a small handful of files and make them available as a web site through IIS. BusinessObjects will then connect to a that IIS site in order to send/receive requests to and from your cube.

These steps assume that everything is on the one machine, but of course this is not necessary (and the joy of using IIS/xmla to connect from client to data source).


Read more »

BI4.0 Xcelsius Queries

In SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 (BI 4.0), you can now create a query from within Xcelsius (aka Dashboard Design). Read on for some examples of how this very nice new feature can be used.


Read more »