Query views offer you a powerful tool that can make life easier for end users and enhance overall system performance. You can maintain and name views so that end users more readily identify and access them. While they are very powerful, views are not used enough because many don’t know how useful they are.
Key Concept
The query view Web item is a predefined query state that navigates to specific, predefined tables or charts via a drop-down selection menu. One SQL query executes the view. This transaction would otherwise take at least four clicks or require a custom-coded command sequence.
Since the launch of BW 3.5, working with views has become much easier. This latest version of BW provides the new view selection Web item, so different global views can be swapped for a specific Web item on a page. In addition, with the appropriate Web item properties, you can allow end users to create and delete views. You can also target a Web item to receive the data from the global query view you select, such as a table or chart.
Views are beneficial because they deliver data more easily and efficiently. They ease navigation for analysts and basic users when they slice information in various ways. A sales manager, for example, can access a view and learn all about a customer group and month then switch to an individual sales representative, customer, and day — all in one click.
You can scale back query proliferation with views. Because queries are easy to create, many companies support a large number of power users in the same functional area who all create queries. Creating good queries is more difficult, however, so your resources may be wasted on maintaining mediocre or even worthless queries. Views mitigate these issues by offering an alternative to authoring queries for the masses. Users can create views tailored to their individual needs rather than deploying more queries. Views are navigations, so their proliferation does not pose the same problem that query proliferation does.
To understand exactly what this new Web item provides, I’ll introduce you to views and show you how to create them. I’ll also show you how views were deployed and accessed in previous versions of BW, along with how the new view section Web item uses them.
View Overview
Views come in two flavors: jump target and global. Jump target views are predefined navigations associated exclusively with Excel and BEx Analyzer workbooks. Because this type of view is tied to workbooks only, it does not work with the new view Web item, and thus is not the subject of this article.
Global views are linked to the query itself instead of being tied directly to workbooks. Because they are associated with the query, global views can be used as a source for feeding data to Web templates, or they can be accessed directly from within the BEx Analyzer, which makes them more flexible than jump target views.
Prior to the new BW 3.5 features, the personalization features in BW facilitated the creation of a few large queries with many variables and a lot of free characteristics. These free characteristics in turn supported many navigation states for the same query. With the personalization features in BW 3.0, a Web template can display individualized navigation for each user when it is opened. Access to predefined views allow users to quickly find subsequent navigational states after a Web template is executed initially.
Before you can use the new view selection Web item, some advance work is suggested. You’ll need to create some global views, for example. You should also ask your users directly what ways they like to see their data sliced and create the new views with this feedback. You may wind up with 10 predefined views for all who access a Web template, and then some custom views created by those who require further modification later on.
Create Views
Create views in advance with the BEx toolset, which is available in previous versions of BW. In the BEx Analyzer, navigate a query to the desired drill-down state and select Save view global after clicking on the save icon (Figure 1). You can also create views using the Tools menu in Web Application Designer (Web AD) by following the Tools>View Definition menu path to the appropriate option: Based on a Query… or Based on Another View… (Figure 2).
Figure 1
Create global views in advance via the BEx Analyzer
Figure 2
Web AD allows you to create views in advance
There are several different ways to access views made in advance. Integrating the new view selection Web item into a formal information cockpit is the best way to deploy views, in my opinion. But there are other options. You can access views directly from within the BEx Analyzer using the open view option instead of the open queries setting. In addition, you can access views directly from within the Web analyzer Web item, which is also new to BW 3.5. Another way is to use some custom code that can be inserted in the HTML view of Web AD to access a view from a Web application.
The View Selection Web Item
In prior BW releases, much of the functionality supported by the new view selection Web item could be supported via a hard-coded HTML form. It was also possible in prior versions to hard code buttons, links, or tabs that swapped out different views for a specific data provider. These features use the custom code option and are discussed in the current WNABW7 SAP workshop. The new view selection Web item avoids this custom coding option.
The view selection Web item allows you to select a view for the source of the data and combine it with a table or chart Web item (Figure 3). As noted earlier, to properly deploy the new Web item, you should create some views in advance and have an understanding of the item’s specific properties. Those are the only prerequisites.
Figure 3
The view selection Web item
Note
I have identified the view selection Web item properties and their parameters (
Table 1). For a complete breakdown of the new Web item’s features, refer to
https://service.sap.com/bw and follow the menu path
Documentation>SAP BW 3.5 Documentation Enhancements>3.5 Web API Reference.
| Affected Web item |
Identifies Web items that should accompany an initial query view when the template opens. |
| List of query views |
View selection drop-down box that lists query views and queries created in advance. It allows you to connect views to a Web item such as a table or chart saved in a library. |
| Display create/delete button |
Allows users to create and delete their own views. This is accomplished via create and display icons, which must be deployed when this option is selected. |
| Keep filter values for query views |
This button passes the filters of the navigation state you are in to the query or query view you selected in the drop-down box. |
|
| Table 1 |
View selection Web item properties |
To create a Web template using the view selection Web item, the template needs the item along with a preexisting table item or other initial Web item, like a chart. In the example settings, OUR_TABLE_1 is the technical name of the other Web item needed on the template (Figure 4).
Figure 4
Web template with view selection Web item
Most of the settings on this new Web item are intuitive. After clicking on the Web item in the layout view of Web AD, access the Property section of the Web Item tab. Flag the check box to select the listed feature.
To connect a view’s data to a display chart or table Web item, type the technical name of the Web table or chart in the Affected Web Item field. I used OUR_TABLE_1 in this example. For the List of Query Views field, you need to reference a table or chart Web item that was previously saved in a library, along with a view to provide the data to that item.
Note
To save a Web item in a custom library, access the Save in Library button on the bottom of any Web item properties screen (in this case, a table or chart Web item). Now that you understand these settings, you can incorporate the item on a Web template (see the Predefined and Charts/Tables caption in Figure 4) to display the view’s data.
Web-Based View Creation
Let’s incorporate the advanced view creation options. One of the big advantages of the new Web item is the end user’s ability to create, access, and delete personalized views via the Web-based view creation tool. Access this new and improved view creation method using the Create icon on the view selection Web item. Once selected, the system branches to a Web-based view creation GUI. It allows navigation to the desired data and lets you connect a table or chart to the output (Figure 5).
Figure 5
Web-based view creation
Note
As opposed to the views previously created and applied in the deployment of the view selection Web item, the views created by the Web-based view creation tool are only available to the user who created them. Be aware that the creation icon functionality did not work perfectly in the patch of the system I initially tested it on, so make sure you have the most current patch level.
Make the Most of Views
Here are some suggestions to help you optimize your view usage:
- Create queries (to use on Web templates) with many free characteristics.
- Create (in advance) a few global query views for your queries, as defined by user requirements.
- Create information cockpits (Web templates with queries, graphs, charts, or links surrounding a subject area — e.g., FI AP cockpit). Make sure you deploy one or more view selection Web items on these templates to increase flexibility. Enable the user-created view option.
- Take on the politically difficult task of reducing the number of query authors.
I’m sure you will find the new query view Web item a welcome feature in BW 3.5. It should make your life easier.
Ned Falk
Ned Falk is a senior education consultant at SAP. In prior positions, he implemented many ERP solutions, including SAP R/3. While at SAP, he initially focused on logistics. Now he focuses on SAP HANA, SAP BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver BW), SAP CRM, and the integration of SAP BW and SAP BusinessObjects tools. You can meet him in person when he teaches SAP HANA, SAP BW, or SAP CRM classes from the Atlanta SAP office, or in a virtual training class over the web. If you need an SAP education plan for SAP HANA, SAP BW, BusinessObjects, or SAP CRM, you may contact Ned via email.
You may contact the author at ned.falk@sap.com.
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