SAP BusinessObjects XI Release 3.1 Service Pack 02 offers several significant new functionalities for reporting. First, universe maintenance is now easier and requires less effort. The changes for OLAP universes include:

• New options for generating OLAP universes
• New functionality for updating OLAP universes
• A new editor for creating custom objects

Second, the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence reports now include more features to increase the flexibility of each report. These include:

• Hierarchical fold and unfold option for SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence reports
• Input controls as part of your report

I’ll go over each of these new items and show you some examples of the new functionality in action. In addition, I highly recommended that you use at least SAP NetWeaver 7.0 enhancement package 01, Service Package 03. The updates to SAP NetWeaver 7.0 include a number of performance enhancements that enable you to take full advantage of this new functionality.

New Features for Creating OLAP Universes 

Prior to Service Pack 02 in XI Release 3.1, you had no options to influence the universe creation process for creating an OLAP universe on top of an SAP NetWeaver BW data source. With Service Pack 02 you can go to menu path Tools > Options > Tab OLAP in the Universe Designer, which allows you to set some generic options that will be used each time you create a new OLAP universe (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Options for the Universe Designer

The first option, Generate technical names as details, allows you to include detail objects for each characteristic that represent the technical name. This is useful for prompting or filtering when you would like to ensure a unique value is being used when filtering the data.

The Set measures aggregation to delegated option results in all key figures being turned into measure objects with the property Database delegated for the aggregated function activated. For the user, this means that in certain situations, the report has to be refreshed twice to reflect the correct totals. SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence asks for detailed data in the underlying SAP NetWeaver BW system. Furthermore, for the totals, the system asks for the numbers to be returned directly from the SAP NetWeaver BW system and not aggregated on the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence server.

With the options Generate level 00 and Replace prefixes L00, L01, you can decide if you want to see a level 00 (L00) dimension object for each characteristic or if you prefer the object not to be created. In addition, you can change the standard prefix for the characteristics to a different prefix so that you can follow your own naming conventions. Note that this option does not allow you to remove the prefix from the characteristics.

The settings you configure here are used when you create a new OLAP universe. These settings will be used as default values when you use the menu path View > Refresh Structure to update your OLAP universe after changes in the underlying source occurred. When updating the universe you can also overwrite these settings.

New Features for Updating OLAP Universes

The next area of enhancements helps you to lower the TCO around the maintenance and life cycle management of your OLAP universe. Prior to Service Pack 02 of XI Release 3.1, when updating an OLAP universe with changes, even though the name of the object was identical, an SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report would lose the connection to the object, which resulted in a broken report. For example, you created an OLAP universe including the characteristic Cost Center without using any hierarchies, which leads to an L00 Cost Center and L01 Cost Center dimension object in your universe. You update the SAP NetWeaver BW query to use a hierarchy with a depth of five levels and you update your OLAP universe to include these additional levels.

In the past, a universe update led to a situation in which the OLAP universe update wizard removed the L00 and L01 objects for the Cost Center characteristics and re-added these two objects. Based on the fact that the original two items were removed, any report that was using these objects lost the reference to them. Therefore the objects would be removed from your reports. With Service Pack 02 in place, this situation has changed so that the references to L00 and L01 for the characteristic stay intact and your report does not break. I will show you such an example in the next few steps.

The Process in Action

Step 1. In this step you have a very simple SAP NetWeaver BW query showing the characteristic Customer with two key figures (Figure 2). Next, you create an OLAP universe based on this query.

Figure 2

A simple SAP NetWeaver BW query

Step 2. Start the Universe Designer via menu path Start > Programs > BusinessObjects XI 3.1 > BusinessObjects Enterprise > Designer. Logon with your SAP credentials using the SAP authentication. That way, you can use Single-Sign-On (SSO) with the Universe Designer connecting to your SAP NetWeaver BW system.

Step 3. In the Universe Designer, select the menu path File > New to create a new Universe 1. Click the New button to start the process of creating a new connection (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Universe parameters

Step 4. Select SAP NetWeaver BW as the middleware and enter a connection name (Figure 4). Click the Next button.

Figure 4

Connection details

Step 5. In the next screen, provide all the necessary system details and set the authentication mode to the option Use Single Sign On when refreshing reports at viewtime. Note that this option requires you to be authenticated with the Universe Designer with your SAP credentials and the SAP authentication.

Step 6. Select the SAP NetWeaver BW query from the list of available queries. It is important to note that the SAP NetWeaver BW query needs to be configured with the Allow external access property in BEx Query Designer.

Step 7. Use the default settings in the next screen and click Finish.

Step 8. Click the OK button to start the process to generate the universe. After the universe is created, go to menu path File > Export to export the universe to your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

Create a New SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Report

Next, you create a new SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report and then change the query to use a hierarchy. I’ll show you how to use the Refresh Structure command to apply those changes in your universe and in the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report.

Step 1. Log on to InfoView with your SAP credentials.

Step 2. Click Document List, and then click New > Web Intelligence document. Select the universe you created in the previous steps.

Step 3. Add L00 Customer and L01 Customer and your two key figures to the query panel (Figure 5).

Figure 5

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence query panel

Step 4. Click the Run Query button to execute the report. Click the save icon to save the report you created to the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

Activate a Hierarchy in the Query

Now you go back to BEx Query Designer and activate a hierarchy in the query. You then update the universe and go back to your report to apply these updates.

Step 1. Open the SAP NetWeaver BW query in BEx Query Designer.

Step 2. Navigate to the properties from the Customer characteristic and activate a hierarchy by selecting one and setting the Activate Hierarchy option.

Step 3. Save the changes to the SAP NetWeaver BW query.

Step 4. Restart the Universe Designer and log on to it with your SAP credentials.

Step 5. Reopen the universe you created previously with menu path File > Import.

Step 6. Select the menu path View > Refresh Structure. Click the Begin button. The screen in Figure 6 appears. Leave all the default settings, so that any customization you did to the universe is not lost. Click the Next button.

Figure 6

Update the OLAP Universe Wizard

Step 7. In the next screen, uncheck the option Generate level 00 (Figure 7). Click the Finish button. The summary dialog shows the newly added objects and the removed objects (Figure 8).

Figure 7

OLAP universe update options

Figure 8

Update results

As you can see in Figure 8, you add level 02 and level 03 for the characteristic Customer based on the activated hierarchy in the SAP NetWeaver BW query. Note that level 01 is not affected. This is new in Service Pack 02 — in prior releases, level 01 was removed and added back again.

Step 8. Click the OK button. Follow menu path File > Export to export the changed universe to the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

Apply the Updates to the Report

You have updated the universe, so now you go back to your report in InfoView to apply those updates.

Step 1. Log on to InfoView and navigate to the folder where you stored the report that you created previously.

Step 2. View the report and click the Edit button to navigate to the design of the report.

Step 3. Click the Edit query button. This brings up the existing query. You can now include the additional levels from the hierarchy. Note that level 01 is still a valid object even though the definition of the object has changed to reflect level 01 of the hierarchy now (Figure 9).

Figure 9

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence query panel

Step 4. Remove the obsolete object for Level 00 and add Level 02 and Level 03. Run the report. When you refresh the report, you will notice that your existing report structure is still valid and none of the objects become invalid. This is new in Service Pack 02. Your report now shows the three levels of the hierarchy (Figure 10).

Figure 10

Sample SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report

In the next section, I’ll show you the new editor, which allows you to create custom objects in the OLAP universe and reduces the need to enter syntax manually.

Editor for Custom Objects in OLAP Universes

Another helpful new feature in Service Pack 02 for XI Release 3.1 is the option to use an editor when creating custom objects. The editor helps you to apply the available functions and objects, as well as see the correct syntax for these objects.

Step 1. Start the Universe Designer with your SAP credentials and re-open the universe you created previously.

Step 2. Navigate to the class Key Figures and go to Insert > Object.

Step 3. Start the editor for the select area by clicking the icon on the right side of the select area. The editor (Figure 11) helps you see the list of available functions and operators. It also provides you the list of available objects from the universe. Prior to Service Pack 02 of XI Release 3.1 this editor wasn’t available and you had to enter all the syntax manually.

Figure 11

Editor for custom objects

In the second part of this article, I will discuss some of the new features in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Service Pack 02.

Hierarchical Fold/Unfold Functionality

For the next examples, I use an SAP NetWeaver BW query based on the demo InfoCube 0D_SD_C03. The query includes the Calendar Year in the free characteristics, two key figures in the columns, and the characteristic Sales organization in the rows with an activated hierarchy (Figure 12).

Figure 12

SAP NetWeaver BW query

You’ve created an OLAP Universe on top of this SAP NetWeaver BW query following the steps outlined in the previous sections. Now you can create a new SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report on top of this universe.

Step 1. After you create the OLAP universe, log on to InfoView and go to New > Web Intelligence Document to create a new Web Intelligence report.

Step 2. Add all levels of the Sales organization hierarchy and the Calendar Year to the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence query panel by dragging and dropping the elements into the Result Objects area (Figure 13).

Figure 13

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence query panel

Step 3. Click the Run Query button to execute the report.

Step 4. In the report, remove the Calendar Year column. Click a member of each column from the Sales organization hierarchy — in my example, L00 Sales organization to L03 Sales organization — and click the add/remove break icon   to add breaks per Sales organization hierarchy level in your report.

Step 5. Click the View Structure button to display the report structure. Make sure the description of the outer levels is repeated and remove the first row (Figure 14).

Figure 14

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report structure

Step 6. Select the key figures in the crosstab and click the insert sum icon  in the toolbar to add totals per level.

Step 7. Click the View Results button to return to the report results. Select a member of the first column in your report and click the fold/unfold icon  in the toolbar.

Because you created the breaks in your crosstab by hierarchy level, you can now open and close the hierarchy levels in your crosstab independent of each other.

In the example in Figure 15, you can see the details for two areas in Canada, but only the totals for the European countries and for the US. You can now use the controls on the left side to open or close each individual level of your hierarchy.

Figure 15

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report with the fold/unfold feature

In the next section, I’ll show you how to use input controls to further enhance the report and to enable user interaction.

Input Controls

Another new feature in Service Pack 02 is the use of input controls in your report. Input controls allow you to use a dimension object from your result set and bind it to a common control, such as a slider or a list box, to provide the report user with the option to filter or influence the data shown in the report.

In this example, you use the dimension object Calendar Year and bind it to a list of years that the user can select via radio buttons.

Step 1. In SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, open the Input Controls tab (Figure 16).

Figure 16

Input Controls tab

Step 2. Click the New button and then select the Calendar Year (Figure 17). Click the Next button.

Figure 17

List of dimension objects and key figures

Step 3. Select the option to use Radio buttons and click the Next button (Figure 18).

Figure 18

Selection of input controls

Step 4. In the next screen, you can select which elements of your report are affected by the selection. In my example, I want to filter the crosstab, so I select Block 1 (Figure 19). Click the Finish button.

Figure 19

Assign Report Elements screen

You now have created an SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report that not only offers a hierarchical navigation with the new fold/unfold option, but also uses the new input controls to offer easy filtering on top of the data (Figure 20).

Figure 20

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report with input controls

Ingo Hilgefort

Ingo Hilgefort started his career in 1999 with Seagate Software/Crystal Decisions as a trainer and consultant. He moved to Walldorf for Crystal Decisions at the end of 2000, and worked with the SAP NetWeaver BW development team integrating Crystal Reports with SAP NetWeaver BW. He then relocated to Vancouver in 2004, and worked as a product manager/program manager (in engineering) on the integration of BusinessObjects products with SAP products. Ingo's focus is now on the integration of the SAP BusinessObjects BI suite with  SAP landscapes, such as SAP BW and SAP BW on SAP HANA, focusing on end-to-end integration scenarios. In addition to his experience as a product manager and in his engineering roles, Ingo has been involved in architecting and delivering deployments of SAP BusinessObjects software in combination with SAP software for a number of global customers, and has been recognized by the SAP Community as an SAP Mentor for SAP BusinessObjects- and SAP integration-related topics. Currently, Ingo is the Vice President of Product Management and Product Strategy at Visual BI Solutions, working on extensions to SAP’s product offering such as SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio and SAP Lumira. You may follow him on Twitter at @ihilgefort.

You may contact the author at Ingo@visualbi.com.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.