SAP Lumira is SAP’s newest product for the discovery and analysis area of the overall business intelligence suite. In the latest release for SAP Lumira Desktop, the option to connect directly from SAP Lumira Desktop to the BEx Queries in the SAP BW system was added, allowing you to leverage a lot more from your existing metadata.

I first review the general workflow for how you can connect to your BEx Queries. Then I look into specific metadata from your SAP BW systems, such as restricted and calculated key figures and hierarchies. Finally I take a look at what some of the known limitations are for this new data connectivity option and how this impacts your BEx Query design.

Data Connectivity Overview

Figure 1 shows the previously existing data connectivity, which leverages the relational Universe connecting to the InfoProvider level, as well as the option to now connect SAP Lumira Desktop directly to the BEx Query.

Figure 1

SAP Lumira Desktop and SAP BW

Figure 2 shows an additional option when SAP BW on SAP HANA is being used, where you can leverage your existing assets from SAP BW, generate an analytical model in SAP HANA, and then connect SAP Lumira Desktop to the generated model.

Figure 2

SAP Lumira Desktop and SAP BW on SAP HANA

Figure 3 shows a general comparison of the two data connectivity options – relational Universe and direct access to a BEx Query – and shows which elements of your existing metadata are available for the BI tools. Note that Figure 3 shows a general comparison based on the availability of metadata. Later on I discuss more of the specifics of SAP Lumira Desktop and the level of support for BEx Queries using SAP Lumira.

Figure 3

Relational Universe versus direct access to BEx Queries

Before looking at the complete details about how SAP Lumira Desktop is able to support the existing metadata from your BEx Queries, here’s an overview of the general workflow.

Creating BEx Queries Using SAP Lumira Desktop

Take these next 10 steps to create a new report with a BEx Query as the data source using SAP Lumira Desktop:

1. Start SAP Lumira Desktop by following menu Start > All Programs > SAP Business Intelligence > SAP Lumira > SAP Lumira.

2. Select the menu File > New, which results in the screen in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Create a new dataset

3. Select the Connect to SAP Business Warehouse option.

4. Click the Next button (not shown) which opens the screen in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Establish a data connection

5. You are prompted to enter the connection details, such as the Client ID, Language, User, and Password (Figure 5). Note that the list of available SAP BW servers is derived from the SAP front end.

6. Enter the required details and click the Connect button, which opens the screen in Figure 6.

Figure 6

Select the data source

7. In this screen (Figure 6) you have the option to select either the SAP Roles or InfoAreas. Based on your drop-down selection, a corresponding list of entries opens, as shown in Figure 7. In this example, I choose InfoAreas.

Figure7

List of InfoAreas

8. In the next step, you can select the BEx Query from the list of available queries.

9. Click the Create button to start the creation of your SAP Lumira report.

10. If the underlying BEx Query does not contain any BEx variables, you are presented with a table showing the data based on the layout you defined in the underlying BEx Query (Figure 8).

Figure 8

SAP Lumira and BEx Query data

SAP Lumira presents a table (Figure 8) showing all elements from the Rows area of your BEx Query in the Rows area of the table. All elements from the Columns area in the BEx Query are shown in the Columns area in SAP Lumira. In addition, any key figure that is part of the BEx Query is added to the Primary Values area of the table in SAP Lumira.

You can now use the different charting options of SAP Lumira in combination with the data coming from the underlying SAP BEx Query.

The current release of SAP Lumira (release 1.17) used in combination with BEx Queries from SAP BW does have several general limitations. They are:

• You do not have the ability to define which dimensions or measures from the underlying BEx Query should be used by SAP Lumira.
• You do not have the option to filter the dataset before SAP Lumira acquires the data from the underlying BEx Query.
• You do not have access to the Prepare area of SAP Lumira and, therefore, you cannot use any of the data manipulation options in combination with your data from SAP BW.
• You do not have the option to create stories using the Compose area.
• You do not have access to the Share area and therefore cannot share your SAP Lumira-created report.
• You do not have access to the context menus for dimensions or measures, which means that you cannot create your own measures, create a custom hierarchy, merge columns, create a calculated dimension, or create a calculated measure.

Before going into any more detail about what these limitations mean for you and the potential impact on BEx Query design, let’s first look at the support for the existing metadata from your underlying BEx Query.

Support for Existing Metadata

Now that you are connected to your SAP BW system, let’s look into the details of which—and how—BEx Query elements are supported by SAP Lumira Desktop. First, let’s look at a set of scenarios in which SAP Lumira Desktop has some limitations, and then I will summarize the support for BEx Queries in SAP Lumira at the end of this section.

Figure 9 shows a BEx Query based on the SAP NetWeaver demo model with a few characteristics in the Free Characteristics (Country, Sales Organization, Sold-to Party and so on) and Rows (Calendar year and Region), and a few Key Figures (Costs, Net Value, Open order quantity, Open Order Value, and Order Quantity).

Figure 9

BEx Query designer

Figure 10 shows how SAP Lumira leverages such a BEx Query, by placing all the elements from the Rows area into the Rows, and all the Key Figures into the Primary Values area of the default table visualization. In addition, all the characteristics and key figures are available in the DIMENSIONS and MEASURES areas, and any available hierarchy defined in SAP BW for those characteristics are also available in the DIMENSIONS area as well, here shown for Country, Sales Organization, and Product (Figure 10).

Figure 10

SAP Lumira and BEx Query elements

Figure 11 shows the Characteristic Restrictions area of the BEx Query designer with three variables defined for a BEx Query: Please select the Products, Please select a range, and Please select the Country.

Figure 11

BEx variables

In this scenario, the underlying BEx Query contains BEx variables, so those are presented in SAP Lumira when the data is acquired (Figure 12).

Figure 12

SAP Lumira and BEx variables

SAP Lumira does support BEx variables, but there are still some limitations:

• A selection option variable from a BEx Query does offer SAP Lumira users the ability to exclude selected values. In other words, the exclude option can only be applied to all selected values and not to individual selections.

Figure 13 shows another BEx Query— in this case, a BEx Query with two structures showing selections for the quarters in the Rows and restricted Key Figures for the Revenue US and Revenue Europe in the columns.

Figure 13

The BEx Query with two structures

When using this kind of BEx Query in SAP Lumira Desktop, the key figure structure is available for use, but the characteristic structure is not available (Figure 14). In other words, as of now, BEx Queries with two structures are not usable with SAP Lumira Desktop.

Figure 14

SAP Lumira and two structures

In addition to the previously outlined scenarios, here are some additional limitations based on specific BEx Query scenarios:

• If the underlying BEx Query contains a hierarchy and hierarchy node variable, SAP Lumira does not recognize the dependency of those two variables, which can lead to incorrect lists of values when the user is being prompted.
• SAP Lumira Desktop supports the settings for displaying the Key or Text for the characteristics based on the setting in the underlying BEx Query. Users do not have the option to make the decision about which fields to use in SAP Lumira Desktop.
• A configured scaling factor in your BEx Query results in SAP Lumira Desktop showing the correctly scaled numbers, but there is no information about the actual configured scaling factor available.
• The configuration option for the display of subtotals in the BEx Query is being leveraged by SAP Lumira Desktop, but users do not have the option to configure the setting in SAP Lumira Desktop.
• In case the underlying BEx Query does contain BEx variables, SAP Lumira Desktop does provide a prompting screen during the data acquisition, but users do not have the option to change the initially configured values for those BEx variables.

A summary of the support for the existing BEx Query metadata in SAP Lumira Desktop is shown in Table 1. Note that this table reflects the support for BEx Query elements using SAP Lumira Desktop release 1.17.

A list of support for BEx Query elements by SAP Lumira Desktop

BEx Query Design Recommendations

Here are some recommendations about how to design your BEx Queries. These recommendations are specifically for using BEx Queries in combination with SAP Lumira Desktop and should not be seen as general recommendations. These recommendations are made taking into consideration the previously discussed limitations.

• SAP Lumira Desktop (to date) does not provide the option to select a subset of characteristics and key figures of the underlying BEx Query for reports. Based on this, I recommend that you created focused BEx Queries to be used with SAP Lumira Desktop to avoid the scenario of users downloading very large volumes of data to SAP Lumira Desktop.
• At this time it is not possible to define filter values for the characteristics of the underlying BEx Queries in SAP Lumira. To give users the ability to define filter values, consider using optional BEx variables. These variables are becoming increasingly common optional prompts in SAP Lumira Desktop, and provide users with the option to define filter values.
• Because SAP Lumira Desktop honors the Display settings for the key and text for the characteristics in the underlying BEx query, make sure that your BEx Queries are configured accordingly, so that your users are able to leverage the descriptions for the dimension values.
• Display Attributes are currently not available for SAP Lumira Desktop. When Display Attributes are very critical for the project, you should either consider turning the Display Attributes into Navigational Attributes or consider using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office or SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP for your reporting needs.
• Currency and unit information for key figures is only available in the table visualization of SAP Lumira Desktop. Based on this, either offer users the option to select a unit or currency using BEx variables as part of the underlying BEx Query or configure the unit or currency as a fixed value in the BEx Query. It is also highly recommended that the same unit or currency be configured for all the key figures to avoid any confusion.
• SAP Lumira Desktop honors the scaling factor configuration from the underlying BEx Query, but users do not receive any information about the configured scaling factor and the scaling factor is also not available as a field that can be placed on the report itself. Based on these limitations, I recommend that you do not use any scaling factor configurations for BEx Queries in combination with SAP Lumira Desktop.
• As of now, SAP Lumira Desktop is unable to leverage custom characteristic structures. Therefore, in cases where custom structures are critical for projects, consider using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office or SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP.

All of these recommendations are based on the current limitations (as of July 2014) of SAP Lumira Desktop when using BEx Queries as a data source. Please note that these recommendations will, more than likely, change over time as these limitations are addressed.

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.

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