Official Product Tutorials – SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

created by SAP User on Sep 17, 2010 12:00 AM, last modified by Joanna Denfordon Mar 14, 2012 11:45 PM

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So with BI 4 Feature Pack 3 now in ramp-up, I thought I would pull together all my feature pack 3 blogs and provide a high level summary, based on the many webcasts I have attended.  Note as all the blogs have stated, things are subject to change and the usual disclaimer applies.  As some of these sessions dated back to August 2011, please note that not features may be there in the ramp-up version.

BusinessObjects Explorer:

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows high level summary features for BusinessObjects Explorer.  The biggest buzz is on Exploration Views and geospatial analysis.

BI Launch Pad and Workspaces

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the StreamWork integration with the BI launch pad.

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 covers Crystal for Enterprise and one key new feature is the Report to Report Interface.

Dashboards

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows Feature Pack 3 enhancements for Dashboards, featuring the unified query support.  SAP says “Insight to Action” allows closing the loop on a business process from a BI client to an external target.  This feature is available for Crystal and Dashboards in Feature Pack 3.

Web Intelligence

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows Feature Pack 3 enhancements for Web Intelligence, including improved hierarchy support and Web Intelligence Rich Client Quick launch.

Analysis, Edition for OLAP

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows improvements for Analysis OLAP, including improved support for BW and focused analysis feature.

I am skipping Analysis Office, as it is platform independent and not reliant on a BI platform.

Semantic Layer

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows HANA optimization, and probably the best feature for ERP customers is the ability to access ECC via the semantic layer.

BI Platform

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 shows BI Platform improvements, including a better upgrade experience.

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows improvements in Life Cycle Management and monitoring.  ASUG has an upcoming webcast to cover these Feature Pack 3 enhancements in more detail.

Figure 11: Source SAP

Figure 11 shows improvements in SDK.  This was discussed at BI 2012 and ASUG has an upcoming webcast on this to cover this in more detail.

SAP Integration

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 shows SAP Integration improvements with Feature Pack 3.  My favorite “fix” is the enhanced scaling factor support.

Multi-source universe access to SAP ECC should be interesting.

Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 shows OEM enablement.

As all the webcasts stated, things were subject to change, and many of these took place last year.

If you are interested in more future directions past enhancement package 3, I encourage you to attend ASUG Annual Conference, where SAP is giving an ASUG session titled “The Future of Business Intelligence”, with SAP’s Ty Miller. 

For more details on Feature Pack 3, I highly recommend Ingo Hilgefort‘s SAP Press books:

Integrating SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.x with SAP NetWeaver

  – a review by Gary Hooker says “It is a no-brainer – just get it. It will save you heaps of time and effort!” – I completely agree!

Reporting and Analysis with SAP BusinessObjects (2nd Edition)

Also, Ingo will be giving a full day hands on session on the BI 4 Feature Pack 3 tools on May 13 at an ASUG Annual Conference pre-conference session.  See here for more information and register today!

Related Blog Links:

Analysis Feature Pack 3
Dashboard Feature Pack 3
SAP Integration
Web Intelligence Feature Pack 3
BI Platform Feature Pack 3
BusinessObjects Explorer Feature Pack 3
SAP HANA with BI4 Feature Pack 3
General Summary
Semantic Layer / HANA

I thank all the SAP speakers for sharing their time and information.

Solution :

Goto Excel options > Advanced tab > General Section:
Make sure “Ignore other applications that use DDE” is unchecked .

Are you getting “Outlook experienced a serious problem with the Business objects live office xi 3.1 add-in.” after installing business objects live office 12.0 ?

To resolve this issue :

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files>Business Enterprise 12.0\Live Office 12.0
2. Click on “enable_addin.exe”
3. Un Check Enable BusinessObjects Live Office XI 3.1 for MicroSoft Office Outlook
4. Press OK.

Here is the link to BOXI 3.1 UserList & Group Extraction tool which was origionally posted on BOBJ Webstie by Julian Brass. I have updated the code to get it working in 3.1.

BOXI_UserListV3 3.1 Version

Thanks.

Click on selection for ‘Left Panel’ at the top under “View” in infoview.

To resolve “CORBA Initialization failed”. (WIS 10901) error in WebI Rich Client 3.1 you will need to restart server intelligence agent .

This Issue is resolved in BO XI R2 SP4 and SP5

1. Only the universe designer needs to know how to write SQL and understand the structure of the target database.

2. The interface allows you to create a universe in an easy-to-use graphical environment.

3. Data is secure. Users can see only the data exposed by the universe. Users only read data, not edit it.

4. The results are reliable and the universe is relatively easy to maintain.

5. Users can use a simple interface to create reports.

6. All users work with consistent business terminology.

7. Users can analyze data locally.

1. Gives Access just to the data the users need for reporting and analysis.

2. Is easy to maintain.

3. Is easy to use. For Example, it does not contain too many objects and Classes and Sub-Classes.

4. Generates efficient SQL.

5. Contains no more than 500 objects and the .unv file is no bigger than 1mb in size.

1. Create a Web Intelligence report with [Date object], other objects, measures#etc
2. After the report is generated define a variable #13-Months-Back# using #RelativeDate()# to approximately minus the current date with 13 months as following
3. 13-Months-Back=RelativeDate([Date Object];-395) .
4. Now insert a new column in the report and place #Thirteen_Months_Back# variable object.
5. Use #13-Months-Back# variable in the graph,#etc

1. In the universe Designer, on the ‘Tools’ menu, click Hierarchies.
2. Choose the desired class from ‘Default Hierarchies’ panel. Add it to the ‘Custom Hierarchies’ area.
3. Click OK.
4. Click Save > Export.

In Web Intelligence document :

1. Add the dimension that is at the top of the hierarchy to the report.
2. Click Drill under the ‘Edit Report’ tab.
3. Save the Web Intelligence document.

Currently in XI R2 there is no option of using templates in Web intelligence.

Following workaround can be utilized for report templates.

1. Create a web intelligence report with the required format that points to a universe(dummy universe) to use it as a template.
2. While creating a new web intelligence report, use the above report and (Select query->Properties tab->Universe) re-point the report to the required universe.

1. The usage of IE is about 30MB when log in infoview.
2. After edit webi report many times, the usage of IE go up to 200MB. The memory usage is up to the time that you do edit action.
3. The memory can not be released after stop editing webi report and log out of infoview.
4. If user continually open and close Java Panel IE will hang.

It was caused by the poorly Memory Collection mechanism of WebI Java Panel. JVM also impact WebI Memory Collection.
Resolution

1. Upgrade BOE to SP5. SP5 has improve WebI Memory collection.

2. Add “-Xincgc” to Java RunTime Paramenter. It is a very important setting for this issue. It means “enable incremental garbage collection”.

Here is how to add this parameter in Java Console.

–Java 1.4 or 1.5:

Go to “Controle Panel”

Open “Java Plug-in”, then go to “Advanced” tag

put “-Xincgc” into “Java RunTime Paramenter”

–Java 1.6

Go to “Controle Panel”

Open “Java”, then click “Java” tag on the pop window

Click “View” button in “Java Applet RunTime Setting” section

put “-Xincgc” into “Java RunTime Paramenter”

Note: Must apply both above two steps to get better performance.

1. Use Draft mode instead of view/page mode.
2. Press Control+F > Type Text and search

1. Create a Crosstab using Dimension and Measure.

2. Add a break on Dimension by clicking on the cell -> Insert -> Break

3. The crosstab will be broken down by that dimension

4. Click on measure in the body of the crosstab and click the SUM # icon

BusinessObjects Products guides

BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide

BusinessObjects Enterprise™ XI. Getting Started Guide

BusinessObjects Enterprise.

InfoView Guide

Here is the site if you are looking fora Service Packs or Hot Fix for Business Objects.
SAP Software Download