761 Complete Guide To Sap BW New Reporting Tools

JUMPSTART: A complete
guide to SAPs new and

improved reporting and
front-end tools available
in SAP NetWeaver BI
Dr. Bjarne Berg
2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

In This Session ...
This is a comprehensive guide to SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence
presentation tools
We will take an overview tour of the Analysis Process Designer (APD),

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC), Web Application Designer
(WAD), Report Designer, Web publishing, Java Server pages (JSP) and
the new SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer & BEx Analyzer.
We will look at the strengths and limitations of each tool and see how
they can be used independently or collectively in a SAP BI environment.
Leave this session with a good understanding of how to use SAP

NetWeaver BI tools to make your system more flexible and adaptive to
the needs of end users.
1
What Well Cover
The SAP BI Tool Revolution
SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer & BEx Analyzer
Analysis Process Designer (APD),
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC)
Web Application Designer (WAD)
Report Designer
Web publishing
Java Server pages (JSP) and the old Business Server Pages (BSP)
Administrative tools
The BOBJ Roadmap for front-end tools
Using more than one tool together

Empowering the users a mind shift
Who Should get access
Wrap-up
22
The SAP BI Core Toolset
SAP BI is an
enterprise-wide
comprehensive
decision support (DSS)
system for analytical
needs of an enterprise.
BI can also support

some degree of
operational reporting
The SAP BI tool set has many presentation tools

and options for companies to leverage.
3
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
44
The BEx Query Designer in BW 3.5
The BEx query designer
is a simple tool that you
use to develop queries
for users.
While the Query

Designer defined the
query, you have many
options on how you
deploy the queries
You can deploy the

queries through web
templates, broadcasted
emails, portals, Excel
and more.
5
BEx Query Designer gets a needed facelift in BI 7.0
The new 7.0 Query designer was totally
re-developed in MS-Visual Basic .NET
The 3.5x BEx
Query Designer
This new property pane makes it easier
to format and control displays than in
the past.
BEx Ad-Hoc
Query Designer
functionality is
The NWBI 7.0 BEx
replaced by BEx
Web Analyzer in
Query Designer
BI 7.0 Note:
6
BEx Analyzer (Excel Workbooks)
1. BEx Workbooks is Excel 'on steroids'.
2. BW queries can be opened in Excel
3. Queries can be refreshed
and standard Excel functions can
be used
This is a great tool for financial

analysts and power users.
To use this tool you

need BEx installed
7
BEx web Analyzer integrates Excel
The Excel integration in the BEx

analyzer is far better.
Unlike the old days of dynamic

HTML, you can now use the BEx
analyzer more like a real
application without refreshing the
whole page every time you click
on something (this is due to the
Source: SAP AG, 2008
Java component in BI 7.0)
Important: BEx browser goes

away in SAP BI 7.0 (so does
BEx Download Scheduler)
8
BEx Analyzer Design Mode
1. Application building in Excel (similar to Web Application Designer)
2. New options for queries with two structures
3. Excel formulas allow access to any cell of the result set
4. Excel formatting options can be fully leveraged for BEx workbooks
(e.g., blank lines, fonts, etc.)
5. Combining Excel formulas and Excel formatting allows the design of
complex formatted workbooks
6. Integration of Business Planning is available
To use this tool you need BEx installed
9
Source: SAP, Zane Connally 2008
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
10
APD Analysis Process Designer and data mining
SAP BW Analysis Process Designer (APD) is for Knowledge
discovery and exploration of large sets of data.
APD has been available in BW since version 3.0 and can be used to
do complex analysis without having to restructure the data and
create hundreds of specialized data marts.
You can read from a variety of sources such as
Flat files
Database tables
Data Store Objects (new name for ODS)
Infocubes
BW queries
Since BW 3.5, APD has

been integrated with the
Data Mining Workbench.
You can access it though
the transaction code
RSDMWB
Image: SAP, UK
11
DW version 2.0
In Data warehousing v2.0 (Bill Immons new terminology), we are
using BI applications to create new data that needs to be fed to the
data warehouse, and /or the transactional system
Tools are now available to build association data sets that creates
updates based on BI findings (i.e. customer segmentation, risk,
profitability flagging etc).
12
Images: Bhanu Gupta, ASUG 2005 Illinois chapter
APD Analysis Process Designer and data mining
Complex scenarios can be
built for structured analysis
such as risk modeling,
customer segmentation,
market basket analysis,
predictive modeling and
much more
Image: SAP
New data based on the

findings can be loaded
back into data targets and
used by others for reporting
i.e. CRM analysis. 13
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
1414
Visual Composer
A Visual Composer is a tool to visualize the data. It is a browser-based
modeling and design tool for rapid application development & prototyping
in a code-free development environment.
15
Visual Composer for Complex cockpits
Modeling of BI applications using the BI kit of the Visual
Composer allows business users to create analytical content
for SAP portal. It offers the integration with BI infoproviders,
views, BEx web applications, PDF and more via WEB API as
access to
other data
sources such
as OLAP and
relational data
sources) via
Java
connectors
16
Image source: Cubeserv
Details about Visual Composer Cockpits
Delivered as part of Enterprise Portal in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Usage
Type (SPS8 and higher)
Different options available for rendering Visual Composer output
Flash
Web Dynpro (HTML)
Flash provides high-end visualization of Visual Composer models
Since a cockpit may have

many different DataSources
(queries), it can take quite
some time to execute them
if the memory cache is not
used consistently
17
Visual Composer Data Methods
Can integrate data from multiple data sources, including

SAP and non-SAP systems, into one model
Different options available for data access include:
BI Extension Kit
Remote Function Call (RFC)
Web services
BI Extension Kit allows access
to the following DataSources
SAP NetWeaver 2004 BI
(BW 3.5 Support Package 14)
SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0
JDBC
XMLA
18
Visual Composer DataProviders
You can use BI queries and views as DataProviders for

Visual Composer models
You also can use BI query functionalities for exceptions and
variables along with Visual Composer models
Visual Composer
allows access to BI
history, favorites,
and roles
19
Visual Composer is Easy for Power Users to Learn
Visual Composer is a power user tool that is simple to learn for
someone with a little bit of technical background (i.e. controllers,
report writers, analysts).
No coding required to
create great-looking
Web-based cockpits
Source: SAP
Take advantage of prebuilt

analytic business packages
20
21
The future of Visual Composer
Source: SAP, July 2008
Composition Environment including Visual Composer

continues to be the go-to product for creating composite
applications.
22
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
23
BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)
BEx Analyzer/
BEx Web Application Designer Web Browser
Query Designer
WAD is an intuitive
tool to build powerful
web applications and
to interact with portals
OLAP Processor
and custom templates.
Web Service BW queries can be

manipulated in WAD
Charting Engine HTLM Templates InfoProvider for better display
24
Web Application Designer for custom applications
WAD can also incorporate other
non-SAP web items into
powerful cockpits and custom
report centers.
BEx Analyzer/
Query Designer
BEx Web Application Designer
While WAD can be used by developers

OLAP
OLAP Processor
Processor without extensive HTML and Java
Web
Web Service
Service scripting knowledge, these skills will be
Charting
useful on most projects.
Charting Engine
Engine HTLM Templates InfoProvider 25
Source: SAP AG
Web Application Designer gets better
The Web Application Designer is improved with new chart types (Heat Map, GANTT &
Milestone Trend Analysis), as well as new layout elements such as tab strips.
WAD also has new step-

by-step wizards for maps,
command editing to
create Web API
Commands and charts, as
well as a simplified wizard
for layout elements such
as radio buttons, action
buttons etc.
This reduce the amount

of custom coding
required with the help of
Command wizards, Auto WAD is a key tool for all SAP BI shops and in NWBI 7.0
the tool is simplified & more powerful.
complete and support for
HTML tags. New: integration with NW BI 7.0 BEx Report Designer. 26
Some of SAP NetWeaver SAP BI 7.0 Web AD New Features
Web Items: Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (SAP NetWeaver

BI 7.0 Support Package Stack 7)
Drag and drop using Analysis item
New chart types (heat map, Gantt, milestone trend analysis)
Export BI Web applications in PDF format
Command Wizard for generating Web API commands
Integration with SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 BEx Report Designer

for formatted reports
User can change the XHTML
source code of any web template
either directly, or the ABAP program
RS_TEMPLATE_MAINTAIN_70, or in
any external XHTML editor.
27
BI Web API Commands
You can use BI Web API commands for carrying out certain actions in
BI Web Applications.
Export to Excel, PDF etc.
OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove drill downs
Command Wizards guide you through the steps for creating a BI Web
API command
Commands appear together for easy access
Data Provider
Web Items
Web Templates
Reduce the amount of custom

coding required with the help of
Command wizards, Auto complete,
and support for HTML tags
28
Command Wizard and JavaScript
Use Command Wizard for generating JavaScript code for the
Script Item to use in custom cockpit applications
BEx Web Application Designer

will not be enhanced further
beyond Release NW 7.1 in 2008. 29
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
3030
BEx Report Designer is here!!
This new tool was created to

simplify the formatting of
reports and fix many of the
printing issues in previous
versions of BW.
Source: SAP AG
We now get color control, header-footer control and many new features such
as location control of cells and integration of pictures, charts and fixed text. 31
BEx Report Designer is new in BI 7.0
Customizable font styles (i.e.
bold, italic), colors, etc.
Group-level changes with
individual formatting
Layout options, e.g.: Height
of rows, width of columns
Multi-line column headers
Flexible field positioning
Merging cells
Support for hierarchies
Rules for the presentation of
special characteristic values
BEx Report Designer 7.1, (last release in
Integration of text, pictures, 2008) will be available under maximum
and charts maintenance until 2016 and will be
Header & footer for reports replaced with the Crystal Light product.
32
Crystal Report is available (also in 3.x)
With BW you get access to Crystal reports. In fact you have many
pre-developed reports that comes with SAP-BW. Currently, you can
modify, or develop and deploy a few Crystal reports without
additional licensing cost.
Crystal is a great tool for batch reporting of "pixel controlled'
formatted reports.
33
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
3434
Web Cockpit in the Portal
You can integrate queries

and Web applications into
the portal through
publishing, broadcasting,
or Web calls
Publishing
The portal can either

receive designed pages
passively or actively
create communities, Web
pages, collaboration
rooms, or cockpits
Broadcasting 35
Web Cockpit in the Portal (cont.)
The SEM-CPM cockpits are
already part of the portal, so
you can access them there
iViews can build custom

portal cockpits with iViews
from many data sources (Web
AD, BW, SEM, R/3, Web) and
in many formats (graphs,
pictures, figures, tables)
iViews can also be interactive
36
Web AD Cockpits in SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0
You can directly publish BI Web cockpits to Portal Content
Catalog using the Publish option from Web AD
Portal and BI system connection should

be set up as per OSS note 917950 37
Broadcast Cockpit Views and Templates Using WAD
In SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI

Web applications (i.e., cockpit views) to Enterprise Portal KM folders
and via email in various formats (PDF, MHTML, HTML)
Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.x) can precalculate BI
Web applications to enhance performance
38
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
3939
BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits in SAP BI 7.0
BI Java SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP BI

and non-SAP data.
BI Java SDK provides access to relational and OLAP data sources
using JDBC, XMLA, ODBO etc.
Access to 200+ data sources using the JDBC drivers.
Java programmers will

recognize the
standard development
kit's (SDK) main
libraries such as the
abstract windowing
toolkit (AWT) and the
GUI-oriented Swing
object library as well
40
Source: SAP AG, 2005
BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits (cont.)
SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio can develop BI Java SDK-based
applications
Can use along with SAP Java Web Dynpro
Interested
developers should
familiarize
themselves with
SAP NetWeaver
Developer Studio
41
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
42
More Administrative tools for management & development
Enhanced Dataflow control (split delta)

Administrator Cockpit (Web-based)
BI Accelerator (high performance BIA)
Enhanced InfoSets with InfoCubes
Re-modeling and repartitioning of InfoCubes
New Data Transfer Process (DTP)
Write-optimized DataStore objects
New Admin Workbench
SAP BI 7.0 have many improved tools for the

developers and system administrators
43
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
44
SAPs Premium Offerings
SAP Acquired Business Objects in 2007/2008 and is working

on integrating BOBJ into the core SAP BI offerings.
45
New Tools Roadmap
Source SAP AG, June 2008
46
BOBJ capabilities Dashboards and Reports
Dashboards can be built using
Xcelsius.
Xcelsius+ will be launched in 2009,
and will be the flagship product for
data visualization & dashboards
BEx Web Application Designer will
not be enhanced further beyond
Release NW 7.1 in 2008.
Crystal Reports for pixel formatted

reports has been available with SAP
BI/BW since 2002. This tool can be
integrated into your tool portfolio using
existing SAP NetWeaver BI queries
(NOTE: Crystal & Crystal Light will be the core tools for
formatted reports starting 2010)
Source SAP AG, 47
June 2008
BOBJ capabilities Analysis, Ad-hoc & Widgets
The Web Intelligence tool from BOBJ
is a tool for ad-hoc web based
reporting, query & analysis.
It is intended for end users and can

leverage queries to both relational
and OLAP sources.
It will be the core offering for ad-hoc

end user analysis starting 2009.
With the current offering of BOBJ you

can also use Desktop Widgets to place
BI content direct onto a PC desktop
and monitor reports and KPIs.
48
The Move towards Pioneer
Pioneer (code name for 2009 release)

Web provides a superset of the capabilities
based in BEx Analyzer (Excel), BEx Analyzer
(Web), and Business Objects Voyager.
Voyager customers migrate to Pioneer.
Excel BEx Analyzer & BEx Web Analyzer

based customers migrate to Pioneer. (Note:
BEx goes into regular maintenance)
49
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
50
BEx Report Designer and WAD
You can also let your SAP BI users do basic

navigation on the formatted reports by either
integrating navigation, or adding this in the Web
Application Designer (WAD)
51
Visual Composer 7.0 Portal Publishing
Visual Composer
Design time deploys
Visual Composer
models directly as
iViews to Portal
Content Catalog
You can then use

Visual Composer
iViews in portal pages,
roles, etc.
52
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing

Wrap-up
53
Deciding which reporting tool is right for you
Workbooks Web Fixed Web Models Vizuali- Distrib-

reports format Applications zation ution
Query tools
Query Designer - - - -/ *
Ad-hoc query designer -/ - - - -/
Web Application
Designer
- - - -/ -
Web Tools
Visual Composer
- -/ - -
Analysis Process
Designer - - - -/ -
Broadcaster -wizard
- - - - - -
Other tools
Bex Broadcaster - - - - - -
Crystal Reports - -/ - - -
* Through embedded Bex Broadcaster
54
Who gets to do what?
The major decision for a SAP BI driven enterprise is to determine who
gets access to each tool.
There is often a temptation for the IT community of wanting to keep the
tools under their domain That is a mistake
The IT community should actively work with the power and casual users
to improve human capabilities and thereby teach them to become more
productive employees.
Chinese Proverb
55
Tool Access Who should do what..
There are many options and decisions to be made on who
should be able to access all the different tools.
Regular Power Authors Developers BW
users users Admins
Query tools
Query Designer - -/ -/
Ad-hoc query designer -/ -/
Web Application
Designer
- - -
Web Tools
Visual Composer
- -/
Analysis Process
Designer - - -
Broadcaster -wizard

Other tools
Bex Broadcaster - -/ -/
Crystal Reports - -/
56
What Well Cover
Report Designer
Web publishing
Administrative tools The BOBJ Roadmap for front-end tools

Wrap-up
57
Resources
COMERIT (Presentations, guides and accellerators)
www.comerit.net
SAP Documents - Interfaces for Enterprise Reporting, Query, and

Analysis, May 2007,
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/f52e9
cc1-0d01-0010-d88b-d808b69391a4
SAP BI - NetWeaver BI 7.0 - what is New? SDN presentation

http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/articles/NWBI 7.0_what_is_new.ppt
SAP Business Intelligence (BI) by Norbert Egger, Jean-Marie

Fiechter, Sebastian Kramer, Ralf-Patrick Sawicki, and Stephan
Weber.
Galio Press - Hardcover, 653 pages, ISBN 978-1-59229-082-6
58
7 points to take home
1. Pick the right tools based on what you want to accomplish.
everything in the world is a nail, when you only have a hammer
2. The BW tool set has evolved substantially over the last 2 years
have you?
3. Todays presentation developer is much more than a query developer.

More than one skill set is needed.
4. Work hard on empowering your end users. You are not doing your
organization any favors by keeping BI in the IT organization
5. Consider integrating more than one tool for you analytical needs
6. You may want to consider to split your backend BI operations and
create a new reporting group focusing on the front-end.
7. Budget real money to get your organization proficient in the new
tools. This is not done overnight, nor cheaply.
59
Your Turn!
How to contact me:

Bjarne Berg
bberg@comerit.net
60

761 Complete Guide To Sap BW New Reporting Tools

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JUMPSTART: A complete

guide to SAPs new and

2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

We will take an overview tour of the Analysis Process Designer (APD),

Leave this session with a good understanding of how to use SAP

Using more than one tool together

BI can also support

The SAP BI tool set has many presentation tools

Using more than one tool together

While the Query

You can deploy the

This is a great tool for financial

To use this tool you

The Excel integration in the BEx

Unlike the old days of dynamic

Important: BEx browser goes

6. Integration of Business Planning is available

To use this tool you need BEx installed

Using more than one tool together

Since BW 3.5, APD has

New data based on the

Using more than one tool together

Since a cockpit may have

Can integrate data from multiple data sources, including

You can use BI queries and views as DataProviders for

Take advantage of prebuilt

Source: SAP, July 2008

Composition Environment including Visual Composer

Using more than one tool together

Web Service BW queries can be

While WAD can be used by developers

WAD also has new step-

This reduce the amount

Web Items: Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (SAP NetWeaver

New chart types (heat map, Gantt, milestone trend analysis)

Export BI Web applications in PDF format

Command Wizard for generating Web API commands

Integration with SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 BEx Report Designer

OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove drill downs

Reduce the amount of custom

BEx Web Application Designer

Using more than one tool together

This new tool was created to

Using more than one tool together

You can integrate queries

The portal can either

iViews can build custom

iViews can also be interactive

Portal and BI system connection should

In SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI

Using more than one tool together

BI Java SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP BI

Java programmers will

Using more than one tool together

Enhanced Dataflow control (split delta)

SAP BI 7.0 have many improved tools for the

Using more than one tool together

SAP Acquired Business Objects in 2007/2008 and is working

Source SAP AG, June 2008

Crystal Reports for pixel formatted

It is intended for end users and can

It will be the core offering for ad-hoc

With the current offering of BOBJ you