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Get to Know BusinessObjects 4.0A collection of articles previously published on BusinessObjects Expert .

Visit www. businessobjectsexpert.wispubs.com to see our full archive of articles and other resources.

The Evolution of Crystal Reports in BusinessObjects 4.0, by Adam Getz .................................................Page 2

Chart Engine Offers Exciting Options in Web Intelligence 4.0, by Scott Wallask .....................................Page 5

E-tip: 5 Tips to Speed User Adoption of Mobile Dashboards, by BusinessObjects Expert staff ................Page 7

New Information Design Tool Brings Speed and Efficiency to Reporting, by Ashwani Sharma ..............Page 8

BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Sets the Tone with a New Start Page and QueryBrowser Panel, by Scott Wallask .................................................................................................................Page 11

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2 2012 BusinessObjects Expert Reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

In building the latest release of CrystalReports, SAPs goal was to create anenhanced developer interface and thebest possible connectivity with the newsemantic/universe layer all with zerodisruption in the use of legacy andexisting Crystal Reports. Thus, SAP hasreleased two new, yet distinct versionsof Crystal Reports:

Crystal Reports 2011 mirrors CrystalReports 2008 and includes the addi-tion of a few new features

Crystal Reports for Enterprise is anewly designed version with a new

code base, focusing on enhancedreport design and enhanced connec-tivity with BusinessObjects universes

Crystal Reports 2011 allows for asmooth upgrade path for existing legacyreports, while Crystal Reports for Enter-prise is the foundation for all futurereleases of Crystal Reports. Table 1 shows a quick comparison betweenCrystal Reports 2011 and CrystalReports for Enterprise.

In short, Crystal Reports for Enterprisecontains a new version of the CrystalReports Designer. It encompasses stream-lined report creation and modificationprocesses, provides significantly bettersupport for BusinessObjects universes,

and allows reports to take advantage ofbetter connectivity to relational databasesand SAP NetWeaver BW.

In addition, SAP has determined thatCrystal Reports for Enterprise is thefuture of the Crystal Reports productline, and subsequently it provides thefoundation for all future releases ofCrystal Reports. To this end, there are anumber of new features in CrystalReports for Enterprise, including thefollowing:

Smart formatting of reports

Enhanced connectivity with universes

Streamlined, tab-controlled user inter-face

New charting engine

New multilingual support

New alerting mechanism

The Evolution of Crystal Reports inBusinessObjects 4.0

By Adam Getz, Manager BI and Reporting, TMA Resources

Get a high-level, side-by-side comparison of the features in Crystal Reports 2011 and

Crystal Reports for Enterprise, and gain an understanding of the new functions available in

Crystal Reports for Enterprise.

Two new features introduced inCrystal Reports for Enterprise radi-cally change the Crystal Reportsdesign and development experi-ence. With smart formatting , theCrystal Reports Designer environ-ment automatically detects

patterns in report formats andautomatically updates reportformats upon the addition andremoval of data fields. Meanwhile,through enhanced universe connec-tivity , there are no longerlimitations with the integration ofuniverse functionality within CrystalReports. Now you can fully use allthe functionality of universes withina Crystal Report.

Key Concept>>

Crystal Reports 2011 Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Provides a incremental update toCrystal Reports 2008 with a few newfeatures

Focuses on serving the needs of legacycustomers

Delivers existing functionality with no

regressions

Offers seamless upgrades from legacyreleases of Crystal Reports

Interface is identical to Crystal Reports2008

Provides a major update and redesign of theCrystal Reports Designer

Offers connectivity with new unx universe andsemantic layer

Enhances the report design environment

Offers many new features and functions

Some features in legacy versions of CrystalReports are not yet available in Crystal Reportsfor Enterprise

Has the limitation to universes as the only datasource

Provides new user interface, including a tabbedtoolbar, smart guidelines, and smart default for -matting

Comparing the two new versions of Crystal ReportsTable 1


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The Benet of SmartFormatting Of the many features in Crystal Reportsfor Enterprise, one fundamentallychanges how developers interact with

reports. This new feature is called smartformatting, and it greatly enhancesreport developer efficiency.

With smart formatting, the CrystalReports Designer automatically detectspatterns in report formats. Whenchanges occur to a report (e.g., the addi-tion or removal of fields), the Designerenvironment rapidly adjusts the formatof the report by automatically movingand resizing fields that are contained on

the report. So, if a report developeradds a fourth data field to a report thatalready contains three fields, the envi-ronment automatically adjusts thelayout to a four-field layout. The reportdeveloper also no longer has to manu-ally modify report formatting whenadding and removing fields. Additionalfeatures of smart formatting include thefollowing:

Automatic resizing of columns uponobject and column insertion anddeletion

Automatic column shifting uponobject and column insertion anddeletion

Guidelines for easy column resizing

Ability to drag and drop columns tocustomize reports

Enhanced Connectivity withUniversesIn the past, there had been several keylimitations with integrating universefunctionality within Crystal Reports.However, in Business Objects 4.0, SAPcompletely modifies its traditional uni-verse layer, and Crystal Reports for

Enterprise has been developed to takeadvantage of this new universearchitecture.

Thus, Crystal Report for Enterprisenow incorporates native connectivityto the universe structure, and theuniverse interface is consistent andidentical to the universe interface ofother BusinessObjects products (e.g.,Web Intelligence, BusinessObjectsDashboards).

In addition, Crystal Reports for Enter-

prise takes advantage of the databaseabstraction, security, class and objectlayout, expressions, prompts, aggregateawareness, hierarchies, and conversionsto business terms that universes provide.

Features Not Yet Available inCrystal Reports for EnterpriseAs Crystal Reports for Enterpriseincorporates a completely new codebase, rather than being a next versionof existing releases of Crystal Reports,there are a number of features thathave not yet been incorporated.However, SAP plans at some point onre-incorporating all these features withinfuture releases of Crystal Reports forEnterprise, allowing the current versionto the basis of future releases. Earlylimitations in Crystal Reports forEnterprise include:

No direct relational database support

No support for database connectivity(open database connectivity and Javadatabase connectivity)

No OLAP as a data source support,other than SAP Business Explorerqueries

Solve day-to-day challen

Design better dashboar

Create more effective uni

Build better reports

Improve user adoptio

Advance your BusinessObjects skillsand overcome day-to-day challenges

with front-end BI tools.

SAP BusinessObjects made easy.

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No BusinessObjects Live Office sup-port

Inability to search via enterprisesearch

No geographical maps

No barcodes (previous versions ofCrystal Reports allowed for data

fields to be displayed as bar codesrather than text)

Because these features are not yet incor-porated into Crystal Reports forEnterprise, you cannot easily convert

existing reports in legacy versions ofCrystal Reports to the enterpriseversion. Moreover, Crystal Reports

for Enterprise is more situated for thedevelopment of new reports ratherthan the conversion of existing reportsfrom legacy versions. However,Crystal Reports 2011 does include allthe features of legacy versions, so you

can easily convert existing reports canto the 2011 version while retainingtheir functionality.

In general, if you want to use the newuniverse layer in BusinessObjects 4.0,then choose Crystal Reports forEnterprise. However, if you requirereport upgrades from legacy versions,report creation application program-ming interfaces, or direct data accessto relational databases, then go withCrystal Reports 2011 for now.

Table 2 summarizes SAPs generalrecommendations about which versionto use based on the data accessrequired. n

Adam Getz serves as manager for business intelligence and reporting at TMA Resources , at which he is leading a professional organization that con-

ducts full life-cycle business intelligence implementations. He is a thought leader in the field of information technology and an expert in the

deployment of leading business intelligence, database management, and data integration products. He has presented at a variety of local, national,

and international events including the 2006 Business Objects International Conference, 2007 Oracle BIWA Summit, 2008 Oracle Open World, and

2010 and 2011 ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conferences. In addition, Adam is the creator and main author of bi-insider.com , a Web site, port-

folio, and blog that provide rich technical and functional content to business intelligence and data warehousing professionals. Further, he haspublished numerous technology white papers that have focused on various topics in business intelligence and data warehousing. He currently serves as

the chairperson of the Washington, DC, Area BusinessObjects Crystal User Group. You may reach Adam by email at [email protected] .

Data source General recommendation

Business Objects 4.0 Universe (unx) Crystal Reports for Enterprise

SAP NetWeaver BW 7 Crystal Reports for Enterprise

SAP NetWeaver BW 3.5 Crystal Reports 2011

Direct database access Crystal Reports 2011

SAP ERP Crystal Reports 2011

BusinessObjects Live Office Crystal Reports 2011

Recommendations about which current release of Crystal Objects to useTable 2
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For group rates on electronic access, call 1-781-751-8799 5

You want a Web Intelligence chart withshadowed borders, blue font, and asymbol in place of a value? Cool. Wait,now you want to make it a 3-D chart

instead? No problem if youre usingWeb Intelligence 4.0.

The latest release of the Web Intelligencesoftware puts design elements right in thehands of users and report developers,continuing a harmonized look and feelamong all of the tools within Busines-sObjects 4.0, said Roy Wells , principalconsultant at Decision First Technolo-gies. Wells spoke during a Decision FirstWebinar about Web Intelligence 4.0 on

October 6, which you can still access ondemand by registering.

Similar to other BI tools in the Busines-sObjects 4.0 release, Web Intelligence4.0s user interface features tabs and easynavigation among functions (e.g., reportelements, formatting, and analysis). Fornew users, this user interface shouldprovide an earlier learning curve com-pared to past versions of WebIntelligence, Wells said. However, long-

time users familiar with the old userinterface may need more time to becomeaccustomed to the changes, he added.

The Chart Engine Is YourPaletteThe new chart engine (i.e., the systemthat renders charts) that serves as a

highlight of Web Intelligence 4.0.Through the engine, users can choosedifferent chart types (e.g., box plots, tagclouds, tree maps) depending on how

they want to display and analyze data.A tree map chart, for example, showsvalues as hierarchical data in the formof various sized and colored rectangles,which are also known as leaves ( Figure1). Tree maps can show users patternsof information they might not otherwiseimmediately notice.

Meanwhile, a format pop-up window inthe chart engine lets you easily alterchart components (e.g., value axis, 3-D

appearance, shadowed boxes, colors).The power of the chart engine comesfrom this formatting because it givesusers and report developers new-foundcontrol over every last aspect of a chart,Wells said.

Previewing Data Is Easy The query window has been redesigned,and users will find the Data Previewpanel helpful, Wells said. After draggingmeasures and filters into queries, DataPreview allows users to see the resultingdate without running the actual report,which saves time ( Figure 2 ). Users canalso explore the data in the previewpanel, although the full amount of datais configured in the preview to the top100 or 1,000 rows of information.

Chart Engine Offers Exciting Options in WebIntelligence 4.0

By Scott Wallask, Managing Editor, BusinessObjects Expert

Web Intelligence 4.0s greatest strength may be the way it allows users and report develop-

ers to control all aspects of char t appearances.

A tree map created in the new chart engineFigure 1
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Other features users may have interest ininclude:

Web Intelligence 4.0 can use legacyuniverses (.unv extension) and newerInformation Design Tool universes

(.unx extension). This expands thedata types that Web Intelligence 4.0can access compared to prior releasesof the software.

Users can more easily publish data asWeb Services by clicking the globeicon in the left column to thechart editing tool. This handy iconwas not available in prior releases. n

The Data Preview panel, located in the lower right corner of the screenFigure 2

Scott Wallask is managing editor for BusinessObjects Expert . You may contact him via email at [email protected] and follow him on

Twitter @BObjExpert .
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Just like any killer app, one of thegreatest struggles in implementingdashboards is getting people to usethem. Driving user adoption isequally about the technical aspects ofthe dashboard and how you roll itout. Here are five important technicalconsiderations that will make userslove your dashboard and not cast itaside.

Make your dashboards easy to find.Most users are too busy to look fordashboards, which is why the mostvisible dashboard wins. Your dash-boards should not take more than aclick to open up, whether thismeans an icon or link on a comput-er desktop or an easy-to-find appon a mobile device.

Use simple, clean, well-designedinterfaces. Dashboard interfacesshould be simple and intuitive, with

minimal steps required to get atinformation. With many peopleaccessing dashboards on mobiledevices with small screens, its evenmore important for you to usescreen real estate as economically aspossible.

Give users what they need, dont givethem what they dont. Keeping yourdashboard simple and clean meansproviding the information usersneed, and nothing else. Identify themost critical key performance indi-cators to design around, and elimi-nate extraneous information thatdoesnt provide value. As with allaspects of dashboard design, plan-ning is key beware of bloatedrequirements.

Keep datasets as small as possible. Smaller datasets maximize dash-board performance. Minimizing the

number of round trips to the data-base helps ensure that users wontbecome frustrated by long loadingtimes.

Ensure that your results are accurate .Inaccurate data is the death knell ofa perfect dashboard. Build trust inyour dashboard from the start byensuring that the back-end databeing used is accurate, and the dash-board processes it correctly. n

5 Tips to Speed User Adoption of MobileDashboards

by BusinessObjects Expert staff

Increase user adoption of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (formerly Xcelsius) using these five tips.

This E-tip was adapted from ChrisHickmans presentation, ExpertGuidelines for Mobilizing YourDashboard, at the Xcelsius Dash-boards Bootcamp in November2011 in Las Vegas. The confer-ence was hosted by WellesleyInformation Services, the publisherof BusinessObjects Expert .

Note>>

e Tip


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schemes, you can differentiate thetables from different sources to buildthe data federation multisource uni-verse data access. If you have thesame table from two distinct sources,you can identify which source an indi-vidual table comes from based on thetables color.

Benets Behind the New ToolI find the following advantages ofhaving the above four componentsintegrated into the InformationDesign Tool:

It provides a single development envi-ronment for BI solutions and data

federation engine jobs for multisourceuniverse data access

The data federation engine provides

access to different databases (e.g.,Oracle, My SQL and SAP BusinessWarehousing) in one place

Because the data federation engine isan entry point for all the data sources,

you can use it to control commonsecurity and administration activities

The performance for query readinghas been enhanced because data inte-gration takes place at the semanticlayer

It lowers the total cost of ownershipfor integration projects because thereis not complex ETL to put in place

It provides heterogeneous access overall sources

It provides multiple-source access

Real-life Application of theInformation Design ToolLets look an example of how multiplesources can be beneficial, which is amain point behind BusinessObjects 4.0.

In releases prior to BusinessObjects 4.0,one universe can be connected to onesource only. Suppose that business needsa report that includes data from twosource systems (e.g., Oracle and MySQL). What is the proposed solution?

Using prior versions of BusinessObjects,you create two different universes ontwo different data sources (e.g., one onOracle and one on My SQL). Then youcreate two separate queries and get thedata in a Web Intelligence report bycalling both the queries in one WebIntelligence document.

Multisource-enabled relational universe showing, by color, the different sources from which the table pulls dataFigure 2


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A better solution comes from the newInformation Design Tool via the datafederation engine. The engine lets youcreate one universe on multiple datasources at the same time, and canperform Web Intelligence reporting

on the top of it. As part of Business-Objects 4.0, Web Intelligence is aboutone-and-a-half times faster thanBusinessObjects XI 3.1 when usingtwo data sources of relational typedatabases, which is a solid businesscase for upgrading.

Detailed configuration on which thiskey performance indicator is measuredincludes:

Database Oracle 11g and My SQL

Ashwani Sharma is SAP BI 7.0 Certified Consultant working with Accenture. He has wide experience in SAP BI and BusinessObjects integration

implementations. Currently He is involved in a SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 ramp-up program. You can reach him by email at ashwani.sharma@

accenture.com .

Web Intelligence XI 3.1 + SP1 andInteractive Analysis 4.0

Customer master data having about5,000 rows (2,000 rows from My SQLand 3,000 from Oracle)

Reusability of UniversesOLAP universes created with Busines-sObjects XI 3.X are supported inBusinessObjects 4.0 as well. Interactiveanalysis can be used for reporting from3.X OLAP universes. However, to editthe OLAP universes, a user needs theold Universe Designer, not the newInformation Design Tool (i.e., to edit aBusinessObjects XI 3.X universe, youneed to use that releases tools).

Also, you must save BusinessObjects 4.0universe files with extension .unx,whereas you save the 3.X universe withextension .unv. There is also a processdefined in BusinessObjects 4.0 for rela-tional universes to convert XI 3.X

universes to .unx.

Finally, Web Intelligence is supportedby the following universes:

BusinessObjects 4.0 .unx (multisourceenabled relational universe)

XI 3.1 .unv (OLAP and relationaluniverses)

XI 3.1 .unv (relational universes)converted to BI 4.0 .unx n
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With its user friendliness and commonWeb design elements, BusinessObjectsDashboards 4.0 looks and feels like amodern product.

The latest word is that SAP will releaseBusinessObjects 4.0 on September 16,2011, although the release date hasalready been delayed a few times this year.

Several features of the upcoming Dash-boards 4.0 release are attractive tofront-end users. Lets look briefly atthese features as detailed by ChrisHickman , senior business intelligenceconsultant at Decision First Technolo-gies, during a Webinar on September 8about Dashboards 4.0.

The Start Page Gets a New LookThe Dashboard Design start pageshown in Figure 1 is a new landing pagefor users when they log in to Dash-boards 4.0. From this page, users cancreate a new dashboard, open a recentlyused dashboard, or open an existingdashboard from a local drive or the BIlaunch pad (a feature formerly knownas InfoView in Xcelsius).

The start page takes advantage of tabs,allowing users to switch between High-lights (e.g., sample dashboards), KeyResources (e.g., blogs and support), andeLearning (e.g., dashboard tutorials).

Drag-and-drop functions are also inplace, so users can move and adjust

panels to customize their viewing.Meanwhile, by clicking the Start Pagebutton near the top of the screen, userscan easily toggle between the start pageand an open dashboard, Hickman said.

An Easy-to-Use Query BrowerPanelThe Query Browser panel a new

window in the Dashboard Designer allows users to create, edit, or deleteuniverse queries, Hickman said. Users canaccess the panel by following menu pathView > Query Browser ( Figure 2 ). Thepanel window is easily dragged to anyposition on the screen, and it also permitsusers to view multiple queries at once.

Meanwhile, the actual Query Browser isaccessible by clicking the add query iconin the Query Browser Panel. In Busines-sObjects Dashboards 4.0, the QueryBrowser can directly connect to existinguniverses, so it streamlines the Query asa Web Service process users may befamiliar with in BusinessObjects XI 3.1,Hickman said.

BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Sets the Tone with a New Start Page and Query

Browser PanelBy Scott Wallask, Managing Editor, BusinessObjects Expert

Introduce yourself to several new features in BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0, including

whats available in the new Dashboard Design start page and a tour of user enhancements

for query browsing.

BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 start pageFigure 1
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2012 B i Obj E R d i hibi d All i h d

Another new feature is the QueryRefresh button, which, as you can guess,allows users to quickly refresh queries.Also note the Query Prompt Selector(available in the Components > Categorywindow that defaults to the bottom of

the left column). It updates the promptvalues for a component and refreshes alldependent objects, he added.

Older Dashboards AreSupported in New Release

It is possible to re-use existingdashboards from BusinessObjectsEnterprise XI 3.x within Dashboards4.0. The key is that BusinessObjects 4.0is able to open XLF files from olderdashboards and then save the files usingnewer Dashboard Design Objects,Hickman said.

However, dashboards cant movebackwards from 4.0 to XI 3.x, headded. In other words, it is not possibleto take a dashboard created in 4.0 and

open it in XI 3.x.

Other new highlights to note in Dash-boards 4.0 include the following:

Direct data binding is now an optionin Dashboards 4.0, which was a high-ly requested feature from users,Hickman said. Direct data bindingpermits users to bind componentsdirectly to universe queries, which letsusers perform more actions in dash-boards and eliminates the need tobind data in spreadsheet cells. In pre-vious releases of BusinessObjects,users must employ the embeddedspreadsheet for designing dashboards,but now users can integrate with thesemantic layer. As example, by inte-grating to the semantic layer, userscan bind a chart directly to dimen-sions and measures from the layer.

Dashboards can now contain translat-ed text via the Translation Manager.Translating text is as easy as openinga dashboard, Hickman said.

Regional data formatting now takesplaces place when a dashboard is pub-lished to the BI launch pad. The for-

matting is based on the users localerather than being set explicitly withinDashboard Design, he said. Forexample, Dashboards 4.0 convertsdates, times, and currency by drawingcalculations from settings made in theBI launch pad. n

Query Browser panel shown in its default position in the lower left of thescreen

Figure 2

Scott Wallask is managing editor for BusinessObjects Expert . You may contact him via email at [email protected] and follow him on

Twitter @BObjExpert .
mailto:[email protected]://twitter.com/bobjexperthttp://twitter.com/bobjexpertmailto:[email protected]

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