BI launch pad (formerly known as Infoview) is the BI web portal of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform.
As a web portal, it provides access to the reports for business users, data consumers, and report developers, which are deployed into business folder structures that contain the BI content that is mainly reports from different kinds and types.
Through BI launch pad, we can open, refresh, manage, and schedule reports in ways similar to how we interact with familiar applications such as Office.
Through BI launch pad, we can run various BI applications that can access various databases and data sources, such as Excel and text files.
The main BI application is Web Intelligence, which is aimed at reporting and analyzing, and by using it, we can accomplish the following:
Create simple and complex reports by using drag-and-drop, ease-of-use techniques
Unify multiple data sources into one report
Format the results with rich capabilities
Perform drills and analyze the data from various angles
Share, schedule and export the report results to various formats, such as Excel, PDF, Word, HTML, and more
Chapter 1, Working with the BI Launch Pad, provides information about the BI launch pad environment, how to work with reports and other types of applications, and how to adjust the BI launch pad preferences to match our requirements.
Chapter 2, Creating New Queries, provides all-round recipes to build simple and advanced queries, create complex filters, and get acquainted with fundamental terms in query building while also using best practices.
Chapter 3, Working Inside the Report, shows the report structure, how to use the various toolbars and functional panes of the report, and how to work with the different application modes and report properties.
Chapter 4, Working with Tables, provides recipes to create tables, explains which type of table is suited for which type of data, and demonstrates how to work with crosstab tables and how to adjust the table properties.
Chapter 5, Working with Charts, teaches you to use the different chart types and helps you understand which chart is suitable for the right type of data.
Chapter 6, Formatting Reports, explains in depth how to work with each toolbar and apply simple and advanced functionality to the report data, such as sorting, calculations, and ranking.
Chapter 7, Filtering the Report Data, explains and provides filtering techniques we can apply to the report tables and charts.
Chapter 8, Merging Data, shows us how to combine and synchronize data from several queries, universes, and data sources as well as using Excel as the data provider.
Chapter 9, Using Formulas and Variables, explains how to use the formula libraries, demonstrates how to build new calculations, and how to use variables in our reports.
Chapter 10, Using Hyperlinks, teaches us how to connect reports, how to pass parameters between them, and how to connect to external websites directly from our reports.
Chapter 11, Using Drill, teaches you how to use the drill, understand the hierarchy structure, and perform drill up, down, and through the data.
Chapter 12, Scheduling Reports, provides recipes to create scheduled jobs and publications that will run and distribute our reports to various destinations and formats.
Chapter 13, Working with BI Workspaces, shows you how to create workspaces that will centralize our most important content and reports' data on one screen.
Chapter 14, Web Intelligence Rich Client, teaches you about the Web Rich Client application, its capabilities, differences, advantages, and disadvantages compared with Web Intelligence.
Appendix, Applying Best Practices, QA, and Tips and Tricks to Our Reports, provides numerous ways to apply best practices, how to perform QA, and provides tips and tricks and useful formulas. You can find this appendix online from: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/2437EN_Appendix.pdf
In order to use this book, you will require access to:
SAP BI4 server, SP2 and above
Java Runtime Oracle JRE 6(*5)
A Web browser—Internet Explorer 8 and above, Google Chrome, Mozilla, or Safari
You will be required to obtain rights to create Web Intelligence reports and have access to demo universes, such as Island resort marketing, eFashion, Motors, and Warehouse universes.
For the exact supported platforms (PAM) you can refer to the SAP official document at: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/507d3365-009b-3010-04b0-e5abc8f00c91?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&59407987714033.
The data in the examples is quite basic and similar, any one of the universes mentioned can be used to create the reports across the book's chapters.
For Chapter 14, Web Intelligence Rich Client, you will require a local installation of Web Rich Client.
This book is for Web Intelligence developers who are mainly beginners—users that want to extend their knowledge and get a set of tools of analysis and reporting. The book is also for analysts and data workers who require a better and deeper understanding in the ways they can extract, analyze, and display data. Besides this, the book caters to BI developers that want to get familiar with Web Intelligence and IT staff. Finally, it is also for managers that need to estimate and adopt a new BI technology.
This book provides hands-on and numerous practical examples, concepts, and real-life scenarios based on practical experience.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The behind-the-scenes workflow can be thought of as the detailed query running on the States with sales revenue greater than 7 million table."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Variables in the BEx query can be selected or ignored in the Query Panel."
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