Book Image

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook

Book Image

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook

Overview of this book

Xcelsius 2008 was recently included in SAP’s BusinessObjects 4.0 family, rebranding “Xcelsius Enterprise” as “SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0”. With features like flexible design and what-if scenarios, the powerful dashboarding software allows enterprises to make business decisions at a glance, and this book allows you to go far beyond the basics of these techniques. This cookbook full of practical and applicable recipes will enable you to use the full latest capabilities of Dashboard Design to visually transform your business data. A wide range of recipes will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to perform tasks like configuring charts, creating drill- downs, making component colors dynamic, using alerts in maps, building pop-up screens, setting up What-If scenarios, and many more.The recipes begin by covering best practices for using the Dashboard Design spreadsheet, the data-model, and the connection with the components on the canvas, later moving on to some from-the-trenches tricks for using Excel within Dashboard Design. The book then guides you through the exploration of various data visualization components and dashboard interactivity, as well as offering recipes on using alerts, dashboard connectivity, and making the most of the aesthetics of the dashboard. Finally, the recipes conclude by considering the most important add-ons available for Dashboard Design and enabling you to perform relevant and useful tasks straight away.

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SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook
May, 2011 | 352 pages
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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook
Credits
Credits
Foreword
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Authors
Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Staying in Control
Staying in Control
Introduction
Making the spreadsheet more readable with colors
Making the spreadsheet more readable with comments
Making the spreadsheet more readable using borders
Using named ranges
Selecting all worksheet cells with one click
Copying the formatting of one cell to another cell or range
Debugging your spreadsheets
Navigation between worksheets
Grouping the canvas components
2
Data Visualization
Data Visualization
Introduction
Adding a line chart to your dashboard
Using the bullet chart
Using sparklines
Using the combination chart
Using the pie chart
Using the XY chart
Using the bubble chart
Using the radar chart
Using the OHLC chart and candlestick chart
Sorting series
Zooming in on charts
Scaling the y-axis
Using the tree map
Showing a trend without a chart
Displaying raw data
Illustrating single values
3
From a Static to an Interactive Dashboard
From a Static to an Interactive Dashboard
Introduction
Drilling down from a chart
Selecting your data from a list
Using the Filter Selector component for hierarchies
Alternative hierarchy selection method
Using Filtered Rows
Using maps to select data of an area or country
Adding a MacOSX loading dock to your dashboard
Resetting your data (reset button)
Making selections from a custom image (push button and image component)
Inputting data values
Using Play Selector/Play Control
Opening up a Web Intelligence report using dashboard parameters
Selecting calendar dates
Using sliders to create a what-if scenario
4
Dynamic Visibility
Dynamic Visibility
Introduction
Switching between different charts
Building a pop-up screen
Creating a mouse-over help text pop-up
Password protecting your dashboard
5
Using Alerts
Using Alerts
Introduction
Adding alerts to a column chart
Using alerts in a gauge
Making alert ranges dynamic
Displaying alerts on a map
Displaying alerts of different thresholds on a map
Using bindable colors to control alert coloring from a central location
Using alerts in a scorecard
6
Advanced Components
Advanced Components
Introduction
Printing your dashboard
Grouping and organizing components with the canvas container
Using dashboard scenarios
Using the grid component
Creating a slide show
Using the panel set component
Using the history component
Data insertion with the Source data component
Analyzing trends
7
Dashboard Look and Feel
Dashboard Look and Feel
Introduction
Changing the look of a chart
Adding a background to your dashboard
Using color schemes
Sharing a color scheme
Working with themes
Making component colors dynamic
Using the panel container
Using the tab set container
Making tables look pretty
Smart use of quadrants
8
Dashboard Connectivity
Dashboard Connectivity
Introduction
Creating a news ticker with Excel XML Maps
Using Query as a WebService (QaaWS)
Using Live Office connection
Connecting to SAP BW
Using Universe queries
Passing values from dashboard to dashboard with Flash Variables
Accessing dashboards with live data outside of Infoview using CELogonToken
9
Exporting and Publishing
Exporting and Publishing
Introduction
Exporting to a standard SWF, PPT, PDF, and so on
Exporting to SAP Business Objects Enterprise
Publishing to SAP BW
Housing your dashboard in Dashboard Builder
Creating Adobe Air Applets from Dashboard Design dashboard
10
Top Third-Party Add-ons
Top Third-Party Add-ons
Introduction
Managing add-ons in Dashboard Design
Connecting to CSV-files with the CSV-connector
Integrating Google Maps with the GMaps plugin
Connecting to Salesforce.com with DashConn
Transferring data between dashboards with Data Sharer
Presenting micro charts in a tree grid
Integrating Web Intelligence with Antivia XWIS
Real World Dashboard Case Studies
Real World Dashboard Case Studies
What-if scenario: mortgage calculator
Sales/profit dashboard example
Additional Resources—Supported Excel Functions and System/Software Requirements
Additional Resources—Supported Excel Functions and System/Software Requirements
Online resources
Supported Excel functions
System and software requirements
Index
Index

System and software requirements

The following section will show the minimum hardware/software requirements, as well as supported software that works in conjunction with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.

Minimum hardware requirements for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and viewing SWFs are listed as follows:

  • Minimum screen resolution

    • Screen resolution of [1024] x [768] is recommended

  • SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

    • 1.8 GHz processor

    • 2 GB RAM

    • 900 MB available hard drive space (installer files)

    • 350 MB available hard drive space (installed)

    • CD-ROM drive (for CD install only)

  • Dashboard SWF

    • 1.8 GHz processor

    • 1 GB RAM

The list of supported software that work in conjunction with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is as follows:

  • Supported operating systems

    • Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit Editions)

    • Windows Vista SP1 (32-bit and 64-bit Editions)

    • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

    • Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

    • Windows Server 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition

    • Windows Server 2003 SP1 Standard Edition

    • Windows Server 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition

    • Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition

    • Windows XP SP1 Professional

    • Windows XP SP2 Professional

    • Windows XP SP3 Professional

    • Windows 7

  • Supported browsers

    • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+

    • Mozilla Firefox 2.0+

  • Supported Flash players

    • Adobe Flash Player 9.0.151.0 and above

  • Supported Microsoft Office

    • Microsoft Office 2007

    • Microsoft Office 2003

    • Microsoft Office XP SP3

  • SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise connectivity

    For optimal performance, it is recommended to update all the versions of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, Query as a web service and Live Office to the most current Fix Pack available.

  • SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

    • SAP BusinessObjects BI 4

    • SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

    • SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP5

  • SAP BusinessObjects Live Office

    • Live Office BI 4 connected to SAP BusinessObjects BI 4

    • Live Office XI 3.1 connected to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

    • Live Office XI R2 connected to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2

  • Query as a web service (QaaWS) for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

    • QaaWS BI 4 connected to SAP BusinessObjects BI 4

    • QaaWS for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

    • QaaWS for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2

  • Supported SAP NetWeaver BW

    • SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 Enhancement Pack 1 Service Pack 5

  • SAP Application Servers

    The BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Integration for SAP Solutions must be installed in order to use an SAP application server as a data source. For the latest information on SAP platforms required by BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Integration for SAP Solutions, please visit the support area of the SAP website (http://help.sap.com).

Other supported connectivity applications are listed as follows:

  • LiveCycle Data Services

    • LiveCycle Data Services ES 2.5.1

  • Reporting services

    • Reporting Services 2005

    • Reporting Services 2000 SP2

    • Reporting Services 2000 SP1

  • SharePoint

    • SharePoint Server 2007

    • SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP1

    • SharePoint Portal Server 2003

    • Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

    • Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2

    • Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP1

    • Windows SharePoint Services 2.0

  • WebSphere

    • IBM WebSphere Portal 5.1+

The following are other tools:

  • Adobe Acrobat

    • Adobe Acrobat 9.0

    • Adobe Acrobat 6.0

  • Adobe Reader

    • Adobe Reader 7+

  • Adobe AIR

    • Adobe AIR 1.1

    • Java 2 Runtime Environment 1.4.2

  • Adobe Flex SDK

    • Adobe Flex 2.0.1 Hotfix 3 (note that this is only required to create Dashboard Design 2008 add-ons with Dashboard Design 2008 Component SDK)

  • Crystal Reports

    • Crystal Reports 2008

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