SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 (formerly known as Xcelsius) is a desktop dashboard and visualization solution that is a core part of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1. Once a user creates a dashboard model, it can be deployed in Flash format to web portals, SAP environments, the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, and desktop applications such as PowerPoint, Word, or PDF.
For dashboard designers/developers, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards allows for rapid development of data visualizations through a flexible and easy-to-use graphical user interface.
Using SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, we can accomplish the following:
Create interactive dashboards that have a wow factor unlike other dashboard tool competitors.
Connect dashboards to over 10 different types of data connections.
Integration and interoperability with existing SAP BusinessObjects BI content.
We can embed our dashboards into a variety of different formats to allow for convenient sharing between users.
Ability to create custom add-on components using the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards SDK.
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards in its original conception was a way to build visualizations and dashboards using Excel data. That is also where the original name Xcelsius comes from. Over the past decade, BusinessObjects has enhanced Xcelsius into a fully featured enterprise-ready dashboard solution that works with any data source.
After the acquisition of BusinessObjects by SAP, the mission to make Xcelsius a dashboard product to serve all its customers (beyond being just a personal productivity tool) continued. The BI market and SAP customers were also demanding an enterprise dashboard solution for the types of projects they were using Xcelsius for, for example, dashboards for thousands of users using large data warehouses as a datasource. The name Xcelsius was no longer meaningful or relevant.
By changing the name Xcelsius to SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, SAP is showing its commitment to delivering a solution that serves the needs of all BI customers as well as aligning the name to the product's growing capabilities and roadmap.
The SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards portfolio consists of several different packages (see the edition comparison later in the preface). In this book, we use SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards to refer to the tool itself.
Chapter 1, Staying in Control, presents you with best practices for using the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards spreadsheet, the data model, and connections with the components on the canvas.
Chapter 2, Data Visualization, presents you with recipes on how to use different components such as charts, tables, and graphs to visualize data on the dashboard.
Chapter 3, From a Static to an Interactive Dashboard, shows you how to add interactivity to your dashboards by adding selectors, maps, buttons, drilldowns, and so on.
Chapter 4, Dynamic Visibility, shows you how to make components visible/invisible and provides scenarios where dynamic visibility becomes useful.
Chapter 5, Using Alerts, contains examples of different ways of showing alerts on a dashboard.
Chapter 6, Advanced Components, provides recipes on SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards' more advanced components.
Chapter 7, Dashboard Look and Feel, teaches you how to tweak the visuals and user experience of the dashboard by customizing the look of components.
Chapter 8, Dashboard Data Connectivity, talks about the various options to connect a dashboard to external data sources.
Chapter 9, Exporting and Publishing, contains recipes on how to export SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards into different environments.
Chapter 10, Top Third-party Add-ons, contains an introduction to some of the most useful third-party add-ons for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.
Chapter 11, Performance Tuning, teaches you how to improve the performance of your dashboards by tweaking the spreadsheet and optimizing the data sources' connection setup.
Chapter 12, Increasing Productivity, discusses various development best practices and tips to save precious development time.
Appendix A, Real-world Dashboard Case Studies, demonstrates how to implement various techniques covered in this book by creating two applications: a calculator that displays monthly payments of a mortgage and a sales/profit dashboard that displays the sales or profit of each state on a map.
Appendix B, Additional Resources – Supported Excel Functions and System/Software Requirements, lists some helpful online resources for further reference and some useful Microsoft Excel functions supported by SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.
Appendix C, The Future of Dashboarding with SAP Design Studio, introduces you to a new SAP tool: Design Studio. A comparison with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is made and the future roadmap for this tool is shared.
The following tables provide a comparison of the four different SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards packages offered by SAP. You will need to install one of these packages in order to use this book, preferably the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards package as it has the most features enabled.
The first table summarizes the components available in each version:
|
Component |
SAP Crystal Presentation Design |
SAP Crystal Dashboards, personal edition |
SAP Crystal Dashboards, departmental edition |
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Basic data presentation components |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Themes and color schemes |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Play Control, Play Selector, and Accordion Menu |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ | |
|
Calendar, Panel Set, History, and Trend Analyzer |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ | |
|
Reporting Services Button |
✔ |
✔ | ||
|
Slide Show, Connection Refresh Button, and SWF Loader |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ | |
|
Query Refresh Button and Query Prompt Selector |
✔ |
✔ |
The second table summarizes the external connections available in each version:
|
Component |
SAP Crystal Presentation Design |
SAP Crystal Dashboards, personal edition |
SAP Crystal Dashboards, departmental edition |
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Data connectivity |
None |
Web Service (2 connections maximum) XML Data (2 connections maximum) Flash Variables Crystal Reports FS Command External Interface |
All the personal edition connections Web Service (unlimited) XML Data (unlimited) Portal Data LCDS connections Live Office |
All the departmental edition connections Query as a Web Service SAP BW |
|
BI platform connectivity |
Not available |
Not available |
SAP Crystal Reports Server 2011 |
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.0 |
|
Viewing license required for connected dashboards |
Not available |
Not available |
SAP Crystal Dashboard Viewing option |
Xcelsius Interactive viewing license |
|
Limitations |
Does not support external data connections |
Maximum of 2 Web Service or XML Data connections in any one model |
Maximum of 100 named users can view a given dashboard SAP BusinessOne is the only supported SAP application Cannot be used with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform or SAP Edge BI |
None |
If you are a developer with a good command and knowledge of creating dashboards, but are not yet an advanced SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards user, then this is the perfect book for you. You should have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, as well as knowledge of basic dashboard practices, though experience of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards as a specific dashboard tool is not essential.
This book provides an interactive hands-on approach to SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards education by allowing you to work with components, learn best practices, and practice troubleshooting techniques.
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: "You must be able to view hidden files and folders in the C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_id folder."
A block of code is set as follows:
final String BO_CMS_NAME = "server"; final String BO_AUTH_TYPE = "secEnterprise";
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
final String BO_CMS_NAME = "server";
final String BO_AUTH_TYPE = "secEnterprise";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: "Double-click the group or right-click and select Rename from the context menu."
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To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
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Note
Some of the code files (XLF files) for this book may be created in an older version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards than you are using. The following message will appear when this is the case, but you can use these files without a problem:
The only remark here is that if you overwrite the file, it can not be opened again in the version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards it was originally created with.
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/B03491_ColoredImages.pdf.
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