Web Intelligence Input Control New Feature in BI 4.1 SP05

[CarlyThomas]

Have you ever used multiple selection type Input Controls in your Web Intelligence report?

Did you ever find it frustrating that WebI refreshes the data view before you were done selecting all of the values you wanted in that input control?

Starting in SP05 for BI 4.1, WebI has a new feature to add an "OK" button for "Multiple Selections" type Input Controls for Check Box and List Box.

It can be enabled or disabled in existing Check Box Input Controls by using the edit option in Design Mode or when first adding the Input Control.

The OK button is enabled automatically for the List Box Input Control and cannot be disabled.

How does it work?

Let's take a look at an example using the eFashion sample data source.

We've added an Input Control of Check Box type for Stores to allow users to narrow down the Sales Revenue they see for the selected stores only.

The existing behavior is that WebI will refresh the view of the report to only show the data of the selected check box AS IT IS SELECTED.  If you want to select 4 stores, the view will update 4 times after each check is made.

With the new addition of the OK button, the view will not update until the user clicks the OK button.  This way, your user can select all 4 stores, then click "OK" to have the view refreshed.

This can be a huge time saver when your report contains a lot of data.

What does it look like?

List Box Control Example:

Check Box Control Example:

How do you enable the OK button for the Check Box Input Control?

Existing Input Control:

1. Open the report in Edit/Design Mode
2. Select the Input Control menu on the left hand side
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3. Hover over the input control to display the interactive icons
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4. Click the wrench icon to edit the Input Control
5. Click "Yes" next to "Display selection OK button"
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New Input Control

1. When adding a New Input Control, only the "Multiple Selections" types will have the OK button and only the Check box type will allow you to enable or disable the display of the OK button
2. The option to enable it is the same as above.  Under the Input Control Properties, you will check the box next to "Yes" for "Display selection OK button":
   • 

How do I Enable the OK Button for ALL Reports?

Follow this KBA for instructions on enabling the OK button server wide for the Check Box input control.  This will enable it for ALL of your reports for HTML:

KBA 2090250: How can I force the display of the OK button in a "Check box" Input Control within Web Intelligence ...

Currently, for JAVA clients, the setting needs to be enabled for each client machine.  A server-side setting to enable the functionality for all client machines is planned for a future release

Let us know what you think!

REFERENCES:

For more information on what's new in BI 4.1 SP05, check out the SP05 What's New Guide found on the SAP Help Portal.

Mike Neville's KBA 2090250: How can I force the display of the OK button in a "Check box" Input Control within Web Intelligence ...