Creating BO Dashboard from BEx Queries

[venkadesan_jayabalan]

Query Browser in Dashboard design

Software : SAP Dashboard Design 4.0

Version   : Feature pack 3(build:14.0.3.613) and above

• The new Query Browser panel in BO Dashboard design 4.0 provides an improved methodology for connecting your dashboard to live data from Business Objects OLAP universes or BEx Queries.

• The new panel looks similar to the Object Browser and the Components Browser. In this new panel we can create queries on top of Universe and BEx Query.

Prerequisites

Before creating Dashboard using Query Browser, the following points have to be established / Enabled.

• External access for BEx query
• Connection between BO server and BW system
• External access to query:

    BEx designer should enable the “allow external access to this query” in the advanced tab to access the BEx query in Dashboard Design Tool.

• Connection between BO system and BW system:

    New Connection should be created to the BEx Query in CMC or IDT (Information Design Tool).

Steps to design a dashboard

• Launch the Dashboard Designer application.

• Open the “Query Browser”.

• Select “Add Query” Option.

• Provide the required System Information and credentials to Login into the BO Repository to access the BEx query.

• Select the Data source as “BEx” to access BEx query to create a dashboard.

• Expand the connection folder and select the Cube connection.

• To select the required BEx query, perform search by using Technical name or  Query name.

• Then add the required dimensions and measures in the query panel.

• The selected objects will be available for us to display in the dashboard.

• The preview of the data will be displayed once we select “Next” button  in Query panel.

• We can set the Refresh Options and Load Status messages.

• Click “OK” to confirm the selection and execute the Query.

• Once we build the query for the dashboard, open the query browser to map the data cells in the embedded excel sheet. Because we cannot directly map the data into dashboard components.

• Under Result objects, we could see the dimensions and measures.

• Using “Insert in Spreadsheet” option, we can map the data into embedded spreadsheet.

• The default BEx prompts will come under  Prompts Option.

• Once the data is mapped, then we will combine the data with Dashboard components.

• Insert a required component, and map the data for Values & Labels for that component.

• Once we preview the dashboard, the data will be loaded in background and dashboard will be come with recent data.

• Once we completed  with  our design, we can export the dashboard into different format of files like Flash file(.swf), PowerPoint(.ppt), Word document(.doc), etc., or we can direct export  the dashboard to BO server as dashboard file.

• If we have access to BW system then we can publish the same dashboard to BW system directly.

Difference between query browser and SAP Net weaver BW Connection

• Process to connect the Bw system in Query browser and Sap net weaver connections is same. But some changes made in Query Browser.

• SAP Net weaver BW Connection:

—This method help to connect the dashboard to BW queries and publish the dashboard into BW portal.

—In this method we can not see the output of dashboard directly. We have to publish the dashboard to BW system.

—Only from BW system we can launch the dashboard using BW portal.

• Query Browser:

—The new query browser from Dashboard design helps create instant queries on top of .UNX universes created by IDT tool.

—It  also helps to design a dashboard on top of OLAP connection which s created using ITD or CMC.

—By using query browser option we can directly save the dashboard file into BO server as a mobile format or desktop format.

Query browser - Issues and solutions

• Cause:

  Due to license issue the Query Browser in View option and Connection in Data Option are appear in Grey color(Not usable).

    Solution:

  To enable the Query Browser and connection, we need to change the license to SAP Business Objects Dashboard or SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Departmental Edition.

• Cause:

  Due to unavailability access to the query, the users could not select the query in the query selection panel.

     Solution:

  The BEx query designer needs to enable the External  access to the query while creating the query.

• Cause:

  The default query prompt filter will not populate all the list of values for that objects. Also the prompt will not accept the user inputs directly instead of choosing  from List of values.

      Solution:

  The designer should use the dimension which contains both hierarchy and all values instead of dimension. By using this object we can do custom search for the filter values from the list of values.