Business Intelligence with SAP Business Objects 4.3

SAP  BusinessObjects  Design Studio  SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio   represents  BEx Web & BEx Web Application Designer successor. Design Stuido allows for intuitive design of centrally governable analytic content ranging from guided analytics to sophisticated OLAP applications and aggregated dashboards.  The product features iPad support, an  HTML5 User Interface, differents themes available for application and a WYSIWYG Eclipse-based designer, full & native support of BW BEx queries, direct connectivity to HANA as well as an advanced scripting engine. Available features in detail: - Intuitive WYSIWYG design environment for designers - Large set of design components (buttons, tabs, dropdown menus etc.) - Extend via scripting language (subset of JavaScript) - Enterprise Ready Life Cycle Management - Central Supportability - Theming & Customizing iPad Support built-in Apps are ready for immediate usage on ...

Finally has arrived: BusinessObjects Mobile BI 4.4 wich allows to access to Dashboards on Mobile device and so on IPad and Android Tablet and phones. Dashboard for SAP BI Mobile supported features: Connectivity: through Query Panel on Universes on Query Bex (SAP BW) on Hana Universes Components: Labels Images component Combo box Label based Menu Radio button Scorecard List View Icons Slider Progress Bar Toggle button Push button Charts: Column Chart Bar Chart Pie Chart Line Chart Combination Chart Stacked Bar Chart Stacked Column Chart Gauge Containers: Tab Set Canvass Container Component Groups Please Note that at the moment Prompt component is not available. You will find not compatible components and features on the Compatibility Panel. Keep following the blog for further details and update! Read also Sap Dashboards for ipad Sap BO Dashboards 4 new features

HANA Modeling Target: Minimize Data Transfers  The main goal  during modeling is to minimized Data transfers.  This is possible true both  internally, between the SAP HANA database views, and also between SAP  HANA and the end user application. So for example, the end-user will never  need to see 1 million rows of data.  They would never be able to understand  so much information or consume it in some meaningful way.  So d ata should be aggregated and filtered to a manageable  size before it leaves the data layer. When deciding upon the records that should be reported,  the best  practice approach is to think at a “set level” not a “record level” .  A set of  data can be aggregated by a region, a date, or some other group in order to minimize the amount of data passed between views. Read related post: SAP HANA Tables, Models and View Processing

SAP HANA Database Concepts: Tables, Models and View Processing  SAP HANA database is a very capable database system but it requires some understanding, and to be used correctly, to obtain good performance. Let's see the key concepts of the SAP HANA database. We will explain how  approach modeling in order to to achieve best results. The SAP HANA database allows you to model your data as tables and views. Tables are tabular data structures, each row identifying a particular entity, and each column having a unique name. The data fields of one row are called the attributes of the entity. The word “attribute” is used with different meanings. It may refers to a table column, a particular data field of a table row, or the contents of such a data field. The respective meaning will be clear from the context. Views are combinations and selections of data from tables modeled to serve a particular purpose. Views always appear like readable tables, i...

You can also create an BO Analysis OLAP connection with SAP HANA as provider. With this HANA OLAP connection, you can use Analysis directly on top of a SAP HANA database. Configuration for SAP HANA If you use the SAP HANA appliance software, you can analyze SAP HANA data sources with Analysis. If you use SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse, powered by SAP HANA, you can analyze BW queries, query views and InfoProvider with Analysis. You can connect and use a BW system, powered by SAP HANA, like other BW systems with Analysis. You have the following options to connect to SAP HANA:  - You can use an OLAP connection to connect via SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform. This connection can be created directly in the CMC of the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform like BW system connections to the platform. The SAP HANA OLAP connections are currently not SSO compatible. - You can use a JDBC connection to connect via SAP BusinessObjects Business Inte...

You can use Analysis with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence XI 4.0 or SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1   as the central content management system for Analysis workbooks  and presentations and as platform for managing data source connections. Before users can begin working with business data in Analysis, you have to create connections to BW systems so they can add data sources to their Analysis workbooks. You create new connection objects and manage existing connection objects in the module OLAP Connections in the Central Management Console (CMC) of the business intelligence platform. To create a connection to a BW system, you define a connection to any object of the BW system. You also have to make sure that the client PCs can communicate with the connected BW systems. If the BW system uses a message server the client PCs must specify the service name of the message server in the system services file at :\WINDOWS\system32\driver...

SAP HANA Data Management You use the SAP HANA modeler , which is accessible as a perspective of the SAP HANA studio , for modeling and managing SAP HANA data . It allows technical users to create new or modify existing models of data. In addition, the initial configuration of the data replication is done in the SAP HANA modeler. Let see how to configure data replication to provide the necessary metadata and data to the SAP HANA box.  You need to perform the following steps: 1. Load table metadata from the data provider systems (source systems) into the SAP HANA database (target system) for all tables of the source system or for a subset of tables 2. Load data (initial load) from the data provider systems (source systems) into the SAP HANA database (target system) for a selection of tables 3. Start continuous replication of data changes from the data provider systems (source systems) into the SAP HANA database (target system) for a selected subset of t...

SAP Visual Intelligence  can Acquire data from different data sources SAP Visual Intelligence 1.0.6 You can acquire data from the following data sources: - C.S.V file - SAP HANA cube - MS Excel - Freehand SQL - SAP BusinessObjects Universe Each data source can be adapted before acquisition to include or remove columns. For certain data sources you have other options, for example data formatting, column naming and trimming, and specifying column name prefixes. The acquisition options are described for each individual data source. Note: For data that is acquired to manipulate locally the maximum number of cells that can be acquired is 15 million. Spreadsheets with more than this maximum are cut off at this point. Read also: Using SAP Visual Intelligence SAP Visual Intelligence SAP VISUAL INTELLIGENCE FEATURES SAP HANA Introduction

SAP HANA - Additional Components In addition to the SAP HANA database , the following components are part of the SAP HANA landscape: • SAP HANA information composer • Lifecycle Management Tools • Unified Installer • SAP HANA UI toolkit for INA SAP HANA Information Composer The SAP HANA information composer is a Web application that allows you to upload and manipulate data on the SAP HANA database. The SAP HANA information composer uses a Java server which interacts with the SAP HANA database. The Java server communicates with the SAP HANA information composer client via HTTP or HTTPS. The following ports are used by default: • HTTP port 8080 • HTTPS port 8443 If HTTPS is used, the SSL certification must be configured by the administrator. Note: The SAP HANA information composer can be configured to use antivirus software. The SAP HANA information composer client is accessible to users who are assigned the IC_MODELER role. This role allows users to upload...

Transaction Log Based Data Replication Using Sybase Replication. This replication method is only recommended for customers that have been invited to use this technology during the RTC of the SAP HANA 1.0 product delivery. If you are not part of this RTC group, SAP recommends using Trigger-Based Data Replication Using SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) Replicator because of the rich feature set this replication technology offers. The main components of this replication method are the Sybase Replication Agent which is part of the source system, SAP ERP, and the Sybase Replication Server which is to be implemented in SAP HANA. Replication Process in Detail The following image  details the data replication process and introduces the additional components of this replication method. Initial Load and Simultaneous Delta Replication The initial load of business data needs to be executed only one time to replicate the entire existing dataset from the s...

The Extraction-Transformation-Load (ETL) based data replication uses SAP BusinessObjects Data Services (hereafter referred to as Data Services) to load the relevant business data from the source system, SAP ERP, and replicate it to the target, SAP In-Memory Database (IMDB). This method allows you to read the required business data on the level of the application layer. You deploy this method by defining data flows in Data Services and scheduling the replication jobs. Since this method uses batch processing, it allows also for data checks, transformations, synchronizing with additional data providers, and the merging of data streams. The data replication is operated by Data Services. Its main components are the Data Services Designer, where you model the data flow, and the Data Services Job Server for the execution of the replication jobs. An additional repository is used to store the meta data and the job definitions. Data Flow As for any replication scenario you have to def...

The Trigger-Based Replication method uses the SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) component to  pass data from the source system to the SAP In-Memory Database (IMDB) target system. Initial Load and Simultaneous Delta Replication The initial load of business data is initiated using the SAP In-Memory Computing Studio. The initial load message is sent from the SAP HANA system to the SLT system (based on SAP NetWeaver 7.02 with kernel 7.20) which in turn passes the initialization message to the ERP system. The ERP system begins by setting up database transaction log tables for each table to be replicated. After the transaction tables are completed, the SLT system begins a multi-threaded replication of data to the target system which allows high speed of data transfer to be achieved. The initial load of data can be executed whilst the source system is active. The system load that this process causes can be controlled by adjusting the number of worker threads performing th...

Installing and Using the SAP HANA ODBO Client for MS EXCEL Everyone  who intend to use Microsoft (MS) EXCEL as an end-user client for SAP HANA need to install the SAP HANA client on a host where MS EXCEL has been installed and is running. Prerequisites: You have downloaded the SAP HANA client software from SAP Service Marketplace . Procedure Install the SAP HANA ODBO driver on the host where MS EXCEL has been installed and is running. 1. Open a command prompt and call the SAP HANA client installation program by entering the following command: hdbinst -a client [ ] 2. Follow the instructions displayed by the installation tool. 3. Set the PATH environment variable to the installation path. For information on setting environment variables, see the documentation for your operating system. 4. Create a connection to the SAP HANA database: a. Create a connection to an external data source: Data connection Wizard Sele...

SAP HANA Persistence: In-Memory Data Is Regularly Saved to Disk  Data:  - SQL data and undo log information  - Additional HANA information, such as modeling data  - Kept in-memory to ensure maximum performance  - Write process is asynchronously Log:  - Information about data changes (redo log)  - Directly saved to persistent storage when transaction is committed  - Cyclical overwrite (only after backup) Savepoint:  - Changed data and undo log is written from memory to persistent storage  - Automatic  - At least every 5 minutes (customizable) For detail: SAP HANA - Data persistence

Using SAP BusinessObjects BI Clients for SAP HANA Creating the JDBC connection to the SAP In-Memory Database To set up the JDBC connection to the IMDB: 1. Copy the ngdbc.jar in the appropriate folder under …/dataAccess/ConnectionServer/jd bc/drivers/newdb If this directory structure does not exist, you need to create this directory structure under ../dataAc cess/connectionSrever/jdbc and then drop the jdbc jar file under this directory. 2. Launch the SAP BusinessObjects information design tool. 3. Create a new local project. 4. In this project, create a new Relational Connection. 5. Name it. 6. Select JDBC Drives as the data source. 7. Enter DB credentials and test. 8. Choose Finish. Note: for Explorer, you can also create a native connection from the IMDB to the Explorer application, by configuring the Explorer application settings in the SAP BusinessObjects Central Management Console (CMC). When this type of native connection is used for Explorer, a UNX file...

After installing SAP HANA, you have to connect the components of your SAP HANA landscape so they can work together. You have to establish connectivity between the following components: 1. SAP HANA box to SAP ERP system 2. SAP HANA box to SAP HANA studio 3. SAP HANA box to end-user clients. If you are using the SAP BusinessObjects servers, which are not in the scope of SAP HANA, you also have to connect the following SAP BusinessObjects systems: 1. SAP HANA box to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise (to use the SAP BusinessObjects BI clients) 2. SAP ERP system to SAP BusinessObjects Data Services (to use Data Services for data replication) See also: Create a Data Foundation (UNX) on a SAP HANA Universe on SAP HANA

Analytical view with parameter example We will use a simple analytical view as an example which will guide us for the rest of the document. The analytical view has been built from tables coming from a DWH sample schema. The screenshots of the view and of the variable and parameters management have been realized with the HANA Studio release 1.0.25 The Customers attribute view contains information about customers of the company. The view also contains the last name, the customer country, city and education as attributes available at query time. The Customer_id is used as the key attribute for the join with the fact table. This view is defined on top of the Customer table. The Products attribute view contains information about products. Will be presented only the product name and brand as attributes. Product_ID is the key attribute. The fact table used here is the Sales_2006 table. There is the join between the Product_Id and the Customer_id with the attribute views and we e...

Let's see SAP HANA basic information on variables and parameters which for could be  relevant for BI designers. In SAP HANA it is possible to define the results of a query on an information model at runtime by passing values to the model. There are two kinds of input values which can be passed to a model: variables and parameters. Both variables and parameters will appear as prompts for the user running the query (or will be automatically filled in by the application calling the HANA information model). HANA variables HANA variables are used to filter the content of an information model. They don ‟ t impact the execution workflow of the information model and are applied to a query to filter out some values. Variables can be used to filter attributes. As an example, a variable can be used to filter a result to a specific country or a specific customer. In SQL, variables are applied in the WHERE clause of the query. HANA parameters Parameters are used to...

Choosing between creating HANA information models and universes Client tool Requires a Universe Access HANA data via: SBO Analysis Office             No                       an information model SBO Explorer (*) Microsoft Excel (PivotTable) SBO Web Intelligence Yes                       a universe built on tables or information models SBO Dashboards SBO Crystal Reports for Enterprise (*) Explorer could also be connected to universes When you have to begin a new business intelligence project on HANA, the first question to ask yourself is whether you want to (or need to) create information models or universes. At the moment  your choice mainly depends on the client tool that you want to use to access HANA. When you create information models you benefit from: -Availability to Anal...

SAP In-Memory reporting and analyzing of business data requires the replication of the data from a source system to SAP In-Memory Database (IMDB). Let see an overview of the possible replication methods that are available for SAP In-Memory Appliance (SAP HANA 1.0) and its the application fields and the main components required for each method. There are three methods available for performing the data replication.  The main components involved in all replication scenarios are: • SAP HANA, consisting of the IMDB and SAP In-Memory Computing Studio, which is used to administer the appliance. User interfaces, such as SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards or Web Intelligence or Visual  Intelligence. • Source system, such as SAP ERP • Software components supporting the data replication The software components that support different methods of data replication are described in the following  three replication scenarios. There are three ...