Among the many enhancements to the Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities of SAP NetWeaver 2004s is the new ability to print and export Web documents as PDF files. The following diagram illustrates that this feature is available for all types of Web outputs developed with the Business Explorer (BEx) Web tools.
With your Web outputs (BEx reports, Web applications, queries and query views), you have two ways that you can create a PDF file. With the “Print” option, the system will prompt you to enter print settings (“Print Dialog”). After selecting your parameters, a PDF file will be generated and displayed in your browser. At this point, you can use any of the normal PDF options, such as saving or printing the document.
The new capability to produce PDF documents in BI is based on the SAP NetWeaver Application Server integration with the Adobe Document Service. The user needs only the Adobe Acrobat Reader on his PC; no plug-ins are necessary. Below you can see illustrations of the print setting available in the Print Dialog and an example of a PDF file of a BEx query.
The other option is to “Send” the Web output, which invokes information broadcasting. The BEx Broadcaster in SAP NetWeaver 2004s now supports the distribution of PDF files. You can now use this feature to email, print or save your PDF document to the SAP NetWeaver Portal.
At the bottom of the first illustration, you can see the BEx Web tools in SAP NetWeaver 2004s. The new BEx Report Designer is a desktop tool that allows you to create formatted reports and deploy them via the Web or PDF files. The view of the report in the browser includes the print and send options by default. In SAP NetWeaver 2004s, the BEx Web Application Designer has been enhanced with a Command Wizard. This wizard enables you to easily include the print and send options in the Web applications that you design. The BEx Web Analyzer is the new Web-based ad-hoc analysis tool that allows you to navigate within your queries and query views deployed to your browser. As well as having options to save your analyses to the portal or create a new query view within BI, this tool provides the print and send options as well. In your Web applications and analyses, the print and send options are also available via the context menu. The illustration below shows you an example of a query displayed in the BEx Web Analyzer, where you can see the print and send options in the menu bar.
For more information on the new capabilities of BI in SAP NetWeaver 2004s, see the SAP Service Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/bi, under the path SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI > BI Capabilities.
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