SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI - Define your Publishing Strategy Part 2

[Former Member]

Introduction

In part 1 of this blog series, I presented the destination and tools matrix for SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI. This showed different tools and destinations for publishing. It also presented the different user types for publishing. I recently did a webinar on this topic and I've attached the slide deck to this blog. People were asking about TCO and full publishing strategy options as well as controlling presentation layer, so this is the focus of part 2 of this weblog series.

Presentation Layer

Stylesheets & Portal Themes

• Look and feel is controlled completely by StyleSheets for Web applications
• StyleSheets are available for manual editing and enhancement in the Theme Folders in the Portal File System
• StyleSheets can be updated using the Portal Theme Editor
• StyleSheets control more than font and color. Images, tab pages, etc., can all be controlled from within StyleSheets
• StyleSheets for the BEx Web Analyzer are specified globally. Users can personalize a different portal theme for different look and feel
• Rules can be defined for Portal Themes to assign themes to user groups or roles
• Themes set in Consumer Portal take precedent over themes in the Producer Portal.
• All User Interface, Theme Management, Portal Desktops, and Portal Desktop Rules should be managed in the Consumer Portal.
• KM Navigation Presentation should be set for whatever KM repository is being utilized (either Producer or Consumer).
• 
  
  StyleSheet Scoping (SAP NetWeaver 2004s)
  
• Format is defined by the Portal Theme StyleSheet StyleSheets in the Web application override the Portal StyleSheet
• Individual "style" blocks in the BEx Web Application Designer override the stylesheets from the Portal and from the Web application
• 
  
  StyleSheet Scoping (SAP BW 3.x)
  
• StyleSheet is defined in the BEx Web Application Designer
• Portal StyleSheet overrides the stylesheet in the web application if the application is deployed on the SAP NetWeaver Portal
• Specific "style" elements in the Web application override the global Portal StyleSheet
• 
  
  Presentation Layer in KM
  
• 1. Navigate to the “BEx Portfolio” and click on the icon next to “Public Documents” and choose “Details”
• 2. Go to “Settings -> Presentation”
• 3. Choose “Select Profile”
• 4. Choose a layout format and select “OK” and save your settings.
• 
  
  Visual Composer Styles
  There are plans to include the control of Visual Composer Styles within the Portal Theme Editor as of SPS10. Prior to this, you can update the styles manually in the filesystem as mentioned in OSS Note 959996.
  
  PDF Printing Styles
  PDF Printing does not allow you to specify your own custom portal themes. There are two themes available (SAP Standard – Color) and (Black & White). You can customize a print template to specify which web items. This allows you to control look and feel and information being printed, but not colors and styles.
  
  BW 3.x query display
  Within the SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx Query Designer, you can change the view to the SAP BW 3.x view while maintaining the new functionality. This may ease in transition for people who are accustomed to the old view. See attached powerpoint for details.
  
  

End User Strategies

Publishing Strategies within BW 3.x

Within BW 3.x, this was the typical publishing strategy for workbooks:

• Workbooks are accessed through BEx Browser or through the BEx Analyzer Directly
• Most customers were not publishing workbooks to the NetWeaver Portal
• 
  Within BW 3.x, this was the typical publishing strategy for queries and web templates:
• Most customers were using the Role Menu Web Item to display queries and web templates through the NetWeaver Portal
• In some cases, customers were using portal roles and worksets for web template access and were only accessing adhoc queries through the Web Analyzer or BEx Analyzer
• 
  
  Option 1 - Publishing Strategy within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI
  
  Based on Rolling out the New SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI Frontend Tools:
• Replace BW 3.x Query Designer and BW 3.x BEx Analyzer with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Query Designer and BEx Analyzer.
• Don’t coexist these tools for end users
• 
  BEx Workbooks
  
• To launch the BEx Analyzer, users can either go to their local PC and launch the BEx Analyzer or they can launch this from the portal via the SAP Transaction iView for BEx as outlined in the online help here: BEx Analyzer as iView. To launch this generically, you can use the "WBID=" as the application parameter but leave out the workbook id.
• All queries or workbooks are then opened from the BEx Analyzer using the open dialog.
• BEx Browser isn’t used anymore
• 
  Queries
• As Queries are created, they are saved to BI Roles or BI Favorites
• All queries are accessed through the Web Analyzer using the “New Analysis” button
• Web Analyses built with Web Analyzer are stored in KM and accessed through Web Analyzer using the “Open” button
• 
  End User Access
• All End Users will enter through a Portal Role. From here, they can choose BEx Analyzer, Web Analyzer, Web Templates, or Formatted Reports
• From the Web Analyzer, they can access any broadcasted or saved reports from KM or they can access BI Queries, BI Query Views, or BI InfoProviders
• Users will only have 1 access point: Portal Role
• 
  
  Option 2 - Publishing Strategy within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI
  
  Based on Rolling out the New SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI Frontend Tools:
• Replace BW 3.x Query Designer and BW 3.x BEx Analyzer with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Query Designer and BEx Analyzer.
• Don’t coexist these tools for end users
• 
  BEx Workbooks
• To launch the BEx Analyzer, users can either go to their local PC and launch the BEx Analyzer or they can launch this from the portal via the SAP Transaction iView for BEx as outlined in the online help here: BEx Analyzer as iView. To launch this generically, you can use the "WBID=" as the application parameter but leave out the workbook id.
• All queries or workbooks are then opened from the BEx Analyzer using the open dialog.
• BEx Browser isn’t used anymore
• 
  Queries
• As Queries are created, they are saved to BI Roles or BI Favorites
• All queries are accessed through the Web Analyzer using the “New Analysis” button
• Web Analyses built with Web Analyzer are stored in KM and accessed through Web Analyzer using the “Open” button
• 
  Web Templates and Formatted Reports
• Web Templates and Formatted Reports are Broadcast to KM and stored there as documents
• These reports are accessed through My Portfolo/BEx Portfolio in the Business Intelligence Role
• 
  End User Access
• All End Users will enter through the Business Intelligence Portal Role. From here, they can choose Web Analyzer, My Portfolio, or BEx Portfolio
• From the Web Analyzer, they can access any broadcasted or saved reports from KM or they can access BI Queries, BI Query Views, or BI InfoProviders
• Users will use My Portfolio/BEx Portfolio to get Web Template, Formatted Reports, or Web Analyses
• Users will only have 1 access point: Business Intelligence Portal Role with added iView for BEx Analyzer
• 
  
  Option 3 - Publishing Strategy within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI
  
  Based on Rolling out the New SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI Frontend Tools:
• Replace BW 3.x Query Designer and BW 3.x BEx Analyzer with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Query Designer and BEx Analyzer.
• Don’t coexist these tools for end users
• 
  BEx Workbooks
• All Workbooks are published to the PCD as iViews manually and added to Worksets or Roles
• Initially, SAP Role Upload can be used to migrate current workbooks to Portal Roles
• BEx Browser isn’t used anymore
• 
  Queries
• As Queries are created, they are published to the PCD and added to Roles and Worksets manually
• Web Analyses built with Web Analyzer are stored in KM and accessed through Web Analyzer or KM Navigation iViews
• 
  Web Templates and Formatted Reports
• Web Templates and Formatted Reports are published to the PCD and added to Role or Worksets
• 
  End User Accesses
• Users will be assigned to Groups which have Roles in them
• Therefore, all users will see a tab in the portal navigation for their reports
• KM Navigation iView will be used to link KM Folder with Portal Role per Application Area
• Users will only have 1 access point: Portal Roles
• 
  
  Option 4 - Publishing Strategy within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI
  
  Based on Rolling out the New SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI Frontend Tools:
• Replace BW 3.x Query Designer and BW 3.x BEx Analyzer with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Query Designer and BEx Analyzer.
• Don’t coexist these tools for end users
• 
  BEx Workbooks
• All Workbooks are broadcast to and stored in KM
• In this scenario, there is no automatic migration so every workbook would need to be broadcast manually initially to store it in KM BEx Browser isn’t used anymore
• 
  Queries
• As Queries are created, they are broadcast to KM
• Web Analyses built with Web Analyzer are stored in KM and accessed through Web Analyzer or KM Navigation iViews
  Web Templates and Formatted Reports
• Web Templates and Formatted Reports are Broadcast to KM and stored there as documents
• These reports are accessed through My Portfolo/BEx Portfolio in the Business Intelligence Role
• 
  End User Accesses
• All End Users will enter through the Business Intelligence Portal Role. From here, they can choose Web Analyzer, My Portfolio, or BEx Portfolio
• From the Web Analyzer, they can access any broadcasted or saved reports from KM or they can access BI Queries, BI Query Views, or BI InfoProviders
• Users will use My Portfolio/BEx Portfolio to get Workbooks, Web Template, Formatted Reports, or Web Analyses
• Users will only have 1 access point: Business Intelligence Portal Role

Options Advantages and Disadvantages

The options listed above are not the only options. These are just four possible options that you can use as a starting point to frame your discussion on your publishing strategy based on the destinations and tools matrix presented in the first part of this blog series. Options 1 and 2 listed above are definitely the lowest TCO/maintenance models. These are very easy to administrate and maintain. Options 3 and 4 require quite a bit higher TCO to manage and maintain.

What's coming in Part 3 of this BLOG?

Integral to publishing strategies are strategies around transporting. In part 3 of this BLOG, I'll be discussing options and key considerations for transporting all these reports! Part 4 will discuss how to work with permissions between a lot of the reporting destinations. Also, what I focus on is up to you. This presentation/blog presents a few different options for publishing strategies. It also takes you through (step by step) with each tool on how to publish. If you have additional questions, or have any comments on what you'd like to see next, please post them here and I'll base part 3 of the blog based on the SDN community feedback.

Summary

Hope you found this useful. Definitely define your reporting strategy. For a full rollout strategy, see this blog: Rolling out the New SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI Frontend Tools.