Part 1 of this blog can be found here – note you can still apply for Beta program until September 14.  Please see this link to apply.

Since the new release of Zen, aka BusinessObjects Design Studio, the first complaint was ” you mean I need to type in all the values when I do a dropdown against master data”? 

Meaning you had to type in the key and text for any drop down values:

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows where we had to manually type in each key and text data for any drop down.

With the latest release, this issue goes away.  A tip is to use the CTRL-Space feature in the editor.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows a crosstab and the chart and a dropdown.  I’ve already included the BEx query as a data source.

Figure 3

First go on the Properties of the application, to the On Startup of Events

This is the script to put in:

DROPDOWN_1.setItems(DS_1.getMemberList(“ZPROJ”, “KEY”, “TEXT”, 4,“ALL”));

In JavaScript-like terms, it is getting the members of ZPROJ info object, key and text, with maximum 4 rows to display, with “ALL” being the default.

Note that I did not have to type this in manually but simply use the CRTL-Space wizard that walked me through the steps. 

Figure 4

For the properties of the Dropdown box, you can use the JavaScript wizard to walk you through the code for the On Select event:

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows you can activate content assistance (which is what I did) by pressing Ctrl + Space

Figure 5 represents the code for the On Select event – so on select info object ZPROJ get selected value.

Figure 6

Figure 6 shows how it operates in run-time (desktop or iPad) with showing 4 as maximum, default to all

Figure 7

Figure 7 shows the runtime – when I filtered on Distribution, it displays only the Distribution results.

So far in my SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio beta experiences I have not personally coded – I have used the wizard.