The HTML5 Future of Dashboards – A video
In my last post “HTML5 faster than Flash ?” I said that we would be demonstrating our HTML5 dashboard prototype work at this week’s SBOUC conference in Orlando and I also promised to post a video of it in action for those who could not make the show.
We were not the only people demonstrating HTML 5 capabilities related to Dashboards, SAP were also showing a pre-release of SAP Dashboards SP5 (which uses HTML5 to allow dashboards to be rendered on an iPad) and it was great to see the progress the team has made.
It was the first time I have seen an end-to-end demonstration of the new capability (i.e. design a dashboard in the canvas (complete with Excel formulas), click the “export to mobile” button and see an interactive HTML5 dashboard created). If the demos are anything to go by then I would expect to see an external release of this before the end of the year as SAP has previously promised.
However, as I said in my last post, there is still the issue of whether HTML5 will be able to cope with the complexity of non-trivial dashboards. Although the demos at the conference were impressive, none that I saw addressed this issue. The emphasis was on the design process, not the sophistication of the end result.
So that is where we come in. Our XWIS Advantage product is probably one of the most sophisticated add-ins for SAP Dashboards and so recreating its capability should be a good test for HTML5, particularly when the end result is a complete, interactive, data driven dashboard.
See for yourself. The video below (only 4 mins) explains the background to the prototype examining the highly non-trivial task of porting the XWIS components to the new HTML5 environment and demonstrated the end-product.
The result quite remarkable and is a huge validation of the HTML5 direction that SAP Dashboards it taking. We can’t wait to see the product released and get our hands on the SDK so that we can add our capability to the new version.
Nice one!
So, can you export to both Flash and HTML5 (from the same source Xcelsius/Dashboard file)?
Yes, Service Pack 5 which is the next release of SAP Dashboards will have the capability to export to Flash and HTML5 from the same source xlf file.
Wonderful news! I just want to know whether SP5 Present and Enage version will also have this function? And whether the function will delivered for Xcelsius 2008? Thanks 🙂
Not in the first release. See FAQ #5 here, http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-dashboards/blog/2012/06/08/follow-up-questions-to-the-dashboarding-statement-of-direction
Hi Donald,
Thanks for demo, do we need to upgarde BO server to SP 5 or only dashboard deginer SP 5 will have html 5 feature?
You will need to upgrade both the dashboard desinger and the BI4 server to SP5 in order to use the HTML 5 export for iPad feature.
Hi Donald,
How about the SDK for SP5? i hope it doesnt take long till we have SDK for SP5
Thanks
Amr
Amr,
Talked to SAP folks and SDK is in the works although not in the first release. I would guess H1 2013.
Donald
Thanks Donald,
SDK is very important, for me at least, i'm heavily depending on them for many custom components i use.
Amr
Hi Donald,
Great to see the the future is looking bright for HTML5 Dashboards. I notice that you are still using Xwiz Anywhere to view the Dashboard. Am I right in assuming your Xwiz advantage components can be used to publish to HTML5 and consume in the new BI Mobile App alongside the existing WebI Reports?
David, yes that is the plan. We are working with SAP on providing a version of XWIS Advantage to work with the new HTML5 version of Dashboards / Xcelsius at which point all this capability will be available through the SAP BOBJ Mobile app.
Additionally we are working to bring the same capability to XWIS Anywhere, so that WebI reports (in their original format), Flash dashboards and HTML5 dashboards are all accessible through a single mobile app to help with the Flash to HTML5 transition.