What is new in BusinessObjects Mobile BI 4.3 for iOS – an ASUG Webcast

SAP’s Srinkath Rao of SAP Mobile BI Product Management team gave this as an ASUG webcast on Monday.

The usual disclaimer applies, that things are subject to change, especially concerning planned innovations and future direction.

Agenda:

• What is new in SAP BusinessObjects Mobile 4.3.0 (iOS) (planned for release in Q4)
• Enhancements in SAP BusinessObjects Mobile 4.3.0 (iOS)
• Platform Support
• Roadmap
• Q&A

Figure 1: Source SAP

Figure 1 shows localization support for languages.  Three main themes are in this release; one is localization.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows how it will support product locale – user interface and product viewing locale

New Charts in 4.3.0

Figure 3: Source: SAP

New chart types are a second theme.  The first chart introduced is the horizontal bar chart from Web Intelligence.  It supports drill, hierarchy, input controls, and chart properties as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the Bubble Chart.  Bubble charts in Web Intelligence are supported on the iPad with certain functionalities shown in Figure 4.  See the notes for what is not supported.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Third chart type is the Waterfall Chart shown in Figure 5.

Web Intelligence started supported Waterfall Charts in FP3/SP4 release

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Fourth chart type that is new is the Bullet Chart using transformation logic as the Micro Chart.

Web Intelligence does not support Bullet Charts.  Figure 6 shows the sample with 4 images.  One is a table, 5 rows of data, 5 columns.  Rename block name in format as shown on screen you will be able to show it on the iPad.  It needs to follow a particular order.  The shades of blue indicate the level of performance.

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows variations of the bullet chart.  First one shows 3 shades of blue – green vertical bar is target.

Figure 8: Source: SAP

First enhancements is in micro chart – now support additional colors for traffic lights as shown in Figure 8.

Next area is integration with StreamWork ; while creating a new activity you can add participants using the address book.

If you are not using StreamWork you can turn off StreamWork using properties.

Embed Mobi client with SUP 2.1.3 libraries and have HTTPS support. 

Cross tabs for iPhones was not usable before.

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 shows enhancements to the home screen.  They have separated the grouping and the sorting.

The search bar is always visible on home screen; before it was available via the pull down bar.

Remove separation of personal and corporate categories

You can also tab on connection name on home screen to switch or log off connections.

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Rename browse screen and server screen

On the bottom right of Figure 10 you can toggle between the category screen and the flat list.

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Minimum version iOS is 5.1

It supports iO6 as well.

Figure 12: Source: SAP

Today it supports Crystal and Web Intelligence

With BusinessObjects Explorer you can search and explore data

On the left it supports SUP, Afaria, iOS, Android, and Blackberry

Planned Innovations are for Q4 include mobile dashboards using XCelsius on Mobi, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio and more interactive Crystal Reports. 

Platform support will include Windows 8 and support more languages.

Future direction includes to enhance visualizations with more charting capabilities and offline maps

Question & Answer:

Q: Are custom colors supported? (not standard color palettes from chart properties)

A: You are right, the app already supports WebI’s palettes. The support of custom color assignment is planned for one of the next releases. Please note that you can customize the first WebI palette and that will work in Mobi as well.

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Q: In addition to disabling StreamWork, is it possible to disable the refresh icon on IPAD (for webi document)?

A: Good point – we are looking into that as well. Right now, you can disable the right to refresh. The button would still be there, but the users can’t refresh the report.

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Q: Within corporate category, if I have 2 folders, one for finance reports and the other for maintenance, can I see both folders (with respective reports) on Ipad?

A: in this release, all categories need to be top-level categories. That’s true for the functional categories (Mobile, MobileDesigned, Confidential) as well as for the logical categories (Finance, HR, etc)

A: and to clarify: you won’t see any folders, just the docs

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Q: Can you please elaborate which first Webi palette can be customized for Mobi?

A: looking customizing – flat screen customizing, font of choice, background of home screen – also ability for preconfigured connections – certain connection types as well

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Q: Is Sybase SUP etc required for mobile on iPAD solution to work? What do we lose if we don’t have Sybase mobile infrastructure?

A: SUP is not required – but it is a great addition for customers who want to also build their own custom apps.

I want to thank SAP’s Karsten Ruf, Viswanathan Ramakrishnan and Srinkath Rao for this webcast for ASUG.

Webcasts that are open to everyone:

October 2nd – How to Select the Right BI Tool with Ingo Hilgefort – see here for more information

SAP Product Roadmap Series for BI Platform, Dashboard, BI Mobile and SAP Design Studio – click here for more information.

Self Service BI with Visual Intelligence on September 26 – register here