How to get the HTML5 Version of Your Dashboard Without Publishing to Mobile
Figure 1: Select Preview in Mobile to generate the temporary files
With SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 SP5 (Xcelsius 2011), you have the ability to preview and publish to an HTML5 version rather than Flash. I however am not interested in publishing to the platform for consumption on mobile devices as much as I am in retrieving the raw HTML5 files.
While poking around, I discovered that you can grab the previewed version of your dashboard in HTML5 format by searching your temporary files. The location of the dashboard preview is available in a randomized folder under:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\
Search your Temp directory and sub-directories for a file called dashboard.html. Open the directory of the file and you’ll find the associated files as well. Save them off and test to your heart’s delight.
Figure 2: Search for the dashboard.html file in your temporary directory to get the files for your HTML5 Dashboard
Note: You must be in preview mode in Dashboards for the files to be present. As soon as you exit the preview, the files are cleaned up.
Figure 3: Look Ma! A non-Flash Dashboard in Internet Explorer
Now you have all of the files, presumably, to test out an HTML5 version of your dashboard on the desktop and other devices without needing to publish to the platform for mobile devices.
*UPDATE June 4, 2013: Ron Keler took these steps even further and was able to publish a connected dashboard in HTML5 for mobile consumption. See here: Publish CONNECTED SAP Dashboard (Xcelsius) as HTML5 OUTSIDE the mobile app! – http://bit.ly/12ql5Z6
Check out Timo’s blog post on other topics regarding HTML5 Dashboards: Making A Mobile HTML5 Dashboard: Follow-Up Q&A
Also, check out Tammy’s blog post for a good overview of the capabilities and requirements too: Mobilizing Your Dashboards: ASUG Webcast
You can follow me on Twitter: @jwarbington
I've played with the HTML output but noticed that in terms of using the data connectivity (Query Panel based), it seems to rely on being housed on the BO platform. This is great however to be able to use if you currently do not have BI 4.0 platform, and/or BI Mobile 4.4 app. Thanks!
Joseph, this is brilliant, thank you. Michael, checkout my post about getting the connectivity to work on any website leveraging the standard session generation methods you would use when connecting your xlf to live BO data: http://bihappyblog.com/2013/06/03/how-to-publish-connected-sap-dashboard-xcelsius-as-html5-outside-the-mobile-app/
Apparently someone took this even further. Not sure how both these work arounds relates to the EULA, but it is probably not allowed.
However, this doesn't stop someone for taking if further like this:
http://bihappyblog.com/2013/06/03/how-to-publish-connected-sap-dashboard-xcelsius-as-html5-outside-the-mobile-app/
i've followed the steps and can locate the html file in the temp folder. however when i email it to myself and attempt to open it on a mobile device, it doesn't display anything.
thoughts?
Hi Joe.
As you probably have noticed, there is many files in the temp folder.
When you send the files as attachment to your phone, then the files is not extracted from the mail the same way, as if you had them on your desktop on your PC.
If you want to demo the dashboard on a mobile device, I suggest you put the files from the temp folder on a web host, and access them that way - that is what we do 🙂
Hi,
I'm using SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.2 Support Pack 2 Version 14.2.2.1975 on Windows 10. Unfortunately this process doesn't work anymore. I also noticed that the mobile version does not support all of the input objects! I searched for dashboard.html under user_name and no file was found.
Anyone has updated this post? I really need to export and use the HTML5 output.
Thank you,
--robert