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TammyPowlas
Active Contributor
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This week I attended BusinessObjects Explorer 4.1 Rampup Expert Knowledge session with tomasz.zima  of SAP. 

I had previously written this back in March What is New in BusinessObjects Explorer 4.1– ASUG Webcast

The webcast this week focused solely on BusinessObjects Explorer 4.1 so it had more details about the BI4.1 features with Explorer BI4.1.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows “planned innovations” which include features in BI4.1.  One of the features is direct access to BW through BW on HANA, another is change data source, and Free Facet optimization.

Explorer is included in the new  Mobile BI Platform

Figure 2: Source: SAP

BI 4.1 supports both UNV and UNX files.

UNV is the older OLAP universe and could have connected to BEx Queries using MDX OLAP driver.

Now, can build Information Space on type of UNV using an OLAP but it is not a live connection to the BEx – it is still a universe.

You still need to run index that creates a snapshot of the data

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows you can hide the facet and it is faster to load the information space


Figure 4: Source: SAP

Administrators imported models as calculated views, which Explorer can connect to.  This allows analysis of BW data through HANA engine.  Figure 4 covers other ways you can access BW using HANA as a database.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows the ability to change the datasource for and Information Space

You need to remap fields from old data source to new data source.

This is helpful when migrating Information Spaces from test to production, says Tomasz

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows how the Free Facet helps gaining performance.  The first row shows 4.1 with Free Facets – opens in 4 seconds

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Tomasz said that you can still click on Split option but don’t need to as you have filter – filter, chance to show which dimension/facet to filter on

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 covers Free Facets in Exploration Views.

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 covers the use cases for the Change DataSource feature

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Tomasz said the UNV not shown but is it is possible to change the pointer for the UNV as well.

Through BI platform you have ability to replace third party documents such as Excel – this is how you refresh Excel data source- reindex

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows the steps to change the data source.

Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 provides some optimization advice regarding refreshing the data source.

Figure 13: Source: SAP

Figure 13 shows when facet panel was refreshed.  This is only available for a real time data source like HANA

Question & Answer

Q: What about Android support?

A: Right now no, encourage voting Idea Place

Q: Does it support for BICS?

A: Explorer cannot use BICS connectivity


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