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Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas

What is new in Dashboards BI4.1 – ASUG Webcast

Ian MAYOR SAP solution management, presented this ASUG webcast today.

The legal usual disclaimer applies that things are subject to change

What is new in Dashboards BI4.1

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Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows that BI4.1 supports two new chart types for Mobile Dashboards – Waterfall chart and Bubble plot.

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Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows SAP is adding data labels on mobile, like desktop, as part of continuous improvement

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Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows Query as a Web Service can now be used in both online and offline cases for Mobile

It works like the desktop version.

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Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows flash variables are supported in Mobile, and you can pass using open doc URLs

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Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows the add-ons SDK for Mobile and these add-ons have a flag to support Mobile

You can bring in JavaScript for HTML5

Redevelopment involved as moving from Flash to HTML5

Development is in JavaScript

JavaScript libraries available to hook the component in

Package desktop and mobile version together

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Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows mobile dashboards run on the Android device.

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Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows that you can ty the X and Y position to the spreadsheet and dynamically change components based on data in the spreadsheets – more run time control, more interactive, says Ian.

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Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 shows that Dashboards now has an accessibility preference.

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Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 shows that the Dashboard can be saved offline on the desktop

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Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows name changes.

Combination chart is now column/line chart.

Bubble Chart is Bubble Plot

Where is SAP Going with Dashboarding?

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Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows two products

Design Studio is currently targeted to needs of BW customers

Dashboards is very visual

Design Studio has good connectivity to BW

Dashboards has flash dependency which was a mobile challenge and data volume limitations due to Excel as a data engine

Design Studio – connects to BW, takes work to create

Future Direction

Last year released statement of direction in dashboards space with a three phase plan to modernize the dashboarding suite.  The future direction includes the vision of “mobilize, visualize and unify”.

SAP wants to improve the visual fidelity of both tools.

The want to unify tools into one tool based on a common platform with HTML5 as base technology for desktop and mobile and supports large amounts of data.

With converged tool, they will introduce ability to convert existing dashboards into this new tool.

Ian said SAP remains committed to keep your existing dashboards tool running.

SAP has no intention to force a migration to this tool, according to Ian

Question and Answer

Q: Can we use the HTML5 version in the desktop instead of Flash?

A: Right now HTML5 is on mobile only.  It has to be consumed via Mobile BI app – translation‑

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Q: Is 4.1 the same as SP 6?

A: No – BI4.0 sp06 is different from BI4.1‑

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Q: Is the upgrade path from BOE 4 to 4.1 a minor or major upgrade?  No architecture changes required?

A: It is an inplace upgrade; we’ve had webcasts on this – either check SCN or asug.com ‑

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Q: Not sure what inplace means.  Dashboard design is very slow to do. Lots of waiting around

A: inplace means you install the software over the existing BI4.0 platform.‑

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Q: When is the planned timeframe for BOE 4.1 to come out of rampup to ga?

A: It depends on when SAP meets their KPI’s – cannot define when‑

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Q: For Flash based desktop dashboards will add-on conenctions be allowed for offline download?

A: Yes this should work‑

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Q: BO design studio … is it a part of new BI Analytics 4.1 or comes with Dashboard 4.1

A: Design Studio 1.1 is platform independent‑

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Q: What happens with security when a dashboard is saved to the desktop?  Also, can the file be ‘hacked’ to access data or other sensitive information?

A: That is a concern any time out of the system. ‑

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Q: Date selection is troublesome in dashboard, any plans for a date seleciton control?

A: Not something they have – will add to backlog‑

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Q: can these html5 reports be deployed to blackberry devices

A: Not as of yet‑

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Q: We heard SAP will provide an upgrade path from Dashboard to Design Studio, but the details have not been defined yet, correct?

A: Will have a conversion path but no details – closing the gap right now‑

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Q: Is there any plan for adding aggregation engine to the dashboards designer?

A: Looking at part of convergence‑

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Q: any plans to get migration tools to migrate BEx WAD to Design STudio ?

A: Yes that is planned for future‑

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Q: What 4.0 SP X Patch x will be included in 4.1

A: That will be determined at GA – July 30 – ASUG Webcast BI4 Demystified Webcast‑

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Q: when is the availability of SAP Dashboards 4.1?

A: In rampup – GA based on meeting KPI’s‑

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      10 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Lots of good stuff in here.

      Glad to see the dynamic positioning finally made it in 🙂 Much more convenient than other approaches http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-43390

      Any plans to add support for the other object properties through the graphical interface?  Alpha, for example?

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Alex -

      Thank you for reading and commenting.

      I don't have any visibility into the future enhancements to the tool.  If you do not see anything listed on the Roadmaps under service.sap.com/roadmap then I recommend posting something on Idea place at ideas.sap.com

      Regards,

      Tammy

      Author's profile photo Runali Ghosh
      Runali Ghosh

      Thanks for posting this Tammy!

      I am personally excited about the dynamic positioning & re-sizing of background and container objects and about the offline capability of flash version!

      Looking forward to it.

      Regards,

      Runali

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you for commenting and attending the webcast Runali Ghosh

      Author's profile photo Praveen Kumar Sharma
      Praveen Kumar Sharma

      Thanks Tammy, your posts are truly crisp and informative!

      One thing i would like to know, Is there any plan to provide Dashboards on Android Mobile Phones. (top end models like S3, Note 2 etc.).

      It is expected that Android will be releasing it new OS version Key Lime Pie around 2013 end, is there anything in store at BI to complement this?

      Also, One of my client has installed SAP BI 4.0 SP5 and is using BO Dashboard 4.0, I was wondering if it would be a cost to upgrade to SAP BI 4.1 and BO Dashboard 4.1?

      with best regards,

      Praveen Sharma

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Praveen,

      I started a Mobile BI 5.0 blog for the Android What is New in BusinessObjects Mobile 5.0 for Android - ASUG Webcast Part 1

      I am not finished.  Would you please take a look at that?

      The info provided by SAP says

      "

      Android OS Support

       2.2 (Froyo)

       2.3.x (Gingerbread)

       3.1.x (Honeycomb)

       3.2.x (Honeycomb)

       4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

       4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

       4.1.0 (Jelly Bean)

       4.2.0 (Jelly Bean)

      SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is supported from Android OS 4.0.0 and above"

      If this doesn't answer your question I recommend posting in the Mobile BI space.

      Regards,

      Tammy

      Author's profile photo Praveen Kumar Sharma
      Praveen Kumar Sharma

      ok, thanks for the reply.

      Author's profile photo Ingo Hilgefort
      Ingo Hilgefort

      thanks a lot for the summary

      ingo

      Author's profile photo Vijayakumar Mukunthan
      Vijayakumar Mukunthan

      Hi Tammy

        Is it possible to generate HTML5 code from BO dashboards. If yes can i use that generated code in SAPUI5 application. Can you through some light on this.

      Regards

      Vijay

      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas
      Blog Post Author

      Would you please post this as a discussion in the Dashboard space?  Thank you