BEx query Fundamentals and its working in Dashboards

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BEx query fundamentals:

Topics:

• Introduction to Business Explorer

• Fundamental Components

• How to create a dashboard based off BEx query

• Useful Knowledge Base Articles

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Introduction to Business Explorer (BEx):

• Reporting tool used to work with data in the BW database.

• Provides an organized interface where a user can access and work with any type of document assigned to them in the Business Information Warehouse.

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Fundamental Components:

1. Key Figures

2. Dimensions

3. Characteristics

4. Free Characteristics

5. Attributes

6. Filters

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1: Key Figures

• Key Figures are numeric InfoObjects that are the object of analysis in BW/BI reports, such as number of employees, number of positions, annual salary, etc. Key Figures quantify Characteristics.

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2: Dimensions

• Dimensions are logical groupings of Characteristics and Attributes in an InfoProvider.
• Dimensions can be found in the InfoObjectBEx.

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3: Characteristics

• Characteristics describe the Key Figures.
• Characteristics are selected from the Dimensions of the InfoObjects list and added to the query.

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4: Free Characteristics

• Free Characteristics are Characteristics in a query that do not display in the initial query results.

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5: Attributes

• An Attribute is a field that describes a Characteristic.

For example, Anniversary Date and Ethnic Origin are attributes of the Employee Characteristic.

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6: Filters

• Filters are restrictions added to a query that limit the results of the query to a value or multiple values of a selected Characteristic when the query is run.

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How to create a dashboard based off BEx query:

Refer to following document written by Tammy Powlas: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31012

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Useful Knowledge Base Articles:

1809653 – Dashboard Design 4.0 SP5 – Cannot Select Bex queries when creating new Dashboard if BICS connection language is different

than english

1711564 – Unable to connect to a BEx variable as a source prompt in Dashboard Design. The 1st variable is grayed out.

1769293 – BI4 : Dashboard Design BICS ‘Connect to Spreadsheet’ options are grayed out when setting key date prompt in BW and prompt at query level

1804169 – XLS 000009 error happens when refreshing Dashboards when it contains Bex query data source and it will return no data after refreshing

1789906 – Unable to manually enter or search a BICS based List of Values in Web Intelligence member selector by value

1767983 – Performance Issues with bex Hierarchy nodes in Dashboard Design

1837977 – How to promote a dashboard based on BEx query using Promotion Management

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Hope this helps and makes you clear with basics of BEx queries and using them with Dashboards.

Regards,

Tejas Tamhane