Reviewing the new functions in SAP Design Studio 1.2 – ASUG and TechEd Notes

I am combining notes from last week’s ASUG webcast with SAP and SAP TechEd session EA260.  Of course, the usual disclaimer applies, that future things are subject to change.

Smart Copy and Paste from Analysis Office to Design Studio

Last week, SAP reviewed the newer “Smart Copy” and paste.  For background on the current version see Going from BusinessObjects Analysis Office to BusinessObjects Design Studio – Mobilize your Spreadsheet?

“Steal views from Analysis Office” said SAP on the ASUG Webcast.  Smart Copy brings an object to the Windows Clipboard that Analysis and Design Studio recognize and can handle.  In Design Studio 1.2, it has a “Smart Paste” and will be enabled when you go from Analysis Office to Studio.  It can read the conditional formatting from Analysis Office to Design Studio.

New Properties in 1.2

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows new user interactivity features in the Properties pane of the crosstab such as Hierarchy Navigation Enabled, Sorting Enabled, and Column Resizing Enabled.

The setHierarchyNavigationEnabled is a property of crosstabs to enable or disable hierarchy navigation – you can set at design time or run-time

The example provided in the demo was CROSSTAB_1.setHierarchyNavigationEnabled(!CROSSTAB_1.isHierarchyNavigationEnabled());

This is something you can set at design time or run time.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

You can do this in the Edit > Initial View as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

The same for sorting – API command example as shown in Figure 3.

CROSSTAB_1.setSortingEnabled(!CROSSTAB_1.isSortingEnabled());

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Conditional formatting in the Properties pane of the Crosstab is new.  Figure 4 shows how to use it in a script.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Export to Excel is also enabled by scripts:

APPLICATION.export(ExportType.EXCEL_xlsx);

It generates an Excel document.  It does not export an Analysis Office document. 

With the new background processing,  it does not create a delayed load.  You can use it as a generic event

At the start-up event, you can start background processing with this:

APPLICATION.doBackgroundProcessing();

Then you go to the Data Sources and if Load in Script is false, the data source is loaded when the data source starts.  If the Data Source is set to true, it is not loaded at start and is expected to be started by script.  You can set the script at On Background processing Event.  See Figure 4 at ASUG Design Studio 1.2 Webcast Updates

Looking forward to the new release planned for later this month.