New in SAP BI 4.1 SP02: Microsoft Excel as data source for Web Intelligence

[Patrick_Perrier]

Web Intelligence documents using a Microsoft Excel personal data provider is a feature no longer only possible in the Rich Client (Desktop).

I'd like to welcome william.marcy as a collaborator to this article!

Thanks to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite 4.1 SP02, this is now also possible with the Web Intelligence Applet (aka Rich Internet Application aka Rich Internet Application aka Java Report Panel).

SAP BI 4.1 SP01	SAP BI 4.1 SP02

Note: This is still not possible with the HTML client.

Uploading a new Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

1. Logon to the SAP BI Launch pad

2. Navigate to the folder where you want to save the Excel spreadsheet

3. Open the menu "New" and select Local Document

4. Browse to your .xls or .xlsx file

5. Click Add

Maintaining your Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

New in SAP BI 4.1 is the ability to (finally) manually update your spreadsheets directly in the BI Launch pad.

1. Right-click the Microsoft Excel

2. Select Organise > Replace File

3. Browse to your .xls or .xlsx file

4. Click Replace

5. Confirm if you want to replace the file or not

Note: Previous copies of the spreadsheet are kept in the File Store location on the server and the file name is different.  This will not affect the link with the Web Intelligence document as it uses the CUID stored in the repository.

Extra Note: If you wanted a process to automatically refresh a spreadsheet in the BI Launch pad, this would require some level of unsupported "hacking".  For this you'll need to locate the location of the spreadsheet in the Input File Store and overwrite the file.

1. In the BI Launch pad, right-click the Excel spreadsheet

2. Select Properties

3. This would translate to something like: E:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\FileStore\Input\a_140\088\000\22668

Important: Changing the columns or other elements of the spreadsheet could/will break the Web Intelligence document.

Alternatively you should use the SDK which is fully supported.

Creating a Web Intelligence document using an Excel spreadsheet as data source

The process is very similar to the Web Intelligence Rich Client (Desktop:

1. Logon to the SAP BI Launch pad

2. Click Applications > Web Intelligence

3. Click New (Ctrl N)

4. Select Excel > OK

5. Open a document from the servere > Open

Limitation: Unfortunately it is not possible to use an instance of a Web Intelligence document saved as Excel format.

6. Provide data source interpretation parameters > OK

7. Preview data in the Query Panel > Run Query

Troubleshooting

Trying to refresh the Web Intelligence document where you either don't not have enough rights to the spreadsheet or it has been deleted will return the following error:

Extra information:

SAP BI 4.1 SP02 Release Announcement: http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/11/22/sap-businessobjects-business-intelligence-s...

Installation notes: http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/11/22/installing-sap-businessobjects-bi-41-sp02

Hope this was helpful.  Any comments or suggestions?