Feature differences between all the Web Intelligence clients in BI4.2 SP06.
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Overview.
The aim of this document is to provide you with an overview of the main functional differences that exist between all the Web Intelligence clients, based on the latest release: SAP BusinessObjects BI4.2 SP06.
The list is not complete: some other minor differences exist.
It concerns following:
– Web Intelligence HTML client (web);
– Web Intelligence Applet interface (Rich Internet Application);
– Web Intelligence Rich Client (desktop);
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Content.
1 – Setting up and using Web Intelligence.
2 – Creating and working with documents.
3 – Building queries.
4 – Creating reports.
5 – Publishng, formatting and sharing reports.
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1 – Setting up and using Web Intelligence
| Feature | HTML interface | Applet interface | Rich Client |
| Use Web Intelligence locally and offline | Yes (*) | ||
| Use RTL alignment based on the Preferred viewing locale setting | Yes | Yes |
(*) You can install “Web Intelligence Rich Client” from a BusinessObjects BI Client 4.1 CD.
2 – Creating and working with documents
| Feature | HTML interface | Applet interface | Rich Client |
| Select a folder in which local documents and universes are stored by default on your local machine | Yes | Yes | |
| Edit and refresh a document using a universe | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Refresh a document using a BEx query | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit a document using a BEx query | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Refresh a document using an Advanced Analysis View | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit a document using an Advanced Analysis View | Yes | Yes | |
| Refresh a document using a text source | Yes (*) | Yes (*) | Yes |
| Edit a document using a text source | Yes (*) | Yes | |
| Refresh a document using a web service data source | Yes | Yes | |
| Edit a document using a web service data source | Yes | ||
| Send a Web Intelligence document to another user in the CMS | Yes | Yes | |
| Send a Web Intelligence document by FTP | Yes | Yes | |
| Export a document as a CSV file | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export a document as a CSV archive file | Yes | ||
| Save a document as a CSV archive file | Yes | Yes | |
| Export a document as a PDF, text, Excel or Excel 2007 file | Yes | ||
| Save a document as a PDF, text, Excel or Excel 2007 file | Yes | Yes | |
| Print documents to My Favorites folder | Export to PDF first | Yes | Yes |
| Save a document to the corporate repository | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Autosave documents to My Favorites folder | Yes | Yes |
(*) If the Text file has previously been copied into the BusinessObjects Enterprise Platform.
3 – Building queries
| Feature | HTML interface | Applet interface | Rich Client |
| Work with hierarchies | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Build queries on universes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Select all the members at a level in a hierarchy that is organized into levels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Build queries on Advanced Analysis Views | Yes | Yes | |
| Build queries on Excel files saved locally | Yes | ||
| Build queries on Excel files saved to the CMS (*) | Yes | Yes | Yes (**) |
| Build queries on BEx queries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Build queries on text files | Yes (*) | Yes | |
| Access Data mode | Yes | Yes | |
| Access the Change Source options in the Data Access table | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change the data source of queries based on text and Excel files. | Yes | Yes | |
| For OLAP .unx universes, when filtering on measures, you can only type a constant. | Yes | Yes |
(*) New in BI4.1 SP02 : “MS Excel” files have to be exported first into the “BI LaunchPad” for Life Cycle management.
New in BI4.2 SP06 : “TEXT” and “CSV” files have to be exported first into the “BI LaunchPad” for Life Cycle management.
(**) New in BI4.1 SP02 : the “WebI Rich Client” can perform a Change Data Source for the MS Excel files from “Stored Locally” to “Stored in CMS”.
4 – Creating reports
| Feature | HTML interface | Applet interface | Rich Client |
| Access a “Highlight All” button in the “Find” box to highlight all occurrences of a text string in a report page. | Yes | Yes | |
| Apply custom formats to numbers in tables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Create and edit conditional formatting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
5 – Publishing, formatting and sharing reports
| Feature | HTML interface | Applet interface | Rich Client |
| Set a hyperlink to another document in the CMS | Yes, with a wizard | Yes, no wizard | Yes, no wizard |
| Publish content as a web service | Yes | Yes |
Good work. Very deep and useful analysis.
Thanks William.
Great overview!
Thanks Michael.
Interesting. I would imagine that conditional formatting and custom number formats are the big blockers for not using the html version. They're certainly the most prohibitive basedon my current set of reports that I'm working with and barring non-standard data access techniques, I can't see any other major issues. Hopefully they'll be seen as priority tweaks in the next release.
Hi Gregory.
Is there any plans to add
Access Data mode, Access the Change Source options in the Data Access table
to Webi webi (HTML interface)?HTML interface)
Hi Gregory,
I discovered another difference between Web and Rich Internet Application today.
I have built derived tables which depend on a date prompt and I did not add separate LOV for these fields.
In Rich Internet application , when I choose Values for selecting Store Number
My business user preference is Web (No download required) because it loads faster.
When building the same query and trying the same LOV search,
Any ideas on how to make a prompted derived file allow search on LOV in Web Intelligence preference?
Please continue to reduce the differences between the Webi clients.
Thanks Gregory for this overview
Hi Gregory,
Is it possible for you to do the same comparison for. 4.1 SP4? It would be highly appreciated!
BR,
Andreas
Hi Andreas,
There is no change within the 4.1 SP04.
I will update the introduction to reflect this.
Regards,
GB
Very useful information. Thanks. I have a question. What is meant by the footnote:
New in BI4.1 SP02 : "MS Excel" files have to be exported first into the "BI LaunchPad" for Life Cycle management.
Hi.
With now the ability to create a WebI doc on an Excel file with the "Webi Rich Internet Application" (Webi Java Applet), we have enhanced the life cycle for such Excel files.
To do this, 1st/ They have to be uploaded into the BILaunchPad, 2nd/ We have a new option which is "REPLACE FILE" that will keep the CUID of the Excel file, and so ,keep the link WebI<>Excel file.
Hope it is clear ...
Gregory
Thanks for the quick response. So, in LCM, what do we replace the Excel file with?
Hi
This is very important to know newbies like me
thanks
Mahesh
Hi
Saving a document as a WID file granted with Rich Client is not supported neither with HTML interface nor Applet interface
This very important feature should be allowed in BI LaunchPad !
Best regards
Why doesn't SAP just update the HTML version so that is can do everything that the Java and Rich Client versions can? The HTML version is cleaner to use since it is an integrated web interface and isn't temperamental like the Java version which requires the correct version of Java, etc. It can sometimes be a challenge to get hte most up-to-date version in a corporate environment where they seem to be six months or so behind the most recent market release.
It would be great if BusinessObjects enabled the management of a spreadsheet style grid within the software itself without having to upload or reupload spreadsheets in place.
Conditioning formatting, custom number formats, migration of queries between different universes, saving as rather than exporting are all regular features that I use in the Java version that I wouldn't use the Java version for if it were built into the HTML version.
Hi Wayne,
This is high on our priority list for the next minor releaseThe plan for parity between JAVA and HTML is in the pipeline for a Support Pack in BI4.2 (starting with SP02 for BI4.2).
Please bear with us for some more months to drive the development into the direction of HTML first.
regards
Merlijn
Can't wait Merlijn, the HTML version is so much more stable. In my opinion, if the HTML version did everything the Java one did, then you could get rid of the Java version completely. My guess is that SAP could reduce the number of support tickets they get considerably by moving to HTML. You would also be able to develop the product much faster since you wouldn't have to worry about developing different versions of the product and keeping them in parity.
Do SAP have a roadmap which gives estimated delivery dates for each of the forthcoming versions and support packs?
Hi Wayne,
the schedule for maintenance releases can be found here: https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700001430852011
regards
merlijn
Hi Merlijn Ekkel,
It has been more than 3 months since your comment. Wondering if you have any new updates to share? The JRE update is a big pain.
Any designated Service pack which will resolve the parity issue completely?
Regards,
Kashif
Hi Kashif,
Parity of tof HTML with JAVA is currently planned for the first Support Pack after the 4.2 GA release..
this is however subject to change, but as mentioned.. high on our list to be completed.
Still 2020 the HTML is not complete with all applet and rich client functionality… what happened?
nice!!!
Hi Gregory BOTTICCHIO,
Thanks for the nice summary. Really useful.
Do you see any new items added till 4.1 SP06? Any plans to update the list till 4.1 SP06?
Regards,
Kashif
Thanks for the nice summary. Really useful.
Really Useful
This is a great comparison! Is there any thing planned for an updated table for 4.2 SP03?
Hi
I'm interested in too.
Best Regards
Guillaume HUCHET
The tables have been updated based on BI4.2 SP03.
Do you plan to update the table for SP04 which brings HTML and Java to parity? Thanks for your efforts!!
It would be indeed interesting to know if SP4 (or upcoming SP5) has now indeed 100% parity with Java-applet
Eddy