Visual BI Extensions – Using a “different” Table in SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Have you been looking for functionality with the crosstab in SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio but then noticed that the functionality wasn’t there and you were looking perhaps for a slightly different table component ?

Let me give you an overview on some of the features and functions of our Table component as part of the Visual BI Extensions and why we decided to create the table component.

The first item you will notice in the Additional Properties of our table component is the fact, that it comes with lots of standard features out of the box without the need to write a single line of script, but instead just a simple click away.

The Table provides the option to activate Search, Sorting, Scrollbars if needed, Text Wrapping, Interactive Filtering, and the option to Freeze the header for larger tables and scrolling.

The option Repeat Members allows you to decide – in a situation where you for example use multiple dimensions in the table – if you would like to repeat the members of the outer dimension or not.

Above you can see a screenshot from the table component with the Search option being activated and you can also recognize that the sorting and the interactive filtering has been activated and the user can simply click on the icons in the column header.

Above you can see a screenshot of the interactive filtering, where the user is given a list of members based on the assigned data source and has the option to filter the data using a simple click and also has the option to enter a search criteria for that particular column to look for specific members.

The Conditional formatting options (Dynamic Alerts) provide the dashboard designer with the option to setup an alert either based on a single measure (example: Revenue > 1 Million), a Measure Calculation (example: Actual – Budget > 1 Million), or a Target Value option (example Cost is between 10 – 20% of the Revenue).

In my example I configured an alert based on measure Costs in comparison to measure Net Value and I can then decide if I would like to highlight the actual Value, the Background, or if I would like to add a Symbol to the column….

… and then I can setup multiple rules, like in the example where I define the different colors based on the percentage of Cost compared to the Net Value measure.

Another feature the table supports is the Paging that can be configured.

Here the user has the option to decide if the page navigation is going to be on the top of the bottom of the page and if the page navigator should be shown in form of buttons (iOS style) or as actual page numbers. In addition the user can decide to repeat the Page header on each new page.

And last but not least, the table provides all the formatting options directly in the Additional Properties – no need for trying to find out the style sheet classes – but instead a simple configuration in the Additional Properties can be used to format the table.

Most important – all these features are data source independent and work with BW, HANA, Universes, or spreadsheets as data source.

100 Things you can do with Visual BI Extensions and SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio