SAP Solution Manager 7.2 – Dashboard Builder configuration

In this blog I want to introduce some Dashboard Builder features from a configuration view. In my previous blog I covered the main functionalities from an end user perspective. In the video below the following features are introduced based on SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SP05:

How to:

• create a standard tile based on the KPI Catalog
• define a global filter
• define colors for characteristic values
• define an auto-refresh
• use a Smart View
• jump to another application within a drill-down view
• define thresholds

Download from KPI catalog

In the Dashboard Builder you can create standard tiles based on the KPI catalog. Within the KPI catalog you can search for standard KPI’s and filter on several criteria like application area, end-to-end process, business goal area, etc. Once you selected a KPI, the related meta data (data provider, KPI name, etc.) will automatically be taken over into the tile configuration. In case you want to change the default settings, you can still do so, e.g. if you want to change the visualization, the tile size or the fields to be used in the rows.

Global filter

In the dashboard configuration you can define global filters that are applied to all tiles and detail views within the dashboard. Within the configuration you first must choose the main data provider that should be used for the data retrieval. Then you can choose one or multiple fields from the main data source that should be used as global filter in the dashboard. These fields need to be mapped to the related fields of the other data providers that are available in the dashboard. If the data providers have the same field names, the mapping is done automatically.

For each field the select options in the end user mode can be defined. The following options are available:

• Single value
• Multiple single values
• Ranges (from..to)
• Exclude single values

It’s also possible to define default values for global filters. E.g. if you define a global filter on the field “Priority”, you can set a default filter on the value “Very high” in order to filter the dashboard on the priority “Very high” once the dashboard is opened. In addition it is possible to define dynamic filter values for the fields calendar year, quarter, month, week and day. Let’s assume you want to define a dashboard that should always be filtered on the current calendar week. Then you need to choose the calendar week as a global filter and select or directly enter the current calendar week as a default value. If you click on “Time rolling” the filter on calendar week is defined dynamically so that the dashboard is always filtered on the current calendar week.

Color configuration

Within the tile configuration you can define colors for key figures and characteristic values based on a color picker control in order to use custom colors within a chart. Instead of using the color picker control, you can also use the RGB or HSL values. If you do not specify a color, the standard SAPUI5 colors are used.

For characteristics it’s possible to define custom colors for single values and to use a specific color for all other values.

Auto-refresh

For each dashboard an auto-refresh can be defined in the configuration. The time interval can be defined in minutes. E.g. it’s possible to define a dashboard that refreshes automatically every minute.

Smart View

A Smart View is one of the templates you can use for a detail page. It provides more flexibility for end users compared to drill-down views as end users can change the drill-down, define additional filters independent of the global filter and save user-specific variants.

From configuration perspective it is possible to define the fields that should be shown initially and the default visualization (table or chart).

Jump to Application

Within a drill-down view you can define a jump to another application. For this you need to specify the target URL. You can also use URL parameter that will be added to the URL based on the selected field value. Within an ITSM dashboard you could e.g. jump from a drill-down view to the CRM Web UI using the CRM Guid as URL parameter in order to display a single Incident.

In case the URL is included in your data provider you can choose the URL type “entry-specific” and then select the field that contains the URL.

Threshold Definition

You can define thresholds for tiles in order to visualize data in different colors (red, yellow, green) depending on the threshold values. It’s possible to define different thresholds for different characteristic values or to use one threshold that is valid for all characteristic values (in that case use * in the step “Select filter & Rules template setting”). In the section “Rule template” you can select the related operators and colors you want to use.

In the 2nd step you can define then the threshold values for the selected key figure (in this case “No. of Documents”):

Prerequisites

The following steps in the SAP Solution Manager setup need to be executed in order to be able to use the Dashboard Builder in SAP Solution Manager 7.2

• SAP BW needs to be setup (under Cross Scenario Configuration -> Mandatory Configuration -> Infrastructure Preparation – 3. Set up SAP BW)
• SAP Gateway services need to be activated (under Cross Scenario Configuration -> Mandatory Configuration -> Infrastructure Preparation -> 7. Enable Gateway Services -> Cross Scenario Configuration)
• BW Content needs to be activated (under Cross Scenario Configuration -> Mandatory Configuration -> Basic Configuration -> Automatic activities -> Activate BW Content for RCA)

More Information

• SAP Help Portal – Dashboard Builder