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Author's profile photo Laura VEGA

Live Data Connect 3.3 is available

What is Live Data Connect for SAP BusinessObjects solutions

For those who are new to the SAC Live Data Connect technology, this feature offers some strong advantages, and a lot of interest for the companies who are already using SAP Analytics Cloud along with the SAP BusinessObjects BI suite:

  • It allows SAP Analytics Cloud to connect to On Premise Data, exposed through the universes or WebIntelligence documents
  • It enables a LIVE access towards these data
  • The data are never uploaded into the CLOUD or SAP Analytics Cloud: they stay behind your firewall, into your corporate network
  • And you can access and re-use, as is, all your existing relational universes of type .UNV and .UNX, and all your WebIntelligence documents data models

 

Where to find Live Data Connect 3.3

We are pleased to announce that version 3.3 has been released this week and available for download in SAP Market Place:

Download Live Data Connect 3.3

 

What is new in Live Data Connect 3.3

Scheduling

It is now possible to schedule LDC-based stories, once the cloud connector has been installed  and configured to let the SAP Analytics Cloud system connect to LDC.
This enables users to schedule LDC documents and to use SAC as a true enterprise analytics platform.

 

 

Add Variance

Add Variance is now available in LDC charts

 

Drill up/down on navigation path

Users do leverage navigation paths defined in Universes when using LDC WebIntelligence documents access.
You can now drill up and down in charts using those navigation paths.

 

Note that Fold/Unfold is not supported in tables

 

Passwords externalization

Admnistrators have now the ability to store the SAML shared secret, keystore and key passwords in separate files instead of in the LDC.properties file.
Configuration file can now be shared without having to share passwords.

Note this externalization is mandatory in LDC 3.3.

 

Reduction of BOE licenses consumption

Queries executed via LDC do not consume any BOE license anymore

To get this feature, you need to use following BOE versions in conjunction with LDC 3.3:

  • 4.2 SP9 Patch 2 or higher
  • 4.3 SP1 Patch 5 or higher
  • 4.3 SP2

 

Unsupported elements in Query Builder

Unsupported elements when building a LDC model, such as time hierarchies, geographic hierarchies, delegated measures, variables created on references, are now visible in the query builder but greyed out.

In previous versions, those elements were not exposed in the query builder.

What is next?

Live Data Connect for BOBJ is enhanced every quarter with new features, so stay tuned for the coming release in Q4 2021.

In the meanwhile, enjoy this brand new release !

 

 

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      16 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Aleksey Salinin
      Aleksey Salinin

      Laura VEGA thanks for the post!

      Are timing calculations supported? YTD,MTD

      And will it be possible to create dimensions (in stories/apps)?

      Author's profile photo Laura VEGA
      Laura VEGA
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Aleksey,

      Thanks for your comment!

      For the moment timing calculations are not supported.

      Regarding calculated dimensions, they are planned for the Q4 release.

      Regards

      Laura

      Author's profile photo Lothar Köder
      Lothar Köder

      Hi Laura,

       

      Thanks for the blog! One question: why is the next release in Q4? What about Q3 release? I'm asking because we have an issue with clipboard and variables which will be solved with next release...

       

      Many thanks in advance!

       

      Best regards

       

      Lothar

      Author's profile photo Laura VEGA
      Laura VEGA
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Lothar,

      I know it can seem a bit long to wait for Q4, but this is the new rhythm for LDC releases. Indeed we need to work on different topics (BOLT, Planning) in dev team, and we'd rather have LDC every two quarters to guarantee great quality.

      Thanks a lot for your understnading!

      Laura

      Author's profile photo Lothar Köder
      Lothar Köder

      Hi Laura,

       

      LDC version 3.4 is available since beginning of February. I haven't read any posting or blog about it, yet.

       

      We updated in the meantime. Our issues with old 3.3 version are solved now.

       

      Best regards

       

      Lothar

      Author's profile photo Laura VEGA
      Laura VEGA
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Lothar,

      I'm happy to hear your issues are solved with LDC 3.4.

      Indeed there was no post for LDC 3.4 release but you can find in this  SAP Note the current LDC version release notes. You can subscribe here to be notified when notes are updated.

      There is also the What's New Page section where you can find all new features for each release.

      Hope this helps

      Regards

      Laura

       

      Author's profile photo k deshmukh
      k deshmukh

      Hi Lothar Köder

      Were you able to find out any solution or workaround for variables issue. We are using Webi report as a source for our model. we built live data model using LDC 3.3. Some of the simple variables created in webi show correct values in SAC. But variables created using complex for eg.ForEach, IN, ForAll doesnt display data in SAC. Please help.

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Lothar Köder
      Lothar Köder

      Hi, Not yet. We are still waiting for the next release of LDC which will solve our issue. The issue we have is completly different from yours and is not related to WebI reports.

      Author's profile photo k deshmukh
      k deshmukh

      Hi Laura VEGA ,

      We are using Webi report as a source for our model. we built live data model using LDC 3.3. Some of the simple variables created in webi show correct values in SAC. But variables created using complex for eg.ForEach, IN, ForAll doesnt display data in SAC. Please help.

      Screenshot from your blog says "Variables created on references are greyed out". I am using LDC 3.3 and i am on BO 4.2 SP8. I can see the variables created in webi in the query panel. when i add this variable into SAC chart/table it doesnt show data (simply shows blank) but the same variable gives correct data in webi. How to solve this issue any help pls.

      Thanks

       

      Author's profile photo Laura VEGA
      Laura VEGA
      Blog Post Author

      Hello K Deshmukh,

      Reference in WebI documents can be used in Variables to refer to a specific cell in WebI document (a bit like an excel). I don't think this is what you are using.

      I think the issue comes from the context of the calculation of your Variables using All, ForEach, etc..When using this syntax, the formula will be calculated depending of the explicit context you are using in the formula. This is working fine in WebI, but in SAC you may have some issues.

      If you are trying to add this kind of variable in a widget (viz or table) in SAC, and if all the dimensions needed for the calculation of the variable are not present in the widget, then the calculation cannot be performed and the results would be empty.

      To better understand how the query is performed when using WebI as a data source, please refer to this blog:
      https://blogs.sap.com/2020/11/06/live-data-connect-for-bobj-where-is-the-data/

      Hope this helps,

      Laura

       

       

      Author's profile photo Dave Gillaspy
      Dave Gillaspy

      Hi Laura,

       

      im working at a client that has a BOBJ instance installed on Linux, looking at the LDC install documentation there is a diagram showing the architecture

      Do the demarcation lines mean that the installs physically have to be on a separate box or that they are merely there to show different programs. Basically if the Linux boxes are sized accordingly do SAP say that we could have them both on the same server or do we need two separate ones.

       

      many thanks

       

      Dave

       

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      Hi Dave Gillaspy 

      Just to close the loop here (as per emails sent between ourselves) where you asked: Does LDC3.3 (and soon 3.4) warrant a separate server (i.e. splitting it out and installing it on a web-tier), or is it OK to coexist alongside the BOE server on the central node?

      The feedback given was that it's perfectly ok to have LDC and BOE sharing a server. Many of our customers chose this deployment option, as it is the easiest.

      Since v3 the LDC installer adds its own mini webserver, so if your BOE is already running under load or if you are planning heavy LDC usage from SAC, you may want to ease things by separating machines.

      To conclude: You would want to deploy LDC on its own server in situations where either LDC or BOE would be under pressure and requiring machine resources of its own.

      Regards, H

      Author's profile photo Mike Quinn
      Mike Quinn

      Hi

      looking at the arcitecture diagram above, where does the HTTP RWS connection come into the work/dataflows?

       

      @LauraV ... sorry, posted same question on an ealier blog of yours.  Great Blog!

      Author's profile photo Ghislain HUDE
      Ghislain HUDE

      Hi Mike

      With recent version only corba is use from LDC to BOE to keep only one channels.

      (Until UNV is supported we can't remove Corba)

      I share the updated diagram to Laura.

      Previoulsy the HTTP was used principally for Logon and CMS Queries.

      Regards,

      Ghis

      Author's profile photo Laura VEGA
      Laura VEGA
      Blog Post Author

      The updated diagram mentioned by Ghis is this one - You will also find it in the product documentation.

      Regards

      Laura

       

      Author's profile photo Mike Quinn
      Mike Quinn

      Hello.  Thanks for this. mike