User friendly data point commentary with Planning enabled Analytic Applications

[JBARLOW]

Using a planning enabled SAC model, users can comment on data - typically this done by clicking on a table and accessing the contextual menu to add a data point comment.

From a UX/UI perspective this got me thinking that there must be a more obvious way for users to read/add comments - particularly if they're unfamiliar with SAC.

I'm a firm believer in the approach that anyone should be able to open a dashboard and use it with zero training.

In the example below using an Analytic Application we have used the native SAC Comment Widget, it is filtered to only show comments for the account member selected in the dropdown list.
Users can instantly see comments, add them and switch between account members to comment on.


In the example we only have Actuals & Plan versions in the planning model - you could of course add more versions and further dropdowns/buttons to select the version to comment on.

Components

Table:                        Table_2   (filtered to show only Plan values)
Comment Widget:    CommentWidget_1    (filtered to show only Plan values)
Dropdown:                Dropdown_1

At design time the Comment Widget is filtered to show the Plan category and Electricity Account
Dropdown_1 is coded to show 'Electricity' as the selected key at runtime
(this is so the dropdown value matches the comment widget account filter value)

 

 

Dropdown_1 code

1. grab the dropdown key value and write it to the variable 'KEY'
2. remove the Account dimension filter on the comment widget
3. Filter the comment widget to the account member selected in the dropdown

4. Optional: apply a filter to restrict the version to Plan values

var KEY=this.getSelectedKey();

CommentWidget_1.getCommentingDataSource().removeDimensionFilter("Account");

CommentWidget_1.getCommentingDataSource().setDimensionFilter("Account",KEY);



/*

This line of code could be used to switch planning versions the comment widget read/writes comments to

CommentWidget_1.getCommentingDataSource().setDimensionFilter("Version","public.Plan");

*/

 

Conclusion

Using the comment widget in this way allows users to quickly read/add/delete data point comments with fewer steps than clicking the table and accessing the contextual menu.

It also means users who may be new to SAC don't need to spend time learning where to find options in the native contextual menus.

As always further insights and help with SAP Analytic Applications can be found here:
SAP Community - Analytic Applications