This post summarizes noticeable features of BusinessObjects BI4, BI4.1 release from our perspective since XI 3.1. Many people ask "Why should I upgrade? Where is the value added for end user?". If you are one of them then this article is especially for you. Primary target of this article is to focus on real features for customer end user groups. Secondary objective is to provide at least basic information about features influencing development and development time plus features.
We don’t use all BusinessObjects platform tools, we use only what our customers need. What tools are used and which not will be specified later. At first it is important to introduce end user groups view:
There are different requirements for different end user groups:
Requirement | Viewers | Explorers | Analysts |
Report response time | ★★★ They need to see information in report as fast as possible | ★★★ Usually possible to have higher response time than viewers | ★★★ Usually possible to have higher response time than viewers and explorers |
Report design and accessibility | ★★★ Clear and effective design is desired as well as easy use of basic functions | ★★★ Clear and effective design is desired as well as easy use of basic functions | ★★★ Mostly not as important as for the other groups. |
Modification report features | ★★★ None to minimal. Usually they don’t have rights for report customization. They need to use filters and some of them need basic filtering capabilities also | ★★★ Moderate - usually they need to create own filters/input controls, scope of analysis and select dimensions or attributes not presented in report to create own version | ★★★ Very important. Filters/input controls, own calculated metrics, own queries and scopes of analysis, own optional prompts and queries |
Advanced searching features | ★★★ Minimal.They are mostly satisfied with basic prompts. | ★★★ Moderate – basic, hierarchical or nested prompts are on daily use | ★★★ Optional prompts and filters are essential as well as drilling capability. Mostly over huge amount of data with multiple conditions. |
Analytical features of application | ★★★ None. | ★★★ Important – Creating graphs and pivot tables | ★★★ Essential - Creating graphs and pivot tables, data tracking, creating own metrics with different mathematical and statistical functions, using contexts |
Possibility of report sharing | ★★★ None, they don’t create own content. | ★★★ They need special folder where they can share their customization with colleagues | ★★★ They need special folder where they can share their customization with colleagues |
Technical skills demands and training difficulty | ★★★ Very little technical skills, easy to train | ★★★ Medium technical skills | ★★★ High technical skills and long time for training |
Report types | ★★★
| ★★★
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Comparison between Crystal reports and Web Intelligence features:
Feature | Crystal reports | Web Intelligence |
Data source connectivity | ★★★ Universe access or DB direct access (ODBC,JDBC,BICS). Impossible to use contexts on universes. | ★★★ Since XI 4 it is possible to connect directly to SAP BW via BICS . Possible to use universe contexts. Still impossible to use direct DB except for BICS. |
Prompts | ★★★ Possible of using optional prompts and List of Values can be defined in report. | ★★★ In XI 3.1 it is possible to define optional prompt on report, but you cannot define List of Values on report. Since BI4.0 it is possible to define own values in LOV. |
Layout customization | ★★★ Best of BOBJ platform. Formulas can be used for determining fields position or suppression of rows. | ★★★ Since XI 4 you can hide columns and most of formatting requirements can be done by Alerters function. It has forms objects also which is why are Crystals misused. |
Development time | ★★★ High. Also it takes a lot of time to train developer for using this application, it has never been intuitive much. | ★★★ It varies. Basically it is almost always faster than developing similar report in crystals. |
SAP CrystalReports JavaScript API | ★★★ The JavaScript API lets you customize the report viewer, and add interactivity to your Crystal reports content. | ★★★ Since BI 4 (in BI 4.1 SP2 greatly improved) you may use SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence RESTful Web Service SDK. You may also use jQuery or similar library to do some necessary changes in html mode,it is very useful. |
End user groups | ★★★ Viewers | ★★★ Viewers, explorers, analysts. |
Email notifications | ★★★ Possible directly send notification about metrics change. Furthermore notifications may be viewed in notifications tab in LaunchPad. | ★★★ It is possible even since XI 3.1,with a little workaround. You may schedule or create publication based on document which contains one more report with custom sql which throws an error when certain condition is fulfilled (then email wont be sent) - i.e. for multiple conditions custom sql formula could look like this: ... case when [measure1]>x then 1/0 when [measure n]=z then 1/0 end This kind of notification cannot be viewwed in notifications tab in LaunchPad,but it is still usable. |
Export file type options | ★★★ PDF,XLS,CSV,RTF,HTML,XML | ★★★ PDF,CSV,XLS Since BI4.0 XLSX |
Linking to Document | ★★★ You can open report or report part via OpenDocument link. Fully supported and documented. | ★★★ In XI 3.1 it is possible to open document. Since BI4.0 it is possible even open document part. This is not official feature but it unlikely will be ever removed because this functionality is essential for Workspaces. |
Publishing | ★★★ Suitable for large landscapes (thousands of reports) and customizable – you can partition reports according to specific parameter. It is a little better than WebI though, since BI4.1 SP3 you may easily deploy to other languages. | ★★★ Very similar possibilities of publishing. Since BI4.0 it is possible to have custom user defined parameter for partitioning reports when publishing. |
Support for Oracle XMLa and Teradata OLAP (BIO) looked very promising (Available since BI4.1 SP2). But long development time, additional license and maintenance cost for Teradata OLAP and maintaining and developing OLAP cubes could not justify functionality of this application which usability is far from Office (Excel) version. If you don’t have SAP BW and looking for tool which enables users quick analyzing of bigger amount of data (2M+) this tool is not for you. Sadly said, it is not Web Intelligence either. I recommend to look here for information about application which may provide missing functionality in the future.
Although this post is not primary focused on development and administration features, it’s good to know at least the most important ones.
Focused on semantic layer and deployment. For news in client applications you may consider following the analysts group which is closest to developers in the last table in this post.
It is possible to version content with Version management which is accessible through CMS.
I recommend to use visual difference application. It features of comparing LCM jobs or LCM biars. It may be capable of comparing WebI documents and universes in the future. But not now. Still, it is good addition to versioning and promotion management.
You should know about Restful raylight web services because it may significantly reduce time for doing common tasks when doing small change in many reports or working with publications. It also replaces some of missing functionality in JAVA SDK.
Server side is 64bit platform - you cannot install on 32bit OS. And it is good thing because on 64bit OS you can use more RAM. This is something you will need more than before. Check out the sizing guide for getting more information.
Most important chapter of this post. In following table you can find new features since XI 3.1 for specified end user groups. At first look at rating table:
Rating Legend- comparing to XI 3.1
Worse | Better | Desc |
▼▼▼ ▼▼▼ ▼▼▼ - | ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ - | A little Quite Far No change / hardly noticeable |
Application/Feature | Comment | Feature rating | ||||||||||||||||
Launch Pad
| Since BI4.0 Customizable HOME tab may contain recently opened documents, new inbox objects, available applications It is possible to pin frequently used documents into tabs It saves a lot of time for users and it is fairly faster navigation than in InfoView |
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Launch Pad
| Since BI4.0 It is possible to partition publications with specific user defined variable. Also publishing engine has been greatly improved in matter of performance and publishing is now much faster than in XI 3.1. |
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Launch Pad
| Since BI4.0 If document has an instance, it is displayed. If it has not, document itself is opened. This is better than behavior in XI 3.1 where it cannot be achieved (you may have set for all documents to open last instance but if it had no instance on double click user was not able to open document) |
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Launch Pad
| Since BI4.0 Launch Pad Webi HTML design (edit) mode is more usable than interactive mode in xi 3.1, it is similar to java mode more than interactive mode to edit mode in xi 3.1. Look at link for comparison of individual edit modes. For viewers there is no additional added value, they cannot edit document |
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Workspaces
| Since BI4.0 Workspaces are now fully customizable even by end users. You can add multiple report types (WebI, Crystals, Flash) and html pages. Great alternative for creating dashboards without Dashboards/Design studio restrictions. Content linking between modules may be useful when you need navigate from one report (i.e. with graph) to another report (with table). This can be done by GUI tool, follow this example. Since BI4.1 you can specify default prompt value for a Workspace |
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DesktopIntelligence
| For BI4.0 there is neither compatibility mode nor webi features which may replace DeskI functions. Since BI4.1 WebI is more powerful and in many cases replaces missing functionality. Furthermore there is compatibility pack which enables running DeskI. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0. New ribbon interface is huge step. Question is forward or backward? For viewers the change is not so big and is mostly accepted well. Explorers and analysts may edit document and at beginning they may not accept the UI change well. It is similar change as it was between Office 2003 and Office 2007. For those who are familiar with ribbon it is easier to get used to. Still, navigation in edit mode is considered to be a little clearer in XI 3.1. Since BI4.1 it is possible not only to assign certain functionality via access levels with specific rights for specific application, but it is also possible to assign specific functionality (buttons) for specific user groups. This is especially useful for viewers who need to see input controls, but they should not be able to see save button nor design toolbar. Furthermore it is possible add single dimension to already created merged dimensions without recreating (similar behavior like in XI 3.1, in BI4.0 it was very inconvenient you had to unmerge all of them first) |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 This is one of the small things which make huge effect for all end users. "Your session has been expired" without notification was one of the most evil things in XI 3.1 especially on PROD environment where you could not have long time before timing out |
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Web Intelligence
| For BI4.0 it is possible to refresh only the whole document. This may be problematic if you have many document queries and one report is linked to one query. Data refresh response may be significantly higher. Since BI4.0 It is possible to preview data even for one query. The disadvantage of data refresh is partially reduced by this feature, but only for explorers and analysts. Since BI4.1 it is the same as in XI 3.1 - you may refresh selected queries in document |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 Secondly, nested prompts behavior is improved- if you selected prompt without filling the previous one (on which is specific prompt dependent), there is link to it. Furthermore prompts in List of values do not require additional prompt with the same name like in certain situations in XI 3.1. This works on prompts created both in Universe designer and Information Design tool. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 there are new graph types such as s Scatter Bubble, Polar Bubble, Dual Axes Charts, Heat Maps, Box Plots, Series Pie Charts and Tag Cloud. For possibilities of customizing chart look it is good to know that you can finally assign different axis values (for specific chart types), choose from predefined color palettes preferred style or set color transparency. Sadly said, in BI4.0 there are some things which reduce usability and x-times prolong development time:
Since BI4.1 there is not only new Waterfall chart type, but mentioned limitations have been fixed - you don’t lose your chart settings and you can +create more custom color graph palettes +directly in WebI. Since BI4.1SP3 you may also defined line width. As a result, WebI charts are in BI4.1 fairly better and more importantly, report charts customization/recreation is faster. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 Mostly used only by analysts and some explorers. For explorers they don’t use most of functions so there is very little impact. For analysts (and developers) it’s a bit worse. They are mostly not pleased with the new behavior. Furthermore, they are disappointed with changing behavior which depends on specific Support Pack not only on major release and they are confused. For BI4.1 check the changes since xi 3.1. Since BI4.SP3 it is possible to use Formula Rewrite Tool for facilitating converting formulas to new version |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 For someone unimportant for someone one of most important features is full support of excel exporting. It means the rows limit is increased from 65k to about 1M rows. Furthermore, images are exported to XLSX as well. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 This functionality is applicable to explorers and analysts. Cell format copy facilitates setting the right format for selected objects in the first case. Explorers, who are often more interested in good looking style, benefit from it quite well. In the second case it is great enhancement when working with multiple documents or reports. It has many limitations though - users are unable to copy sections, queries are copied as well in most cases and Java mode/rich client is required. You get an error quite often when copying. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 FP3 You may use hierarchy objects in input controls and it is shown as a tree. That is stunning. Sadly said, this is possible only on BICS SAP BW source. It simple means it cannot be achieved with any other source or relational connectivity) Since BI4.0 it is possible to define custom list of values directly on report. Since BI4.1 SP3 it is possible not to show “all values” option in any element. Furthermore when duplicating document tab (report) all input control elements are preserved. It saves a lot of time. |
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Web Intelligence | Since BI4.1 Excel “drilling” alias folding/unfolding for tables is available even in HTML mode. This is particularly useful for viewers who don’t use java environment. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.1 SP2 Freezing headers or columns is something what excel fanatics (and not only them) voted for years. Finally it is here. And it works great. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.0 Another good feature which mostly explorers and analysts benefit from: 1) It is possible to hide column very simply. Works only on dimensions. 2) It is possible to use hide when condition not only on section (XI3.1) but on a table as well. And because tables are copy-able elements to other documents, users may benefit from it even more. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.1 Usable for those who write many formulas which are mostly analysts - you dont have to write so much which is somehow useful. |
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Web Intelligence
| Since BI4.1SP4 Usable for those who use drill functionality a lot. The hierarchy in a table was automatically collapsed to the root hierarchy member when you refreshed (or purged data) from a document. Not anymore, now you have an option - the right-click contextual menu for a report table and there you can select desired default drill level. |
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Web Intelligence | Since BI4.1 SP2 This is something what use to be in Desktop Intelligence. Since it is discontinued in BI4.0 it is welcome feature for explorers and analysts who need to create their own lookup quickly without redesigning universe or data layer. This great feature is available since BI4.1 SP2. |
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LaunchPad
| Since BI4.0 It is possible even open document part in WebIntelligence Since BI4.1.SP3 It is possible to link to specific folder. You dont have to create additional "guide linking reports" anymore |
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Multiple applications
| It wouldnt be fair not to mention some mobile enhancements especially because in many companies managers may use company smartphones or tablets and mobile devices are more and more important. Currently supported mobile OS: BlackBerry,IOS and Android. Since BI4.0 there is a new Mobile Home page which display only mobile reports. When properly configured, you may add more mobile reports by assigning the right mobile category which is really quick way for releasing new reports. Futhermore,Dashboards reports may be deployed to mobile devices. Support for current applications have been improved, i.e. it is possible to add some input controls elements. Since BI4.1 it is possible to export analysis documents to VisualStudio and from there you can export this kind of reports to mobile devices as well so analysts may benefit from it. It is also possible to open another document over hyperlink to another mobile document (OpenDoc). |
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I believe it is simple. It is not question if you should or not. The question is when. If you are not sure which XI4 version is better, I can say from my experience that BI4.1 release is a big step forward comparing to BI4.0. Just like XI 3.1 against XI 3.0 was. It does not mean the BOBJ platform is errorless now. It does not mean it features all required functionality either. It means, that improvements mentioned are real and represent significant added value for end users. And not only for them.
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