Gregory Botticchio, SAP Solution Management, reviewed upcoming Web Intelligence features for an ASUG webcast.
The usual legal disclaimer applies, that things are subject to change, especially regarding “planned innovations”.
Agenda:
Product description
What’s new ?
- Quality, Usability and Stability Improvements
- Hierarchies and BW integration
- Charts improvements
- Interoperability, security and integration
Product Description
Where does Web Intelligence fit in the product suite?
Figure 1: Source: SAP
Figure 1 shows that Web Intelligence is positioned as a self-service interactive reporting product. According to Gregory, it allows end users to answer their own questions.
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Figure 2 provides a product description for Web Intelligence.
What is new in Feature Pack 3 (FP3) for Web Intelligence?
Figure 3, Source: SAP
Continuous improvement is the focus, according to Figure 3. Before, the users were experiencing latencies when dragging and dropping inside the report.
Figure 4, Source: SAP
WRC = WebI Rich Client. Figure 4 describes the quick launch and how the application will continue to run in the background.
Figure 5, Source: SAP
Feature Pack 3 provides the possibility of exporting CSS sheet to an XML file. You can look at XML on desktop, change it, and share and import back into Web Intelligence report. The style you have created in XML file will apply on Web Intelligence report.
Figure 6, Source: SAP
Figure 6 shows simplified sorting on a dimension or a block on a chart by simply right clicking on measure or dimension. Complex sorting is available via Manage Sort box.
Figure 7, Source: SAP
Figure 7 shows improvements with BW hierarchies and integration with BI 4 FP 3. Of key importance is the BEx scaling factor support.
Figure 8, Source: SAP
For hierarchy dimensions, you had to select members one by one and to do it manually.
Figure 8 shows with FP 3 there are two new options to select all members by name or level.
Figure 9, Source: SAP
Figure 9 shows input control fully supporting hierarchies for any OLAP data sources such as MSAS.
You can apply a filter to make it more “agile”.
Figure 10, Source: SAP
Figure 10 shows member selection and your selection will show up on the corresponding block.
Figure 11, Source: SAP
Figure 11 shows hierarchical chart – the same experience as hierarchy on a block
You can right click on one of the dimensions in a chart, collapse, or drill down on the member. Gregory said this was requested by many OLAP customers.
Figure 12, Source: SAP
Figure 12 covers BW integration BEx scaling factor and will now appear in FP3.
Figure 13, Source: SAP
BI 4 came with new charting library called CVOM. In FP3 they continue to invent in this library including the color assignment of the chart. The waterfall chart is new.
Figure 14, Source: SAP
For color synchronization across sections – if you have the same chart in different sections, by setting color to one chart it will synchronize.
Figure 15, Source: SAP
Gregory said they received many requests to get the waterfall chart, shown in Figure 15. This is used in the financial area.
There are two types of waterfall charts – can be based on a flat dimension, and another based on a hierarchical dimension.
Figure 16, Source: SAP
Gregory said they tried for same look and feel as Dashboard/XCelsius components.
Figure 17, Source: SAP
Critical security issue is Web Intelligence Rich Client (WRC) stores information locally such as logon and password so in FP3 made some architecture modifications to correct this issue.
Subset of Q&A:
Q: FP3 general availability?
A: Ramp-up is planned for March 2012
Q: In FP3 is it possible to have cascading list of values in input controls?
A: No, not yet, looking at cascading LOV for the future
Q: Can BW reports be integrated with the SharePoint Portal?
A: Yes, this is available in BI 4.0
Q: Is merged dimension on BEx structure member values supported in FP3?
A: Yes
Q: In FP3 is selection option variable supported fully and not as range prompt in WebI?
A: SP4 will have better support of BEx variables; not in FP3
There were some more open questions that Gregory said he will look into for ASUG.
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