0 © 2010 wellesley information services. all rights reserved. crystal dashboard builder, web...

© 2010 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

Crystal Dashboard Builder, Web application designer, or SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

Dr. BergComerit Inc.

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In This Session …

You will see 3 demos of different dashboarding tools

Learn how to build Crystal Dashboard Builder, Web Application Designer and SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer dashboards in less then 10 minutes (three demos).

Learn when to pick one dash boarding tool over another.

Find out the limitations of each tool and what skill sets are needed to be successful.

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What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer overview Demo – A cockpit in 8 minutes

• SAP Crystal Dashboard Builder Overview Demo – A cockpit in 7 minutes

• SAP Web Application Designer Overview Demo – A cockpit in 8 minutes

• Lessons Learned and Limitations

• Wrap-up

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SAP BI Legacy BEx tool include the web template development environment know as Web Application Designer (WAD).

This tool has been used extensively by the SAP BI community for the last 10 years.

Visual Composer is part of the Composite Environment (CE) and is not affected by the new BOBJ tool set..

The SAP NetWeaver Legacy Toolset

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The Big-Picture…

Since there are varying experience level in the audience, we assume no prior knowledge in either BOBJ or BEx tools and will cover all from a high-level standpoint.

We will take a closer look at each tool in the demo sections.

With the merger between SAP and Business Objects, we got access to new 'best-of-breed' tools.

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• Introduction





• Wrap-up

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Visual Composer 7.0 is for SAP BI Development, 7.1 is for the Composite Environment (CE). There are different SDN

forums and blogs for each - This can be confusing!

BREAKING NEWS: VC 7.2 is now in general availability.

"With the new version of SAP NetWeaver CE 7.2, you are able to design and develop your "own practices" as business rule-based, SOA-enabled, composite business

processes & applications with the Eclipse-based SAP Developer Studio" - SAP AG

There are Two 'versions' of Visual Composer (VC)

• It is a browser-based modeling and design tool for rapid application development and prototyping in a code-free development environment

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer is a tool to visualize the data

It All Starts with a Query

The BEx Query Designer

The query is the core method for accessing BI data. You can use existing queries in your SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer models

We will build a dashboard based on 2 queries called country and customer view, and present this with tables and graphs as well as navigational links between them (passing variables between the queries)

Our Target Dashboard

Visual Composer - Building a Complete Dashboard

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SAP NetWeaver VC 7.0 & Crystal Dashboard Builder

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer 7.01 (or 7.02) SP5 or higher allows you to use existing Crystal Dashboard Builder UI controls and use them inside Visual Composer.

You can also use any Flex component made by Adobe Flex Builder (Flex 2 SDK).

You can download flash objects & 'how-to' on sdn.sap.com (by Sap's Amir Mimran)

External Web services such as email, stock quotes, news services, and weather

maps can also be integrated into your SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer cockpit.

External Web Services

Each Web service may require different input, so you have to spend some time trying out what works for your site and how to format it.

External Data Providers — Web Services

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• Introduction





• Wrap-up

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Crystal Dashboard Builder (Crystal Dashboard Builder)

Dashboards can be built using Crystal Dashboard Builder.

Crystal Dashboard Builder was launched in March 2010, and is the flagship product for data visualization & dashboards”

BEx Web Application Designer will not be enhanced further beyond the release of NW 7.1 in 2008.

Crystal Dashboard Builder- The basics and options

To make dashboards useful for more than one person, you should plan to offer navigation and interactivity instead of static images and graphs.

Adding Interactivity in Crystal Dashboard Builder

Adding Interactivity in Crystal Dashboard Builder

Portlet Title

Cost Measure % of Rev State

Metric Blah blah 67%

KPI 98%

Metric 85%

Another Metric 93%

Table Title Goes Here

Activity Name Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5

Dashboard Tab Title 2 Tab Title 3 Tab Title 4

Alerts

Alerts from last 2 days

Willis deal enters final stage

Vendor reports problem

Marketing Cost per Sale

Budget level exceeded

Portlet Title

Customer 1

Customer 2

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Customer n

Done

Done

To Do

To Do

To Do

Done

Done

To Do

To Do

To Do

Done

To Do

My Dashboard TitleWelcome Bjarne Berg Today is Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Print | Help | Log Out

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

more...

Portlet Title

Item 1 $12,236

Item 2 $67,009

Item 4 $33,000

Item 5 $10,900

Item 3 $19,500

President’s Message

This is a good place to have messages that relate to the data presented.

Portlet Title

Portlet Title

23,000

45,112

89,778

12,110

34,000

23,000

45,112

89,778

12,110

34,000

10,500

66,998

33,400

64,023

23,000

45,112

89,778

12,110

50,000

30,004

12,007

55,009

12,889

32,002

23,000

45,112

89,778

12,110

34,000

23,000

45,112

89,778

12,110

34,000

10,500

66,998

Bill S.

Joey D.

Frank

Susie

Jill

Bob C.

Charles

Jimbo

Benny

Linda

Gigi

Rose

Where do you start?

Start with a blank template.

Focus on graphs, layout, measures & navigation.

Here is an example of a layout template

Where to you start?

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• Introduction





• Wrap-up

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BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)

OLAP ProcessorOLAP Processor

BEx Web Application DesignerBEx Analyzer/Query Designer

Web ServiceWeb Service

Charting EngineCharting Engine

Web Browser

HTLM Templates InfoProvider

WAD is an intuitive tool to build powerful web applications and to interact with portals and custom templates.

BW queries can be manipulated in WAD for better display

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WAD Dashboards

You can also let your SAP BI users do basic navigation on the formatted reports by either

integrating navigation, or adding this in the Web Application Designer (WAD)

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Command Wizard and JavaScript

• Use Command Wizard for generating JavaScript code for the Script Item to use in custom cockpit applications

BEx Web Application Designer will not be enhanced further beyond Release NW 7.1 in

2008.

Web Application Designer (WAD) - The Basics and Options

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• Introduction





• Wrap-up

BW DF Fascade

Data Federator

RDBMS Analytic Engine

OLAP BAPI ODBOXMLA

UniversesQT ODA

SQL Access MDX Access

WebIXcelsius

QaaWS

BWA

Notice that DF Facade and Data federator are separate products that are currently licensed separately from the SAP BW licenses.

SAP BusinessObjects Integration Options - New BICS connector!!

Ad-hoc analysis (WebI) = SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, BWA = SAP BW Accelerator Source: SAP AG, July, 2010

What tool to select

All SAP tools have strength and weaknesses. This is a subjective summary of each of the major dashboard tools.

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• Introduction





• Wrap-up

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Resources

SDN Xcelsius Sample Dashboards http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/xcelsius-samples

SDN Business Objects Community and blogs http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc

NEW BOOK: SAP PRESS: Creating Dashboards with Xcelsius: Practical Guide by Evan Delodder and Ray Li (Sept. 2010)

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (2007), SAP Press by Mario Herger.

Integrating VC and WAD objects - a How-To Guide http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/ad182ac7-0a01-0010-4fb8-

8a4d217b19c1?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true

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7 Key Points to Take Home

• There are more than one tool for dashboarding, plan accordingly

• RAD is always the preferred development methodology

• Crystal Dashboard Builder will be the most common dash boarding tool for most companies (90% probability)

• Ad-hoc analysis (WebI) is a great ad-hoc tool with some graphical capabilities. It is not a dash boarding tool.

• Web Application Designer is a good tool for IT developers, but has not as many web 2.0 features as Crystal Dashboard Builder, nor is the dashboards as interactive and flexible.

• Visual Composer is an option for simple dashboards.

• Spend about 25-30% of the project on designing and User Acceptance Testing (users don't know what they want until they see it).

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:Dr. Berg

[email protected]

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Disclaimer

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet™®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

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