Topic:

Using BEx Queries in Dashboard (SAP BO Tool).

Connecting SAP BO Reporting Tools with data from SAP BW in form of BEx Queries through BICS connection

BICS (Business Intelligence Consumer Services)

Data from SAP BW can be used in reporting (SAP BO Tools) in two ways :

Infoproviders/Multiproviders : These providers contain information directly or indirectly which can be used for reporting and analysis. Types of Infoproviders are: Infocubes, DSOs, Infosets, Info-objects etc. If these are the data source in SAP BO reporting tools then we have to make Universe using IDT(Information Design Tool) and reporting tools will use that universe for creating reports.

BEx queries: We can create queries in BEx analyzer (reporting tool of BW) which can be used in BO reporting tools like Dashboard and Web Intelligence.

o BEx query cannot be used directly in Dashboard or Web Intelligence.

What we need to do for using BEx queries in Dashboard/Web Intelligence ?

The following steps explain the whole process.

1. Create the BEx query in BEx Analyzer (BW consultant will do it as per required information from BO consultant)

2. During creation of BEx query, the consultant need to check “ Allow external access checkbox”3. Then BO consultant has to create BICS connection in IDT (Information Design Tool)

4. BICS connection for BEx query will be OLAP connection in IDT. The BEx query or Infocube containing BEx query should be assigned to that BICS connection. BICS connection can be made in repository directly (.cns) or published to repository incase of creating local connection (.cnx)

5. BO consultant will open reporting tool (say Dashboard) and will connect to BEx through BICS connection. The consultant has to login into BI repository where the BICS connection is present.

6. Select the appropriate cube or query from the infoarea.

7. After selecting the query, query panel will be opened showing all dimensions and measures included in original query. Consultant can select the required dimensions and measures from among all.

8. Run the query and after that you can map the information from query.

Now I will try to show the process with the help of screenshots.

1. After creating the query in BEx Analyzer, and allowing that query for External Access in SAP BO Tools, we will first create OLAP connection in IDT which will join the reporting tool (say Dashboard to the BEx query)

Create project in IDT (say Project PR_DAS_BW)

The Project PR_DAS_BW has been created as shown in figure.

2. Create OLAP connection in Project PR_DAS_BW (e.g OLAP connection as OL_TEST as shown in fig)

3. Select SAP BICS client under SAP Netweaver BI 7.x

4. Give credentials for BICS connection. These are the mandatory fields which have to be filled.

Client, Username and password.System ID, Application server IP and System Number.

After filling this information, click “ NEXT”

5. After that, we can select the required infocube or directly BEx query. Infocube can contain multiple queries.

Here in the example, I am selecting Cube “Benefits” which contains 4 queries. In Dashboard we can select any of these queries.

As shown in below figure, the connection is created. (OL_TEST connection under project PR_DAS_BW)

Note: This connection is local connection and not present in repository. We need to publish this to repository.

After creation of connection, test the connection.

6. Now the Local connection is created in Project, we need to publish it to repository.

We will also create shortcut (.cns connection) in the Local Project, click yes as shown in figure below.

After creating the shortcut, both .cnx and .cns connections are shown (.cns is shortcut).

Note: There is another way to create BICS connection, directly we can create connection in repository.

7. Now we have to use these BEx query (from the 4 queries) and can select one for Dashboard. 8. Open the Dashboard9. Open Query Browser

After click on Query Browser, it will prompt us for BI credentials. Fill the BI credentials.

10. In next step, the below screen will appear from where we have to select BEx. Select BEx

11. Select the connection you made and published from the connections available: Here in our example, we created OL_TEST, so select the same from list of connections.

12. After selecting the connections, next screen will show all the 4 queries (as in this case) from which we have to select the particular query for our report. Select the query from that cube.

13. After selecting the query, all the dimensions and measures are shown in query panel (from the original query made in BEx Analyzer) and here we can select required information for our report.

Here for example, one dimension (Calendar Year) and one measure (No of Eligible EEs) have been taken. We can also filter the data in query panel for our report.

14. After running the query, when we open the Query Browser in Dashboard, we will see the following screen.

Now we can map the data from query to dashboard in two ways:

1. Direct mapping : We can directly map the data from query to components. 2. We can first map the data from query to embedded excel sheet and then map the components

to excel sheet.