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Learning SAP Business Objects Dashboards

By : Taha Mahmoud

4.8 (6)

Learning SAP Business Objects Dashboards

4.8 (6)

By: Taha Mahmoud

Overview of this book

This book will help beginners to create stylish and professional looking dashboards in no time. It is also intended for BI developers who want to use SAP BO to facilitate BI in their organizations. No prior knowledge is required, however, you must have a basic knowledge of MS Excel and some analytical skills to build expressive business charts.

Preface

Preface

Why do we need dashboards?

What is a dashboard?

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Getting Started with SAP BO Dashboards

1. Getting Started with SAP BO Dashboards

Introduction to SAP BO Dashboards

Installing SAP BO Dashboards

Exploring SAP BO Dashboards' capabilities

Getting to know the SAP BO Dashboards interface

Summary

2. Understanding the Dashboard Creation Process

2. Understanding the Dashboard Creation Process

Phases in the project

Determining the needs

Dashboard creation process

Preparing the dashboard workspace

Summary

3. UI Components

3. UI Components

Before we start

Adding our first chart component (pie chart)

Introducing other chart types

Adding a single-value component to our dashboard

Summary

4. Using Maps and Other Components

4. Using Maps and Other Components

Maps

Using maps

Using other SAP BO Dashboard components

Using other third-party plugins

Summary

5. Interactive Analysis with Dashboards

5. Interactive Analysis with Dashboards

Using traditional selectors

Displaying tabular data

Using advanced menus

Using other selectors

Using third-party selectors

Summary

6. Advanced Interactive Analysis with Dashboards

6. Advanced Interactive Analysis with Dashboards

Using the dynamic visibility feature

Grouping components

Using Containers

Using Alerts

Using the drill-down (Insertion) feature

Linking a dashboard to a Webi or Crystal report document

Summary

7. Styling Up

7. Styling Up

Using text dashboard components

Dealing with colors and themes

Using art and background components

Formatting the dashboard components

Summary

8. Exporting, Publishing, and Importing Dashboards

8. Exporting, Publishing, and Importing Dashboards

Exporting the dashboards file

Publishing dashboards

Importing dashboards

Summary

9. Retrieving External Data Sources

9. Retrieving External Data Sources

Using direct query

Using web services

Using Live Office

Using XML data

Summary

10. Managing Dashboard Security

10. Managing Dashboard Security

Understanding the SAP BusinessObjects security model

Applying object level security

Applying application level security

Applying row level security

Applying security best practices

Summary

11. Creating Mobile Dashboards

11. Creating Mobile Dashboards

Creating dashboards for smart devices

Developing a mobile SAP BO Dashboard

Publishing mobile dashboards

Accessing and using mobile dashboards

Introducing the main features of the SAP BI application

Summary

A. References

Supported excel functions

List of Built-in maps

Supported mobile components and connections

Index

Index

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Chapter 9. Retrieving External Data Sources

So far, we have worked with static data that was stored in an Excel data model of our dashboard. In real-life scenarios, we need to link our dashboard with an external data source, such as a database or web service.

In the earlier releases of SAP BO Dashboards (XI 3.1 and older), we used to connect our dashboard to dynamic data using methods such as Live Office, web services, XML data, and XML maps. But these methods were complex and difficult to use and couldn't fulfill the end user's needs. We have a new method introduced in the release of version 4.0, which is called Direct Query. Using this method, we can build a direct query on a top of universe and send the parameters in an easy way. We can also directly connect the dashboard components to the query output. In this chapter, we will discuss the old methods as well as the new one.

Note

Direct query is the most stable and recommended data connectivity method.

Each data connection...

Visually different images

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