Prepared by: Kevin Meldorf

E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.asranalytics.com/

PRATT INSTITUTE: INTRODUCTION

TO SAP BUSINESS OBJECTS 4.0
BI Implementation Project

Version: 1.0
Last updated: September 25, 2013

© 2013 ASR Analytics LLC for exclusive use by Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
DOCUMENT CHANGE HISTORY

Document Date Description of Change Affected Sections

Version
1.0 Sep 11, 2013 Baseline – beginning of all content All
1.0 Sep 24, 2013 Adapted for Pratt Institute All

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Pratt Institute What’s new in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Prepared by: ASR Analytics, LLC

CONTENTS
Document Change History ............................................................................................................. ii  
Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 1  
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 2  
Audience ...................................................................................................................................... 2  
SAP BusinessObjects 4.0................................................................................................................ 2  
Logging In.................................................................................................................................... 2  
Opening A Report Document .......................................................................................................... 6  
Making More Space for Viewing ...................................................................................... 10  
Filtering Data in a Report ............................................................................................................. 12  
Using Report Filters ...................................................................................................... 12  
Saving a Document, Closing a Document, and Logging Out ............................................................. 13  
Power User Tasks in SAP Web Intelligence 4.0 ............................................................................... 16  
Create the “Basic Student Report” .................................................................................. 16  
SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 WEBi Toolbars Tour ................................................................... 23  
Saving an Existing Report to Excel .................................................................................. 25  
Acronyms and Glossary ............................................................................................................... 30  
Additional Resources and Exercises ............................................................................................... 30  
Documents and Books ................................................................................................... 30  
Web Intelligence Reports User Acceptance Testing ............................................................ 30  
Additional Exercises ...................................................................................................... 33  
Exercise 1 Copying an Existing Report to your My Favorites Folder ...................................... 33  
Exercise 2 Table Style ................................................................................................... 36  
Exercise 3 Creating a Variable ........................................................................................ 37  
Exercise 4 Creating a Chart............................................................................................ 40  

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Pratt Institute What’s new in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Prepared by: ASR Analytics, LLC

INTRODUCTION

This  document  provides  an  overview  to  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  including  both  the  BI  
Launchpad  (formerly  InfoView)  and  Web  Intelligence.  We  designed  the  material  for  structured  
training  and  as  a  reference  when  working  independently.    

AUDIENCE

This  document/training  is  for  users  that  have  some  familiarity  with  SAP  BusinessObjects  
Enterprise  XI  3.1  (3.x).  However,  if  you  are  new  to  SAP  BusinessObjects  and  you  have  
competency  in  other  reporting  tools  such  as  Excel,  this  document  can  serve  as  a  quick-­‐start  
tutorial.  

SAP BUSINESSOBJECTS 4.0

If  you  are  familiar  with  3.x  (the  previous  release)  there  is  not  too  much  that  will  be  new  to  you  
with  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0.  The  only  challenge  will  be  familiarizing  yourself  with  the  new  
interface.  If  you  remember  upgrading  from  Microsoft  Office  2007  to  Microsoft  Office  2010  or  
later,  it  is  a  similar  challenge.  SAP  BusinessObjects  has  moved  from  a  traditional  hierarchical  
menu  design  to  a  “ribbon/tab”  motif,  so  the  challenge  will  be  in  finding  your  way  around  the  
new  interface.  
 
In  addition  to  the  new  interface,  SAP  BusinessObjects  has  re-­‐named  some  of  the  tools.  Below  is  
a  cross-­‐walk  of  the  new  names:  
 
SAP  BusinessObjects  XI  3.1   SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  
InfoView   BI  Launchpad  
Web  Intelligence  (WEBi)   Web  Intelligence  (WEBi)  
 

LOGGING IN

Prerequisite:  Internet  Explorer  (IE)  9  or  IE  8,  or  Firefox  version  17.0.x  are  fully  
supported.  Mac  OS  10.6x  using  Safari  6  are  supported,  but  some  functionality  may  be  
lacking.    If  you  are  experiencing  issues  or  if  you  have  any  questions,  please  consult  with  
the  service  desk  ([email protected]).  They  can  work  with  you  to  ensure  that  you  are  on  
a  supported  browser  and/or  java  version  for  optimal  performance.  
 

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STEP  1:  To  access  BI  Launchpad,  use  the  following  URL  in  your  browserhttp://bo-­‐4-­‐
production.pratt.edu:8080/BOE/BI.  Note  that  this  link  may  also  be  available  from  the  campus  
portal  and  that  it  may  change  in  the  near  future  as  the  new  system  goes  live.  
 
STEP  2:  From  the  Authentication  drop-­‐down  list  select  “Windows  AD”.  Then,  enter  your  OneKey  
ID  in  the  User  Name  field,  your  password  in  the  Password  field,  and  left  click  the  ‘Log  On’  button  
as  shown  below.    
 

 
 
STEP  3:  If  you  have  used  a  former  version  of  SAP  BusinessObjects  you  will  see  that  your  landing  
page  looks  a  bit  different.    When  you  login,  you  start  on  the  home  page  below.  As  we  mentioned  
earlier,  the  interface  has  changed  to  a  ribbon/tab  motif.  The  home  tab  displays  5  “portlets”:  

Recently  Viewed  Documents  

Messages  in  your  BusinessObjects  Inbox  

Recently  Run  Documents  

Unread  Alerts  

My  Applications  Toolbar  
 

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In  order  to  view  documents,  you  will  need  to  click  on  the  Documents  tab  in  the  upper-­‐right  hand  
corner.  Left  click  on  it  now.  
 

 
 
 
STEP  4:  The  Documents  view  appears  below.  The  Documents  tab  initially  displays  the  content  of  
your  personal  folder  “My  Favorites”,  your  inbox,  My  Alerts,  and  Personal  Categories.  The  
~WebIntelligence  folder  under  “My  Favorites”  contains  auto-­‐saved  WEBi  documents  which  can  
be  very  useful  in  case  you  are  automatically  “timed-­‐out”  or  your  browser  crashes.  In  order  to  
view  what  was  formerly  called  public  folders  you  will  need  to  left-­‐click  on  the  Folders  bar  in  the  
lower-­‐left-­‐hand  corner.    
 
Once  you  left-­‐click  on  the  Folders  bar,  you  will  see  Public  Folders  (generally  unexpanded)  in  the  
left  panel  and  the  folders  underneath  in  the  right  panel.  

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Pratt Institute What’s new in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Prepared by: ASR Analytics, LLC

 
 
 
Expand  the  Public  Folders  tree  on  the  left  and  then  select  Pratt  Training.  Note:  Your  list  of  
available  folders  and  documents  may  look  different  than  the  screen  shot  below  based  on  your  
security.  
   

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OPENING A REPORT DOCUMENT

STEP  1:  Double  left  click  on  the  folder  “Pratt  Training”  and  then  within  that  folder  double  left  
click  on  the  document  named  “Basic  Employee  Report”  in  the  list,  or  right  click  on  the  document  
name  and  from  the  pop  up  context  menu,  select  ‘View’.  

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TIP  #1:  Refresh  report  documents  with  data  in  two  different  ways:    
1. One  way  is  a  non-­‐scheduled  report  like  the  example  above.  Depending  on  how  a  
report  is  set  up,  it  will  either  refresh  the  data  automatically  when  it  opens,  or  
you  must  click  the  ‘Refresh  Data’  button  on  the  upper  right  corner  of  the  report  
to  get  the  latest  data.    Some  reports  may  be  set  to  refresh  on  open  
automatically,  especially  if  there  is  a  prompt  to  filter  the  report  by  certain  data.  
2. Another  way  is  when  the  report  has  been  scheduled  to  run  on  a  daily  basis  and  
the  most  recent  run  (latest  instance)  is  the  one  that  contains  the  data  most  
likely  of  interest.  In  this  case  you  will  see  a  menu  item  for  view  latest  instance  
(most  current).  Alternatively,  you  can  also  select  the  ‘History’  option  from  the  
pop-­‐up  menu  to  see  the  list  of  reports  and  the  dates  they  ran.  You  can  select  
and  view  any  one  of  the  historical  versions  of  the  report.      
 
TIP  #2:  You  can  always  verify  the  date  of  the  refresh  by  looking  at  the  lower  right  corner  
of  the  report  tab  as  shown  in  the  screen  shot  below.  The  lower  right  status  bar  in  the  
report  viewer  shows  the  date  when  the  report  refresh  occurred.  This  should  always  be  
the  day  before  the  refresh  date  since  data  is  updated  into  the  reporting  database  every  
night.  
 

 
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To  manually  refresh  a  report,  left  click  on  the  data  refresh  button  located  in  the  2nd  group  on  the  
tool  bar  (or  on  the  bottom  right  where  the  last  refresh  time  is  indicated).    

Notice  this  has  moved  from  version  3.x  and  does  not  say  “Refresh  Data”  unless  you  
hover  above  it.  
 

 
 
The  document  will  open  and  display  with  the  most  recent  data  from  the  reporting  database,  
similar  to  what  is  shown  below.  
 

 
 
A  difference  between  3.x  and  4.0  is  that  there  is  a  distinct  separation  between  viewing  a  
document  (Reading  mode)  vs.  editing  a  document  (Design  mode).    In  reading  mode,  there  are  
fewer  options  available  to  you  on  both  the  tool  bar  and  in  the  navigation  panel.  In  the  tool  bar  
you  only  have  the  following  capabilities:  
 

WEBi  Document  functionality:  New,  Open,  Save,  Print,  Search,  View  History,  Export,  
Send  
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Data  Refresh  

WEBi  view-­‐only  interactivity:  Track  Changes,  Drill,  Filter  Bar,  Show  Outline  
 
 
WEBi Document Functionality Data Refresh WEBi view-only interactivity
 

 
 
In  the  left  navigation  panel,  you’ll  notice  that  you  cannot  view  objects  to  drag-­‐and-­‐drop.  The  
only  options  available  to  you  in  Reading  mode  are:  

Document  Summary  

Navigation  Map  

Input  Controls  

User  Prompts  
 
Additionally,  you  may  have  noticed  that  in  order  to  change  the  view  on  the  left  navigation  panel,  
it  is  now  done  from  icons  on  the  left  of  the  panel  and  not  on  the  bottom  as  in  3.x  
 

Buttons to
change
Navigation
Panel

Left Navigation Panel

 
 
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STEP  2:  Basic  Document  Navigation There  are  several  ways  to  move  around  the  document  and  
report  tab(s)  as  shown  below.  The  labeled  arrows  correspond  to  the  bullet  list  explanation.    
 

 
  B
A. Make  sure  the  ‘Navigation  Map’  button  on  the  left  of  the  report  viewer  is  selected  and  
you  will  see  a  list  of  all  report  tabs  in  the  document.  You  can  click  on  each  report  name  
and  that  will  select  that  report  tab  for  viewing.  
B. You  can  also  select  the  tab  name  itself.  If  there  are  more  tabs  than  can  fit  on  the  width  
of  your  screen,  there  are  buttons  to  scroll  forward  and  backwards  and  to  the  beginning  
and  the  end  of  the  list.    
C. When  you  are  viewing  a  report,  there  may  be  more  than  one  page  displayed  on  the  
screen.  You  can  use  the  page  buttons  to  scroll  forward  and  backwards  and  to  the  
beginning  and  the  end  of  the  pages.  
 

Making More Space for Viewing

The  default  view  contains  some  toolbars  and  panes  that  you  may  not  need  most  of  the  time.  
These  can  be  toggled  on  and  off  to  give  more  room  for  viewing  as  shown  in  the  steps  below.  
 

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A. Left  clicking  on  the  down  arrow  on  Web  Intelligence  menu,  you  can  de-­‐select  (left  click)  
Report  Tabs  and/or  Status  Bar  at  the  bottom  to  give  yourself  more  vertical  space    
B. You  can  hide  the  left  navigation  pane  by  left  clicking  on  <<  in  the  right  upper-­‐hand  
corner  of  the  navigation  pane  or  you  can  left-­‐click    Left  Pane  from  the  Web  Intelligence  
tool  bar  and  select  “Hide”.  
 
The  result  of  hiding  all  three  is  shown  below.  To  bring  any  of  them  back,  left  lick  on  the  Web  
Intelligence  menu  and  select  the  menu  items  to  toggle  them  back  on.  
 

 
 

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FILTERING DATA IN A REPORT

The  report  contains  a  query  filter  prompt.  If  you  select  refresh  data,  a  prompt  for  select  
employee  current  status  appears  and  full-­‐time  is  selected  by  default.  The  report  developer  
creates  query  filter  prompts.  However,  as  a  report  “consumer”  you  generally  can  create  
additional  filters  on  the  data.  

Using Report Filters

STEP  1:  Left  click  the  ‘Filter  Bar’  button  in  the  upper  right  of  the  toolbar  to  toggle  the  report  
filters.  
  1

 
 
STEP  2:  Left  click  on  the  filter  icon  to  add  filters  to  the  report.  Left  click  on  “Employee  
Information”  -­‐>  Primary  Position  Department  Desc  WEB  and  select  a  department.  The  data  is  
now  filtered  to  only  show  that  department.  You  can  add  additional  filters  as  the  data  allows.    
 

 
 
 
 

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STEP  3:  To  remove  a  filter,  scroll  to  the  bottom  of  the  list  and  select  “Remove”  
 

 
 
 
 
TIP:    You  can  select  only  one  value  from  a  drop  down  list.  If  there  are  more  than  one  
drop-­‐down  list,  they  act  like  a  logical  “AND”  condition  and  successively  narrow  down  the  
data.  Furthermore,  it  is  possible  to  select  combinations  of  values  for  which  no  data  
exists,  since  each  drop  down  list  acts  independently  of  the  others.  For  example,  if  you  
select  part-­‐time  employees  in  facilities,  there  might  not  be  any  data  which  match  this  
criteria.  
 

SAVING A DOCUMENT, CLOSING A DOCUMENT, AND LOGGING

OUT

Always  remember  to  log  out  when  you  are  finished  viewing.  By  logging  out,  you  ensure  the  
system  is  not  slowed  down  for  others  by  unused  sessions  that  have  not  yet  timed  out  from  
inactivity.  

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STEP  1:  Save  the  document  by  clicking  on  the  save  menu.  If  this  is  a  new  document  or  you  want  
to  save  the  current  version  select  Save.  If  you  want  to  save  a  different  copy  select  Save  As…  
 

 
 
 
STEP  2:  Close  the  document  by  clicking  on  the  ‘X’  on  the  far  right  of  the  screen.  Additionally,  you  
can  click  on  the  “X”  on  the  report  tab  itself  
 

 
 

 
 
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STEP  3:    To  log  out,  select  the  Log  Off  hyper  link  in  the  upper  right  hand  corner.      
 

 
   

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POWER USER TASKS IN SAP WEB INTELLIGENCE 4.0

One  of  the  paradigm  shifts  behind  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  is  that  SAP  wants  the  BI  launch  pad  
to  be  more  than  just  a  document  portal.  It  is  a  workspace  to  launch  all  of  your  BI  Applications.  
Therefore,  instead  of  Web  Intelligence  (WEBi)  being  an  integrated  menu  item  as  it  was  in  the  
past  with  InfoView,  think  of  using  BI  Launchpad  to  “launch”  WEBi    as  an  application  when  you  
need  to  use  it.    
 

Create the “Basic Student Report”

Step  1:  To  create  a  new  document  in  WEBi  left  click  on  the  WEBi  icon  in  the  “My  Applications”  
portlet  from  the  Home  screen.  (Alternatively,  you  can  left  click  on  Applications  from  the  top  
menu  and  select  Web  Intelligence  Application)  
 

 
 
This  brings  up  the  WebIntelligence  Java  application  (below).    
 
Step  2:  To  create  a  new  report  select  the  new  report  icon.  (Note,  from  this  screen  you  could  
open  an  existing  WEBi  document  as  well  with  the  open  icon. )  
 

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Step  3:  This  brings  up  the  dialog  box  (below)  where  you  can  select  your  data  source.  Left  click  on  
Universe  and  then  on  OK.  
 

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Step  4:   This  brings  up  the  Universe  selection  dialog  box.  Left  click  on  the  Colleague  Student  ODS  
R1_2  universe  and  then  left  click  on  the  Select  button.  
 

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Step  5:  Select  the  following  fields  (objects)  by  double  left  clicking  on  the  object  or  left  click  and  
then  drag  to  Results  Objects  panel  (note  you  will  need  to  open  the  folder  (class)  to  access  the  
individual  objects):  Student  Id,  Student  Current  Location  Desc  (Students),  Student  Term  Term  ID  
(Student  Terms),  Student  Program  Department  Desc,  Student  Program  School  Desc  (Student  
Programs).    
 

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Step  6:  We  want  to  limit  this  data  to  the  term,  so  we  will  now  create  a  query  filter.  Left  click  and  
drag  the  Student  Term  ID  from  the  left  panel  to  the  Query  Filters  panel.  Leave  the  first  drop  

down  list  as  “in  list”.    On  the  far  right,  left  click  on  the  down  arrow    and  select  the  Prompt  
radio  button.  This  will  automatically  prompt  your  users  to  select  a  Term  ID  whenever  they  run  
this  query.  Additionally,  you  can  control  it  to  only  ever  select  one  value  (Constant)  or  a  list  of  
values  (Value(s)  from  List)  
 

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Step  7:  Left  click  Run  Query  and  then  select  a  Student  Term  Term  ID  from  the  list  of  values  box  
by  double  left  clicking  on  12/FA  (It  will  now  appear  in  the  Selected  Value(s)  box).  Finally  click  OK.  
 

 
 
 
 

One   important   functionality   note.   If   you   are   using   the   Rich   Internet   Application  
(formerly   known   as   the   Java   application)   when   creating   filters   in   the   Query   Panel,   the   Rich  
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Internet   Application   does   not   present   a   line   to   help   you   determine   where   the   object   will   be  
dropped.  This  makes  it  very  difficult  when  creating  more  complex  logic.  Therefore,  if  you  need  
to  do  this  type  of  development,  we  recommend  using  the  HTML  interface  
 
Step  8:  The  default  report  appears  with  the  data  elements  that  we  had  selected  in  our  query  
 

 
 
Step  9:  Save  the  report  by  left  clicking  on  the  Save  icon  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  select  
Save  As,  navigate  to  your  My  Favorites  folder,  and  save  the  report  by  typing  Basic  Student  
Report  on  the  Name:  field  and  then  left  clicking  Save.  
 

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SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 WEBi Toolbars Tour

WEBi  features  have  not  changed  that  much  beyond  the  fact  that  WEBi  now  uses  context  
sensitive  menus  in  a  Ribbon  motif.  After  selecting  the  fields  from  the  universe  and  entering  the  
WEBi  report  writing  tool,  the  Data  Access  tabbed  menu  is  selected  by  default.  
 
Data  Access  Tabbed  Menu  
1. The  Data  Providers  tab  allows  you  to  create  a  new  data  provider  (add  an  additional  
query),  edit  your  query,  purge  your  query,  and  refresh  your  query.  
 

1 3

 
 

If  you  are  wondering  where  the  Edit  Query  button  went,  the  path  now  is:  Left  click  on  

the  Data  Access  Tab  and  on  the  Data  Providers  sub  tab  you  will  click  on     .  
 
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2. The  Tools  tab  allows  you  to  change  your  source  query  or  export  data  to  a  CSV  file.  

2 3

 
 
3. The  Data  Objects  tab  allows  you  to  create  variables  and  merge  multi-­‐queries.  

 
Report  Element  Tabbed  Menu  
The  Report  Element  tabbed  menu  allows  you  to  add  different  types  of  objects  to  a  report  
including  Tables,  Cells,  Sections,  and  Charts.  Additionally,  the  new  feature  of  Linking  is  included  
here  which  allows  you  to  click  on  one  report  element  and  filter  another  
 

 
 
Format  Tabbed  Menu  
Depending  on  the  report  element  you  are  editing,  the  Format  tabbed  menu  allows  you  to  style  
that  particular  element.  Below  are  the  toolbars  associated  with  a  table.  
 

 
 
Analysis  Tabbed  Menu  
The  Analysis  tabbed  menu  enables  you  to  set  up  and  utilize  features  related  to  analysis,  
including:    

Filters  

Data  tracking  

User  Input  controls  (drop  down  menus,  radios  buttons,  text  boxes,  etc.)  

Display  features  (  Breaks  and  Sorting)  

Conditional  Formatting  

Interactivity  –  drill  downs,  filter  bars,  outlines  

Data  Functions  

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Page  Setup  Menu  
The  Page  Setup  tabbed  menu  enables  you  to  set  up  features  related  to  the  page  or  report  as  a  
whole,  including:    

Adding,  duplicating,  renaming,  moving  report  tabs  

Page  layout  

Headers/Footers  

Page  scaling  features  

Margins  

Display  (maximum  rows,  columns,  etc.)  
 

 
 

Saving an Existing Report to Excel

Step  1:    If  you  closed  your  report  Navigate  to  your  “My  Documents”  folder.  Right  click  on  the  
Basic  Student  Report,  select  Modify.  

Note  that  there  are  essentially  3  different  interfaces  or  modes  for  WEBi:  Read  or  
Design  in  HTML  mode  and  Rich  Internet  Application  mode  (Java).  In  order  to  access  the  Rich  
Internet  Application  mode  you  must  select  Web  Intelligence  from  the  Applications  “portlet”  or  
use  right-­‐click  modify.  If  you  double  left-­‐click  you  will  be  in  HTML  mode.  You  cannot  Save  as  
Excel  from  HTML  mode.  
 

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Step  2:  Once  you  are  in  Rich  Internet  Application  mode,  left  click  on  the  diskette  icon  and  left  
click  on  Save  As.  

     
 
 

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The  Save  Document  dialog  box  appears.  Notice  that  by  default  the  server  is  selected  (localhost)  
so  the  only  option  to  save  this  report  is  as  a  Web  Intelligence  report  on  the  SAP   BusinessObjects  
server.  In  order  to  save  as  an  Excel  document  you  must  click  on  one  of  the  other  icons  on  the  
left  which  represent  your  PC  or  Mac.  Left  click  on  “My  Desktop”.  

Step  3:  After  clicking  on  “My  Desktop”  the  dialog  box  disappears  and  then  reappears  so  that  you  
can  now  save  this  as  an  Excel  Document  (or  as  Txt  or  PDF).  You  can  rename  the  file  under  File  
Name,  select  the  File  Type  (If  you  want  to  change  to  txt  or  PDF),  select  which  report  tabs  you  
want  to  include,  and  then  finally  click  Save  to  save  the  document  to  your  PC  or  Mac.  
 
 

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3

 
 

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This  Page  Intentionally  Left  Blank  for  Notes  

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ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY

BI  –  Business  Intelligence:  a  term  used  to  describe  all  the  activities  and  technologies  involved  in  
providing  query  and  reporting  and  analysis  to  answer  the  business  questions  of  an  organization.  
Data  Provider  –  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  (and  WEBi)  can  now  communicate  with  more  than  just  
relational  databases.  Therefore,  you  will  see  Data  Provider  used  in  4.0  where  Query  may  have  
been  used  in  older  versions.  
Document  –  is  a  collection  of  one  or  more  queries  and  one  or  more  reports  that  present  data  in  
a  way  to  answer  questions.  
Instance  –  is  a  report  document  that  is  a  specific  scheduled  run  of  the  report  on  a  given  
day/time  and  contains  the  results  of  the  query  from  that  day/time.  
Hierarchy  –  an  order  of  precedence  of  data  elements  that  implies  a  drill  path  such  as  year  to  
month  to  week  to  day.  
Measure  –  a  predefined  calculation  of  some  data,  such  as  a  count,  sum,  average,  etc.  
Report  Filter  –  a  data  element  used  to  slice  the  data  results  by  a  specific  value.  
ODS  –  Operational  Data  Store:  the  database  containing  data  from  one  or  more  source  systems  
(but  primarily  Datatel  Colleague)  organized  in  a  way  to  support  reporting  and  analysis.  The  ODS  
is  the  data  source  for  the  InfoView  system.  
 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND EXERCISES

Documents and Books

SAP  Web  Intelligence  Users  Guide  
http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_ia_en.pdf    

The  Complete  Reference:  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  by  Cindi  Howson  and  Elizabeth  
Newbould  (McGraw  Hill)  

Web Intelligence Reports User Acceptance Testing

We  have  migrated  all  of  the  content  over  from  SAP  BusinessObjects  XI  Enterprise  3.x  (the  old  
version)  to  the  new  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  environment.  Unfortunately,  with  any  system  
migration  sometimes  certain  features  will  not  successfully  migrate  over  to  the  new  system.  
Below  are  a  list  of  features  that  you  should  double  check  in  your  reports  and  manually  recreate  
or  fix  if  necessary.  
 

Custom  Sorts:  Any  Custom  sorts  (i.e.  getting  terms  to  correctly  display  in  the  order  you  
need  on  a  report)  generally  do  not  get  migrated.  You  will  need  to  recreate  these  in  your  
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reports  by  left  clicking  on  the  Analysis  tab  and  locating  the  Sort  drop-­‐down  list  under  the  
Display  sub-­‐tab.  Here  you  can    recreate  your  custom  sort.  
 

 

Pie  Charts  with  Blank  Descriptions:  If  you  have  any  pie  charts  that  have  blank  
descriptions  there  is  a  bug  that  will  cause  the  blank  description  to  display  the  
description  of  the  sector  immediately  above  it.  If  you  are  experiencing  this  issue,  you  
should  seek  to  correct  the  source  data  or  create  a  custom  variable  that  will  look  for  the  
blank  value  and  convert  it  to  text  such  as  “Unknown”.  
 

Data  Types  on  Charts:  Check  all  of  the  data  types  on  your  charts  to  make  sure  these  
have  migrated  correctly.  Many  times  an  axis  that  was  set  up  as  a  percentage  on  your  
original  report  will  end  up  as  a  different  data  type.  Correct  this  by  right  clicking  on  your  
chart-­‐>  Left  Click  on  Format  Chart.  Left  Click  on  Value  Axis  in  the  Format  Chart  box  and  
scroll  to  the  bottom  to  Number.  Here  you  can  change  the  format  pattern  to  the  correct  
number  format.  

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Graph  Scaling  on  Charts:  In  addition  to  your  data  types,  check  to  make  sure  that  the  
graph  scale  is  correct.  If  you  need  to  correct  it,  right  click  on  your  chart-­‐>  Left  Click  on  
Format  Chart.  Left  Click  on  Value  Axis  in  the  Format  Chart  box  and  scroll  to  the  Scaling  
section.  Here  you  can  change  the  type  of  axis  scaling  (linear  vs.  logarithmic)  and  set  
minimum  and  maximum  values  if  necessary.  
 

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Additional Exercises
Using  the  Basic  Student  Report  from  the  Training  folder,  you  can  walk  through  some  “every  day”  
tasks  to  help  you  become  more  familiar  with  the  new  SAP  BusinessObjects  4.0  Web  Intelligence  
interface.  You  can  copy  this  report  from  the  training  folder  to  your  My  Favorites  folder  (Exercise  
1)  or  you  can  create  it  yourself  from  “scratch”  following  the  exercise  Create  the  “Basic  Student  
Report”  earlier  in  the  document.  
 

Exercise 1 Copying an Existing Report to your My Favorites Folder

Step  1:    Navigate  to  Public  Folders-­‐>Pratt  Training-­‐>  Training  folder.  Right  click  on  the  Basic  
Student  Report,  select  Organize,  and  Copy.  
 

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Step  2:    Navigate  to  your  “My  Favorites”  folder.  Right  click  on  the  folder,  select  Organize,  and  
paste.  The  Basic  Student  Report  is  now  in  your  My  Favorites  Folder.  

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Step  3:    Open  the  report  in  the  Rich  Internet  Application,  by  right  clicking  on  the   Basic  Student  
Report  and  select  Modify.  

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Exercise 2 Table Style

Step  1  (Change  table  header):    Left  click  on  the  first  cell  of  the  table  header  and  then  hold  down  
the  control  key  and  left  click  on  each  cell  of  the  top  row  of  the  table.  Under  the  Format  tabbed  
menu  select  the  style  menu  and  then  change  the  fill  to  Orange  
 

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Step  2  (repeat  table  headers  on  page):    Left  click  on  the  first  cell  of  the  table  header.  Under  the  
Report  Element  tabbed  menu  select  Cell  Behaviors  -­‐>  Repeat  -­‐>  Headers  on  Every  Page  
 

2
 
 
Verify  that  the  headers  are  repeated  on  each  page  by  paging  through  the  report  using  the  page  
control  at  the  bottom  of  the  report.  
 

Exercise 3 Creating a Variable

Step  1:  Select  the  Data  Access  tabbed  menu  and  select  New  Variable  
 

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1  
 
Step  2:    In  the  Name  text  box  type  in  “Student  Count”.  From  the  Qualification  select  Measure.  
In  the  Functions  Window,  left  click  on  Aggregate  and  then  double  left  click  on  Count.  In  the  
Available  Objects  Window  double  click  on  Student  ID.  In  the  Formula:  window  you  should  see  
“=Count([Student  ID])”.  Finally,  click  OK.    
 

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Step  3:    The  Student  Count  now  appears  underneath  the  Variables  in  the  left  navigation  panel.  
Drag  and  drop  the  new  variable  and  make  it  the  last  column  in  the  table.  

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3
 
 
Step  4:    Delete  the  Student  Term  Term  ID,  Student  ID,  and  Student  Program  Department  Desc  
Columns  (Left  click  on  the  column  header,  select  delete,  select  Delete  Column).  Notice  how  
WEBi  automatically  calculates/aggregates  the  count  against  the  new  dimensions.  
 

 
 

Exercise 4 Creating a Chart

Step  1:  Select  the  table.  Right  Click  and  select  copy  and  paste  (or  ctrl-­‐C  +  ctrl-­‐V).  

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Step  2:  Position  the  new  table  next  to  the  original  table.  Then,  right  click  on  the  new  copied  
table  and  select  Turn  Into  -­‐>  Column  Chart.  
 

 
 
Step  3:  Select  the  chart  and  then  select  the  format  menu.  Notice  that  since  you  have  the  chart  
selected,  there  is  a  new  menu  element  for  chart  style.  Practice  and  explore  the  different  color  
palettes  that  are  available.  
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3

Step  4:  Right  click  on  the  chart  and  select  Format  Chart  from  the  menu.  
 

 
 
The  format  chart  dialog  box  appears.    
 

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Practice  and  explore  all  of  the  options/parameters  that  are  available  for  column  charts  in  SAP  
BusinessObjects  4.0.  
 
 

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