Direct connectivity to BW Queries - archive.sap.com · Rahul Goyal is a SAP BW Architect currently working in Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. He is having 10 years of IT experience

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© 2011 SAP AG 1

Xcelsius – Direct Connectivity to

BW Queries

Applies to:

SAP Business Intelligence Data warehouse (BW) / BI. For more information, visit the EDW homepage

Summary

The purpose of this document is to highlight the prerequisites, working, advantages and limitations of direct connectivity feature of Xcelsius to SAP BW queries.

Author: Rahul Goyal

Company: L&T Infotech

Created on: 20 May 2011

Author Bio

Rahul Goyal is a SAP BW Architect currently working in Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. He is having 10 years of IT experience in SAP BI/ BW, SAP ABAP, BOBJ, Xcelsius, ADOBE Flex and Visual Composer and involved in various BW implementation projects.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/edw

Xcelsius – Direct Connectivity to BW Queries


© 2011 SAP AG 2

Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Direct Connectivity Feature ................................................................................................................................ 3

Advantages and Limitations.............................................................................................................................. 11

Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 12

Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 13



© 2011 SAP AG 3

Introduction

SAP Business Objects Xcelsius is a widely used dashboarding tool. It has the capability to show data from various sources and data bases, including data residing in the SAP NetWeaver BW. So far data from BW was available via a web service connection or XML maps. With the latest version of Xcelsius and SAP NetWeaver BW 7.01, SP5 we offer a new connection type for BW data that offers a tighter integration of BW data into Xcelsius dashboards.

In addition the Xcelsius dashboard can be stored on the BW server and is integrated into the BW infrastructure, providing features such as transport, where-used lists, and collection of dependent objects.

Prerequisites

In order to use the new integration you need a recent Xcelsius installation (Crystal Dashboard Departmental Edition, formerly known as Xcelsius Enterprise 2008, SP2, and version 5.3.3 or higher).

On the BW side a SAP NetWeaver 7.0, EHP1 (also called 7.01), and SP 5. The integration is also available with SAP Net Weaver 7.20.

To create dashboards, SAP GUI 7.10 patch 9.01 installations including the BEx Add-on are required.

Direct Connectivity Feature

Firstly, after the launch of Xcelsius application, connect to the BW system from the SAP menu on the application toolbar as shown.



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The system issues a pop-up to enter the login credentials of BW system. Provide client detail, user and password.

To map BW queries with Xcelsius, click on connections.



© 2011 SAP AG 5

Click on “Browse” to select a Query.



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The cross tab in output values under the definition tab holds the data brought by the BW query.

Check data preview.



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Select “Refresh before components are loaded” under Usage tab.

Below is a dummy query created in BW for the dashboard.



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Map the cross tab to the Excel spreadsheet of Xcelsius.

On the canvas of Xcelsius, we have a Pie chart and a table to display data brought by the BW query.

The Pie chart and the tabular chart are mapped to Excel cells which have the cross tab data.



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Save the Xcelsius Dashboard on your machine as “.xlf “file.

Next step is to publish the dashboard on BW System connected to Xcelsius.

On publish; it will give a pop up to enter a technical name and description of the dashboard.



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Click on Launch to execute the Dashboard.

The system generates a URL (enterprise portal), which is similar to the URL generated when we execute a query using BEx 7.0 or above.

Xcelsius dashboard created in the Development server can be transported to Quality/Production in a similar way in which we transport BW objects from the Transport Connection.

To test dashboard in quality/production environment, the server can be connected to Xcelsius as explained above, open the dashboard in QA/PRD, and launch to test it.

The object type of Xcelsius dashboard in SAP BW is XCLS.

Authorizations on Xcelsius dashboard can be given using SAP delivered authorization object S_RS_XCLS, this authorization object can be assigned to a role in BW.



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Advantages and Limitations

Advantages (1) Simple and easy to use. BW queries can be directly mapped to Xcelsius spreadsheet cells

(2) Reduced development time and efforts

(3) Avoids creation of BSP to generate XML or a function module to generate a Web service

(4) Easy to maintain/support

(5) Doesn’t require Business Object layer to be present as it can directly interact with BW query

Limitations (1) Only one connection can be used for 1 query. If multiple queries are involved, separate connection

needs to be created for each query

(2) Large number of connection impacts the performance of dashboard. Sometimes, if number of

connection exceeds 10, the system issues an error message on the launch of dashboard

(3) Use of flash variables is a concern



© 2011 SAP AG 12

Related Content

Dashboard Design

SAP NetWeaver BI Scenarios with Xcelsius

SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse - Homepage

For more information, visit the EDW homepage

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/crystal-dashboard

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/shop?rid=/media/uuid/e0d2363a-a560-2b10-8db0-a5ff625b1122





© 2011 SAP AG 13

Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.

SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.

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Direct connectivity to BW Queries - archive.sap.com · Rahul Goyal is a SAP BW Architect currently working in Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. He is having 10 years of IT experience