505 Tips and Tricks for Using SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence With SAP NetWeaver BW - WebI 3.1...

7/27/2019 505 Tips and Tricks for Using SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence With SAP NetWeaver BW - WebI 3.1 Version

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Orange County Convention Center

Orlando, Florida | May 15-18, 2011

Tips and tricks for using SAP BusinessObjects

Web Intelligence with SAP BWDeepu Sasidharan


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Real Experience. Real Advantage.

[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape

Advanced WebI Functionalities

Performance Considerations

Life Cycle Manager Security considerations

Report Deployment Options

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[ Introduction

WebI provides end to end self-service experience covering arange of users:

Casual reporting users

Ad-hoc reporting users

Provides access to wide range of data sources:

Relational sourceOracle, MS SQL Server etc. OLAP data sourcesSAP BW, MSAS

Personal dataprovidersExcel and CSV files

Data connectivity is enabled via BOBJ Universe.

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[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape





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[ System Landscape

System landscape design: Different options are available for implementing BOE XI in your

landscape. Various factors like corporate standards for Software

Platform, Web Server, DB, High availability requirements,

expected system load etc. should be considered while designing

the BOE landscape. BOE XI Supports different Software Platforms, Databases and

Web servers.

Web Server can be separated from the application server.

Tomcat, Weblogic, Websphere, SAP J2EE etc. are supported.

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[ System Landscape

Highly recommended to size the BOE system prior to projectstart.

Key considerations for sizing:

Input:

Report volume

Number of concurrent users

% break down of users types (Power user vs. Casual users etc.)

Output:

Number of CPUs (BOE licenses are usually CPU based and need to

know this during the initial phase of the Project)

Total amount of Memory

Number of CMS, Processing servers and Job servers

Link to BOE XI Sizing guide.

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http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e01588cd-c73e-2b10-018c-fe083bc6e05e?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=truehttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e01588cd-c73e-2b10-018c-fe083bc6e05e?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true


7/48Real Experience. Real Advantage.

[ System Landscape

BW

BOE XI

DEV

QADEV

QA

PROD

PROD

LCM



[ System Landscape

BOE XI Architecture

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[ System Landscape

Technical Considerations: During the starting phase of the project make sure BOE XI

Support Packages and Fix Packs are up to date.

Server and Client tools should be at same Support Package and Fix

pack levels.

Recommended Support Packages: BW 7.0 EHP 1 SPS 5 or higher

BOE XI 3.1 SPS 3 FP 3.1 or higher

Check for the latest OSS notes:

http://service.sap.com/notes MDX Application Area - BW-BEX-OT-MDX

BICS Application Area - BW-BEX-ET-WJR-BICS

SAP IKBI-BIP-IK

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http://service.sap.com/noteshttp://service.sap.com/notes



[ Agenda

Introduction System Landscape





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[ Input Controls

WebI provides Input Controls which can be used for filteringreport data.

Provides easy to access to filter WebI report.

Different types of controls are available for Measures and

Dimensions.

Measures: Slider, Spinner and Entry Field

Example: Use a slider to display all values greater than a threshold set

from the slider, Sales Revenue > $1million etc.

Dimension: Dropdown box, Input field, Radio button etc.

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Requires BOE XI 3.1 SPS 2



[ Input Controls

Input Controls can be added to the WebI document from thetab Input Controls New Select the Object and Type of

Control.

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[ Scope of Analysis

Scope of analysis lets you create pre-defined drilldown pathwithin your WebI reports providing easy analysis functionality

for the users.

User can click on the high level object within the report to

drilldown to the next level.

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[ Scope of Analysis

Drilldown path can be pre-defined from Universe Designer

Tools Hierarchies.

Create a Custom Hierarchy selecting the objects and order of

drilldown.

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[ Merge Dimensions

Merge dimension allows you to merge data from two different

Universes.

Relational and OLAP Universes could be used as source.

For example data from a SAP BW based and MS SQL Server based

Universe could be combined into one single WebI document.

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[ Merge Dimension

Accessible from the WebI toolbar.

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[ Merge Dimension

Merging high volume data is not recommended as this will

impact the performance of the report.

Alternate options like storing the data within BW or using BOBJ

Data Federator should be considered for high volume data.

Merge is possible only if Master data is consistent in both the

systems.

For example Merging Fiscal Period from BW and Calendar Month

from MS SQL Server is not possible. System cannot determine aunique key to merge and also 001/2010 in BW could correspond to

July 2010 in MS SQL Server.

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[ Query Stripping

Query Stripping enables you to bring only the data which is

required for the current WebI Report layout.

Default design brings in all the objects available in the WebI

Query Panel.

This could help improve the performance of the WebI Report.

This setting is available only for OLAP Universe based reports.

There is a known error with query stripping that will be fixed

with BOE XI 3.1 SPS 4. Check OSS note 1516054 for more

details.

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Requires BOE XI 3.1 SPS 3



[ Query Stripping

This is similar to setting the Read Mode for the BW query.

Setting need to be done at the WebI Query level and document

level.

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[ Custom Formula

Custom Formula can be created using measures and

Dimension.

A custom field can be added to the WebI report comparing two

dimension field. BW currently doesnt provide the ability to

create formula based on a dimension (Characteristic).

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[ Custom Formula

Various operators are available: String, Boolean, Date etc.

Examples:

Find date differences between two date fields or between the

report date and current date.

Various business rules can be implemented at the WebI Report

level without having to make changes to the BW data model or

underlying query.

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[ Drill down to BEx Web Reports

You can use the Hyperlink function within WebI to drilldown

from a WebI document to a BEx Web report.

Parameters can be passed to the BEx Web report using the

standard BW BEx Web API.

Link for BEx Web API documentation.

URL Format for launching BEx query:http://:50210/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd:aportal_content/com.sap.pct/platform

_add_ons/com.sap.ip.bi/iViews/com.sap.ip.bi.bex?query=

URL Format for launching BEx Query passing parameters:http://:50210/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd:aportal_content/com.sap.pct/platform

_add_ons/com.sap.ip.bi/iViews/com.sap.ip.bi.bex?query=&BI_COMMAND_1-

BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING &BI_COMMAND_1-

VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE-

VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING="+UserResponse("Year")+" &BI_COMMAND_1-

VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=ZFYEAR

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http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/43/ef05462480025ae10000000a1553f7/content.htmhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/43/ef05462480025ae10000000a1553f7/content.htmhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/43/ef05462480025ae10000000a1553f7/content.htmhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/43/ef05462480025ae10000000a1553f7/content.htmhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/43/ef05462480025ae10000000a1553f7/content.htm



[ Filter using display Attribute

You can Filter a report using the Display Attribute of a

Characteristic by adding it to the Query Filter area.

This can be done by the report author without having to make

any changes to the BW Data model.

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[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape





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[ Performance Considerations

Avoid use of Navigational attributes were ever possible.

Navigational attribute requires an extra join during the report

execution and will affect the report performance.

OLAP Universe is not designed to handle heavy data volume.

For large volume reports consider workarounds:

Split into smaller reports and provide hyperlinks via OpenDoc API.

WebI Processing Servers can only handle upto max. 2 GB per report.

Running very large reports which are beyond this limit will result incrashing the WebI Processing server.

Consider creating a Relational Universe with BW using DataFederator.

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WebI Processing Server:

Create more WebI Processing Servers and reduce the number of

connections per WebI Processing. This will help better load

balancing of the servers.

CMC Servers Server Categories WebI Report

Processing Servers Properties.

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Consider to scheduling large reports during off-peak hours for

off-line consumption.

Latest Support Package on BW and BOE XI provides severalperformance related enhancements. Recommended Support

Package levels:

SAP BW EHP1 SPS 5

BOE XI 3.1 SPS 3 FP 3.127


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[ Universe Design Considerations

BOE Universe can be based on BW queries and Infoproviders.

Create the Universe on a BW query to leverage the OLAP

functionalities (Restricted and Calculated Key Figures, BW

Variables etc.) available within the BW Query Designer.

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[ Universe Design Considerations

OLAP Universes are system generated and will bring in all the

objects from the underlying BW Query.

Hide the objects at the Universe level which are not required

within the WebI report. For instance 0PLANT has several

attributes and not all of them will be used within the WebI

Reports. Hiding the attributes which are not required within theWebI report helps to keep the Universe clean and easier for the

users.

OLAP Universe generation Parameters can be set from Universe

Designer Tools Options OLAP

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[ Transaction MDXTEST

Transaction MDXTEST can be used for executing MDX

Statements within the SAP BW System.

Either the MDX Statement can be hand written/pasted into the

execution area or can be generated using the system.

Make sure to select XML Mode while doing the test, data

returned from BOE XI from BW will be identical to the datafrom the results of XML Mode.

You can use the document below to enable logs on the BOE to

view the MDX statement which gets executed.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/d0e1ec59-4bd0-2c10-c38b-e51393775064

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[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape



Life Cycle Manager(LCM) Security considerations


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[ LCM

LifeCycle Manager lets you move BOE XI Objects (Folders,

WebI Documents, Universes etc.) within the landscape.

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[ LCM

LCM also provides the option for Version management of BOE

XI objects.

Connection Mapping for the target SAP BW system can be

maintained within LCM.

LCM doesnt support SAP authentication.

LCM is integrated to the BI platform as of BI 4.0.

For BOE XI 3.1 requires a separate installation.

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[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape



Life Cycle Manager Security


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[ Security

Different options are available for implementing security within

BOE.

It is critical to develop a clear security strategy.

Main considerations:

Is this a new BOE installation?

Are there SAP and non-SAP users?

What is the current report deployment option?

What are the types of users who will need access to the reports?

Power users, casual users etc.

What is the best way to logically group the reports?

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[ Security

BOE XI Supports different Authentication methods.

Windows AD Recommended if SAP BW and non-SAP BW usersrequires access to the BOE system.

LDAP

SAP (requires SAP IK)

Enterprise

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[ Security

Recommended approach:

Implement SSO between BOE XI and BW.

Requires installing and configuring SAP Integration Kit and SNC

Use Windows AD as the primary authentication mechanism.

User mapping between Windows AD User and SAP BW user

can be maintained at the BOE level. Import Windows AD Groups/Users into BOE XI.

Assign Folder level Security to access WebI Reports to the

Windows AD Group.

Data level security will be maintained using SAP BW basedAnalysis authorization.

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[ Security

To import users in simple format (user id and not

systm~clnt\userid format) maintain Registry keys mentioned in

OSS note 1343537. This helps user mapping with Windows

AD.

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[ Security

Security can be set at Group level or Individual user level.

Based on the authentication method used groups could be

Windows AD Group, SAP BW Role etc.

Best practice is to maintain the object security at the Group

level.

Custom Access levels or Security objects can be created formeeting security requirements which cannot be met using

standard objects.

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[ Security

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Various roles which will need to be defined within the BOE XI

environment.Access In CMC Designer Infoview WebI Data Federator

Administrators Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Security Yes No Yes Yes No

Universe Developer No Yes Yes Yes Yes

Report Developer No No Yes Yes No

Report User No No Yes Yes No

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[ Agenda

Introduction

System Landscape





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[ Report Deployment Options

There are various options available for deploying BOBJ

reports.

Provide access via BOE Infoview

Provide access via SAP EP (SSO Support is available).

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[ Report Deployment Options

SAP EP Integration:

You can create WebI report iViews as URL iViews or based on

SAP IK iView template (requires importing SAP IK iView

template in the SAP EP system).

Report access will be controlled using SAP EP iViews/Roles.

URL Format:http://BOE1.domain.com:8080/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocu

ment.jsp? iDocID=

Provide access to Infoview from SAP EP. Users logging into EP

will have the ability to view Infoview and launch reports from

Infoview. Report access will be controlled using Infoview Folders.

Better option for Power users who will need to create new WebI

documents, schedule existing documents etc.

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[

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Learning Points

Advanced techniques within WebI to create User friendly

reports.

Options to implement security for a BOBJ/BW Implementation

System Landscape/technical considerations for BOBJ/BW

Implementation.

Report deployment options

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[

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Best Practices

Prior to Project Implementation design a System landscape that

works for your organization and perform a hardware sizing.

Develop a clear security strategy for your BOE/BW

implementation.

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[

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Key Learnings

Technical landscape design considerations

Advanced techniques within WebI.

Different options and considerations for BOE security

Report deployment strategy.

Performance considerations

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[ Questions

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[

] Thank you for participating.

SESSION CODE:

505

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