BEx Web 

Purpose

BEx Web encompasses all BEx tools that are used to create Web-based applications or that display Web applications.

BEx Web consists of the following components:

BEx Web Application Designer

Web application design enables you to use generic OLAP navigation for your BI data in Web applications and in business intelligence cockpits for both basic and very specific scenarios. It also enables you to create Web-based planning applications.

You can use the BEx Web Application Designer, which is the central desktop application for creating Web applications, to generate HTML pages that contain BI-specific content such as tables, charts, or maps. Web applications are based on Web templates that you create and edit in the Web Application Designer. You can save the Web templates and access them from the Web browser or the portal. Once they are executed on the Web, Web templates are referred to as Web applications.

More information: Web Application Design: BEx Web Application Designer

Web Design API

Web application design also enables you to create very specific scenarios with user-defined interface elements by using standard markup languages and the Web Design API.

More information: Web Design API

BEx Web Applications

The BEx Web applications that are generated are Web-based applications from the Business Explorer that are used for data analysis, reporting, and BI Integrated Planning on the Web. BEx Web applications are executed Web templates.

More information: Analysis & Reporting: BEx Web Applications

BEx Web Analyzer

The BEx Web Analyzer is an independent, delivered Web application that can be used to analyze data on an ad hoc basis.

More information: BEx Web Analyzer

Enterprise Reporting

Enterprise Reporting enables you to create reports with optimal settings for displaying and printing. The BEx Report Designer is available for this purpose. The Report Web item allows for seamless integration with the Web application design.

You can then use PDF generation to print Web applications and enterprise reports in different formats. 

More information: Enterprise Reporting

Implementation Considerations

With this release, you can work with two versions of the BEx Web Application Designer. The BEx Web applications generated and the BEx Web Analyzer used are based on different Web runtime technologies depending on the version used to create the Web applications.

●      BEx Web applications that are defined using the BEx Web Application Designer from SAP NetWeaver 2004 are based on the ABAP-based Web runtime.

●      BEx Web applications that are defined using the new BEx Web Application Designer are based on the Java-based Web runtime.

New functions, such as BI Integrated Planning, enterprise reporting, and PDF-based printing of Web applications are only possible with the new Java-based Web runtime.

This new Java-based Web runtime is based on SAP NetWeaver Portal technology and the J2EE Engine of SAP NetWeaver Application Server.

From a technical perspective, the Java-based Web runtime is delivered with the BI Java usage type. The BI Java usage type is comprised of the usage types EP (Portal) and AS Java (J2EE).

For more information, see the BI FAQs at service.sap.com/bifaq.

The following sections provide information about how to create BEx Web applications that are based on the new Java-based Web runtime by using the new BEx Web Application Designer and the new Web Design API. The documentation outlines how you can analyze the data in Web applications and the BEx Web Analyzer. It also provides information about using enterprise reporting.

If you want to continue to work with the old BEx Web Application Designer and with Web applications from the ABAP-based Web runtime, see help.sap.com/nw04 → SAP NetWeaver → Information Integration → SAP Business Information Warehouse → BI Suite: Business Explorer → BEx Web.