Integration with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is a software product for data visualization, with functions that allow you to create dynamic and interactive dashboards. In SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, the term "Model" describes dashboards that are currently being worked on. You can now use BEx queries or query views as data sources for models that you create with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. You open queries and query views from the BEx Open dialog in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The Data Manager - the area of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards that manages data connections - contains a new connection: the SAP NetWeaver BW Connection . It is possible to create a dashboard with multiple SAP NetWeaver BW connections from a single BW system. The dashboards are saved on the BW server using the BEx Save dialog. They can also be transported and translated like BEx objects. Navigation in the data is restricted to filters and variables. The table in the dashboard is static, unlike the analysis table in BEX Web Applications.
The integration of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and SAP NetWeaver BW broadens the scope for creating dashboards with Business Explorer. To be able to use the dashboard creation function for BW data with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, you must have the following components installed:
SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 SP02(Client)
NoteSAP BusinesObjects Xcelsius Enterprise is the name for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards in earlier releases.
SAP Business Explorer Patch 9 (Client)
SAP NetWeaver and BI JAVA (systems with usage types)
The figure below describes the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards integration into the design time and runtime:
Design Time
Enhanced BEx dialogs enable you to open and save complete dashboards that have been saved as part of the BI Content in the SAP NetWeaver system. Once the visualizations have been saved, they become part of the BI Content. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius) saves the dashboards for BW data as BW objects (TLOGO objects) in the BW system. This makes it possible to transport these objects. You can create or change connections to a query/query view while editing a dashboard (model). The connection returns the result set of the query and the input helps for filters and variables in one step. In addition, the connection provides query metadata, such as the query name (key, text) and author, and the current message log.
Runtime
The Web browser is used to request the dashboard by http request from BI Java. The queries and query views connected to this dashboard are read from the BW system. BI Java inserts the SAP BusinessObject Dashboards SWF file in a special dashboard Web template, which every dashboard with BW data is based on. The dashboard now requests the connection data (result set and input helps) by Web service and displays the data in a suitable format for the used UI components, in a table or dropdown box for example.