Setting Story Variables

In SAP Analytics Cloud, a data source for a chart or table may prompt you to add variables before data can be displayed.

If the data source you select to create a chart or table requires variables to be set, a prompt will appear when you create the first chart or table that uses the data source. After the variables are set, the information you provide will be used by all tables and charts that use the same data source.

Select Automatically open prompt when story opens to open the Set variables dialog when the story opens, so that viewers are prompted to set the story variables.

To change story variables, in the Data area in the toolbar, select (Edit Prompts) and choose the data source with the prompts you want to edit.

To add a variable token to the story filter bar to make it more visible, select Start of the navigation path Story Filter Next navigation step VariablesEnd of the navigation path and select the variable you want to show.

You can override story variables for individual tables and charts with the following process.

  1. Open the variables dialog from the chart or table.

    • In tables: select (Edit Table Prompts) under the table.

      Select Set Table Variables.

    • In charts: select (Edit Chart Prompts) under the chart name.

      Select Set Chart Variables.

  2. Choose a new variable value and then select Set.

Note
Use Story Variables is selected by default.

SAP BW Exit Variables

When using an SAP BW data source, you may want to choose whether a variable value from a Customer Exit variable comes dynamically from the SAP BW back end, or from a saved value that is manually input by the user.

For example, if a Customer Exit variable is Current Month, and you don't manually input a value, the value of the variable is different for each month: if the value this month is 2018 January, then next month it would be 2018 February, and so on.

In some cases, you may want the value of the Customer Exit variable to remain unchanged. To accomplish that, select the Disable exit variables option, and select a member for the exit variable. The member you select is saved with the story, and every time the BEx query is executed, the saved value is chosen.