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Purpose

In this process, you select data services with which to model your business intelligence content.

You can select a system using the BI Integration Wizard, or you can drag an available data service to your workspace. You can base your query upon an SAP NetWeaver BI system configured in the portal via the SAP BI Connector (the BI Integration Wizard does not support this type of system) or the BI Java Connectors:

  • SAP BI Connector - BEx queries and query views from an SAP BW 3.5 system (support pack level 14 or greater) or from an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system (no BI Integration Wizard support; drag a data service to the workspace)
  • BI JDBC Connector - Relational JDBC-compliant data sources
  • BI SAP Query Connector - Classic InfoSets defined in SAP R/3 systems 4.6C and above

After selecting a system in the BI Integration Wizard, you can choose a query template or you can model the query using a freeform editor. A query template provides a set of screens that you complete to answer a typical business question - a question formulated to organize and analyze the data in your data source, for example:

  • Percentage Share - What percentages do Canadaand Mexico represent of my total sales?
  • Top N - Who are my top ten or bottom ten customers?
  • Freeform modeling

With SAP NetWeaver BI systems, you can select and drag queries or query views directly to the SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer workspace to include in your model.

Finally, you can model relational queries by directly editing their SQL statements using the SQL Editor.

Note

For security reasons, the SQL Editor functionality is turned off by default in SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer. For more information, and to find out how to enable SQL Editor functionality, see Security Risks with the SQL Editor in the SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Security Guide.

Use of the Process

This IT process is part of the following IT scenario:

IT Scenario Scenario Variant

Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis

Modeling BI Data With SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

Prerequisites

To run this process, you must have installed SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (part of usage type EP). If you want to connect to SAP NetWeaver BI you need an SAP NetWeaver BW system version 3.5 or greater (SAP NetWeaver 2004 SPS14 or greater) or SAP NetWeaver 7.0 BI system (requires usage types BI, BI Java, and EP).

In the SAP NetWeaver Portal, you should have created BI systems - based either on SAP NetWeaver BI- for use in SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer.

Process Flow

The following IT process runs in the Enterprise Portal (EP) usage type:

  1. Get dataset

    Get a dataset using SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer in one of the following ways:

    • Evoke the BI Integration Wizard from the BI menu
      1. Select a system
      2. Select a query template
      3. Configure the query template parameters
      4. Preview the results
    • Using the Find Data Services task panel, drag a data service onto the desktop
    • Evoke the SQL Editor from the BI menu
  2. Refine dataset

    Refine the dataset in one or more of the following ways:

    • Use BI Integration Wizard to edit the query content
    • Use SQL Editor to edit a relational query's SQL statement directly
    • Add additional datasets to the model using Step 1, above

Result

After retrieving a dataset, you return to the SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer workspace, where a new data service has been created with the business intelligence content you have configured.

If you have used the BI Integration Wizard, the data service is configured automatically with a start input and a table view as output. These three elements together constitute a complete iView, ready for preview and deployment to the portal.