Tutorial Part 3: Creating Tiles with a Chart

This tutorial explains the creation of tiles and dashboards in Dashboard Builder. In this step, you create two tiles, which contain charts, based on a BW query as the data supply. These tiles output the daily or monthly telephone costs of a fictitious company broken down by its subsidiaries.

Prerequisites

This procedure is part of a tutorial on Dashboard Builder.

You create these tiles within the Tutorial: Using BW Queries as a Data Source, in which, in Dashboard Builder, you create tiles and drilldown views that use BW queries as their data source.

Procedure

Start Dashboard Builder, as described in Dashboard Builder, and in the dashboard Tutorial, call the dashboard that you created in the last step of the tutorial.

Today's Costs by Subsidiary

Choose the + pushbutton Custom Tile to open the tile configuration window. You are now on the screen Add New KPI.

Fill the input fields as follows:

Field	Entry
Name	`Today's Costs`
Subhead	`Per Subsidiary`
Description	`Telephone Costs in Euros`
Visualization	Bar Chart
Size	2x2
Data Source Type	BW Query
Data Source Name	`ZTUT_DASHBOARDBUILDER_1`
Detail Page Template	None

Compared with the last step (see Tutorial Part 2: Creating a Simple Tile), in which you created a number-based tile, you now want to create a chart that does not receive a number from the query, but a series of numbers (the subsidiaries).

After you have entered the name of the query, choose Enter. The query is read and other configuration options are displayed.
The Available Fields list contains the characteristics that you defined as Free Characteristics when creating the query (Tutorial Part 1: Creating a BW Query). You want to display the costs for the current day; therefore, filter the Calendar Day field to the current day's date.
To do so, from the context menu of the Calendar Day field, choose the entry Filter Select Filter Value . Enter the current date as the filter value.
The Filter table displays all filters, including the Calendar Day field with the current date. So that the values for this date are not displayed every day, rather that the values of each current date are displayed, convert the filter to a rolling time slot by choosing the pushbutton to the right of the date. Instead of the actual date, the value Today is output.
The query filled the tables Rows (with the entry Source - this is the subsidiary) and Columns (with the entry Key Figures - these are the costs). Since you want to display the costs broken down by subsidiary, you do not need to make any changes to this setting.
Save the tile. If necessary, like for the dashboard, enter the assignment to a package and a transport request, and choose OK.

Costs of the Last Month by Subsidiary

Depending on the number of options the underlying query offers, you can create various visualizations on it in Dashboard Builder. In this case, you want to create a chart with the data from the last month in addition to the data from the current day. You thereby need only filter by a different free characteristic (the calendar month):

Choose the + pushbutton Custom Tile to open the tile configuration window. You are now on the screen Add New KPI.

Fill the input fields as follows:

Field	Entry
Name	`Monthly Costs`
Subhead	`Per Subsidiary`
Description	`Telephone Costs in Euros`
Visualization	Bar Chart
Size	2x2
Data Source Type	BW Query
Data Source Name	`ZTUT_DASHBOARDBUILDER_1`
Detail Page Template	None

After you have entered the name of the query, choose Enter. The query is read and other configuration options are displayed.
The Available Fields list contains the characteristics that you defined as Free Characteristics when creating the query (Tutorial Part 1: Creating a BW Query). You want to display the costs for the last month; therefore, filter the Calendar Year/Month field to the last month.
To do so, from the context menu of the Calendar Year/Month field, choose the entry Filter Select Filter Value . Enter the last month as the filter value, using the format <Month>/<Year> (for example 12/2016).
The Filter table displays all filters, including the Calendar Year/Month field with the last month. So that the last month is always displayed rather than the month that you enter as the last month here, convert the filter to a rolling time slot by choosing the pushbutton to the right of the date. Instead of the actual date, the value Last Month is output.
As in the last tile, you do not need to make any changes to the tables Rows and Columns.
Save the tile. If necessary, like for the dashboard, enter the assignment to a package and a transport request, and choose OK.

Result

You have created two new tiles, each with a chart, for the Tutorial dashboard. In the next step, as a further visualization option, you will create a drilldown view for a tile, which displays associated detail data (see Tutorial Part 4: Creating a Drilldown View).