Power BI Connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects BI Now Generally Available

    

Microsoft and SAP announced the general availability of Power BI connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects BI. This joint business intelligence interoperability solution is delivered in Microsoft Excel, Power BI for Office 365, and SAP BusinessObjects BI. With this solution, users can....click here for further reading...

             

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook coming up

Hi All,

Been very busy in the last months writing the SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook for packet publishing an A-Z guide that will walk you through the entire Web Intelligence environement,the book isn't yet ready and would be in the stores in October 2014 but you can already get the preview or the RAW version of it ,enjoy..more updates will come soon 

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook

Creating default value in a dynamic date range prompt

One of the most requested features in Web Intelligence reports is to have a default value in a time range prompt that will enable to chose time frames such as current day, last day and ctr.

In the following example I will demonstrate how to implement such logic in a very simple way

I am using:

•     BI4 SP6
•     Oracle 11
•     A Custom Universe containing a time view table
•     Information design tool

1. First we will create s special super prompt condition object that will enable us to choose date range ,current month or last month :

This script uses a case when phrase that allows choosing several time ranges.

For example ‘this month’ will return the function: TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM') which will result us the current month data

Here is the full syntax:

"GenericDateTable".GENERICCURRENTDATE  between

Case WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='last month' then trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-2)) + 1

WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='this month' then  TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM')

Else To_Date(@Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent),'DD/MM/YYYY')

         End

AND

Case  when @Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent) = 'last month' THEN  trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-1))

WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='this month' then ADD_MONTHS(TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM'),+1)

Else To_DATE(@Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent),'DD/MM/YYYY')

         End 

2. Now we will first test our prompt to varify that it is working currectly :

This month data  :

Last month data  :

Date range :

 3.Now we will add a sinple parameter to the prompt syntac which will allow us to use a default value 

that corresponed to our prompt ,lets use the value ‘last month’,the last parameter in the prompt is the one that holds the default value and as you can see when we open the report the default value is already there :

"GenericDateTable".GENERICCURRENTDATE  between

Case WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='last month' then trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-2)) + 1

WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='this month' then  TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM')

Else To_Date(@Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}),'DD/MM/YYYY')

         End

AND

Case  when @Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}) = 'last month' THEN  trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-1))

WHEN  @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='this month' then ADD_MONTHS(TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM'),+1)

Else To_DATE(@Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}),'DD/MM/YYYY')

         End 

Now when we will run the report we will see the default value:

And that’s it….

Conclusion:

Implementing default dynamic time range is simple but can be also used to reports that are required to run daily using date range but also required to be scheduled on last month, by implementing such prompt we will reduce the number of versions of the same report: one version for daily running and the other version for scheduling…

Web Intelligence 4.1, what's new?

Official presentation by  Gregory Botticchio  :

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/a0298826-1ec5-3010-c892-9e92a4574404?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&58540404247860

Asug 2013 session :Strategies for Selecting the Right BI Client Product Based on Your Own Requirements

http://events.asug.com/2013AC/Business%20Intelligence/0507%20Strategies%20for%20Selecting%20the%20Right%20BI%20Client%20Product.pdf

Mobile Minute: Preview of Analytics on the SAP HANA Cloud from the iPad

SAP HANA: Overview - Use HANA with BI 4.0 Service Pack 4

What is new in Mobile BI 5.0 ?

Read about all the new exiting chnages in the latest version of  Mobile BI :

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/businessobjects/blog/2013/06/20/what-is-new-in-mobile-bi-50-asug-webcast-part-1

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/businessobjects/blog/2013/06/20/what-is-new-in-mobile-bi-50-part-2-asug-webcast

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Release to Customers

Just before the SAPPHIRE NOW conference, SAP announced the Release to Customer (RTC) of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1, Edge BI 4.1 and Crystal Server 2013.

Read here about all the new features in this version:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sbo41/en/sbo41_whats_new_en.pdf

http://assets.timoelliott.com/docs/SAP%20BusinessObjects%20BI%204.1%20What's%20New%20L2.pdf

SAP Offers Small Businesses More Visibility and Control With Business Management Solution Running Fully on SAP HANA Platform

SAP today announced SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA, the first business management solution for SMEs running fully in memory:

 

 

http://www.news-sap.com/sap-offers-small-businesses-more-visibility-and-control-with-business-management-solution-running-fully-on-sap-hana-platform/