Custom properties files

Instead of having to sift through web.xml files to change things like the default authentication type or single sign on settings, you now create custom properties files. The great thing about this — you only need to specify the options you want to change. Also, the files are not overwritten when a patch is applied. That keeps things much cleaner and easier.

The files are deployed under the path C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom. You can change your InfoView (now BI Launchpad) settings by creating a BILaunchpad.properties file under this path. If, for example, we wanted to make the Authentication drop-down visible and set the default type to Windows AD, just add this to the file:

authentication.visible=true
authentication.default=secWinAD

Save the file and restart Tomcat and the change should take effect. Similarly, you can create a global.properties file to specify your SSO options or an OpenDocument.properties file to set options on that application.

Once you’ve got the properties files set up how you want them, the guide recommends copying these custom properties files to C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom to ensure that they are not overwritten after a patch or redeploy.  If the web applications are redeployed, these custom files will be included.

Change to idm.princ

One thing that tripped me up was a change to one of the SSO options. The idm.princ option is where you specify the Service Principal Name (SPN) that BusinessObjects will use for Single Sign On. In BOBJ 3.1, this was the full SPN — for example, BOSSO/bossosvcacct.winauthtz.com. In BI4, this should just be the SPN’s account name — in this case, bossosvcacct. This is a minor but very important difference!

C:\Windows not C:\WINNT

The old guide told you to copy the krb5.ini and bscLogin.conf files needed for Single Sign On to C:\WINNT. This was always somewhat silly considering this folder does not exist on modern Windows servers. I can only assume this was a legacy from old Java versions, because the new guide says to place the files in the expected C:\Windows location.

Related posts:

1. Configuring SSL in Tomcat
2. SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 Ramp-up and Analysis!
3. Silently Installing the BusinessObjects Client Tools

What is RangeFinder?

RangeFinder is a component that allows the dashboard developer to easily visualize how a value compares to what is typical for a specific metric. RangeFinder is flexible by design, so it can be used to perform a variety of analyses across almost any type of data or industry. Some metrics that can easily be created using RangeFinder are:

• Inventory Analysis
• Call Center Scorecard
• Sales Projections and Analysis
• Manufacturing Production Analysis
• Distribution Analysis

Calculating the ‘Typical’ Range

Typical Range

RangeFinder incorporates a proprietary algorithm to calculate a ‘typical’ range for a population of data. A departure from the way most other SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard/Xcelsius components work, RangeFinder incorporates this logic directly into the plugin so you don’t need to create lengthy calculations in the Excel model to derive these metrics.

Excel Data

Customizing the Component

ToolTip Customization

As SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard/Xcelsius developers ourselves, we know how important it is to have complete control over how your dashboard looks and feels. That’s why we built so much design flexibility into the RangeFinder Plugin.

Nearly every aspect of RangeFinder can be configured through either hardcoding values in the Properties sheet or through binding to a dynamic data cell. Here are some of the properties that can be changed:

• Fonts, sizes and colors
• Customize colors for background, typical range, target, indicator, border and trend
• Enable and disable text and visualizations
• Change the look and feel of tooltips

RangeFinder in Action!

Manufacturing Production Analysis

You can see some more examples of RangeFinder being utilized in the following dashboards on the RangeFinder product page (http://www.alteksolutions.com/software/plugins/rangefinder/examples.asp):

• Call Center Scorecard
• Sales Analysis Application

Getting RangeFinder

Not quite sure that RangeFinder can provide the analysis that is needed for your dashboard project? Try a fully functioning version free for 30 days by going to http://www.alteksolutions.com/software/plugins/rangefinder/trial.asp.

To purchase RangeFinder at a discount during the introductory offer phase that will expire on March 31, 2012, please go to http://www.alteksolutions.com/software/plugins/rangefinder/purchase.asp

Related posts:

1. Crystal Dashboard Design (Xcelsius 2008): Tips and Tricks ep5: Parent and Child Dashboards from InfoView using Doc Download!
2. Xcelsius 2008 SP 3 Fix Pack 5 Now Available!
3. SAP BusinessObjects 4 Teaser

A solid backup plan for these databases is essential. Without its repository, BusinessObjects simply cannot function. Having consistent regular backups of both the databases and the FileStore on disk will allow you to fully restore your environment in case of hardware failure or another disaster.

So how do we backup databases in MySQL? There’s a few approaches, but the simplest is the mysqldump command. This command generates a text file with a series of SQL commands to create and populate the tables in the given database. We can then backup this file along with the FileStore and we’ve got a complete backup of our BusinessObjects environment.

The command itself is pretty straightforward, so let’s just get to it:

mysqldump --user [username] --password [password] [database] > [filename]

We just need to provide the username, password, database name, and filename, and mysqldump does the rest. As I mentioned above, BusinessObjects creates both a repository and audit database during installation. In MySQL these are named boe120 and boe120_audit. We’ll want to backup both of these. I suggest creating a batch file that can then be scheduled using Windows Task Scheduler, so you’ll always have a regular backup.

Here’s an example of what the batch file would look like:

cd C:\backup
"C:\Program Files\Business Objects\MySQL5\bin\mysqldump"
    --user root --password=root boe120 > boe120.dump
"C:\Program Files\Business Objects\MySQL5\bin\mysqldump"
    --user root --password=root boe120_audit > boe120_audit.dump

In this case, your backup files will be created in C:\backup. From here they can be picked up by your regular backup processes and moved to a network location. Don’t forget to also backup the entire contents of the FileStore along with this, located at C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\FileStore by default.

Related posts:

1. Silently Installing the BusinessObjects Client Tools
2. Globally Managing Infoview Preferences
3. Configuring SSL in Tomcat

For example, the admin might want to change the user’s start page to a specific folder, or change the default Webi editor from the Java Panel to DHTML or Rich Client. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this through any of the web applications — not InfoView or the Central Management Console.

Luckily though, BusinessObjects includes a handy little script called PrefsCopyUtil that will copy the InfoView preferences from a given user to all the members of a given group. Oddly, this script is installed along with the Performance Management suite, which you may not have installed depending on your licensing. If you do, you can find the script under the following path:

XIR2 : <installation directory>\Performance Management 11.5\setup
XI3.0: <installation directory>\Performance Management 12.0\setup
XI3.1: <installation directory>\Dashboard and Analytics 12.0\setup

Under this path you will find two files — prefsCopyUtil.jar and prefsCopyUtil.properties.  If you open the prefsCopyUtil.properties in Notepad, you will see a few settings you will have to provide.  The file looks something like this:

# The CMS to use.
CMS=van-r-01-ab
# Administrator user’s password.
AdminPassword=
# User to copy preferences from.
SourceUser=administrator
# All users in this group will have their preferences changed to be a copy of
# the SourceUser’s preferences.
TargetGroup=TestTarget

Fill out this properties file and save your changes.  Now, the easiest way to use this script is to copy these two files to your Java bin directory, typically C:\Program Files\Business Objects\javasdk\bin. Once there, open a command prompt and navigate to the Java bin path again, then run this command:

Java -jar PrefsCopyUtil.jar PrefsCopyUtil.properties

If you’ve done everything right, the script should run and the users in the destination group you specified should now have the same preferences as your source user!

For More Information

For more on this script, including the steps to run it on Unix systems, see SAP Note 1202421. If you need access to the PrefsCopyUtil script and it is not installed on your system, please contact SAP Support!

Related posts:

1. Tips for Configuring Active Directory and SSO in BusinessObjects 4.0

Creating the Response File

To generate a response file, you will need to launch the Client Tools installer from the command line, as follows:

setup.exe -w <PATH\Configuration File.ini>

For example, setup.exe -w clienttools.ini will create the response file in the current path. Once the installer launches, proceed with the installation as you normally would. You can choose to exclude tools that your users may not need, such as Desktop Intelligence or the Import Wizard. You can complete the installation as your normally would, or cancel at the last step — either way your response file should be saved to the path you specified.

The response file will look something like this:

[OTHER]
QUIET=/qa
[INSTALL]
CLIENTLANGUAGE="EN"
DATABASEAUDITDRIVER="MySQLDatabaseSubSystem"
DATABASEDRIVER="MySQLDatabaseSubSystem"
ENABLELOGFILE="1"
INSTALL.LP.EN.SELECTED="1"
INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Business Objects\"
INSTALLLEVEL="4"
WDEPLOY_LANGUAGES="en"
[FEATURES]
REMOVE="DataSourceMigrationWizard,MetaDataDesigner,ConversionTool,PubWiz,
UnivTransMgr"
ADDLOCAL="Complete,Designer,DotNetRASSDK,DotNET2SDK,ImportWizard,
DotNETSDK,VS9,AlwaysInstall,BeforeInstall,VBA62,Reporter,Clients,
WRC,qaaws,JavaRASSDK,BOEJavaSDK,JavaViewersSDK,RebeanSDK,
DevelopersFiles,WebServicesSDK,DotNetViewersSDK,VSDesigner,VSHELP,
RenetSDK,DADataFederator,DataAccess,HPNeoview,OLAP,MyCube,SOFA,DAMySQL,
DAGenericODBC,SFORCE,XML,Universe,BDE,dBase,FileSystem,DANETEZZA,
DAMicrosoft,DAIBMDB2,IBM,Redbrick,DAIBMInformix,OLE_DB_Data,
DAProgressOpenEdge,DAOracle,SybaseAnywhere,DASybase,SybaseASE,
SybaseIQ,SymantecACT,DANCRTeradata,TextDA,Btrieve,CharacterSeparated,
ExportSupport,ExpDiskFile,ExpRichTextFormat,ExpWordforWindows,PDF,
ExpText,ExpExcel,ExpCrystalReports,XMLExport,LegacyXMLExport,SamplesEN,
UserHelp,LanguagePackCostingFeatureen,LanguagePackCostingFeature"
ADDSOURCE=""
ADVERTISE=""

Using the Response File

Once you’ve got your response file, you can repeat the install using the following command:

setup.exe -r <PATH\Configuration File.ini>

That’s it! You can repeat the process to set up multiple response files for different sets of users, for example, one for Administrators and one for Report Developers.  For more on silent and scripted installations, check out the BusinessObjects 3.1 Installation Guide for Windows.

Related posts:

1. Globally Managing Infoview Preferences
2. SAP BusinessObjects Edge 3.1 Service Pack 3 Released
3. Tips for Configuring Active Directory and SSO in BusinessObjects 4.0

Fixed Issues

• ADAPT01369834 (Leading blank spaces are truncated)
• ADAPT01487252 (Spreadsheet table disappears when refreshing)
• ADAPT01505461 (Background colors change)

Download

The FP is available out on SAP’s Service Marketplace through the following path:

• Software Downloads > Support Packages and Patches > A – Z Index > D > Dashboard Design (Xcelsius) >  Comprised Software Component Versions > BOBJ Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 > SBOP Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 Fix Pack 3.5

Documentation

FP 3.5 Fixed Issues

FP 3.5 Release Notes

Related posts:

1. Xcelsius 2008 SP 3 Fix Pack 4 Now Available!
2. Xcelsius … Crystal Dashboard Design … Xcelsius 2008 Fix Pack 3.2 Now Available!
3. Xcelsius 2008 SP 3 Fix Pack 3 Now Available!

Splash Page

Splash Page

Upon logging in, the user will be greeted with a new home page that I like to call a splash page. Here the users can view their recently viewed documents, unread messages, recently run documents, and any alerts that they have  subscribed to. In addition to those items, the user has a list of all their available applications they can use. Of course if the user would like to go to a specific location including folders, categories, inbox, and tabs, they can do so by specifying it in their preferences.

Tabbed Browsing and Pinning

Tabbed Browsing

No longer will you have to jump from report to report in one browser or set your preferences to open reports in a new window (even though you still can). Users can open reports inside of one Launchpad and quickly switch between them via a tabbed structure like any new internet browser. This brings a natural usability to the SAP BusinessObjects BI Launchpad that any user can easily associate with skills they have previously learned. If you would like a document permanently opened, pin it to the BI Launchpad and it will stay there when you log on and off until you unpin it.

Navigating BI Launchpad Content

Document Navigation

The way in which a user navigates through the repository looking for documents has changed. In previous versions, users had immediate access to their favorites and inbox as well as either the folder structure or a category structure. With the new version of SAP BusinessObjects, the user will have to navigate differently using what SAP BusinessObjects calls “Drawers” but what I like to refer to as an accordion menu like what is in Xcelsius. The four areas that you have access to dependent on security are:

• My Documents
  • My Favorites
  • Inbox
  • Alerts
  • Personal Categories
• Folders
  • All public folders that the user has access to
• Categories
  • All corporate categories that the user has access to
• Search

Properties and Scheduling Dialog Boxes

Scheduling Dialog

In XI R2 and 3.x when navigating to either the properties or scheduling pages, the whole page for InfoView had refresh. In the newest version, BI 4.0 now works a lot like the 3.x versions of the Central Management Console. Every time you go to the properties page, scheduling page, or preferences page a dialog box pops up allowing you to not affect the current page that you are on. After you are done with the document properties or making a schedule, you can close the dialog box and immediately be taken to the page you were previously on.

Open Document Links

Open Document

I know that every time I have to generate and open document link I have to reference either notes I had used in the past or our blog post that we created for an easy reference guide. With BI 4.0 you can right click on a document and choose Document Link and it will generate the basic open document link for you. If you have to add in refresh options or prompts, you will have to add this on.

BI Workspace

Taking the place of My InfoView in previous versions of SAP BusinessObjects, BI Workspaces will allow users to create a personalized view of BI Launchpad by creating a workspace with Web Intelligence Documents, Xcelsius Dashboards and Crystal Reports that can all interact and set it as their default homepage.

Session Notifications

Session Notifications

The session notifications in previous version were non existent. The problem really comes into play when a user was developing a Web Intelligence document and the java applet could not interact with InfoView therefore not telling it that the session was active. After 20 minutes, InfoView would time out and the user would lose all progress made since they last saved their document. Now I am happy to announce that BI Launchpad tells you when your session is going to time out and ask if you want to extend it!!!

For More Information

To learn more about BI Launchpad in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0, check out the BI Launchpad’s User Guide, available on the SAP Help Portal.

Related posts:

1. Exploring 4.0: Information Design Tool
2. Unlocking Your BI Content with OpenDocument
3. SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 Ramp-up and Analysis!

Monitoring KPI Dashboard

The first screen an administrator will see when entering the new Monitoring tool is the Dashboard. This section of the tool provides a high-level status for each server in the BusinessObjects environment. Each server’s status is determined based on predefined rules, which can be modified or extended as needed. There are separate rules that determine whether a server should be flagged as Caution or Danger status. Administrators can click on each server to view a histogram that shows the server status over the selected time period.

Watches & Metrics

Watches and Metrics are the core of the Monitoring application. Metrics are the measurements of certain run-time system characteristics that can be used to gauge server performance. Watches use a set of rules to determine if a given set of Metrics falls within an acceptable range. SAP provides many commonly used watches and metrics out of the box, but administrators can also create their own tests ranging from the simple to the complex.

These watches can be configured to save history so administrators can see behavior over time. This allows administrators to identify potential problems before they occur. For example, this information can be used to determine the BusinessObjects environment needs additional licenses or system resources.

Administrators can also set alerts on a watch to notify them via e-mail when the thresholds are breached. This allows administrators to take action as soon as possible, minimizing downtime for their users.

Probes

Probes monitor different BusinessObjects services by simulating various functionality. For example, a probe can log on to BusinessObjects to ensure the system is available. By scheduling probes to run at specified intervals, administrators can track the availability and performance of key services. A set of nine different probes are available out of the box and are viewable in the screenshot above.

Integration with Third Party Monitoring Applications

It is now much easier to monitor your BusinessObjects environment out-of-the-box with third party enterprise monitoring applications. The monitoring tool exposes a JMX or Remote Method Invocation (RMI) URL end point which can be accessed by other applications such as IBM Tivoli Monitoring or SAP Solution Manager.

For More Information

To learn more about Monitoring in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0, check out Chapter 15 on Monitoring in the Administrator’s Guide, available on the SAP Help Portal.

No related posts.

We are also happy to announce that Casting Director for SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 is now in beta and will be available with the 4.0 general release.

Additions

• Added support for optional prompts on Web Intelligence schedule documents
• Added support for Office 2010 XLSX files as schedule sources

Fixes

• Various changes to Casting Director logging
• Casting Director now retrieves values from a Web Intelligence List of Values (LOV) only when the prompt is constrained
• Casting Director now better handles when List of Values is null or blank on a WebIntelligence report

To get access to this update, contact your Altek Solutions representative.

Related posts:

1. What is Casting Director?
2. BOBJ Enterprise 3.1 SP3 Released
3. SAP BusinessObjects Edge 3.1 Service Pack 3 Released

The new model takes the traditional universe and breaks it down into three components:  the Connection, the Data Foundation, and the Business Layer.  These components all existed in some form in previous versions, but now they each get their own editor and a host of new features and options.  Let’s review these in a bit more detail.  (Note that the screenshots below are from the ramp-up version of this software and could change in the final release).

The Connection

The Connection is a named set of parameters that define how one or more SAP BusinessObjects applications can access relational or OLAP databases.  The big news in the 4.0 release is that a universe can have multiple connections to different data sources!  Previously this was only possible with Data Federator, but federation is now built into the universe layer.  More on this in the next section…

From a designer’s perspective, perhaps the best change is that the Connection now gets a proper editor instead of the old wizard dialog from previous versions.  This interface is much easier to use, especially if you need to quickly change something about the connection, such as changing the driver from ODBC to OLE DB.  More importantly, there is a Show Values tab where you can browse the schema, view the data, and even do basic queries right from within the Design Tool.

The Data Foundation

The Data Foundation contains a schema of relevant tables and joins from one or more relational databases that are used as a basis for one or more  Business Layers.  This looks and feels much like the old universe designer tool, but with an improved interface.  Users of the previous version of Universe Designer know that the interface hasn’t changed much since the early days of BusinessObjects 5.x and 6.x, so this revamp is a welcomed change.

As expected, you use the Data Foundation editor to define your database structure and joins as well as row-level security.  As mentioned above, you can even add data from another secondary source and map a join between the two sources.  This is as simple as adding the second connection to your project and creating the join.  The Information Design Tool treats the data as if it were all from a single source.  This is a very powerful feature, indeed.

Another big area of improvement is the context menu options when right-clicking a table in the designer.  You can now quickly replace a table with another, search for related tables, or even add a calculated column.  All this adds up to more rapid development and deployment and less time struggling with the quirks of the tool.

The Business Layer

The Business Layer is a collection of metadata objects that map to SQL or MDX definitions in a database, for example, columns, views, database functions, or pre-aggregated calculations.  This is the same as the left Universe panel on the previous designer tool, but with additional functionality.  The editor allows you to quickly view the query and values behind each object you create.  There is also an area to provide metadata describing the source of the object, including technical information, mapping, and lineage.

Aside from creating the various dimensions and measures that make up the Business Layer, the designer can also create and save queries using the traditional query panel to test their universe using specific use cases.  The query can be executed directly from within the Information Design Tool and the developer can do some analysis to make sure they are getting the correct results.

For More Information

For more information and to get a better look at the Information Design Tool, check out this great set of tutorials provided by the SAP Developers’ Network.

Related posts:

1. Exploring 4.0: BI Launchpad
2. SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 Ramp-up and Analysis!
3. Xcelsius … Crystal Dashboard Design … Xcelsius 2008 Fix Pack 3.2 Now Available!