Monday 7 February 2011

It's That Time of the Year Again at SAP - Name Change Anyone?

Over the next few weeks you’ll be hearing a whole raft of new product names coming out of SAP for their upcoming BusinessObjects 4.0 release.
This is nothing new of course, we’re all becoming use to it by now right? (ever since Crystal Decisions became Edge Series etc).

The reason behind this we’re told is that SAP like to use descriptive words to define their products (well, most of the time anyway). So without spinning it to sound like a good idea, or conversely, knocking it for bringing yet more confusion to the market place, I would simply like to outline many of the new product names, and what they were referred too before. If you have any specific questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0
This is the name of the complete BusinessObjects release, including BI & EIM
(aka SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0, SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.x, etc…)

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0
This is the name of the Business Intelligence components of the release

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform
This is the name for the BusinessObjects product bundle for Enterprises
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0, SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x, etc…)

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence
This is the ad hoc reporting component of the Business Intelligence suite.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Webi)

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
This is the version of Xcelsius designed to be part of a larger SAP BusinessObjects deployment. Other ‘flavors’ of this tool are branded under the SAP Crystal solutions banner.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Design, SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius, Xcelsius Enterprise)

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP/edition for Microsoft Office
This is a new product that replaces the Voyager product.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis Web/SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis Excel)

SAP BusinessObjects BI Launch Pad
This is the new name for the out-of-the-box portal that’s used by end-users to access content, create reports, etc…
(aka SAP BusinessObjects InfoView, Infoview)

SAP BusinessObjects BI workspaces
This product is replacing the functionality of Dashboard Builder.
(SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder)

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
This is the highly visual and interactive data exploration tool, previously called BusinessObjects Polestar 

That’s about it for now, but be sure to follow us on Twitter etc for updates as they’re released. 

Source:  Lee Grogan, Sales Manager, DSCallards

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Hints and Tips February 2011


Changing the Default Fonts and Colours for Web Intelligence on the SAP BusinessObjects Edge Platform
There are no default settings options in Web Intelligence, so to change the colours and fonts, you have to edit some .xml files. Search for *AppletConfig* on your SAP Business Objects Edge server.

A number of folders will appear.

In each of these folders there is a file called defaultConfig.xml. Make a copy of each of these files before any editing takes place.

In Web Intelligence, take note of the colour schemes that currently exist in the data header and details. The images on the next page show where to record this information.
 This is for the detail or row information.

This is for the header information.

Now you need to edit the defaultConfig.xml files in the folders shown above. Below is an example of the file that I have changed. The original font was Arial.

At the top of each block of code is the font ‘Trebuchet’. Work through the file changing the default, (Arial) to the font name of your choice.
When the fonts have been changed, search for the first number in the colour scheme you noted earlier. In my case, the ‘Red’ value of my header was 218. Change the Red, Green, Blue values to match the colour scheme you require.
Once all the changes have been made, the file can be copied to all the other locations listed in the folders above. Below is an image of the ‘new look WebI’ after I changed the defaults. I also restarted all the servers after I had made the changes.

Source:  Steve Chapman, Senior Business Intelligence Consultants, DSCallards

For more information, visit:  www.dscallards4bi.com