6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 1/44

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Hi there,

In this post, I am going to tell about the Notifications Importance in Scheduling, and how to implement notification

changes in scheduling.

In Business objects, as a developer /Consultant/Admin we would love to automate the things. But how do we Keep an

eye on automated things like scheduling say monthly running reports, monthly batch jobs or monthly Publication Files

whether are they ran successfully or failed.

I can classify Notifications present in business objects into two Types based on where actually notification Alert had

been sent to.

Audit Notifications

Email Notifications

AUDIT NOTIFICATIONS: This are the one type of Notification where a Job Scheduling status information been written

to Audit Database that you have configured while setting up the Business Objects. You can choose to have a

notification sent to the auditing database when the job runs successfully or when it fails to run, or both.

Let see how actually these Audit notification looks like and works.

First navigate to any report object that you are trying to schedule.

>> Do a right click on the object and select schedule like below.

>> After doing so, the followed screen will occurs .

Notifications in Business Objects

Posted by Siva Sankar Jan 7, 2013

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 2/44

Now you are able to see two options as mentioned above.

>> Do a check on Audit Notification so that it will come up with two options to be written to auditdatabse likes

sucess,failure or both of the scheduled one's as below.

EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS: This are the second type of Notification where a Job Scheduling status information shall

have been sent to the user (Developer/Admin/End User) through email.

>> Do a Check Email Notification Icon and you are able to see two records one with success and other with Failure.

Check the box “ A job has been run successfully “ and select the radio button as highlighted below to enter mailing

details.

>> Check the box “ A job has failed to run “ and select the radio button as highlighted below to enter mailing details.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 3/44

Along with this if you want to attach the instance output let say pdf output.then do click on " Formats and Destination "

on the Left side and select the Adobe

Acrobat and select the check box " Email Recipients ".

That's it .Click on the schedule button on the Right below corner.Then once the schedule completed it's output status

will be mailed the to the users .

I welcome the comments and Complements.

Best,

Shiva

Business Objects Consultant.

3450 View s 3 Comments Tags: notif ications, email, messages, audit

1 Create open hub as like below.

Step by Step procedure to give Headers to flatfile(columns) generated through Open hub

Posted by Nanda Anantha Dec 28, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 4/44

2 HEADER column is holding headers data and length is 200, you can change according to your requirement.

3 Do not map in transformation for Header column.

4 And write below ABAP code in End Routine

data: t_rs type standard table of _ty_s_TG_1.

data: wa_rs type _ty_s_TG_1.

clear: t_rs.

wa_rs-header = 'HED;MATERIAL;MATERIAL_GROUP;MATERIAL_TYPE'.

append wa_rs to t_rs.

clear: wa_rs.

loop at RESULT_PACKAGE into wa_rs.

wa_rs-header = 'Header'.

append wa_rs to t_rs.

endloop.

clear: RESULT_PACKAGE.

RESULT_PACKAGE[] = t_rs[].

5 we will get Flat file output as like below

HED, MATERIAL, MATERIAL_GROUP, MATERIAL_TYPE--> Header information

Header;LUX,ZBC,HC--> Actual data

552 View s 1 Comments Tags: f ile, f ile, for, and, f lat, f lat, open, hub, headers

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 5/44

SAP's JC Raveneau gave an ASUG webcast the other week on top reasons to upgrade to BI4. The usual

disclaimer applies, that things are subject to change.

This objectives of the session were to cover key differentiators in the BI4 release and not details on BI4

capabilities/implementation. JC hoped to provide more information to "evangelize your stakeholders".

Agenda:

Introduce BI4

New capabilities - going Mobile, save on cost of ownership, engage more users

Path to BI4

Figure 1: Source: SAP

BI4 is the first release of BI Platform after SAP acquired BusinessObjects.

JC said it allows you to “access any kind of data”

They added around social and BW access and new SAP Hana platform

The semantic layer is different from the past as it is no longer just the Universe but a universal way of accessing data

that is homogenous as possible

As Figure 1 shows the client tools are categorized into 3 different buckets:

1. Discovery & analysis

2. Dashboards & applications

3. Reporting

The idea is to be as integrated as possible on the platform and be agnostic.

SAP's Top Reasons to Upgrade to BI4 - an #ASUGWebcast

Posted by Tammy Powlas Dec 16, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 6/44

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the BI client tools classified for a clearer message

On the left is Discover & Analysis which is more for consumption for OLAP capabilities. The Analysis tools and new

tools such as Predictive and Visual Intelligence are used analyze the cube and find meaning of data

In the middle is dashboards & apps – Dashboards, explaining your key metrics and adding new tool Design Studio

On the right side is Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows the renaming of applications. JC mentioned the Desktop Compatibility patch is available and that is

discussed further here.

According to JC, the three easy areas to remember to go to BI4 are "go mobile", "reduce costs" and "engage more

users".

BI4 is a big step forward to access to BI for Mobile.

End of Life link: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/webcontent/uuid/c018fb0e-8724-2b10-c489-9b8333e5e0f9

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 7/44

Figure 4: Source: SAP

SAP Dashboards for Mobile (formerly known as XCelsius Dashboards) is shown in Figure 4. The BI platform side

has it in SP05.

Mobile application 4.4 is supposed to be this month (any day now)

SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Exploration Views are only available in BI4

Design Studio for Mobile is also only available with BI4. Databases supported are BW/Hana. It is a dashboard and

application

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows that Mobile BI for Android is only available with BI4. Android is the second largest operating system

after Apple.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 6: Source: SAP

Moving forward, mobile BI is a tangible feature to move to BI4 says JC.

The next reason to move to BI4, according to the webcast, is to reduce costs of ownership of the platform.

Figure 7: Source: SAP

As Figure 7 shows, monitoring is mission critical aspect of BI now. The platform is monitored so you don’t get calls in

middle of night.

Auditing is used for compliance and usage of platform, for usage and planning, cross charging.

JC said the import wizard & LCM was not easy to use or straightforward in XI3.

BEx queries for SAP customers can be used to leverage existing investment

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 9/44

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 shows there is added built-in monitoring capabilities in platform in BI4.

JC said you could ping the server, look at key metrics, and integrate with existing framework such as Tivoli

Also integrated in CMC includes charts, highlighting, and watches.

You be the first to know if platform is in trouble, he said.

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 shows auditing enhancements.

Auditing in XI3 was hard to implement / leverage, he said.

Consistent auditing in BI4 and easier database schema to report on and make sense of data

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows the Life Cycle Management content and an improved, integrated in CMC,

It also offers an improved LCM console.

It also offers integration with SAP CTS+ so you can move reports, queries at once, check on dependencies

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows that BI4 offiers direct access to BEx queries via BI Consumer Services which is easier than the

universe says JC.

It leverages metadata and design from the BEx queries.

Upgrade and deployment features include multilingual BI delivery across geographic locations, enhanced scalability

with virtualization and 64 bit support, hot backup, delegated administration and automatic tenant provisioning, and BI

Launch Pad customization and role-based personalization.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 shows the Upgrade Management Tool can detecting dependencies.

Figure 13: Source: SAP

Figure 13 shows the new semantic layer features and the ability to have multi-source universes.

For BW customers they do not have to create a universe any more and use the BICS connection to the BEx query.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 14: Source: SAP

Some tools are better paired with HANA – he encourages you to talk to SAP account team

Figure 15: Source: SAP

Figure 15 shows a common interface, improved usability.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 16: Source: SAP

Figure 16 shows a common query panel, a paradigm to make it easier for users to access data.

Figure 17: Source: SAP

There are two versions – one for Analysis OLAP on the platform, a web interface and Analysis for Office via Excel.

If using BW SAP highly recommends using these tools. Also see this new eBook on Analysis OLAP by Ingo Hilgefort.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 14/44

Figure 18: Source: SAP

Figure 18 shows Visual Intelligence, which is lightweight and install in a couple of minutes, says JC.

It can use Excel, data in HANA, BI universes, and is quick & simple

It is an “enterprise ready” tool

Business users don’t have to wait on IT to visualize data.

Figure 19: Source: SAP

Figure 19 shows Design Studio, the premium replacement for Web Application Designer, a new tool.

Path to BI4

Upgrade Information on SCN: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-25474

JC says help is available from SAP and partners.

Also see this BI4 pattern book wiki:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/SAP+Business+Intelligence+Platform+Pattern+Books

1396 View s 2 Comments Tags: bi4, sapmentor, bi4_upgrade

Promotion and Version Management (LCM) Expertweb course

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 15/44

Everyone administrating either BI4 or XI3 of the Business Intelligence Platform is in desperate need to understand

how best to install, configure and use the Promotion and Version Management capabilities, also known an ‘LCM’.

I’m delighted to announce that for customers who are under an Enterprise support contract an ‘Expert Guided

Implementation’ (EGI) (a web based course) is now available. The course runs over 4 days, with a 2 hours webinar

each morning.

Web based course objectives

My EGI course is designed for administrators who already have a good understanding of the BI platform (XI3 or BI4)

but with no prior understanding of Promotion or Version Management.

This Expert Guided Implementation will provide a complete overview of the feature set, demonstrations, detailed

installation and configuration steps in addition to explaining best practice for using the tools. On completing the

Expert Guided Implementation attendees will have a full working solution within their own environment in addition

to an understanding of best practices associated with the tools.

What is an EGI?

Expert guided implementation is a new delivery methodology. The methodology balances the combination of training,

practical experience and expertise on demand. Focus is to enable the customer to execute complex activities with the

help of SAP experts. It is important that during the delivery itself, the activity is executed as described in the delivery

slot.

Expert guided implementation enables you to execute activities without being a subject matter expert. The

methodology closes the gap between class room trainings and consulting.

For more information on the EGI methodology please go to https://service.sap.com/~form/sapnet?

_SHORTKEY=01100035870000717440&_SCENARIO=01100035870000000202. At the very bottom of the page is

also a calendar showing other EGI offerings by time-zone.

When? And how to register

The web based course runs over 4 days and requires 2 hours each morning.

The course is available in different regions of the world. For a full list of dates and registration links please go to

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1791078

What’s the agenda?

Day 1

SAP Expert presents (2 hours morning webinar)

· ‘Why’ and ‘What is’ Promotion and Version Management

· High Level architecture

Execution by customer

· Check Prerequisites

· Decide the most appropriate architecture

Day 2

SAP expert provides: (2 hours morning webinar)

· overview of installation, configuration and validation

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Installation, configuration and validation.

· Simple ‘exercises’ to improve functional understanding of the product set.

Day 3

SAP expert explains details of: (2 hours morning webinar)

· How Promotion by ID operates

· Promotion Security

· Best Practice workflows

· Mappings

· Features by Product Version

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Possible synchronization of repositories

· Setup and testing of ‘mappings’

· Practice promoting content following best practice.

Day 4SAP Expert explains (2 hours morning webinar)

· Visual Difference

· Promotion and Version Management Security

· Delegated Administration

· Rollback, other best practices,

· SubVersion backup/upgrade and manual install

· Command line use of Promotion Management

· Troubleshooting

Execution by customer: (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Visual difference testing

· Application and functional security setup

Posted by Matthew Shaw Nov 27, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 16/44

· Rollback and other settings

· Test of SubVersion backup

2719 View s 12 Comments Tags: bi4.0, lcm, version_management, lcm_override, promotion_management

Last week SAP provided ASUG this webcast to the ASUG Business Intelligence Community on BusinessObjects BI

4.1 customer validation. First SAP reviewed what customer validation was, and then they reviewed the delta from BI4

SP4 to BI4.1. Please note that the usual disclaimers apply, that anything coming in the future is subject to change.

What is customer validation? It addresses the question of how a customer can start the implementation before

starting ramp-up and accelerating the go-live of a product. Ramp-up for productive use

SAP’s motivation is to “meet the customer expectations regarding product quality, get the customers closer to

development, and enable early live customers”. Their goal is to increase the quality of SAP software before shipment

and to integrate the customer in the product lifecycle.

SAP is looking for customers to participate in customer validation of BI 4.1, and allows you to be the first one to touch

the software. The plan is to improve product quality

What is a Customer Validation?

According to Stefan Kneis of SAP, it is a proof of concept, it occurs before the ramp-up, it is free of charge and

includes direct development support. As a customer it allows you to get familiar with the latest functionality.

Some of the benefits include a proof of concept with your data; save costs with free of charge project support, shorten

go-live projects, expand your SAP knowledge and reduce project risk via direct development engagement, according

to SAP. Customer validation #BI4.1 "allows you to contribute to overall roadmap" - take any feedback and be part of

ASUG Influence.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

SAP would like customers to be a part of validation for those who have an interest in an early go-live

Consulting support is free

Knowledge transfer – everything you need to know about this release

The customer needs to involve resources during the validation, provide a test system landscape, develop test cases,

test processes, and start the project as soon as possible.

What is coming in BusinessObjects BI4.1? CustomerValidation #ASUG Webcast

Posted by Tammy Powlas Nov 18, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 17/44

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the timeline for customer validation phase for BI 4.1. SAP is just starting to build the customer

pipeline. The customer needs to complete a feedback agreement and a test evaluation agreement as it gives you a

royalty free license to install and what you can and limitations. You cannot take the customer validation software to

production.

Customer validation BI4.1 planned for early 2013 and after that the planned ramp-up is to start in May

Based on BI4 FP3 success, they plan to have a Phase 1 in early January. Development is still working on the

product. Normally validation begins after development. Phase 1 will allow time to address gaps and focus on quality

activities before building the final product.

Phase 2 will address gaps in phase 1 in April. Ramp-up begins in May.

Geoff Bazira , SAP BI Production Management, reviewed features in BI 4.1.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows an overall timeline. SAP is interested 3.x and 4.x customers welcomed to join customer validation.

SAP wants customers to test the upgrade experience to identify critical issues before releasing software.

First phase is stability and upgrade experience.

Phase 2 is called final validation to address critical issues.

Geoff mentioned they would be supporting English only in the first phase. Second phase would include full language

support.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 18/44

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the overall 4.1 key areas. Quality improvements to bring into 4.1 including upgrade management tool

and BW support.

It includes improvements on Semantic Layer SDK.

Some customer validation selection considerations:

1) In-house experience

2) Looking to upgrade within 6 months

3) Complete online scoping questionnaire to filter

What is new in 4.1 (Delta from BI4 SP4)

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows updates from BI4 SP4 that are in BI 4.1 including multi-tenancy, upgrade management tool

enhancements

The self-service side of BI Launchpad (next generation info view) includes the ability to replace existing document

when uploading a third party document. Streamwork integration enhancements include the ability to collaborate on

while viewing the BI document in the viewer and security to manage who can collaborate on BI content.

Semantic Layer Improvements in 4.1:

Information Design Tool improvements will support .UNX/.UNV

It can format multiple objects as once

Data Federator Designer is integrated in IDT

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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SAP ERP access will have support for optional input columns and HANA variables support for universes on HANA.

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 covers the Semantic Layer SDK which Geoff said is more for partners. Partners use SDK’s a lot to create

new universes, conversions, or an impact analysis.

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Freehand SQL objects and will allow you connect to HANA data sources.

You can also use the verify the database option

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 20/44

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 shows Web Intelligence improvements

You can freeze headers, similar to Excel

Custom palettes are supported

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 deals with customization – if you want to disable or hide functionality from users.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 21/44

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows you can read content out of Web Intelligence document and use it in another application

You can schedule reports programmatically

The difference now is they are not using Java or .NET but now using RESTful web servers

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows the improvements from BI4 SP4 which will be available to test in BI4.1 for Dashboards

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 shows offline abilities are available but data not refreshed

Figure 13: Source: SAP

Figure 13 shows Analysis OLAP 4.1 improvements including SAP Variants, RRI, and more

Question & Answer

Q: Are you interested in customers upgrading directly from XI3.1 to BI4.1 ? or are you just looking for BI40 to BI41?

A: Interested in both, XI3.1 and BI 4.0‑

________________________________________________________________

Q: Assume the BW minimum is 7.3, right?

A: Minimum is BW 70

________________________________________________________________

Q: I am an EDGE customer. Can I participate in this? EDGE is typically released after the Enterprise version.

A: Geoff says yes to Edge as well as Crystal Server customers

Q: When is BI 4.1 slated for RTM? Is this coming out after BI 4.0 SP6 or SP7.

A: The anticipated Release-to-Customer (RTC) is scheduled for Mid May 2013. This will kick-off the Ramp-up

phase which typically is lasting about 6 month, depending on the achievement of certain KPIs.I don't know when

exactly BI4.0 SP6 or SP7 are scheduled. But we will support both releases in parallel.

________________________________________________________________

SP dates may be found here : https://service.sap.com/bosap-maintenance-schedule

________________________________________________________________

Q: What about broadcasting like we have in Bex? Burst by email

A: Please see Analysis Roadmap at https://websmp207.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000395262012D.pdf

(SMP logon required) - it is a planned innovation

________________________________________________________________

Q: Is there anything in 4.1 that would further the move towards client self service reporting / ad hoc?

A: Web Intelligence improvements; also have Visual Intelligence (not part of BI4.1)

________________________________________________________________

Q: Will there ever be a feature to schedule Dashboard Design objects? My understanding is that it is currently

unavailable in 4.0. Is this ever in the plans?

A: Please check service.sap.com/roadmap for Dashboard Roadmap

________________________________________________________________

Q: Is explorer part of the CUV?

A: Yes it will be; Analysis Office / Visi, Design Studio are not part of CuV

________________________________________________________________

Q: How do you suggest we justify the constant patching of newer 4.1 as oppose to installing stable 4.0sp5, we have

May 2013 go live date

A: 4.1 is intended to be a stable release with quality

________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Stefan Kneis and Geoff Bazira of SAP for bringing this information to ASUG

10103 View s 7 Comments

Tags: sapmentor, asug, w eb_intelligence, bi_platform, analysis_olap, semantic_layer, crystal_for_enterprise, bi4.1

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 23/44

Everyone administrating either BI4 or XI3 of the Business Intelligence Platform is in desperate need to understand

how best to install, configure and use the Promotion and Version Management capabilities, also known an ‘LCM’.

I’m delighted to announce that for customers who are under an Enterprise support contract an ‘Expert Guided

Implementation’ (EGI) (a web based course) is now available. The course runs over 4 days, with a 2 hours webinar

each morning.

Web based course objectives

My EGI course is designed for administrators who already have a good understanding of the BI platform (XI3 or BI4)

but with no prior understanding of Promotion or Version Management.

This Expert Guided Implementation will provide a complete overview of the feature set, demonstrations, detailed

installation and configuration steps in addition to explaining best practice for using the tools. On completing the

Expert Guided Implementation attendees will have a full working solution within their own environment in addition

to an understanding of best practices associated with the tools.

What is an EGI?

Expert guided implementation is a new delivery methodology. The methodology balances the combination of training,

practical experience and expertise on demand. Focus is to enable the customer to execute complex activities with the

help of SAP experts. It is important that during the delivery itself, the activity is executed as described in the delivery

slot.

Expert guided implementation enables you to execute activities without being a subject matter expert. The

methodology closes the gap between class room trainings and consulting.

For more information on the EGI methodology please go to https://service.sap.com/~form/sapnet?

_SHORTKEY=01100035870000717440&_SCENARIO=01100035870000000202. At the very bottom of the page is

also a calendar showing other EGI offerings by time-zone.

When? And how to register

The web based course runs over 4 days and requires 2 hours each morning.

The course is currently limited to the EMEA time-zone. I hope to run this in the America’s time zone soon.

The registration link for the EMEA course running 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th December 2012 is

https://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700001278782012E/ but hurry because spaces will be filling up quick!

What’s the agenda?

Day 1 (3rd December - starts 9am UK time, 10am CET time)

SAP Expert presents (2 hours morning webinar)

· ‘Why’ and ‘What is’ Promotion and Version Management

· High Level architecture

Execution by customer

· Check Prerequisites

· Decide the most appropriate architecture

Day 2SAP expert provides: (2 hours morning webinar)

· overview of installation, configuration and validation

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Installation, configuration and validation.

· Simple ‘exercises’ to improve functional understanding of the product set.

Day 3

SAP expert explains details of: (2 hours morning webinar)

· How Promotion by ID operates

· Promotion Security

· Best Practice workflows

· Mappings

· Features by Product Version

Execution by customer (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Possible synchronization of repositories

· Setup and testing of ‘mappings’

· Practice promoting content following best practice.

Day 4SAP Expert explains (2 hours morning webinar)

· Visual Difference

· Promotion and Version Management Security

· Delegated Administration

· Rollback, other best practices,

Promotion and Version Management (LCM) Expertweb course

Posted by Matthew Shaw Nov 16, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 24/44

· SubVersion backup/upgrade and manual install

· Command line use of Promotion Management

· Troubleshooting

Execution by customer: (Remote support in the afternoon)

· Visual difference testing

· Application and functional security setup

· Rollback and other settings

· Test of SubVersion backup

1041 View s 7 Comments

Tags: bi4.0, lcm, business_intelligence, version_management, xi3.1, lcm_override, promotion_management

When Jens Koerner spoke to us last May at Ingo Hilgefort ASUG Annual Conference BI4 Pre-Conference

session about doing BI4 Elite Enablement training, I confess I was skeptical. Why was this needed at all, I

thought?

I am happy to say I was totally wrong. What an event! Attendees used words like "priceless". One attendee said he

solved three issues at work from learning based on the training alone.

Here is Jens kicking off BI4 Elite last week in the SAP Vancouver Executive Briefing Center:

Jens said there were attendees from 8 countries. One attendee came all the way from South Korea as there was a

last minute cancellation. Jens said 87 people registered for 44 slots...so if a BI4 Elite training opportunity comes up

soon, sign up fast.

Also Kirsten Sutton, Managing Director of SAP Vancouver, came on the first day to welcome attendees.

Attendees were able to view the presentations and exercises on their iPads, thus saving paper (and saving us from

carrying paper). SAP said they saw attendees do this at SAP TechEd and thought it would be useful. Plus the

presentations could (and did) change without having to reprint.

Ty Miller gave an updated BI Roadmap presentation (cover in Jakob Barnard blogs) but what was different about

this Roadmap presentation was that Ty allowed interactive questions as he gave the presentation.

An early exercise was on SAP Visual Intelligence against flight data. The attendee who finished first won a coveted

SAP Press book by Ingo Hilgefort:

BI4 Elite Enablement Training - It's a Wrap!

Posted by Tammy Powlas Nov 12, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 25/44

Day 2 Donnie McMillan showed us how to set up BI Mobile on the iPads. Then the tracks were split into two rooms:

BW track and data agnostic track.

Then through BW exercises with Ingo Hilgefort, we were able to deploy Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, and

Explorer to the iPad:

Web Intelligence on iPad - note the pie chart is blanked out due to room lighting

Exploration View on the iPad, creating during a BW track exercise with Ingo Hilgefort.

There were so many hands-on exercises with fast help / response from SAP. Here the attendees are creating an

ECC Universe:

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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On Thursday afternoon the two tracks came back together and we got hands on with Apache JMeter testing and

Fidder.

There was also some fun, with Nic Smith distributing Data Geek shirts ( sap.com/datageek ) for those who went

on camera:

Attendees were also given BI4 Elite shirts, which many attendees wore on the last day:

This is ASUG Volunteer Rajeev Kapur wearing the BI4 Elite shirt.

We also got to learn more from SAP's Toby Johnston (covered here in this blog) and customer stories (in this

blog)

It was a combination of education, hands-on and networking. It was a great experience and thank you SAP -

especially Jens Koerner Ingo Hilgefort Ty Miller and many more.

I greatly miss Vancouver already, the site of my new-found favorite coffee Caffe Artigiano

2324 View s 0 Comments Tags: sapmentor, bi4elite

BI4 Elite: Featuring the Customer Stories #BI4Elite

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 27/44

While BI4 Elite attendees got to complete many exercises this week in lovely Vancouver, time was allotted to hear

customer stories too. First up was the U.S. Department of Interior.

Department of Interior Story (DOI) of BI Stan Curtis of DOI spoke (pictured below). DOI has 80K employees with only 238 BEx Queries - keep it simple, Stan

advises. He asked the crowd "do you watch your employees running reports all day" - that way you will learn what they

are doing.

Department of Interior is the largest deployment of

BusinessObjects Analysis for OLAP.

They use LDAP & SAP Authentication on BI landscape

All users in BI are imported via SAP BW roles and LDAP

(Microsoft Active Directory), with user aliasing between SAP

user & LDAP user in BI. User security in BI is tied to BW

roles. The user logs in to Enterprise Portal (EP) w/ active directory (AD) user id – after login, SAP ticket is created in

AD user account and SAP user account via mapping in Enterprise Portal

When user launches BI launch pad from EP, user info is passed on to BI via SAP login ticket. BI Mobile users use

LDAP authentication

Stan recommends to document all issues. Stan expressed a concerned about consistency across all products - for

example:

- Date format (BEx prompts & display)

- Compounding (BEx prompts & display)

He said to communicate to your stakeholders (internally & externally – including SAP)

Stan said "one tool will not fit all your needs"

DOI uses BusinessObjects Explorer for auditor needs (1.4 million records)

DOI has 10 sub organizations, aka "bureaus" and they need to standardize on master data – fund center, cost center

and that they all need to learn to "play in same box"

Stan says customers need to understand both the BW language & BusinessObjects language & includes and this

also includes SAP Support

He also explained that most of the BusinessObjects training has been against relational universes and not BW,

unlike BI4Elite which had a BW track and an agnostic track

I especially liked his message of empowering users in DOI.

HP BI Story - Data Agnostic Customer Next, Christian Reed (pictured right) of HP spoke how they are running BI for 60,000 users, on mostly agnostic (non-

SAP) data sources on XI 3.1

He said they are going to a new BI4 platform and take advantage of

what is licensed as right now they are a Web Intelligence-only shop.

“Can’t let everyone pull in a 1 million rows” for a global BI platform at

HP says Christian. He said for HP that patching is a big deal; not do

that often – find a patch level deal with until get 3-4 reasons to

upgrade

"BOSS", which stands for BusinessObjects Shared Service covers 10

platforms and once served 150+ distinct project teams, is down to

125 teams now

He estimates they have almost 800 universes

Molson Coors BI Story - a Story of "Beer"

Alexandre Papagiannidis of Molson Coors (pictured below) spoke next. Molson Coors is a global organization, with

HR, finance, sales and marketing. They have multiple and complex sources of data.

They have limited BI resources with increasing demand. Their vision of BI is to "become a solution provider, not just

Posted by Tammy Powlas Nov 10, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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doers". They are a "BW shop".

Information governance is super important for reporting. overnance is Information Steward to track master data quality

to ensure accurate reporting – collaboration of IT & Business.

He said their challenge has been to get a single source of plan, actuals and forecasts. The key of the BI team is to

make it simple.

He also emphasized the concept of selecting "the right BI tool".

He said sales reps need information at their fingtertips to sell

"more beer". He reported that BI4 SP4 offline publications run 3

times quicker vs XI 3.1

On their backend is single source one multi-provider for actuals

& plan. On the front-end is one structure to rule the world –

“select the right tool for the right user”. Query designer is the

foundation for BEx analyzer, WebI, Analysis for Excel

They use the Save to Mobile folder gives you the same views as

the report. He said they are looking forward to Design Studio.

Change management is a huge part of the success story and includes in that his relationships with SAP.

I am still marveling over an amazing event at BI4 Elite in Vancouver this week. Some of the tweets are captured in this

tweetdoc:

http://www.tweetdoc.org/View/57846/BI4Elite

2120 View s 1 Comments Tags: sapmentor, bi4elite

The report from Day 2 of SAP BI4 Elite Enablement taking place in Vancouver, BC.

(For reference make sure to check out the original announcement of the BI4 Elite Enablement class and my post

summing up the Day 1 notes.)

Day two looked like it was going to be even more intense than the first...

The morning started off being all about Mobile BI.

Donnie McMilliam presented information covering the overview, server installation, and server configuration. Mobility

changes the game – take it from a comic book addict. However, do note the difference between making something

“portable” versus truly “mobile.” BI mobility should be no different – we should be doing more than making it portable,

not just available on mobile devices.

There are multiple apps. SAP BusinessObjects Mobile and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. BO Mobile is to deliver

existing content, explorer is (as the name suggests) for search and exploration of data. Long term some of the

capabilities of explorer may be brought into the mobile app, but for now they are two separate applications.

Business Objects Mobile is proud of its constant innovation with 5 releases/updates this year with 1 remaining. The

first exercise covered setting up categories. The purpose of this was to be able to set up a method to classify reports

as Mobile. It allows you to flag that you want available for mobile as you do not want all reports available on a mobile

device. (Remember – mobile vs portable.)

There is a category option called “confidential.” Any reports in this category will never be persistent on a device. This

alleviates the concern of data persisting on a device and potentially being accessible by others. Reports can be in

more than one category such as “Mobile Designed” and “Confidential.”

Deployment, it is easy to set up the connection on one iPad and use the sharing feature to send the connection

information via email to general users. Naturally they will still need to fill in the user name and password, but all of

the other connection information will be populated for the user in the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile application.

After the mobile BI we moved into one of the hotly debated topics in side discussions – BI4 Maintenance Strategy.

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 2

Posted by Jakob Barnard Nov 7, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 29/44

This was presented by Seroj Parmar. There has been quite a lot of debate in the group about the fast pace of patch

releases. (For example, at my company we are on BI4.0 SP2, just testing out SP4 Patch 5, to find out that Patch 6 just

came out and SP5 is supposedly due next week.) Should be a very interesting presentation…

Seroj started with pointing out they want to know what is working and what is not working with the support model.

BI4

Maintenance Cycle:

Minor release every 18-24 months

Support Pack every 3-4 months

Critical Patch around every 3 weeks

There was discussion on whether or not there were any best practices or suggested method of testing releases.

SAP doesn’t offer a specific testing method, but does provide the release notes to indicate where additional testing

may be needed. A request was made to provide something like OSS notes for Business Objects, but this didn’t

sound likely due to the inherent differences between the ECC and BO systems. Key takeaway for SAP from the

customer/partner base is that while getting fixes out quick is nice conceptually, there is no way to keep production

systems on the latest versions on such a tight cycle. Regression testing alone dictates that we would never be on the

latest version. This means we either need easier ways of upgrading (which sounds like it is planned) or more

forward looking information to help plan upgrades.

Next up we had Ingo Hilgefort starting the BW deep dives.

We started with User Authentication and Single Sign On. Different authentication methods were discussed, SSO,

SNC, and STS. STS being the BI4 successor to the XI3.1 SNC. We will have to be looking into this new Netweaver

SSO. This is a fairly recent addition to the SAP lineup. We wrapped up the presentation with a hands-on lab in which

we set up SAP SSO authentication.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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The afternoon continued building on that foundation with setting up OLAP connections, Relational Universe for SAP

BW, and creating an ERP based Universe. Something that is being looked at for 4.1 is being able to build right on the

ERP ABAP dictionary giving direct table access. No guarantee on this, but is being looked into.

Netweaver 7.3 – Hyperprovider. Going to have to look into this as well. The last presentation of the day covered BI4

LCM & CTS+ Configuration. The day ended with a Q&A session covering LCM and Auditing as the main topics.

It should also be noted that as a participate in the class, we have a Q & A activity set up utilizing SAP Streamwork. It

has been quite effective as a “Parking Lot” to note various questions that can be researched and answered later. I

personally was hoping to see StreamWork a bit more, so while the usage is limited in this case, still gains me

additional exposure to the product.

The evening wrapped up with a great reception with our SAP hosts. It was great to have this social time to interact

with other customers and the SAP staff to discuss a variety of topics in a relaxed environment. A big thanks to SAP for

hosting such a fun event!

Hopefully you find the information presented useful for your own purposes, perhaps even deciding whether or not to

try to attend future events like this. There are a few of us sharing information as we can. If you are interested, a few of

those tweeting from the SAP BI4 Elite Enablement event are: @olorinpc, @jenskoerner, @racheljfloyd, @tpowlas,

@Rajeevkapur_08, @jmsrpp, @brighttony. Let us know what you think of the coverage!

2127 View s 2 Comments

Tags: business, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), objects, business_intelligence, bi40_enablement, bi4elite

Attending SAP BI4Elite Enablement - Day 1

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 31/44

Getting to attend BI4 Elite Enablement is a pretty big deal. Present are individuals that cover 16 customers and 7

partners - representing 8 different countries. SAP brought a lot to the table as well with 11 trainers, 10 developers, 60

cloud servers set up, and had 87 registrations for the 44 seat class. At the time of writing the announcement had

around 4,300 views. Folks are excited for this class - and they should be.

We started the day going over a kickoff presentation by Jens Koerner and then the BI Roadmap by Ty Miller. Note we

have seen versions of the roadmap presentation out on the SAP Marketplace as well as ASUG webcasts. Some of

my notes from the presentation...

Roadmap – out now:

WEBI 4.0 now has CSS and Waterfall charts

Report to Report Interface in 3 different tools

Mobile is on its own release cycle

BI SP5 – coming next week? SP4 Patch 6 is latest version (Need clarification on this)

Predictive Analysis , visualizations

Consistent BICS across landscape.

Collaboration – SAP StreamWork

Roadmap – Future: (note was given that these are forward looking statements and things could change_

New gui based installation, supposed to be far better

Auto-update to manage desktop client updates

4.1 coming mid 2013 – big point release?

For BW environment, your semantic layer is the BEx query. Not SAP, semantic layer isthe Universe.

Rich Clinet (desktop thick client) – speed and ease of movement wins hands down with precice control, Rich

Web Client

Design Studios and Dashboards will eventually merge into one platform/solution for dashboarding.

BEx the “reporting tools” will not be innovated on. It is where the naming is getting in the way. BEx the Queries

will continue to be your semantic layer and where you write your queries. The design studio Analysis for MS

Office, will be your end report building tools based on those queries.

Design Studio Next week! Part of SAP BI SP5

We followed the roadmap presentation with some hands on exercises covering WEBI, Dashboards, Explorer, and

Visual Intelligence. This took is to lunch.

After lunch we came back to a HANA overview and review of the connectivity options. The HANA section was

concluded with some practical hands on exercises that demonstrated constructing Analysis views of data within

HANA. It works a lot like the Information Design Tool used to construct Universe connections.

Posted by Jakob Barnard Nov 6, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 32/44

The next presentation was on Installation and Configuration by Harjeet Judge. A fair amount of time was spent on

different scenarios and also included the patch section. A demo was given for this section covering Unix/Linux

installations.

We wrapped up the day with practical labs covering ODBC connections and Web Deploy. The labs were well done

and did a good job demonstrating 32bit vs 64 bit connections in addition to changing the view of the BI Launch Pad

and deploying those changes.

It was a great start to the week and I am really looking forward to starting the deep dive sessions tomorrow morning.

During the day there was a lot of time for Q&A that sparked a lot of additional questions and discussions. Getting to

listen in and participate in this has been very useful.

For those interested there are various folks tweeting

updates from the class – follow them here: @olorinpc, @jenskoerner, @racheljfloyd, @tpowlas, @Rajeevkapur_08,

@jmsrpp, @brighttony.

2272 View s 0 Comments

Tags: business, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), objects, business_intelligence, bi40_enablement, bi4elite

Starting with SAP BI4.0 LCM is the only tool to promote content from one system to another, when systems are on the

same version.

The promotion management application is integrated with the Central Management Console in BI4.0. LCM tool

supports for promoting a object from the source system to the destination system (universe, reports, connections,

Users/Groups and Rights from one system to another system).

The Life Cycle Manager tool supports the following features:

• Create a new job

• Copy an existing job

• Edit a job

• Schedule a job promotion (specify a time for job promotion: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly)

• View the history of a job

• Export as LCMBIAR

• Import both BIAR /LCMBIAR

• LCM enables you to promote info-objects along with the associated security rights.

Login with your Logon Credentials.

Promotion Management in BI4.0

Posted by Pavan A Oct 25, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 33/44

ScreenShot2195.jpg

Creating the LCM Job:

To migrate objects, you have to first have to specify which content you want to promote. This is done in LCM tool with 3

main steps:

1. Create a Job: A job is collection of objects that can be moved from one BOE environment to another.

When you create a new job you must logon to the source system and an Input/Output FRS should be running and

enabled, as the Job is saved as an Object in the CMS database and as a file in the Input FRS.

Select Source system as a Login to a New CMS.

Select Destination System Login to a New CMS.

Enter the save job folder, source and target systems and then select create option.

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2. Add Objects: Add the required objects from the CMS repository that should be migrated.

Once you have selected the objects you want to promote, click Add&close. If you want to select things from multiple

folders, make sure you click Add before navigating to a different folder.

3. Add the dependent objects: Objects such as universes, connections, images and other dependencies on which

the primary objects depend on also have to be added to the job. LCM will automatically compute the dependents

when you click on “Manage Dependencies”.( info objects are dependent on other info objects) If you do not use this

option, the dependents are not promoted along with the job.

displays the list of info objects and their dependents

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Select Apply and Close.

Select Promote Button. The Promote window appears with Summary Details.

The lifecycle management console tool supports the following security options:

• Do not Promote Security - If you select this option, jobs are promoted without the associated security rights.

• Promote Security - If you select this option, jobs are promoted along with the associated security rights.

• Include application rights - If the infoobjects in the job inherit any application rights, the job is

promoted along with these application rights. This option is enabled only if you select Promote

Security.

Test Promote: As the last step you can test what would happen when promoting the job, without committing the

objects to destination

To promote a job you can schedule it or you can run it manually.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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You can check Promotion status (success, Failure, Partial Success)

Rollback: This feature enables to restore the destination system to its previous state, after a job is promoted.

In Settings tab, we will see different options like "Manage Systems, Rollback Settings, Job Settings and CTS

Settings"

Manages Systems: This selection displays a list of host names, port numbers, display names, and description.

Rollback Settings: We can enable/Disable Rollback Settings

Job Settings: We can restrict number of job instances that can exist in the system

CTS Settings:We can Integrate Transport Mgt Systems by using BW system/Web services system

The Override Settings option enables you to promote the overrides through a job promotion. If the overrides fail at the

destination system during the promotion of objects the system sets the job status to "Partial Success" and Failed

10976 View s 25 Comments

Greetings SAP Community,

We are in the process of working with Americas SAP User Group ( ASUG ) to plan our 2013 Webinars and would Love

to get Community feedback on what you would like to see presented as part of this process from your SAP Support

Teams. Whatever topics are generated we will ensure they are shared Globally so all may benefit.

- If you have a topic you feel would be of interest please add your comments below for consideration.

- Could be a common pain point or a part of the product area you don't feel is documented well enough for you to be

successful.

Crowdsourcing Our 2013 ASUG Webinar Planning forSAP BOBJ

Posted by Christopher Vozella Oct 24, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 37/44

2012 Sessions:

Thank you all for the wonderful topics and ideas. Based on the feedback we will use this list below to keep track of

the planned topics. We have had some excellent Community feedback to Co-Present on these so we thank you!

Anything we can do together will be more impactful and provide a great Community feel.

2013 Planned Topic Planned Presenters

BI4 Calculation Engine Strikes Back Coy Yonce, EV Technologies - Carly Thomas, SAP

BI4 Backup & Recovery Raphael Branger, IT-Logix - Shiva Vishnubatla, SAP

BI4 Dashboards Best Practices & Optimizations Amit Mathur, SAP

BI4 Mobile Best Practices Dave Mau, SAP

BI4 Maintenance Best Practices Chris Vozella and Saroj Parmar ; SAP

1320 View s 22 Comments Tags: businessobjects, hana, crystalreport, explorer, dashboards, analysis, w ebi, lcm

Hi Techies,

I got a chance to summarize the monitoring and housekeeping activities performed by

businessobjects Administrators and am sharing the same here.Below activities needs to be

performed at regular intervals as specified below to keep the BusinessObjects platform optimum,

error free and stable. Daily: · Monitoring BO servers running with optimal performance

· Monitoring all the related CMS, Audit and Reporting Database services

· Verifying Web applications (CMC, Infoview, Custom Applications) availability

· Monitoring day to day scheduled report jobs from Instance Manager

· Supporting issues for Business users

· Monitoring the size of the below Business objects Installation Folders

o Logging

o Data

o FileStore

· Managing BusinessObjects backup preferably Cold backup during off business hours.

BusinessObjects Monitoring and Housekeepingactivities

Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Oct 22, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 38/44

Backup Type Backup Contents Applicability

Full Content backup Central Management Server (CMS)

System Tables

Used for Full

Content recovery

Auditing Tables

File Repository Server (FRS)

Local audit log files

Custom SDK applications/code

Database Connections (ODBC DSNs)

Any Application/Server specific

configuration document

BIAR Backup .BIAR Backup Used for

selective content

recovery

Weekly:

1. Scan / Repair and Compact all repository errors

2. Delete the contents under the Local host folder in order to clear Tomcat Cache

3. Delete contents under the Data Folder in order to clear Web Intelligence Cache

4. Delete contents under the Logging Folder to clear log files generated

5. Delete empty folders within File Store Using RDT (Repository Diagnostic Tool) Fortnightly

1. Testing the availability of all Universe connections to respective Databases

2. Regular BO repository Maintenance like Cleaning Orphaned

Connection/Universe/Documents

3. Running Integrity Checks on Universes to ensure parsing (Syntax/Semantic Checking)

4. Discuss performance issues with DBA identified from auditing reports Monthly:

1. Monitoring BO Licenses and managing license from named to Concurrent and Vice versa (If

applicable).

2. Restart Web Application Server

3. Restart Server Intelligent Agent (SIA) Feel free to add some more valid points if any, so that everyone will get benefit out of it.

Thanks for Reading!

11856 View s 27 Comments Tags: businessobjects_housekeeping, businessobjects_server_maintainence

Hello Techies,

Some of the Query builder queries to explore the BusinessObjects repository. This will be handy

for those who searching for Query Builder Queries.

General Queries

BusinessObjects Query builder queries

Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Oct 11, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 39/44

To get BO Repository Information SELECT * FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS WHERE SI_ID=4

To get BO File Repository Server Information

SELECT * FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND = 'SERVER' AND SI_NAME LIKE '%FILEREPOSITORY%'

To get the all the public folders (Non System Folders)

SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_PARENTID=23 AND SI_NAME!='REPORT CONVERSION TOOL' AND

SI_NAME!= 'ADMINISTRATION TOOLS' AND SI_NAME!= 'AUDITOR'

WebI Report queries

To list all the WebI reports with prompts SELECT SI_ID, SI_KIND, SI_NAME, SI_PROCESSINFO.SI_HAS_PROMPTS,

SI_PROCESSINFO.SI_WEBI_PROMPTS, SI_PROCESSINFO.SI_FILES,

SI_PROCESSINFO.SI_PROMPTS FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND = 'WEBI' and SI_INSTANCE = 0 and

SI_PROCESSINFO.SI_HAS_PROMPTS=1

To extract all the report names from specific folder

SELECT SI_ID,SI_NAME,SI_PARENT_FOLDER,SI_FILES

FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND = 'WEBI' AND SI_INSTANCE = 0 AND SI_ANCESTOR = [SI_ID OF THE FOLDER]

To get Reports those are spanning multiple universes SELECT SI_ID, SI_KIND, SI_NAME FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_UNIVERSE.SI_TOTAL>1

Scheduled reports queries

To list all the events and corresponding event file location

SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_FEATURES FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS WHERE SI_KIND= 'Event'

To list all Scheduled reports based on event

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_SCHEDULEINFO FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_RUNNABLE_OBJECT = 1 AND SI_SCHEDULEINFO.SI_DEPENDENCIES.SI_TOTAL > 0

To list reports those are not scheduled

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_OWNER, SI_AUTHOR, SI_SCHEDULEINFO, SI_PARENT_FOLDER

FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND = 'WEBI' AND SI_CHILDREN = 0 AND SI_SCHEDULEINFO.SI_SCHED_NOW = 0

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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To get the list of all reports scheduled daily excluding Paused

SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_SCHEDULEINFO.SI_SCHEDULE_TYPE,

SI_SCHEDULEINFO.SI_SCHEDULE_INTERVAL_NDAYS, SI_SCHEDULEINFO.

SI_SCHEDULE_INTERVAL_NTHDAY, SI_SCHEDULEINFO. SI_SCHEDULE_INTERVAL_MONTHS

FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_SCHEDULE_STATUS !=8 AND SI_RECURRING = 1

To get the list of reports scheduled by a particular user

SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS

WHERE SI_OWNER = '<USER NAME>' AND SI_RECURRING = 1

Universe queries

To Show count of reports per Universe

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_WEBI FROM CI_APPOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND='Universe' AND SI_WEBI.SI_TOTAL > 0

To retrieve all Web Intelligence reports connected to a Universe

SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS, CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS, CI_APPOBJECTS

WHERE PARENTS("SI_NAME='WEBI-UNIVERSE'","SI_NAME =’EFASHION’")

To Show all universes using a specific connection

SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_OWNER FROM CI_APPOBJECTS

WHERE CHILDREN("SI_NAME='DATACONNECTION-UNIVERSE' ", "SI_NAME='TEST'")

To list all Webi reports that uses the connection (multiple universes)

SELECT * FROM CI_APPOBJECTS, CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE PARENTS("SI_NAME='WEBI-

UNIVERSE'", "CHILDREN('SI_NAME=''DATACONNECTION-UNIVERSE'' ', 'SI_NAME=''TEST'' ')") AND

SI_KIND='WEBI'

User/UserGroups queries

To find the number of users in a group

SELECT SI_NAME,SI_GROUP_MEMBERS FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS

WHERE SI_KIND = 'USERGROUP' AND SI_NAME='ADMINISTRATORS'

To extract all the users from specific user group

SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_KIND, SI_USERGROUPS FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS

WHERE DESCENDANTS("SI_NAME='USERGROUP-USER'", "SI_NAME='ADMINISTRATORS'")

Hope the above queries might be useful to those who start digging in to Business Objects

repository.

Query Builder Blog series Basics

BusinessObjects Query builder - Basics

BusinessObjects Query builder – Best practices & Usability

Sample Queries

BusinessObjects Query builder queries

BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part II

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 41/44

BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part III

BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part IV

BusinessObjects Query builder – Exploring Visualization Objects

Use cases

BusinessObjects Environment assessment using Query builder

BusinessObjects Environment Cleanup using Query builder

BusinessObjects Query builder – What's New in BI 4.0

48290 View s 125 Comments Tags: businessobjects_querybuilder_queries, businessobjects_repository

Adrian Westmoreland and Radim Bacinschi of SAP provided this BI Auditing ASUG webcast last month. Because it

was a long webcast, I will break this up into more than one blog. Overall this was a great webcast, almost like an

education session.

Agenda:

Obtain an understanding of BI platform auditing changes in BI4 release

Explore the system usage analysis capabilities of BI platform

Learn how to analyze, manage and BI deployments via auditing

Overview of Auditing

What is auditing?

It is a broad view of refreshes, views, edits, allowing administrators to keep a record of significant events in the BI

platform. These records give administrators a picture of what is being accessed, how it is being accessed and

changed and who is performing these actions

Figure1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows primary uses of auditing in BI – one is regulation, healthcare and HIPPA

Examples of why you would enable auditing are shown in Figure 1

Demystifying Auditing in Business Intelligence - anASUG Webcast, Part 1

Posted by Tammy Powlas Sep 18, 2012

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 42/44

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows auditing enhancements in BI4.

Adrian and Radim said they accepted feedback from ASUG and other interest groups, including simplifying

configuration, with a single page to control auditing.

Schema is more meaningful for analysis.

Figure 3 Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows a server such as an adaptive processing server with 2 services including search and LCM. These

services can become the auditee that generates audit events

CMS is the auditor – the central service gathering data from the auditee

Auditing database is now referred to as the auditing data store (ADS), which include events

Applications can be an auditee as well.

How Auditing Works

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

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Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows how auditing works

In step 1, an auditable event is performed by the server - as an example, a user logs on.

It is then stored in the temporary file

The auditor (CMS) will poll auditees and retrieve events from temporary files .

What happens when a service performs an action and how it is collected in the system

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows client auditing cases. In the left the client uses the CORBA connection checking the logon event client

The second case on the right the logon events are performed through an HTTP event connection

If installed correctly, auditing should be correct. Avoid conditions where the drive containing auditing data reaches

max capacity; do not delete or modify auditee files. According to Adrian, improperly configured firewalls could impact

audit consistency. For best performance create a dedicated Adaptive Processing Server for each Client Auditing Proxy

Service (CAPS), according to Adrian and Radim. To increase fault tolerance, consider running Client Auditing Proxy

Services (CAPS) on multiple machines.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=180 44/44

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Figure 6 Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows the new auditing dashboard which is new with BI4.

Radim says they actively worked with the ASUG Influence Council for this feedback.

New tab on CMC called auditing which contains one central place

The top of Figure 6 shows a status summary

You can enable/disable event details; in the past you could not do that

Configuration is in the lower left and configuration is in one central space.

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To be continued...in a future blog

If you are not an ASUG member, there are several upcoming webcasts open to all:

September 26: SAP Business Objects BI Platform product road maps - see more information here

October 2: How to Select the Right BI Tool - register here

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