The document discusses new features in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0, with a focus on the Information Design Tool. Key points include: - The Information Design Tool (IDT) is the new semantic layer for SAP BusinessObjects and replaces the Universe Designer. It allows for multi-source universes that can connect to multiple data sources. - New features of the IDT include the ability to create derived tables directly from the interface, replace tables easily, and merge multiple tables. Dimensional and OLAP support is also improved. - SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 offers improvements like 64-bit architecture, increased performance, new applications like the Upgrade Management Tool, and changes to the deployment

1. SAP BUSINESS OBJECTS 4.0
NEW FEATURES
INFORMATION DESIGN TOOL
Dmitry Anoshin

2. Agenda
1. SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 overview (information
from http://wiki.sdn.sap.com )
2. SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Information Design Tool
new features in details
3. Example via Information Design Tool
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3. SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 overview
(information from http://wiki.sdn.sap.com )
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4. Nomenclature Changes
SNo
BO 3.1
BI 4.0
Business Objects
1
Business Objects Business Intelligence Platform
Enterprise
2 Infoview
BI Launch Pad
Business Objects Xcelsius
3
SAP Business Objects Dashboard Design
Platform
4 Universe Designer
Information Design Tools and Universe Design Tool
5 Crystal Reports 2008
Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Crystal Reports
2011
6 Business Objects Voyager Business Objects Analysis, Edition for OLAP
7 Dashboard Builder
8 Web Intelligence
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SAP Business Objects Interactive Analysis
9 Translation Manager
4
BI Workspaces
Translation Management Tool
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5. Architecture
• 64-bit Architecture.
• Native support for 64-bit Operating System for BI 4.0
server side components.
• Allows handling large reports: no more 2 GB memory
limitation.
• 64-bit database middle-ware support.
• Java Application server utilizing 64-bit JDK’s (Java
Development Kit).
• Desktop products and client tools support Windows
32-bit and 64-bit OS platforms.
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6. What’s New in BI 4.0
• Common query interface across all reporting tools built in the
Information Design Tool.
• Many new features here including multiple data connection.
• Data Federation included.
• New abstraction layer for multi-dimensional data sources.
• Native multi-source support.
• Performance enhancements with engine update.
• Crystal Reports Enterprise – online report development based on
universes built /converted in Information Design Tool.
• Installs many ERP and Portal integrations by default – recommended
to only install what you need.
• Alert information through SAP Solution Manager support which can
connect to products like Tivoli.
• CMC monitoring of servers and thresholds related to their
performance.
• New Search Engine.
• LCM (Life Cycle Management) installed by default.
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8. Improvements
1. Universe can now be sourced from multiple datasources.
2. Universe can access from MOLAP (cubes from Microsoft Analysis
Services, Essbase, Mandroin etc.) datasources directly via MDX
without having to flatten them out. Prior version, Universe can access
only SQL source.
3. More common look and feel to understand BI products, including
Crystal, WebI, Explorer and BEx.
4. Universe can now be directly accessed by the Dashboards 4.0.
5. There is a tighter integration with BW via direct exposure of BW
metadata (BW query and Infoprovider) to all BO tools.
6. Four times better performance in BI/BW in terms of API’s (which
means BW can access BO in a much faster way).
7. Enhanced virtualization support.
8. Additional monitoring.
9. A re-written auditing back-end.
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9. BI Launch Pad
BI Launch pad provides an interface to the SAP Business
Objects Business Intelligence platform repository that enables
us to navigate to view and manage our business intelligence
documents. It is a web based application from which we can
access Crystal reports, Web Intelligence documents, and other
objects, and organize them to suit our preferences. Some of
the features in the BI launch pad are mentioned below.
• Usability and Look & Feel improvements.
• Quick and easy access recently viewed
reports, instances, alerts and BI tools.
• Tab based interface for easier navigation.
• Customization and personalization capabilities.
• Role based personalization.
• Simplified deployment with one WAR file.
• Improved user interface and additional options for interface
customization.
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10. BI Launch Pad
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11. Information Design Tool (IDT)
The new semantic layer introduced in the new BI 4.0 is the largest single
change. This semantic layer is called as Information Design Tool (IDT) which is
the replacement of Universe Designer of BO 3.x. The new semantic layer
includes elements from the old Data Federator product (which presumably no
longer exists) and allows a single universe to combine data from multiple
sources. However the the old Universe Designer is also made available in the
installation pack.
• The information design tool is the SAP BusinessObjects design environment
for creating and publishing new SAP Business Objects universes and
connections. IDT is used for new multi-source universes. The information
design tool lets you take advantage of these major new universe design
features:
• Dimensional universes that support OLAP dimensions and hierarchies.
• Multi-Source universes that federate multiple relational data sources.
• A design environment that facilitates designer teamwork and universe
resource sharing.
• A security editor for universe data and metadata.
• Extended connection management.
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12. Web Intelligence 4.0
Using Web Intelligence we can perform interactive analysis with SAP BusinessObjects
Web Intelligence by creating reports based on data we want to analyze. Some of the
changes made to the previous version and new features in the current version are
mentioned below.
• End to End Self-Service BI tool covering a range of users.
• Interoperability to various products in Business objects suit.
• Combine Data from different sources.
• Significant Productivity & Usability Improvements.
• Best in-class integration with SAP BW re-use report element across documents
(Charts, Tables, Queries, Variables).
• Re-purpose Web Intelligence tables as editable office content.
• Copy as a picture option.
• You can create a chart and associate dimensions and measures in Edit mode.
• New chart types such as Scatter Bubble, Polar Bubble, Dual Axes Charts, Tree
Maps for Hierarchical Data, Heat Maps, Box Plots, Series Pie Charts, Tag Clouds
are available in the new version.
• Semantic Layer in Web Intelligence.
• Data Federator/SQL Access to DSO's.
• Access Bex Queries via BICS (Business Intelligence Consumer Services) layer.
• Common query experience across all data sources.
• Navigate and report multidimensional data.
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Improved scalability.
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13. Web Intelligence 4.0
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14. SAP Business Objects Dashboard Design
• Scalability improvements allow dashboards to reach the masses. Dashboards
will now scale in a linear fashion.
• With BI 4.0 large scale, possible enterprise wide dashboard solution for
operational employees.
• Dashboard will be multi-lingual, that involves translated static text using
translation manager and number formatting.
• Dashboards product has been simplified so that excel can be bypassed.
• Integrates the next generation universe.
• New universe object browser that will enable to link directly universe query
result objects to visualization without the need to use the Excel spreadsheet.
• Query panel in Dashboards Designer.
• Direct binding of Universe objects to visualizations.
• Prompt selector to leverage prompt defined in Universe.
• Separation of roles between data experts and dashboard authors.
• Consistent access to data between clients and across sources.
• One abstraction layer for all data sources.
• Support of BW & third part OLAP-based Universes planned for SBOP 4.1
release.
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15. End of Lives in BI 4.0
• Performance Manager
• Desktop Intelligence
• Import Wizard
New Applications in XI 4.0:
• Upgrade management tool
The Upgrade management tool is a new software component that lets you upgrade the content
of your BI repository from a previous version of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise.You can
perform a complete upgrade or an incremental upgrade. A complete upgrade replaces the
functionality that had previously existed in the Central Configuration Manager (CCM). The
incremental upgrade replaces the functionality that had previously existed in the Import Wizard.
To migrate the content of a BI repository to another repository with the same version, use the
LifecycleManagement Console.
• Monitoring
Monitoring is a new tool in SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0. This application provides the
ability to capture the runtime and historical metrics of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0
servers and applications, for reporting and notification. System administrators can use the tool
to identify if a reporting application is functioning normally and if the response times are as
expected.
• The information design tool (IDT)
The information design tool is the SAP BusinessObjects design environment for creating and
publishingnew SAP BusinessObjects universes and connections. IDT is used for new
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multisource universes.

16. Deployment Changes
• Similar deployment topology.
• Native 64bit application. Still able to connect to 32bit data source drivers if
needed.
• Default deployment is MS SQL Server 2008 and Tomcat 64bit.
• New Paths for the web applications. The application build is very different.
Full SDK not available until 4.1.
• CMC and BI Launch Pad are a single application.
• Wdeploy GUI – to help deployment and removal of web applications
• LifeCycle Manager (LCM) automatically deployed and Import Wizard is no
longer available. All report promotion through this tool.
• Upgrade Management Tool – Complete or incremental content move is
available.
• Migrate from XIR2, XI3.0 or XI3.1.
• Client tools are separate and are not included in the server installation.
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17. SAP BusinessObjects 4.0
Information Design Tool new features in
details
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18. DATA FOUNDATION
Right Click – New Derived Tables
Now you can create a derived table just
with a right click.
Right Click – Replace By
You can now very easily replace a table
with new ‘database table’.
Tables Merge
In many cases, to combine 2 or more
tables to reduce clutter or to apply
business logic that is achieved by joining
the multiple tables.
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19. DATA FOUNDATION cont
Change Table Behavior
Right click menu provides options to ‘Edit’ table names, field types and
even length. This option also lets you hide/unhide fields.
Select Related Tables
With multiple selections you would be able
to see all the relations in complex
universes.
Insert Calculated Columns
To create one simple right click on the table
and select ‘Insert Calculated Column
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20. DATA FOUNDATION end
Search
You can now search by criteria, by typing.
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21. BUSINESS VIEW
Object Properties
The object qualification to make it
‘Deprecated’
Check Integrity Panel
Check Integrity Panel has mane new
options.
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22. BUSINESS VIEW end
Security Editor
It provides a nice interface to apply security
both at the Data Foundation and the
Business View layers.
Data Security Profile allows to apply security at:
·
Connection – ability to define replacement connection
·
Controls – execution time, rows returns etc.
·
SQL – use of sub queries, multiple queries etc.
·
Rows – classic row level security using ‘where’ clause
·
Table – ability to define replacement table
Others
• Define Optional Prompt in the universe
itself.
• Define Static LOVs in the universe
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23. BUSINESS VIEW cont
Business Security Profile allows to apply security at:
·
Create Query – ability to grant or restrict access
to ‘views’ defined in the business view layer and ability
to restrict objects in the business view layer
·
Display Data – ability to grant or restrict access to
data from different objects defined in the business view
·
Filters – ability to create filters on the objects and
selectively apply them to the profile
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24. Example via Information Design Tool
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25. Intro
We are going to create Universe via Information Design Tool. For this purpose we
will use:
• SAP BusinessObjects 4.0
• MS SQL Server 2008
• Sample MS database AdvantureWorks with appropriate ODBC
For this exercise you must have following skills:
• You are familiar with Business Objects 3.1 or 2 and Universe Designer tool
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26. Exercise page 1
1. Open the Information Design Tool.
2. Click the New icon in the toolbar. Then choose Project.
3. Type a name for the project and click Finish.
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27. Exercise page 2
4. Click Windows > Repository Resources.
5. Click the green + icon and select Insert Session.
6. Type in the connection information to
connect to your CMS.
7. Click OK.
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28. Exercise page 3
8 . Right click on the Connections
folder and select Insert Relational Connection.
9. Type a name for the connection and
click Next..
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29. Exercise page 4
10. Select the appropriate driver from the
list and click Next.
11. Enter the parameters for the data
source connection.
12. Click Finish.
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30. Exercise page 5
13. In the Repository Resources pane, expand the Connections folder.
14. Right click on the connection you just created and select Create
Relational Connection Shortcut.
15. Select the project that you created earlier
and click OK. This creates a shortcut that your
project will use to connect to the connection.
16. Click Close to the popup message.
17. If the projects pane isn't already open, click
Window > Local Projects.
18. You should see your project in the list.
Expand it, and you should see the shortcut to
the connection which you have created in the
repository.
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31. Exercise page 6
19. Right click the project name and select
New > Data Foundation.
20. Type a name for the data foundation in
the Resource Name field.
21. Click Next
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32. Exercise page 7
22. Select Multisource-Enabled.
23. Click Next.
24. You will be asked to select/connect o your
repository. Type in the required credentials
and click Connect.
25. Click Next.
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33. Exercise page 8
26. Select the connection shortcut that you
would like to use and click Next.
27.Leave the defaults on the next page
and click Finish.
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34. Exercise page 9
28. Next you will create your schema. Drag
tables onto the canvas and create the
joins.
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35. Exercise page 10
29. Right click your project and select New
> Business Layer.
30. Select Relational Data Source and
click Next.
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36. Exercise page 11
31. Type a name for the business layer in
the Resource Name field.
32. Click Next.
33 .Click the ellipsis next to
the Data foundation.
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37. Exercise page 12
34. Select the data foundation that you've
created and click OK.
35. Select Automatically create classes
and objects for all connections tick-box
and click Finish.
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38. Exercise page 13
36. Right click on the business layer, select
Publish > To a Repository…
37. Click Check All, then the Check
Integrity button.
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39. Exercise page 14 (end)
38. In BI 4.0 SP01you will see lots of red
crosses in the list down the left.
39. Click Next.
40 .Click Fnish.
41. Click Close.
Now we can create report based on new Universe via Web Intelligence or BI launch
Pad.
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40. Apendix
Additional information:
1)Guide IDT
http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product
_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_info_design_tool_e
n.pdf
2) Forum about universes
http://scn.sap.com/community/semanticlayer/content?filterID=content~objecttype~
objecttype[thread]
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