Using OpenDocument to Enhance Your Dashboards

7/25/2019 Using OpenDocument to Enhance Your Dashboards

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September 911, 2013

Anaheim, California

Using OpenDocument to Enhance Your Dashboards

Brian Reed, Claraview


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Who Am I?

Brian Reed: Senior Consultant I

Company: Claraview, a division of Teradata

Joined Claraview in January 2011

Currently residing in Richmond, VA

Been using Crystal Reports and Business Objects since 2000

BOCPCrystal Reports 2008


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Learning Points

Understand what OpenDocument is

Learn what options are available to you to use in yourOpenDocument calls

See how to leverage OpenDocument in your SAP Dashboards to

provide your users with a better dashboard experience


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What is OpenDocument?

Deployed web application within BusinessObjects Enterprise (BOE)

Processes URL requests for content within the CMS

Content can be documents or other viewable content

Returns the request within the appropriate viewer

Direct link to BOE content

Can open content without having to navigate a folder hierarchy


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Why Would I Use OpenDocument?

Dashboards ideally are showing KPIs and Metrics small numbers

of records Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius) has had record

limitations in the past

Bringing in detail records that make up KPIs and Metrics will cause

your number of records to increase greatly An overloaded dashboard will perform slow, which is not ideal

OpenDocument allows the developer to display detail data in a

WebI document or Crystal Report, and not directly in the

dashboard

Detail reports are called when needed via the OpenDocument call


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What Can I Use OpenDocument for?

Provide a link to BOE managed content from outside the system

Link from one BOE document to another

Jump from one Dashboard to another

Connect from a Dashboard to a WebI or Crystal Report


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OpenDocument

Syntax and

Parameters

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OpenDocument Syntax - Introduction

The basic syntax:

http://:/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?&&...&

Variable items are denoted inside of angle brackets

Your systems server name and port # needed to used instead of

:

Parameters1 through ParameterN are place holders for additional

parameters that can be used to control how and what is returned


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OpenDocument Syntax Considerations

No spaces in your URL!

Use a plus sign (+) in place of spaces if there is a space in one ofyour parameter values (ie. sDocName=Charting+Samples)

Ignore trailing spaces

Use an & between each parameter=value set

Connect parameter names and values with an equal sign (=)

Capitalization is VERY important

sdocname is not valid

sDocName is valid Use the HTML target parameter if you want the document to open

in a new window (ie. target=_blank)


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OpenDocumentDocument Identifier Params

You must use either iDocID or sDocName to reference which

document is to be opened iDocID is the preferred parameter to use since IDs are unique

within BOE

sDocName works as well but document names are not always

unique *I recommend using iDocID to avoid potential problems down the

road as your system gets bigger


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OpenDocument - Document Identifier Params

There are two valid values for iDocID

InfoObject ID

CUID

http://:/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDo

cument.jsp?iDocID=4767

If you use the CUID, you must all also use the sIDType parameter


cument.jsp?iDocID=AW4AVT1AUhVAogA6P7OQv9c&sIDType=CUI

D


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In InfoView/BI Launchpad, look at the Properties of the report

that you want to link to.

ID is 4770

CUID is AW4AVT1AUhVAogA6P7OQv9c


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sInstance

Optional parameter

Allows for call to an Instance of a Document

Values

UserLast instance for current user

LastLatest instance

ParamLatest instance with matching WebI or Crystal Reports

parameters passed.


cument.jsp?iDocID=4767&sInstance=Last


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OpenDocumentInput Parameters

lsS[NAME]

Optional parameter but required if document needs it

Specifies a value for a single prompt

Substitute [NAME] with Parameter/Prompt name

Values

A single prompt value

no_value for an optional prompt

http://:/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?iDocID=4767&lsSCountry=USA


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lsM[NAME]


Specifies multi value parameter


Values

Multiple values separated by commas


http://:/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?iDocID=4767&lsMCountry=USA,Mexico,Canada


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lsR[NAME]


Specifies range value parameter


Values

Range values separated by double period (..)


Crystal requires [], Webi does not

http://:/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?iDocID=4767&lsRDateRange=[Date(2013,1,1)..Date(201

3,6,30)]


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sRefresh

Optional parameter

Forces document refresh

WebI Refresh on Open parameter will supersede this parameter

ValuesY or N


cument.jsp?iDocID=4767&sRefresh=Y


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sReportName

Optional parameter

Specifies which tab to show on open in a WebI report

Handy to use when you want a particular tab to show when there

are more than one tab in the document


cument.jsp?iDocID=4767&sReportName=Report+2&sRefresh=Y


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OpenDocument

Integrating

Into Your

Dashboard

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Determine how the user is going to access the WebI or Crystal

Report. Is there a requirement? Options Could Be:

URL Button to be clicked on manually

Clicking on a slice on a Pie Chart or a bar in Column Chart

Does the document require parameters to be passed?

Should the report/document open in a new window or the

existing one?

Dashboard Integration - Considerations


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URL Button can be set up to be clicked directly or invoked by the

change of a cell value URL value should be built dynamically in Excel model

Button can be visible or hidden

Useful for document that has 0 parameters

Dashboard IntegrationURL Button


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Nice way to allow the user to interact with the Chart

User can click on a slice or column to launch the report

Chart actually is configured to insert the selected row value into

another cell

A URL button is added and hidden

URL button is configured to fire off click event on the change of

the cell that the selected chart row was placed in

Selected chart value can be passed to the report as a parameter

to tailor the report data to be specific to that value

Dashboard IntegrationPie Chart/Column Chart


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Filter Objects

Combo Boxes

Gauge with URL button layered on top

Use your imagination!

Dashboard IntegrationOther Options


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Break the URL out into different cells in Excel

Reuse pieces if you have more than one OpenDocument call

Create some logic to toggle between a direct URL and relative one

Use relative URL in Production

Important in a load balanced environment

Saves modifications when migrating to a new version

Use the Excel Concatenate function to create the full URL for each

OpenDocument call that you need

Dashboard IntegrationBuilding the URL


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OpenDocument

DEMO

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Avoiding data crammed into your Dashboards will make them run

more efficiently and make your users happier Using WebI and/or Crystal Reports for detail data makes for a

better presentation of large amounts of data

Dashboard development time is reduced by limiting your

dashboard to just KPIs and Metrics

Return on Investment


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Use iDocID when specifying which document you want

Leverage relative URLs in your Excel model to avoid problemswhen migrating between Dev/Test/Prod or when upgrading

Keep the volume of records to the minimum in your Dashboard

Use WebI and/or Crystal Reports to display detail data when

needed

Build parameters into your reports and pass values to them to

tailor the report output

Best Practices


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OpenDocument is great tool to provide ways to provide detail

behind KPIs in your dashboard Dashboards work more efficiently with less data in them and

linking out to detail reports works well with this model

WebI and Crystal Reports handle large amounts of data better

than Dashboards

Key Learnings


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Questions?

Contact Info:

Brian Reed

[email protected]

and Finally
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Using OpenDocument to Enhance Your Dashboards

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