Report Bursting with SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008

(Post #3 of 3 for Reportapalooza – Focused on SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008).

The idea to write about Report Bursting in SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008 came to me on the shuttle bus on the way to the airport in Orlando after a very successful (and one shiny iPad later) ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference. The idea came by way of friend and fellow Reportapalooza expert – Brian Durning.

We were having a conversation about the “Reporting Remix” challenge and I asked his opinion on topics to discuss when writing about SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008. Brian is a highly accomplished SAP Crystal solutions expert and his immediate recommendation was Report Bursting. After some investigation, I now know why he made this suggestion. Report Bursting is a really powerful, convenient, and efficient process that minimizes the need for excessive individual report scheduling.

As the previous paragraph suggests, the inclusion of Report Bursting is one of the most anticipated enhancements to SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008. If setup correctly, this elusive feature is an SAP Crystal and BOE administrator’s dream. But if setup incorrectly, it will quickly become a DBA’s nightmare.  That’s why Report Bursting should be carefully researched and tested before implementing in a production environment. Once you’re ready, scheduling reports will never be the same (in a GOOD way).

What is Report Bursting?

Report Bursting in SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008 allows multiple groups of reports (known as Publications) to be scheduled and distributed to personalized groups of recipients with each group receiving reports containing data filtered differently. This is accomplished when the SQL statement is submitted to the database by the individual SAP Crystal Reports multiple times with different filtered values fetching different data values for each group.

This process provides the most efficient way of scheduling and distributing reports to a large number of users who require the same or similar reports but filtered by different parameters.

The reason that Report Bursting should be entered into cautiously is because of the potential impact on system resources. If the option “One database fetch per recipient” is selected when creating a Publication, the SQL statement of each report will query the database one time for each recipient. This option will almost definitely catch the eye of the DBAs if the recipient list is of significant size. But one database fetch per “batch” of recipients might be much less expensive and fly well below the DBA’s radar.

Creating a New Publication for Report Scheduling

To create a new Publication, begin by selecting a folder from the file menu in InfoView. Once you’ve done this, click New in the default toolbar and select Publication. This is displayed in the screenshot below.

Once “Publication” is selected from the list of choices, you’ll have three options when the “New Publication” window opens.

SummaryGeneral PropertiesSource Documents

In the General Properties section, give your new Publication a name, description (optional), keywords (optional), and then select the Source Documents option. Next click Add to select the reports that will become a part of the Publication that will “Refresh at Runtime”. Multiple reports can be selected as part of a single Publication.

As soon as reports are added, six new options are made available. The “New Publication” now has the following property sections.

SummaryGeneral PropertiesSource DocumentsEnterprise RecipientsDynamic RecipientsPersonalizationFormatsDestinationsAdditional Options

The “Additional Options” section contains eight different options:

Print SettingsDelivery RulesMerged PDF OptionsDatabase LogonRecurrenceEventsScheduling Server GroupAdvanced

Select the Advanced category and you’ll see settings in three different groups:

Profile ResolutionPersonalizationReport Bursting Method

The Report Bursting Methods section provides three choices for bursting:

One database fetch for all recipients (recommended for minimizing the number of database queries)One database fetch for each batch of recipients (recommended for high-volume scenarios)One database fetch per recipient (recommended when using row level security within Universes or Business Views)

Report Bursting Methods Described

One database fetch for all recipients – This option will submit the SQL statement of each report to the database once per report then deliver the data in the specified format to each recipient.  This method uses the database logon credentials of the publisher.One database fetch for each batch of recipients – This is the default option when scheduling Crystal Reports. Batches can run concurrently on different servers to reduce the load on the system (keeping the DBAs happy). The size of the batches depends on the specified personalization. This method uses the database logon credentials of the publisher.One database fetch per recipient – This method uses the data source logon credentials of each recipient as the query is submitted to the database once per report for each recipient in the publication. This option provides the greatest level of security but also produces the greatest load on the system if the recipient list is large.

Publications

In addition to Report Bursting, Publications provide an extensive set of options. Among the options that you’ll want to pay special attention to are the: Print Settings, Delivery Rules, Database Logon Credentials, Recurrence, and Events. Settings such as: Personalization, Formats, and Destinations should also be configured completely before saving and implementing a Publication.

Be sure to view the Summary option and review your selections before finalizing your Publication. You should also test your Publication before making it live. Refer to official SAP documentation for a more in-depth discussion of Publications and information regarding the various other options to configure, save, schedule, and view publication results.

Summary

After finally experiencing SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008, I am surprised at the great deal of sophisticated methods of delivering reports to users across the enterprise. Whether through the convenience of the portal , the use of automated report scheduling, or the use of personalized Publications for Report Bursting, SAP Crystal Reports Server 2008 is an excellent product for sharing information with users.

Questions? Please contact me.
Jim.Brogden@daugherty.com

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Integrating Xcelsius into Crystal Reports Series – 2 of 3

As usual, before getting started I want to provide a quick recap of where we are with the Reportapalooza competition. This is the last week of voting before the final winner is announced on Nov 22th!

Challenge #1 (Done) – Winner , Mico Yuk (Check out my Coffee Consumption Calculator)Challenge #2 (Done) – Winner, Mico Yuk (based on traffic sent to Report a Hero Page)Challenge #3 (Done) – Winner, Brian Durning (voted best Crystal Reports Video by Community)Challenge #4 (Done) – Winner, David Deitch (voted best Charity Dashboard by Community)Challenge #5 (In Progress) – What this series of blog post is about.Community Dashboard Challenge (In Progress) – Vote until Nov 12th, 2010 for your favorite community dashboard.

In Part 1 of this series I went over some Q&A on what it would take to embed your Xcelsius visualization (in this case a map) into your Crystal Report, as well as some pros and cons.   In Part 2 I am going to cover how to set up your map in Xcelsius so that it can be consumed by Crystal Reports.  For this example we will be using Google Maps (compliments of Centigon Solutions) as it much more robust than the out of box maps in Xcelsius.

1.       Install Google Maps Plug-in for Xcelsius (more details on how to do this here)

2.       Add the  GMaps Plugin to your Xcelsius dashboard

3. Configure your Excel spreadsheet to hold 2 columns of data for the Google Map: 1) Map Address 2) Map Labels

4.       Go to Data Connections in Xcelsius -> Add the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ Connection

5.       Configure the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ Connection so that the ‘Row Headers’ are bound to the  Excel cell area you created in Step #3

In Part 3 I will focus on the final step:  Bringing your Xcelsius Map into Crystal Reports.

One last thing, please don’t forget to cast your votes on the 3 dashboards that were submitted by the community to show your support.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

Tags: Business Objects, BusinessObjects, Centigon Solutions, Reportapalooza, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Xcelsius 2008, Xcelsius 2008 Tips

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Passing Data From a Parent to Child SWF (Flash Variables)

Due to performance limitations within Xcelsius, it can be difficult to build large scale dashboards that are easy to manage. Fortunately, Xcelsius comes equipped with components that makes it easier to create a single “Parent” SWF which can load multiple “Child” SWFs inside itself. Perhaps the biggest challenge with this design architecture is enabling the “Parent” SWF to communicate with the “Child” SWF.

Luckily, with the use of Flash Variables and the SWF loader component, we can easily overcome this challenge.

How to do it:

1. Create your child.xlf

2. Establish a cell where your parameter will be passed. I used cell E6 in my example

3. Access the data manager within the child.xlf and add a Flash Variables connection

4. Add a range and give it a name. In my example I named the range “salesman”

5. Select the range in which the data parameter will be passed. Cell E6 is the range in my example

6. Create your parent.xlf

7. Setup a sheet within your parent.xlf as follows:

a) Enter the URL where your will store your child.swf in cell B5

b) Enter the name of the range that you used in your child.swf in cell B7 “salesman”

c) Reserve cell B9 for the parameter that is going to be passed

d) Enter the following formula in cell B11: =B5&”?”&B7&”=”&B9

8. Add a component to input your parameter – I chose to use a list box for my example

9. Bind the output destination of your component to cell B9

10. Add a SWF Loader component to the dashboard

11. Bind the Source URL to cell B11

There you have it. Although my example is fairly simple, this should get you moving in the right direction to developing larger scale dashboard applications that are easier to manage.

As always, feel free to download the source files.

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Comparing Xcelsius 2008 Editions

Business Objects Started off Offering Crystal Xcelsius as a single edition. Later with 4.5 they came up with 2 editions, Designer and Workgroup. Starting 2008, they have significantly increased in terms of various flavors of the software. Now they have 4 editions, allowing the customers to choose whatever they want based on the Price and requirements. The 4 editions are below. Detailed Comparison here.

Xcelsius PresentXcelsius EngageXcelsius Engage ServerBusinessObjects Xcelsius EnterpriseBe the first to like this post.

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Integrating Xcelsius into Crystal Reports Series – 3 of 3

Thanks to everyone who attended the Reportapalooza “Behind the Reports” webinar yesterday!  Below is  a quick recap of where we are with the Reportapalooza competition.  The final winner will be announced on Nov 22th.

Challenge #1 (Done) – Winner , Mico Yuk (Check out my Coffee Consumption Calculator)Challenge #2 (Done) – Winner, Mico Yuk (based on traffic sent to Report a Hero Page)Challenge #3 (Done) – Winner, Brian Durning (voted best Crystal Reports Video by Community)Challenge #4 (Done) – Winner, David Deitch (voted best Charity Dashboard by Community) Challenge #5 (In Progress) – “Reporting Remix” (What this series of blog post is about).Community Dashboard Challenge (In Progress) – Voting end tomorrow Nov 12th for your favorite community dashboard.Experts Webinar- ”Behind the Reports” (Recording should be available soon) – You don’t want to miss the important tips and answered questions by the experts!

Now for a quick recap of the last 2 posts:

Part 1 – I went over some Q&A on what it would take on a high level to embed your Xcelsius charts and maps into a Crystal Report, as well as some pros and cons of both.Part 2 – I went over how to set up your map in Xcelsius so that it can be consumed by Crystal Reports.  I used Google Maps (compliments of Centigon Solutions) for this example as it much more robust than the out box maps in Xcelsius.Part 3 (the last one) – I am going to show you the  step-by-step process on how to embed your Xcelsius .swf file into your Crystal Reports.

6 Simple Steps to embed your Xcelsius .swf file into your Crystal Report!

1. Open Crystal Reports 2008 -> Click on blue icon to Embed Flash file

2. The Google Map should appear in your dashboard

3. Right click on the Google Map -> Click ‘Flash Data Expert’ to bind the Crystal Report Data

4. Drag the Label field, in this case ‘Sheet1_.Label’ into the 2nd row in the ‘Insert Row Labels’ section

5. Drag the Address field, in this case ‘Lat,Long’ into the 1st row in the ‘Insert Row Labels’ section -> Select ‘OK’. (Note: The map is now connected, so you can see the heat map data display in the preview.)

6. Voila! Your data and your map now appears in your Crystal Report.

As a BONUS, I attached the files that I used for the series.  Click here to download.

Again, just a quick reminder to cast your final votes by tomorrow (11/12) on the 3 dashboards that were submitted by the community to show your support.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page

Tags: Business Objects, BusinessObjects, Centigon Solutions, Reportapalooza, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Xcelsius 2008

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Crystal Reports: Using the Highlighting Expert

Have you ever used the Highlighting Expert in Crystal Reports? Chances are your response is no, and you are wondering what it is. The Highlighting Expert is a button on the Experts Toolbar. The button looks like this: .

The Highlighting Expert is also on the shortcut menu of the right-click. Once you choose this Expert, this dialog box opens:

Click on the New button in bottom left corner.On the right, choose the Operator for the criteria and the amount you want to highlight.Now you can change the color of the Font, the Background, and/or the Border.You can Add as many Highlights as you wish with various values, with the New button.You are able to see how it will look in the Sample area.You are able to change the Priority by selecting and using the little arrows to reorder.To remove a highlight, simply select on the left and click Remove.

Try it out, the Highlighting Expert is fast and easy to use!! It gives the “wow” to your report.

Happy Reporting!

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3 Steps in Creating Your First Report

So, you’ve been told you need to start using Crystal Reports. It’s installed on your machine and you’ve opened it.  Now how do you get started?

The good news is that you don’t need to be a programmer or a database expert. However, you will need to be aware of the business requirements
for the report, how the report will be distributed, and be familiar with the data in the database.  Assuming you have this knowledge, you can jump right in:

To begin, within Crystal Reports, indicate to Crystal what kind of a database it is and where it is stored.  You will likely need to get this information from someone else in your organization.The second step is to choose the tables that store the required data and be sure the tables are joined correctly to provide the correct records that will meet the requirements for the report.Once that is accomplished, place the necessary fields on the report and manipulate those fields to design a professional,attractive and understandable report.

When you select Print Preview, Crystal Reports  will generate the report by retrieving the records from the  database and display the requested data on the report.  It then is the time to be sure that the newly designed report meets all the business requirements per the request.  Changes to the report, additions and deletions are simple to employ. If all is good, you can then export the report to several different Windows applications or to HTML.  There is even a free Crystal Reports Viewer for those who don’t have a copy of Crystal Reports.

We provide plenty of practice creating basic reports in our Introduction to Crystal Reports 2008 class.

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Dashboard Developers Donating Time to Help Charities

On Monday October 18th, Reportapalooza introduced the entries to it’s fourth installment of the “virtual” reality show style campaign in a challenge dubbed “Dash for Charity”. In this challenge, the experts were paired with a charity to design and develop a visual model using SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius). The goal of each dashboard was to help promote and spread awareness for each expert’s chosen charity.

For me, this has been the highlight of Reportapalooza. And I’ve been looking forward to this challenge since the beginning of the campaign. I love the idea of donating my time and energies on a project that could potentially make a difference in someone’s life. Hopefully all of our dashboards will be used to help the people that actually “help people” – long after the campaign is over.

As someone passionate about education, City Year Greater Philadelphia was an ideal selection for me because of their significant work with students in the Philadelphia area. City Year corps members are real life hero’s in the lives of thousands of students every year. With tutoring, mentoring, and positive “near peer” interaction, more students are graduating in Greater Philadelphia every year!

Please take a look at every dashboard entry then vote for your favorite. All are very worthy of your consideration. Use this link to access the showcase of entries. The winning dashboard wins $1,000 for their charity – so please choose wisely.

Below is the list of entries in no particular order:

City Year Greater Philadelphia - by Jim Brogden

NPower Pennsylvania – by Brian Durning

Career Wardrobe – developed by Jamie Oswald

Academy of Hope – developed by David Deitch

Ronald McDonald House BC – developed by Mico Yuk

Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Thank you!

Jim Brogden - jim.brogden@daugherty.com

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Missing Leo Apotheker

There was a lot of trepidation amongst the BusinessObjects community when SAP acquired Business Objects in January 2008. We had all seen how Oracle had consumed Hyperion (which had, in turn, consumed Brio) to the point of losing its identity as an independent BI solution. The question was would SAP do the same to BusinessObjects?

On the day of the acquisition, I was attending a joint sales and partner meeting for BusinessObjects in Las Vegas listening to a mix of top Business Objects and SAP Executives delivering presentations to motivate sales for the coming year. There was really very little of substance until this man named Leo Apotheker took to the stage. He was engaging and passionate as he explained that Business Objects would remain an autonomous division of SAP so that it could effectively continue to sell Business Intelligence to all. He then went on to explain who SAP was and the core values of the company and how those would benefit the BusinessObjects employees, partners and product suite.  He painted an exciting vision of both the direction for SAP and BusinessObjects. I believe he impressed and inspired a lot of people in the room that day.

The global financial crisis followed later that year and into 2009 and Apotheker had his work cut out for him to steer SAP through a difficult time but he continued to push Business Intelligence to the forefront of SAP as well as actively support the Sustainability solution initiative within SAP.

So at the beginning of 2010 as we emerged from that difficult period, I was both shocked and sad to see Leo Apotheker leave SAP.  Of course, what he put in place has borne remarkable results with now more than 50% of SAP’s license revenues coming from Business Intelligence (not bad when you consider SAP was eight times larger than Business Objects at the time of acquisition) and SAP a clear leader in the Sustainability solution arena.

Leo Apotheker is now the CEO of Hewlett-Packard ( a company eight times larger than SAP – HP Press release ) and I think they are very fortunate to have such a visionary leading them. Unfortunately, we will not see how much further he could have taken SAP but, from where I sit, he certainly set them on the right track.

In searching for a picture to post on this blog, I found the following blog post from Feb 7, 2010  http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/12079/news-analysis-saps-ceo-leo-apotheker-resigns/ which has many links including one to the official SAP press release.

Paul Grill started his career in Information Technology in the U.K. in 1978, as an Executive Data Processing Trainee for Honeywell. More than thirty years later, he still has a voracious appetite for learning as Information Technology continues to advance at an ever accelerating pace. He was first introduced to the world of Business Intelligence in 1991, in France, when he saw a demonstration of an early version of BusinessObjects on Windows 2.1. He returned to the U.S. to rave about this phenomenal product, but it was many years before BusinessObjects made it into the mainstream. Paul founded InfoSol in 1997, and made Business Intelligence one of the key solutions offered by the company. Today, InfoSol is a leading SAP BusinessObjects solutions partner, known for its expert consulting, education and innovative add-on solutions. Paul is well known within the SAP BusinessObjects community for his extensive knowledge of Business Intelligence, and he has lectured and written many articles on the subject. Paul enjoys writing, running and coaching kids soccer, and is passionate about Ancient Egyptology.

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Sharing Reports in SAP Crystal Reports Server

In this post, the 2nd in a three part series for the Reportapalooza “Reporting Remix” challenge, I will describe my observations of SAP Crystal Reports Server after logging on with Internet Explorer into the Java Infoview portal.

I logged into SAP Crystal Reports Server as the Administrator and was given two categories of options: Navigate and Personalize. Beneath the Personalize category was a Preferences selection. I’ve never been the type of person to pass on the opportunity to tweak a couple settings, so I clicked Preferences. Below is a screenshot of the initial screen displayed after I logged into the system.

Preferences are available in four categories:

GeneralChange PasswordCrystal ReportsDashboard and Analytics

The General section was expanded by default and the first setting provides the option to change the InfoView Start Page. I modified this selection by clicking the option button beside Folder then browsing to the “Report Samples” folder. By making this selection, all of my subsequent logons to the SAP Crystal Reports Server will no longer display the Navigate and Personalize categories as previously described. Instead, I would be taken directly to the Report Sample folder. 
This option saves time and allows me to get right to the folder that contains the reports I’m most interested in analyzing.

Browsing BusinessObjects InfoView
The contents of the Java Infoview portal, (or BUSINESSOBJECTS INFOVIEW as it’s titled in the upper left corner of the page header), delivers Crystal Reports and other local document types to users in a similar format as Windows Explorer. Users have the ease of navigating through a folder structure on the left side of the page while viewing the contents of the selected folder on the right side of the page.
This basic style should be very familiar to anyone that has spent any time working with a PC. The simplicity in navigation seems like it would lead to a very productive user experience.

Adding Reports to the Portal
To begin sharing reports with other users, I will need to add them to the portal. Will this be difficult or easy? Should I right-click or look for something like “Add”? The answer is: either.
If you want to add a report to the portal, just click Add in the toolbar located across the top of the folder structure. After clicking Add, two choices will be available – Crystal Reports and Local Document. If Local Document is selected, you’ll have the opportunity to browse for a Microsoft Office document (Excel, Word, or PowerPoint), PDF, Text file, or other file type. If Crystal Reports is selected, you’ll be taken to a screen prompting you to select a Crystal Report. The screenshot below shows the Add button in action.

Another way of adding a report to the portal is by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Add. This option is available in the tree of folders on the left side of the screen. You can also right-click on a folders displayed on the right side of the screen to add a Crystal Report to the portal. Picture below is this example.

Sharing Reports with Folders and Categories
Reports can be shared or delivered to authorized users in either folders, categories, or both. Folders are the primary structure for storing published report objects while categories seem to work as custom views that may contain reports from different folders.

My Favorites and Inbox
The My Favorites folder in the Java Infoview portal allows users to save their own personal copies of reports. This is a great place for storing report variations or reports that are still in the development and verification phase.

The Inbox is an extremely useful feature for passing around instances of reports to other authorized users. Also, the Infoview Inbox is a common destination for sending the results of scheduled report instances. Any user with Schedule rights can send refreshed report instances to other users with a valid logon by selecting “Business Objects Inbox” as the scheduled destination while scheduling a report to refresh.

Enterprise Convenience
After spending a short amount of time with SAP Crystal Reports Server, it has become very obvious how powerful this product can be to an organization. A report developer in Mobile can create a report, publish it to the portal, and then have users in Portland, New York, and Atlanta all view it within seconds of publishing it. With this type of collaborative environment, someone in another city can see a report quicker than someone four cubicles away can walk to your desk. Now that is cool!

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Thank you!

Jim Brogden

jim.brogden@daugherty.com

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Setting Default Fonts in Crystal Reports

Tired of constantly formatting your fields in Crystal Reports?  Frustrated because you  have to do it for every report?  Crystal Reports uses default fonts provided in the database and they are not usually what you would consider attractive for your report.  You can change the default fonts so that when you design a new report, Crystal will use your preferred fonts in the new report.

Before you start your next report, take the time to set your default fonts for all future reports by following these steps:

From the File Menu, select Options.Choose the Font tab.Select each field category, select the font face and size. (For example: for Group Names, you may like Arial 12 and Bold.)Consider making the Summary Fields the same style, so the Subtotals will automatically match the Group Names.Fields are the record data, so a smaller size would be appropriate (e.g, 10 or 11).Field Titles are the Field Names or Labels that automatically go in the Page Header so you may want to Bold and Underline them.  Maybe make them a size larger than the fields.

Remember, Crystal Reports is a professional presentational reporting tool.  Your reports should appear professional, but they do not have to be difficult or time consuming for the report designer.  The main goal is to provide the correct data, but it’s nice if you can do it with a little style.

Hope this makes your reporting easier for you!!

Formatting Reports is covered in our Introduction to Crystal Reports 2008 class.

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Two Advantages of a Manual Maximum Calculation in Xcelsius

By

AmyPublished: August 4, 2010Posted in: Business Intelligence, Tech Tips, Xcelsius, Xcelsius End UserTags: Dashboard design, Xcelsius

Problem A: I have data that could be in the 1000s but sometimes could be 1 or 2.  Users do not want to see a division of 1.5 (or any part of a whole) since the data is tracking incidents and there are never “half incidents.”  How do I force the values to integers without losing the divisors for the high numbers (i.e. when there is 1000 maximum, I want to still see 250, 500, 750 divisors)?

 

Solution: Set a manual calculated maximum

{ =IF(MAX(AE15:AE26)<100,100,MAX(AE15:AE26)) } and then set the division number to 1.  With the division number to 1, it often also looks better to remove the grid lines (in case the data for the charts sometimes is much higher).

          

  Problem B:  I want to display a line chart on top of a stacked bar chart because there is no combination chart with this option.  My data for the stacked bar chart, however, is sometimes over 100 and sometimes under 100 and the extra space shifts the chart so that the two do not align.  How can I make the layered charts always align? 

 

 (Layered line chart does not line up with stacked bar chart when maximum is less than 100)

 

 (Layered line chart lines up with stacked bar chart when the maximum is over 100)

 

Note: If the charts are less than a magnitude different, the following method is a not-so-elegant-but-perhaps-acceptable workaround.  In the example above, I have emphasized the issue of alignment by making the different much greater in which case a more-involved display control of multiple charts may be the only acceptable option. 

Solution: Set a manual calculated maximum within an if() statement so that the maximum is always 100 or greater even if the stacked bar chart total is less than 100. (See above note for exception) 

 

This “fix” may not be acceptable for the right visual consumption. What may need to be done when the data is more than a magnitude of 10 different is to work with display properties for two charts with different widths based upon the maximum chart height formula instead.

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Xcelsius Will Always Be Xcelsius

So what’s in a name? Some people will tell you “everything” while others will tell you it depends on what you are naming.

Some products have not only become defined by their name but have been so successful they end up defining all products of the same type like “Kleenex” and “Band-Aid” .  Others have found out that their product name can end up portraying the wrong image like Chevrolet’s Nova car – “No va” meaning “it doesn’t go” in Spanish! The French company Bull Computers also had a hard time with its “Bull” named products in North America.  However, Bull also launched a clever marketing campaign around the ambiguity of its name entitled “Know Bull” which did get some attention.

At this year’s Sapphire, Sir Richard Branson told this great story of how when he went to register the name “Virgin” for his company in the UK, the company registration official turned it down because they deemed the name as rude. So Branson returned the next day with a dictionary showing the definition of “virgin” as being pure and they accepted it.

So I have been somewhat intrigued about recent forum discussions surrounding SAP’s decision to rename Xcelsius – their amazing and very popular dashboard product.

Xcelsius already had some name recognition when Business Objects acquired Infommersion (the original developers) in November 2005 but then proceeded to rename it Crystal Xcelsius. This resulted in a lot of confusion as people started to relate the product to Crystal Reports and thought it was an add-on to this report writer product.  So when the next major release was developed, the decision was made to drop the Crystal name and so Xcelsius 2008 came to market.

For the last two years Xcelsius has become one of the most popular and prolifically used BI dashboard products in the marketplace and its name has become synonymous with data visualization and dynamic dashboards. 

So why would you take this very well known product with such a cool and catchy name as Xcelsius and rename it SAP Crystal Dashboard Design or SAP Enterprise Dashboard Design?

Well apparently this is because SAP uses a “master brand strategy” where SAP is the master brand and the product brand name takes a back seat. 

So why not SAP Xcelsius?

Well this is because SAP also uses “descriptive naming” for all its products so in the case of Xcelsius, the back seat has been completely removed!

Since “SAP Crystal Dashboard Design” is so long, it is bound to become abbreviated. However, I doubt this will be shortened to “SCDD” since a Google search points you to the “California State Council on Development Disabilities” .  It is more likely to become “Dashboard Design” since that is the new descriptive product name.  A Google search on “Dashboard Design” comes up with about 2.5 million results starting off with Qlikview, followed by Tableau Software then Corda and SAP Crystal Dashboard Design comes in at about number 14.  Interestingly, there is little ambiguity when you search on “Xcelsius”.

Translating Dashboard Design into other languages may also prove interesting.  Xcelsius will always translate into Xcelsius in all languages and I have a feeling the name will persist. At the end of the day, it is not just the name that counts, it’s the product itself. Xcelsius is as unique as a product as it is as a name. I will never forget that day in 2005 when I first saw it and was totally blown away. Infommersion created something truly amazing and ahead of its time. It remains top of its class and, for me, Xcelsius will always be Xcelsius.

Paul Grill started his career in Information Technology in the U.K. in 1978, as an Executive Data Processing Trainee for Honeywell. More than thirty years later, he still has a voracious appetite for learning as Information Technology continues to advance at an ever accelerating pace. He was first introduced to the world of Business Intelligence in 1991, in France, when he saw a demonstration of an early version of BusinessObjects on Windows 2.1. He returned to the U.S. to rave about this phenomenal product, but it was many years before BusinessObjects made it into the mainstream. Paul founded InfoSol in 1997, and made Business Intelligence one of the key solutions offered by the company. Today, InfoSol is a leading SAP BusinessObjects solutions partner, known for its expert consulting, education and innovative add-on solutions. Paul is well known within the SAP BusinessObjects community for his extensive knowledge of Business Intelligence, and he has lectured and written many articles on the subject. Paul enjoys writing, running and coaching kids soccer, and is passionate about Ancient Egyptology.

View the original article here

Visit us at Booth 404 at ASUG SAP BO User Conference

By

YolandePublished: September 8, 2010Posted in: 360 View, Events, InfoBurst, Roambi, SAP Business Objects, XcelsiusTags:

InfoSol will be a Diamond Sponsor at the 2010 ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference to be held in Orlando. Florida October 5-7.  The conference is expected to draw an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 BusinessObjects users.

InfoSol will be leading two session tracks during the conference : one highlighting Xcelsius Customer Case Studies and the other highlighting the next generation of BI report and dashboard publishing.  We have also been invited to participate as one of the selected Xcelsius Guru companies in an Xcelsius Gurus event at the conference.

InfoSol will be highlighting many of its value add solutions including InfoBurst and 360View. Several InfoSol partners are also sponsoring and exhibiting including Mellmo the developers of Roambi and Antivia the developers of XWIS.

Be sure to stop by the InfoSol booth (#404) to say hello and enter for our raffle to win an iPad.

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Cool Stuff: Film Reel Countdown and Radar Simulation using Xcelsius

Cool Stuff: Film Reel Countdown and Radar Simulation using Xcelsius – MyXcelsius.Com div.cute_profiles_sprite{top:275px;left:0px;}//#smooth_sldr{width:550px;height:180px;background-color:#7f6d57;border:2px solid #4f4131;}#smooth_sldr_items{padding:10px 12px 0px 12px;}#smooth_sliderc{width:526px;height:125px;}.smooth_slideri{width:526px;height:125px;}.sldr_title{font-family:Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;font-style:normal;color:#ff991b;}#smooth_sldr_body h2{line-height:23px;font-family:Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:20px;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;color:#f0f0f0;margin:10px 0 5px 0;}#smooth_sldr_body h2 a{color:#f0f0f0;}#smooth_sldr_body span{font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;color:#ffffff;}.smooth_slider_thumbnail{float:left;margin:10px 5px 0 0px;border:2px solid #4f4131;}#smooth_sldr_body p.more a{color:#f0f0f0;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;}#smooth_sliderc_nav li{border:1px solid #ffffff;font-size:12px;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}#smooth_sliderc_nav li a{color:#f0f0f0;}.sldrlink{padding-right:25px;}.sldrlink a{color:#ffffff;}MyXcelsius.ComVisual Data Analysis, Information Dashboards and Related Technologies

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by Kalyan Verma. TweetShareEmailTweetShareEmail

Inspired by Joshua Tapley’s UFO tracker, I’ve tried my hand at creating this cool animation using Xcelsius. I will be posting the source code soon, however, I would like to hear from you all on your own “approach and take” on creating such an animation using out of box Xcelsius components.

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Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Several years ago, I saw an exhibition of surrealist paintings in Paris including works by Salvador Dali and Joan Miro. I found the Dali paintings visually stunning as well as fascinatingly compelling whereas I had a hard time understanding the Miro ones. Others, who were with me, expressed the complete opposite opinion and loved the Miro work but had little time for the Dali pieces.

We all have different likes and dislikes to visual images whether they are paintings, cars or even business intelligence dashboards. I can personally testify to the dashboards since our company has developed over 400 of them in the last four years and they come in all shapes, sizes and visual tastes. I remember one particular dashboard that we developed for a transportation company that I thought was very visually stunning and provided multiple levels of drill down and some very powerful “What if?” scenarios. While the manager at the company also liked it a lot, his director felt it was not stunning enough and wanted different colors and more 3-D components. They both felt the dashboard met their functional needs but for the look it really just boiled down to a matter of personal taste.

The beauty of a dashboard tool like Xcelsius is that it allows you to design and cater to all these different tastes. You have a wealth of components, colors, themes and templates available and, if this is still not enough, you can develop your own.

While some people prefer simple dashboards with clear sharp components, others may prefer a more complex and richer look. If you do not like pie charts and certain colors, you do not have to use them.

Dashboard design is an art but the key to designing an effective, as well as a visually pleasing, dashboard is not to read books about the subject and it is also not to hire a graphic artist. The key is to sit down with the people who are going to be using the dashboard and to understand what they want to see and how they want to view and interact with it. While this may sound too simplistic, it is not. Of course, there can be room for visual enhancement and “cool” features but only if they serve a purpose.

There are many dashboard products on the market today that provide limited views and components so that you often have to force fit your requirements into what is available within the product. Xcelsius, on the other hand, allows you to design and create dashboards in an almost infinite number of ways and you are only limited by your imagination (or your user’s requirements).  As to how they look, it is doubtful you will ever please everyone but remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For a gallery of Xcelsius dashboards designed by INFOSOL and defined by customers, visit INFOSOL’s Dashboard Gallery

Paul Grill started his career in Information Technology in the U.K. in 1978, as an Executive Data Processing Trainee for Honeywell. More than thirty years later, he still has a voracious appetite for learning as Information Technology continues to advance at an ever accelerating pace. He was first introduced to the world of Business Intelligence in 1991, in France, when he saw a demonstration of an early version of BusinessObjects on Windows 2.1. He returned to the U.S. to rave about this phenomenal product, but it was many years before BusinessObjects made it into the mainstream. Paul founded InfoSol in 1997, and made Business Intelligence one of the key solutions offered by the company. Today, InfoSol is a leading SAP BusinessObjects solutions partner, known for its expert consulting, education and innovative add-on solutions. Paul is well known within the SAP BusinessObjects community for his extensive knowledge of Business Intelligence, and he has lectured and written many articles on the subject. Paul enjoys writing, running and coaching kids soccer, and is passionate about Ancient Egyptology.

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How to display KPI’s using an Accordion menu in XCelsius

Posted by Hemanta Banerjee on March 26, 2010

One of the questions that came up in the forums the other day was how to display multiple KPI’s for a set of years using the accordion menu. It was further complicated by the fact that some of the KPI’s were absolute figures such as sales and the other KPI’s were percentages such as growth rate.

Seemed like a good problem to solve and I had some free time today, so thought if tackling this. The dashboard looks like follows

What is cool about this is Y axis reflects the nature of the KPI. For sales and Inventory it will show in $’s and for others the axis shows % values. There is a little trick that I used for and I will share it in a later part of this document.

Let us start with the basics. In order to build an accordion style dashboard we need the data in a particular format. The screenshot of the excel file I started out with is below.

For each year I am capturing the trend for the KPI’s. I could have arranged the excel the other way around as well and it would have still worked. Once I have the data I just need to drag and drop the accordion menu and the graph from the pallete and I can be off and running.

For the accordion menu the settings are simple enough. See below

I have set the insertion type as column, which essentially means that when the user selects one of the KPI’s from the menu, the entire column for that year is copied and inserted into the destination (cells C88:C100).

And I also bind each of the years with the category as the source data.

Essentially when the user picks the category, XCelcius knows which data block to go to. Then when the user clicks on the specific KPI, the data for all the months for the KPI is copied to the target.

The chart reads from the target and displays the results. If all the KPI’s had the same scale then that’s all I would need to do.

In my case there is an additional level of complexity. I have KPI’s with very different scales and the chart does not display those correctly (not sure if that’s the way it is supposed to behave). To solve that problem I did a little trick… Instead of

Instead of 1 chart, I have 2 charts… and I set the dynamic visibility of the charts to be driven based on the KPI selected.
I have 2 sections in excel, one to display % values and another to display absolute values and I drive the charts from different sections. Since the accordion can only fill one section, I have used formulas to populate the data in the 2nd region.

Now I define a flag using an excel formula

=IF((C88 = “Sales”), 1,IF((C88 = “Inventory”),1,0)) that controls which chart will be displayed.

Using this approach I am able to hide one chart, and show the correct chart based on the selection. Not sure if there is a better way, but this works J

You can get the XLF file at http://www.box.net/shared/gg9f6lnh90

This entry was posted on March 26, 2010 at 5:37 pm and is filed under XCelsius, BusinessObjects. Tagged: XCelsius, BOE, BusinessObjects, Visualization, Accordion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Integrating Xcelsius into Crystal Reports Series – 1 of 3

Before getting started, I want to provide a quick update on the Reportapalooza competition:

Unfortunately, I fell a bit behind while attending 2 SAP Conferences back to back this month.  Sorry if I let anyone down but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the support.  I also want to give a huge CONGRATS to our current leader David Deitch who is an Xcelsius beginner turned Guru in this competition!

Now to Challenge #5.  Labeled the ‘Report Remix’ challenge, I am tasked with learning more about Crystal Reports 2008 and sharing it with YOU the community, hence the ‘remix’ which is to take you on the journey with me of learning a new Crystal product .  Below is my official public statement:

So let’s get started with a few simple questions?

Q. How can you integrate Xcelsius flash files into your Crystal Reports?

A. It’s a 2 step process. You first have to configure the Crystal Reports Data Consumer connection in Xcelsius (seen below) and then use the .swf button in Crystal Reports to embed the Xcelsius flash file. (More details on how to setup each will be provided in the next article)

Q. What are the Pros and Cons?

A. Pros – It is no secret that Xcelsius’ ability to handle large amounts of data is VERY limited. By embedding your Xcelsius flash file into Crystal Reports you get to leverage the power of the Crystal engine while utilizing the beautiful graphics in Xcelsius. It’s like having the best of both worlds.  In fact, in my next blog posts I am going to show how to integrate a map in Xcelsius into a Crystal Report.

A. Cons – If your not as familiar with Xcelsius you may have some issues using the ‘Crystal Reports Data Consumer’ connection. It could use some fine tuning (note to the  Product Team )

One more thing! This is your last week to submit your dashboards to the community Reportapalooza competition.  Hope you read this far down,  because if you have something worth seeing I am opening the door to review any entries that you send via email to gurus at everythingxcelsius.com and provide feedback if sent by 10/31 @ 12am EST.

Mico Yuk is a 2010 SAP Mentor and the founder of the Xcelsius Guru Network and the Everything Xcelsius blog. To learn more about her, please visit our About Us page.

Tags: Business Objects, Reportapalooza, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Xcelsius 2008

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