Upcoming Webinars

Visit www.sapdiary.com

The following is a list to our upcoming webinars… Follow the link next to the webinar date to register.

InfoBurst Webinars

November 5 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/EZpQ
November 8 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/036g
November 10 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/8ewE
November 12 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/6yYs
November 15 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/vhW2

360 View Webinars

November 4 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/hCj7
November 9 – 11A PST – http://goo.gl/CdRc

On facebook, follow InfoBurst at www.facebook.com/infoburst

Yolande Grill is the Vice President of Business Development at InfoSol Inc. I would like to think of myself as the Chief Transformation Officer. My favorite quote to ponder is one from Trina Paulus. "How Exactly does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so badly, that you are willing to give up being a catterpillar"

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Two Advantages of a Manual Maximum Calculation in Xcelsius

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T-SQL: Previous and Next Modified Date

Normally queries like this are not really solved in T-SQL; rather a front end UI like WebI is capable of navigating through the records.

However if you intend doing it in T-SQL, then here’s how we can retrieve the Next and Previous Records of a given record:

/* Create Sample Table */
DECLARE @TT table
(
ProductID int,
ModifiedDate datetime,
CategoryGroupName varchar(10)
)

/* Create Sample Data */
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 101, ’2010-10-01', ‘AA’)
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 203, ’2010-10-01', ‘AA’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 305, ’2010-10-01', ‘AA’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 101, ’2010-10-02', ‘BB’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 203, ’2010-10-03', ‘BB’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 634, ’2010-10-03', ‘BB’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 101, ’2010-10-04', ‘CC’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 203, ’2010-10-04', ‘CC’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 305, ’2010-10-04', ‘CC’);
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES ( 634, ’2010-10-04', ‘CC’);

SELECT
Prod2.ProductID,
Prod2.ModifiedDate,
(SELECT MAX(ModifiedDate)
FROM @TT Prod1
WHERE     Prod1.ModifiedDate <  Prod2.ModifiedDate and Prod1.ProductID=Prod2.ProductID ) as PreviousModifiedDate,
(SELECT MIN(ModifiedDate)
FROM @TT Prod1
WHERE     Prod1.ModifiedDate >  Prod2.ModifiedDate and Prod1.ProductID=Prod2.ProductID) as NextModifiedDate
FROM @TT  Prod2
GROUP BY Prod2.ProductID, Prod2.ModifiedDate
ORDER BY 1,2

Result looks like:

View the original article here

InfoBurst blog has a new home

The InfoBurst team at InfoSol is relocating their Infoburst2009 site to a new web address.  Visit the new product blog at infosolblog.com/infoburst

Yolande Grill is the Vice President of Business Development at InfoSol Inc. I would like to think of myself as the Chief Transformation Officer. My favorite quote to ponder is one from Trina Paulus. "How Exactly does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so badly, that you are willing to give up being a catterpillar"

View the original article here

BO XI 3.1: To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade?

As SAP announces the “ramp up” or controlled release for SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0, some companies who are planning to upgrade to BO XI 3.1 are wondering if they should now wait.

The simple answer is “no” and there are many good reasons to upgrade to XI 3.1 as soon as possible.

Firstly, BusinessObjects XI 3.1 has been the general release for a couple of years now and has proven to be a stable and solid platform. It brings a new version of Web Intelligence with the Rich Client (offline) capability with access to external data providers like Excel. It also has other features, previously only available in Desktop Intelligence, like the fold/unfold feature and stored procedure support through the universe. It adds new functionality also like the ability to track data changes between versions, contextual hyperlinking and use of drop-down selection boxes for prompts.

At the same time, XI 3.1 fully supports Desktop Intelligence reports unchanged which is quite significant when you consider that there will be no support for Desktop Intelligence in XI 4. This means that XI 3.1 will be the last BusinessObjects release to support Desktop Intelligence or the old Full Client reports.

BusinessObjects XI 4.0 will be a major new release with a lot of new functionality some of which will be available in the first 4.0 release and some which will be released later in service pack updates. It will be a 64-bit software application. It will have a new semantic layer that will combine the capabilities of the old BusinessObjects universe and Crystal Business Views and with a slew of new functionality including support of OLAP (MDX) data sources like SAP BW and MS OLAP cubes. The old BusinessObjects Universe Designer will remain supported in XI 4 for compatibility and easier transition.

There are new functionalities and capabilities in Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, Crystal and other content providers including taking advantage of the new semantic layer and universe design tool. There are two versions of Crystal – Crystal Enterprise which is new and uses the new semantic layer and Crystal Reports 2011 which is a continuation of Crystal Reports 2008. There is a new OLAP analysis tool called Advanced Analysis which replaces Voyager and there are significant improvements to Data Services and the BOE infrastructure functionality.

There will also be a new utility to move the contents of your old BusinessObjects content to XI 4. The Import Wizard is effectively replaced by this new tool called the Upgrade Manager Tool. This works for upgrades from XI 3.1 and the plan is to also be able to upgrade from XI R2 with security model changes. There is no upgrade available from earlier releases meaning you would need to move to XI R2 or XI 3.1 before moving to XI 4.

The ramp up will probably last 3 to 6 months so the general availability of XI 4.0 is expected sometime between February 2011 and May 2011. It is unlikely that the first service pack will be available until late in the year and most existing BO customers will probably not look at moving to XI 4 until 2012 or 2013 (based on previous trends).

For these BO customers still using Desktop Intelligence, there will be the added consideration and work of converting or replacing their old reports with Web Intelligence which for some may be a considerable effort and cost.

According to information disseminated at the ASUG BO annual conference in October, in addition to Desktop Intelligence, the following other existing BO XI products will be end of  life :  Voyager, Encyclopedia/Discussions and Performance Manager.

Historically, the current and immediately prior software releases tend to be actively supported for all software issues which would suggest that at some point in 2011 only XI 4.0 and XI 3.1 will be considered the actively supported releases.

Taking all of this information into consideration, it does make sense to upgrade to BusinessObjects XI 3.1 in the coming months if you have not done so already.

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

Drill in chart to different Tab

Posted on 5 October 2010 12:02 am.Femke

If you want to give your users the choice of clicking on a chart (e.g. clicking on the chart title) and then going to a specific tab where the KPI is displayed in more detail, you can use the property “Selected Item: Item (by position)” of the Tab-component and several toggle.

You can even return to the overview tab by using the same method (toggle button). However If you want your users to be able to navigate through BOTH the tab buttons and your toggle buttons, you need to set-up the “return” toggle buttons “with non existing tab positions” as source data. This as the Tab component does not have an insert selection option itself. And when clicking on a tab and then clicking in the chart (on toggle button), the position is not changed and thus it does not trigger the “Selected Item: Item (by position)” property.

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Kimono Starts to Open on BusinessObjects XI 4.0 at ASUG BO Conference

The 2010 ASUG BusinessObjects User Conference provided a lot of interest not just for the 1,100 registered attendees but also for the additional 600 attendees of the SAP Fall Focus who shared the same venue. Judging by the number of attendees in the various sessions, it appeared a large number of SAP Fall Focus attendees decided to attend the BusinessObjects tracks. The same was true in the exhibit area as many of the BusinessObjects sponsors were swamped with excited and interested customers.

This year Xcelsius dashboards shared the limelight with Mobile Business Intelligence in terms of the most popular topics being discussed amongst attendees.

There was also some buzz around the new BusinessObjects XI 4.0 release promising to be the first truly integrated business intelligence platform. While there were a few small demonstrations of some of the new XI 4.0 products in the general session, most of the other sessions stuck to slides and pre-recorded Camtasia demonstrations.  With the release moving to “ramp up” stage in November, the kimono was only half opened on some of the new features and functions. These included the new Data Services that will now incorporate Text Analytics in addition to Data Integrator and Data Quality in a single engine solution. Also, there is the new Universal Metadata Layer that not only combines Business Views and Universes but also now provides direct access to Multidimensional OLAP data sources.

Part of the integration approach with XI 4.0  is to provide common services across all the main content provider tools like Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, Explorer. These include a common query panel for accessing data through a universe so in the new Xcelsius Enterprise 4.0 developers would have access to universe objects while building the dashboard.

An updated Web Intelligence brings new charting libraries from the Explorer product and an update Crystal Reports delivers a new grid view with drag and drop on graphics capability.

Common platform services like Auditing and Life Cycle Manager now extend across all the content provider tools including Xcelsius.

SAP’s new solution for in-memory analytics, known as HANA (High performance ANalytical Appliance), was also discussed.

Once the ramp up period gets underway, we will have a better chance to more thoroughly explore the new features and functions but based on this sneak preview, there appears to be some promising new functionality in XI 4.

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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Selectors: 6 steps to Multiple Selection

Posted on 20 August 2010 10:50 am.Femke

As I get more and more request for the multiple select file I have written out below the steps to take (thus I will not send the file anymore, you can follow the steps yourself ). Also I updated the source file to use the push button instead of a second source button as this is easier to understand. I created this initially for a Web Intelligence prompt, but of course you can use it for any prompt.

6 Steps to create a multiple select:

1. create spreadsheet

place in cells A5 to A14 your labels (eg. label 1, label 2 etc)in range B5 to B14 you create the parameter labels as they need to be send through (eg. “label 1?, “label 2? etc)place in C5 to C14 a 0 (zero), these are the ‘old selection values’place in D5 to D14 an incremental number (10 labels = 1 to 10)place in D18 a reference to D2 “=D2? (one of the destination cells of the selector), using this formula reference a delay is created in the overall calculation. When instead the direct input cell is used in the cell range E5:E14 no more then 4 items can be selected before re-initialisation. Using this delay formula enables selection of all items.place in E19 the hard coded value 1 (one), this is a source value for the “new value”place in E5 the “new value” formula “=IF($D5=$D$18,$E$19,$C5)” and drag this formula through to E14place in G5 the formula “=IF($E5=1,B5,”")” and drag through to G14. This is the first part of building the WebI prompt with multiple values.place in H5 the formula “=IF($E5=1,C5,”")” and drag through to H14. This is used in the alert of the selector (enables you to see which labels are selected).Place in J5 the formula “=IF(G5=”",”",G5)” and in J6 the formula “=IF(G6=”",IF(J5=”",”",J5),IF(J5=”",G6,J5&”,”&G6))” drag this formula through to J14. This is the second part of building the webi prompt. Cell J14 is the actual prompt send to WebI.place in L5 to L14 a 0 (zero), these are used by the push button to re-initialise to the last selection.place in cell G2 the formula “=”Reset to only “&B2? (label for push button)

2. place a selector, eg.listbox with the following properties:

Labels: A5:A14Insertion type: rowSource data: B5:E14Destination: B2:E2Selected Item: Dynamicenable alertsalert values: H5:H14by valueselect “low values are good”deselect “enable auto colors”, remove 1 color and enter the value 0.5, the range minimum to 0.5 will be with a white background, range 0.5 to maximum will have a red background.

3. place a label which shows the concatenated prompt value

4. place a source data button with the following properties:

insertion type: columnsource data: E5:E14destination: C5:C14

5. place a push button with the following properties:

label: G2source data: L5:L14destination: C5:C14

6. preview your dashboard.

That’s it. Easy is it not?

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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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Add on manager is greyed out

Posted on 24 March 2010 1:33 pm.Femke

After installing Windows 7 the add on manager is greyed out in Xcelsius.

This is due to the default User Account Control settings. Change the setting to the lowest level (9) and then import the add ons. After restart of Xcelsius you can change the level back up again (or leave it).

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Xcelsius and the Object Browser

In Xcelsius, the Object Browser is your new best friend.  It stores and displays all of the components that are on the canvas and allows you to hide them and/or lock them into position.  Xcelsius allows you to design a dashboard  by placing components on the canvas.  It adds exciting visualization to Excel data– trends, what-if, projections and much more.

To add a component to a canvas of the visualization:

Open the spreadsheet that contains the data you want to use.Decide which type of component you need. ( Selectors, Containers, Charts, Gauges.)
Select the component and click on the canvas to insert the object.Use the Object Browser to control the component.Click on the eye to hide temporarily.Click on the padlock to lock the  component position on the visualization.

Once you have completed the components layout, you save it. The process of saving converts your visualization of the Excel data to an .xlf file.  Click on preview and and a .swf file is created.   This file then can be placed in a web page, PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Acrobat.

Xcelsius creates a dynamic, interactive and visual presentation of Excel data and a wow factor to your presentations!

Learn more about the Object Browser and other cool Xcelsius features in our 2-day Xcelsius class.

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Webinar Alert: Fast-Tracking your BI Career One Dashboard at a Time!

With all the new BI trends and themes evolving today, how do you keep your career on track?

We are excited to announce a free webinar, hosted by Xcelsius Guru and SAP Mentor, Mico Yuk and a surprise guest, that will provide a firsthand look at key trends and themes within the BI industry and insight on how to take your career to the next level.

During the webinar the following important topics will discussed:

1. The future of the BI Industry and how dashboards will play an integral part
2. How to navigate your career in 2011 and take it to the next level
3. How to monopolize the emerging mobile technologies

Your Next Steps:

Click here to Register!Mark the date on your calenders: Wednesday, December 15, 2010, at 1pm EST, 10am PSTAttend the webinar with your questions

We encourage anyone looking to get their BI career on track and to the next level to register today, as seats are limited. We look forward to this very exciting webinar!

Soo Tang Yuk fosters and evangelizes the ‘Xcelsius Gurus Network” and its communities. To find out more about her, please visit the About Us page.

Tags: BusinessObjects, Crystal Solutions, FleXcelsius, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius 2008, Xcelsius Webinars

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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.

View the original article here

Request post

Posted on 1 October 2010 4:53 pm.Femke

This post is meant as a request post. If you have a problem which need solving or a question which needs to be answered, just leave a reply and I’ll try to answer it.

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Difference OpenDocument Crystal Reports and WebI

Posted on 14 April 2010 9:53 am.Femke

I experienced some frustations when trying to open 2 different reports (Crystal Reports and WebI), however both were built on same universe and used same objects, from the same URL button in Xcelsius.

The OpenDocument statement for the WebI report was quickly set up, however the Crystal Reports took some time. Even after consulting chapter 3 Crystal Reports in the PDF Viewing Reports and Documents using URLs (for BOXI 3.1) I could not get it to work.

Finally I figured it out by reading several forum topics, in the end the URL was built as follows:

../../../OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?

Identifies Crystal Reports reportH stands for HTML, unfortunately in 3.1 pdf is not supported anymoreforces reports to open in new windowKeeps Xcelsius dashboard “alive”CustomerCode is name of prompt, 0019 is customer code value, note “” to identify stringfoldername in Infoview, don’t forget []identification type, preferred in OTAP streetsforces reports to open in new windowKeeps Xcelsius dashboard “alive”CustomerCode is name of prompt, 0019 is customer code valueYou 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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Tips for Emailing from Xcelsius

I often get questions about sending emails from Xcelsius. In fact, I get them so often, I thought I’d take a moment to document what I know. Here, I’ll show you how to :

Send a basic emailSend an email to multiple recipientsAdd a Body to you emailPrevent that awful Browser window from popping up when sending an email from Xcelsius.

First, you’ll want to add a simple URL button onto your canvas and go to properties:

.

To start a basic email, enter this into the URL input box:

mailto:mike@someaddress.com?subject=Email To DataPig

This will start a basic email when URL button is pressed. The email will have the To line filled in and the Subject line filled in.

If you want to send the email to multiple recipients, you can include other addresses separating each with a comma. Like this:

mailto:mike@someaddress.com, mico@someaddress.com?subject=Email To DataPig

Want to use the CC and BCC lines? That’s easy. Simply add the cc and bcc parameters:

mailto:mike@someaddress.com?cc=mico@someaddress.com&bcc=ryan@someaddress.com&subject=Email To DataPig

Notice that you will need to use the ampersand (&) to separate the parameters

OK, let’s get fancier and add a body.

mailto:mike@someaddress.com?cc=mico@someaddress.com&bcc=ryan@someaddress.com&;subject=Email To DataPig&body=I ate too much salmon.

If you need to add a multi-lined body (meaning the text of your body is on multiple lines), you can use your own carriage return encoding %0D.

To be able to use this, you will need to uncheck the “Encode URL” option. This will tell Xcelsius that you will handle the encoding.

.

Once you’ve disabled Xclesius’s encoding, you can enter something like this:

mailto:mike@someaddress.com?cc=mico@someaddress.com&bcc=ryan@someaddress.com&subject=Email To DataPig&body= I ate too much salmon.%0DNow I have salmonella.

And as always, you can dynamically build your mailto url address in Excel with formulas and simply reference it in the URL button.

So what about that nasty browser window that pops up when you send an email from Xclesius?

You can get rid of it by changing the “Open In” option to ‘This Window’.

After doing this, the extra browser window doesn’t open when you export your final SWF and HTML. You’ll still see it when you are in Preview mode, but rest assured, it will be gone when you go to run-time.

There you have it! Happy emailing!

Mike Alexander is the author of several books on advanced business analysis, including Crystal Xcelsius For Dummies. You can find Mike at Datapig Technologies, where he serves as principle contributor and shares free video tutorials with the Microsoft Office and Xcelsius communities.

Tags: Crystal Solutions, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design, Xcelsius 2008, Xcelsius 2008 Tips, Xcelsius Gurus

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Conditional Formatting in Crystal Reports

What exactly is Conditional Formatting in Crystal Reports?

Conditional formatting, put simply, is formatting  (e.g, font color, font style, etc.) applied to data that meets certain rules or conditions.  For example, the person requesting the report would like the Total Sales field to have a green background if the amount is greater than $5000.

But how is this conditional formatting magic done?

Select the field to be formatted.Right-click and choose the border tab – background color is in the center of that tab.Do not click in the color checkbox, rather click on the X+2 box directly to the right of the background color. The Formula Editor will open.In the Operators column choose Control Structures for the If Then Else.Double-click to bring that down to the work area. At the top of the functions column, you’ll see two new categories associated with formatting text/numbers: Formatting FunctionsColor ConstantsNow the tricky part: you have to construct a formula. I’ve included a couple of examples below.if Sum ({Orders.Order Amount}, {@GroupSort})>5000 then crGreen else crNoColor

Note that the colors are preceded by cr in lower case – Crystal Reports needs this, so do not enter a color name without it.  Also note that the else argument is followed by crNoColor.  The else could also be followed by DefaultAttribute, like so:

if Sum ({Orders.Order Amount}, {@GroupSort})>5000 then crGreen else DefaultAttribute

The results would be the same but the second formula would revert back to whatever the formatting color was that did not meet the condition. Of course, the formulas could be much more complex but the logic remains the same.  If the formula returns true do this othewise do something else.

Happy formatting!

We cover conditional formatting in our Introduction to Crystal Reports class.

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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.

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Open document link in new window while dashboard does not re-initialise

Posted on 9 April 2010 4:31 pm.Femke

When you connect an OpenDocument statement to a URL button in Xcelsius and you apply the option New Window in the button properties, a new window is opened to show your WebI report (or Crystal report for that matter). However the report is not actually opened in that window, it is opened in your dashboard window, thus after closing or going back it forces the dashboard to reload again.

Solution:
add the following commands to the opendocument url:
sWindow=New&isApplication=true

the first command forces the link to open in a new window, the second command keeps your dashboard in the state it is in.

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Upcoming Event – ASUG Arizona Chapter – October 29, 2010

 Paul Grill from INFOSOL will be presenting Xcellent Xcelsius at the upcoming meeting of the ASUG Arizona Chapter. 

Date: Friday, October 29, 2010
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Intel
5000 W. Chandler Blvd. Building CH3, Conference Room
Chandler, AZ 85226 – 112 

For complete information about this meeting refer to your Arizona Chapter Quarterly Update email.

Arizona Chapter Discussion Forum

Yolande Grill is the Vice President of Business Development at InfoSol Inc. I would like to think of myself as the Chief Transformation Officer. My favorite quote to ponder is one from Trina Paulus. "How Exactly does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so badly, that you are willing to give up being a catterpillar"

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Possible Waterfall charts in Xcelsius

Posted on 1 October 2010 10:44 am.Femke

In Xcelsius a waterfall charts is not default available, however with a little imagination you can create one from a stacked bar chart. Below I have published 4 examples.

Waterfall Example 1A

Excel source

Use the columns for the series (= coloring) and the rows for the labels (= columns in chart) by setting the data range to “Data in Columns”. On the appearance tab set the Marker Gap to 0 and the Marker Overlay to 100. Apply the series coloring accordingly.
Note: remember how Xcelsius builts up the chart; from bottom up to top. If you want your bottom bar color to be white, you have to start your series with the white color data.

Waterfall Example 1B

Excel source

Same example as 1A only the less colors, thus less series used.

Waterfall Example 2A

Excel source

You want to show how your profit and loss accounts are related by showing each individual account and use the colors red and green for the contribution amount (cost = red, revenue = green).
Again use the columns for the series (= coloring) and the rows for the labels (= columns in chart) by setting the data range to “Data in Columns”. On the appearance tab set the Marker Gap to 0 and the Marker Overlay to 100. Apply the series coloring accordingly.
Note: Again the order of the data columns determines the coloring in the chart. The white amount is calculated on the basis of the total of the previous column only in case of a cost account, that cost amount is subtracted from the total.

Waterfall Example 2B

Excel source

This is based on the same principle as the previous chart only it gets more interesting as the total amount gets below zero, thus we have to deal with negative totals with a positive contribution. This can be achieved by creating extra series as the order of the negative positioned bar colors is different than when using positive bars.
Note: The coloring change in the y-axe can be changed by formating in Excel, see this post.

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