dashboard reports session i -...

Dashboard Reports – Session I

Vikram Shanmugasundaram

Sourcing CLM – Center of Excellence

Jan 2012

© 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2 Internal

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Course Assumptions & Objectives

Assumptions

Proficient and comfortable with SQL and SAP Sourcing query and reporting

Proficient in SAP Business Objects Xcelsius 2008

Basic understanding of SAP Sourcing and its use

Basic understanding of MS Excel

Objectives

Gain a deeper understanding of Dashboard Reports in SAP Sourcing

Learn about Xcelsius data binding and data connections

Learn tips & tricks and best practices recommended by SAP

Intended Audience

Report Developer

Technical User involved in query configurations


Agenda – Session 1, 3rd Feb

Dashboard Report Overview

What is a Dashboard Report

Software Requirements

Relationship between key components

Xcelsius Dashboard

Xcelsius Overview

Key components of Xcelsius

Demo

Exercise

Data Mappings

Data Connections specific to SAP Sourcing

Demo of Data Mappings and Data Connections


Agenda – Session 2, 10th Feb

Dashboard Definition

What is a Dashboard Definition

How to create Dashboard Definition

Demo

Building a Dashboard Report – End to End process

Query Filters & Result Output

Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Tips & Tricks

Dashboard Reports - Overview



Terminologies

Dashboard Report

A report in SAP Sourcing that contains one or more Dashboard Definitions (created via

Reports)

Dashboard Definition

Contains one are more Query Definitions and a Xcelsius Design file (xlf) and the generated

flash file (swf)

Xcelsius Dashboard

Created in Xcelsius and contains the UI components

Query Definition

Created in Sourcing and contains the SQL and the filter parameters

Xcelsius Source File (xlf)

Contains the Xcelsius Dashboard UI layout, configuration for the embedded excel, and data

connection information components

Xcelsius Data Presentation File

Adobe Flash file that is exported from Xcelsius

Sourcing Dashboard Template

Xcelsius template provided by SAP which should be used for Sourcing Dashboard Reports



What is Dashboard Report?

Provides ability to present Sourcing data in a rich, interactive and easy to use format

Bridges the gap between data analysis and visual presentation empowering report developers to create interactive reports that can be easily used by a business user

Utilizes SAP Business Object’s Xcelsius Designer tool and Abobe Flash technology that interacts with SAP Sourcing through a XML data connection

Dashboard Report is NOT a

• Replacement for SAP Sourcing Reports

• Slice and dice tool

• Tool for rendering large result sets



Dashboard Report Usage

Workbench Channel

Document Report

Reports Page



Process Overview


Dashboard Reports – Overview

Relationship between Key Components

Dashboard

Definition Report

Reports

Page

Document

Report Refers to 1 or more

Refers to 1 or more

Desktop

Channel

Refers to 1

Workbench

Page

Refers to 1

or more

Query

Definition

Has 1 or more

Has 1 or more



What happens when a Dashboard Report is executed?

• End User executes Dashboard Report in Sourcing

• XML Data Connections defined in Xcelsius are invoked

• Sends XML data containing query definitions name and filter information to Sourcing

• Queries are executed and query results are sent to Dashboard Report as xml

• Query results in the XML is mapped to Excel sheet embedded within Xcelsius

• UI Components mapped to Excel spreadsheet are populated

• Dashboard Report displayed to the end user



SAP Software Requirements

SAP Sourcing 7.0 or higher

SAP Business Objects Xcelsius

Enterprise 2008 SP2 or above ** ** earlier versions of Xcelsius is not compatible with SAP Sourcing

** Require separate license

SAP Sourcing

Xcelsius 2008

Xcelsius Dashboard


Xcelsius Dashboard

Getting to Know the User Interface

Xcelsius 2008 is a visualization tool for

creating interactive visual models based on

highly aggregated business data sets

Point and click design time environment

The technologies that drive Xcelsius 2008

are Microsoft Excel and Adobe Flash

Player


Xcelsius Dashboard


Key Areas

1. Component Browser

2. Object Browser

3. Canvas

4. Embedded Spreadsheet

5. Properties Panel


Xcelsius Dashboard


Component Browser

Lists all the UI components that are available to add to your

model (UI)

Component Browser Categories

– Charts

– Containers

– Selectors

– Maps

– Texts

– Other

– Art & Backgrounds

– Web Connectivity


Xcelsius Dashboard


Object Browser

Lists UI components that are currently part of your model

in a hierarchical structure

Can be used to select and manipulate UI components on

the canvas

Can hide UI components on the canvas

Can lock UI components on the canvas


Xcelsius Dashboard


Canvas

Canvas is the main work area where the UI components are placed by selecting them from

the Component Browser

Size, Color and Background of the canvas can be changed

Grids can be used to arrange the UI components


Xcelsius Dashboard


Embedded Spreadsheet

Xcelsius workspace incorporates an embedded Excel Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet contains the source data for the visualizations

Embedded spreadsheet is fully functional, however, not all Excel functions are supported.

Buttons that are not related to working with data such as Save, Open, Print are disabled

Typically the spreadsheet is displayed below the canvas. This arrangement allows the user

to easily bind components to cells

Data in the embedded spreadsheet can be imported


Xcelsius Dashboard


Property Panel

The properties panel contains the setting and

format options for the selected UI component in

the canvas

Configurations such as title, labels, source and

destination data is done on the properties panel

Properties Panel contains the following views

– General

– Drill Down

– Behavior

– Appearance

– Alerts


Xcelsius Dashboard


Property Panel

General view - All UI components will have a

General view. This is where basic

configurations such as Title, Sub Title, Source

and Destination data are configured

Drill Down view - Typically used in Charts to

create drill down behavior. Clicking on the

chart can insert data into the embedded

spreadsheet which can be used by other UI

components

Behavior view – Mainly used for controlling the

visibility of the UI component

Appearance view – Formatting such as font

size, color, etc.


Xcelsius Dashboard


Preview

Once the UI components are created, it can be previewed by clicking on the

Preview button

The preview will allow report developer to interact with the model as you would

after it is published

Preview will not trigger the XML Data Connections, so the model will not contain

any data. So it might be useful to add some sample data in the embedded excel

sheet.


Xcelsius Dashboard


Demonstrate key components of Xcelsius Dashboard


Exercise 1

• Objective

o Get familiarized with using UI components in Xcelsius

• Exercise

o Download the Sourcing Template

o Create a new Xcelsius Dashboard from Sourcing Template

o Add a Canvas Container component on the canvas

o Add a List View component on the Canvas Container

o Add the following columns to the List View by mapping it to the column names on the embedded excel

Project ID

Project Name

Owner

Estimated Value

Preview and Save


Exercise 1 - Solution


Xcelsius Dashboard

Xcelsius Data Binding

Data Binding

Binding of UI components with the data in the embedded excel spreadsheet is a key step in

developing Dashboard Reports

SAP Sourcing provides a Xcelsius Dashboard template that contains the basic framework

to build a Dashboard Report

Excel spreadsheet embedded in the Xcelsius template contains the following sheets:

– Configuration

– UI

– Query 1 through 3 (more can be added as needed)

– Texts

– Messages

– SystemInfo

– Template Legend


Xcelsius Dashboard


Configuration sheet

Configuration sheet allows the report developer to define the following:

– XML Data URL

– Query parameters associated with each Query Definition

– XML Data Connections and associated Query Definitions


Xcelsius Dashboard


UI sheet

UI sheet allows the report developer to dynamically control visibility of the UI components

The Behavior tab on the UI Component is where the dynamic visibility of the UI component

is mapped

Typically 1 means show and 0 means hide


Xcelsius Dashboard


Query sheet

Every Query Definition defined in the Dashboard Definition should have its own Query

sheet

The naming convention used is Query#. For example, Query1, Query2, Query3, etc.

The template contains Query1 through Query10. Additional sheets can be added as

needed

First row on this sheet is the Query Name. This is information only. There is no logic tied to

it


Xcelsius Dashboard


Query sheet….contd

Query sheet is where the output of the query is mapped to the UI component

Query sheet contains the following:

– Source data

o Contains the results of the Query Definition and is typically bound to a UI component

o It is recommended that source data is highlighted in yellow

– Destination data

o Bound to the output of the UI component

o It is recommended that destination data is highlighted in purple

Each Query Definition should have one UI text component for potential error display

– Make sure to have enough space for long error messages. If there is not enough space for long error

messages, the error message will be trucated


Xcelsius Dashboard


Query sheet…contd


Xcelsius Dashboard


Texts sheet

Texts sheet contains localized resources for labels, titles, etc

Contains two columns – Resource ID and the Display Name (resolved value of the

localized resource)

Each UI component is mapped to one or more cells in the Text sheet

Notice each localized resource is postfixed with a comma. This is required as the comma

separated list of localized resources are passed as the String to ODP-

ODP_ResourceResolver Query Definition


Xcelsius Dashboard


Texts sheet


Xcelsius Dashboard


Messages sheet

This sheet is used to display error messages on the Dashboard Report. When the

Dashboard Report is run, and if there is an error generated by one of the Query Definitions,

it will be displayed on the UI

Typically the error message are bound to the UI components sub title or to a new UI label

Message sheet contains 2 columns – Query and Message

Each Query Definition in the Dashboard Report should be listed on separate row on the

Message sheet

If error messages are not mapped to an UI component

it will not be displayed on the Dashboard


Xcelsius Dashboard


Messages sheet


Xcelsius Dashboard


SystemInfo sheet

SystemInfo sheet contains system related information that can be displayed on Dashboard

Report


Xcelsius Dashboard


Template Legend sheet

It is recommended to use color codes to highlight content and data mapping areas in the

excel spreadsheet

The color codes is used by standard Dashboard Reports and it is recommended to use the

same color coding for custom Dashboard Reports as well


Xcelsius Dashboard

Xcelsius Data Mapping

Demonstrate Xcelsius Data Mapping


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Data Connections

An XML Data Connection connects to

Sourcing through HTTP. Typically a

dashboard will contain multiple XML Data

Connections. One is minimum.

Each data connection can send values for

one or more query parameters and receive

results of one or more queries

During runtime, XML Data Connection can

send live data such as query names,

parameter to Sourcing to request specific

information back from the server


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Adding a new Data Connection

Data Connections can be accessed from Data menu

The Sourcing Template contains one XML Data Connection. Additional XML Data

Connections can be added by clicking on the Add Connection button


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Configuring Data Connections

XML Data URL value should be mapped to the Xcelsius Servlet url on the Configuration

sheet as shown

MIME Type should be always set to “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Configuring Data Connections –

Enable Load

Configuring Enable Load with the Data

Connection is a critical step in retrieving

real time data from the query results

and populate it in the Excel spread

sheet

Query Definitions executed in the Data

Connection should be added to Enable

Load and each Query Definition should

have a name and range mapped

Each Data Connection should contain

Message and SystemInfo mapped under

Enable Load


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Configuring Data Connections –

Enable Send

Enable Send is used for sending the

data to Sourcing when a data

connection is established

Enable Send contains 2 items

– __queries – This is mapped to the list of

Query Definitions. When a data connection

is established, the Query Definitions that are

mapped to __queries will be executed.

__queries is case sensitive

– Parameter mappings for the queries that are

part of the data connection. If a Query

Definitions does not have a parameter,

mapping it in Enable Send is not required


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Configuring Data Connections

If there is a delay in retrieving the data

from a data connection, a message can

be displayed to the end user that the

request is being processed

This can be configured under the Usage

tab


Xcelsius Dashboard

Data Connections

Demonstrate Data Connections


Exercise 2

• Objective

o Get familiarized with data mapping and data connections in Xcelsius

• Exercise

o Open the xlf you created in Exercise 1

o Add Query Definition (TRAINING-DashboardReport_Ex2) to the Configuration sheet

o Create Data Connection and map it to the cells in Query1 sheet

o Map the List View’s source and target data to the cells in Query1 sheet

o Configure Text, Message and SystemInfo sheets

o Save and Preview xlf


Exercise 2 - Solution

Thank You!

Vikram Shanmugasundaram

Sourcing / CLM – Center of Excellence

© 2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 23

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