Hi there,

I am a new entry into SAP BIW...I am interested in knowing what the suite is. Would like more information on the following lines.I have a set of questions also. It will be most helpful if anyone puts some technical light on these questions. Thanks in advance.

A) REPORTING :
==============================

1. The BEx Analyzer brings in the following basic questions :
a) Is it good enough??
b) Can it compete with BO, Cognos, Microstrategy, ,Brio, SAP BIW ... If so how is it ???What are the differences.
c) Is it more powerful than crystal reports,excel, access...
d) What are the pros and cons of tool.

2. Does the *.xls report store data of the entire quiery or does it store the view.

3. Offline processing is not possible since the OLAP processor at the server side does the processing. IS THIS TRUE.

4. No Drill down (OLAP analysis to next level ) and Drill(Roll) up feature.IS THIS TRUE. IS IT POSSIBLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WITH CODING??

5. Can one report be linked to a completely different report with passage of variables from the first report, which is opened by
clicking on a cell. Basically Drill Through. DOES THIS NEED CODING??

6. Is it possible to drill without altering the report i.e. I could display a list of my products followed by a number of measures, I
could then see how the measures change through different restrictions placed higer up the hierarchy - Basically Drill by I could choose to restrict by region, promotion etc DOES THIS NEED CODING??

7. The Slice and Dice feature that is available is not flexible (no drag and drop, have to go to quiery pane) when compared
to the third party tools.

8. Can usage of filtering, conditional formatting and alerts, sorting, grouping etc. be performed. WHICH OF THESE NEED CODING

9. Is it possible to conditionally hide a row based on a prompt without filtering. Ex : If my prompt says show totals, then only the row containing totals should be shown. DOES THIS NEED CODING

10. The reports generated by Business Explorer Analyzer is available only in *.xls format. This has an added limitation in that the *.xls document can be easily edited, knowingly or unknowingly, hence making the report insecure.

11. Can data from a report be used as a source for generating another report.

12. Is SAP BIW aggregate aware.

13. Is there any SDK for customisation.

14.
a) Is it possible to use User defined variables in reports.
b) Should the user defined variable be defined in the report or in the BIW and r these possible:
c) Conditional operators (if... else) support in user defined variables in reporting layer.
d) Utilitzing prompt value in "User defined variable" calculation
e) Using one "User defined variable" in a calcuation of another.
WHICH OF THE ABOVE NEEDS CODING.

15.Is it possible to use Prompts. If so are the following functionalities avalable:
a) Cascading Prompts
b) Prompts independent of filtering
c) Prompts capable of displaying one item (Product Name) and passing other (Product Id).
d) Usage of wild card search in Prompts WHICH OF THE ABOVE NEEDS CODING.

16. Can multiple individual queries be used in a single report.

17. Can the user view and edit the query generated.

B) USING THIRD PARTY "BUSINESS OBJECTS" OLAP TOOL :
===============================================
1. Does this enforce that BO with its "Connect" has to quiery thru BEx Analyzer. Or can it directly access the star schema of SAP BIW.
2. Do the other tools (Cognos, Brio) etc. behave the same way?

I guess it is a very vast set of questions. But I also know that true technicians love to answer those. Any further information is most welcome.....
 

Reply : Subject : Reporting capabilities of SAP BIW

I don't understand what r u trying to get here????? Are u asking a question (sorry 19 questions!!!!) or just want somebody to type in and send the whole BW manual???? I think this discussion group is for troubleshooting and solving problems and not for training ..... So I suggest you take some BW classes (specially on Reporting) and you may also go to SAP/bw website to
learn......

I hope this helps.... I am not being mean! but this is just not practical way of getting help. Good luck.
 

Reply : Subject : Reporting capabilities of SAP BIW

Hi,

I completely agree.

You are really really serious abt the answers, attend the SAP Training courses, TABW10 and TABW20. TABW30 may not add much value to you, as viewed from your questions.
 

Reply : Subject : Reporting capabilities of SAP BIW

Hello,

I tried to answer for some your questions. But I dont know the level you got educated in BW. From the first question itself it is clear that you dont know anything about SAP BW. So, if u dont understand anything from my answer just forget it and follow Mr. Bala's idea.

Note to others:  If anybody found that my answer is incorrect or any alternative answers, please  let me know the same.

Thanks
---------------
Answer for your question as per the order you typed
1. a) Yes
   b) It's a reporting tool for SAP BIW (Presentation Layer)
   c) ?
2. If you save *.xls it contains only the data or report data presented by a query
3. True
4. False...It is possible to do drilldown
5. Yes possible thru R/RI....you need to create a link
6. Yes you could
7. ?
8. Yes...But you dont need coding
9. Yes it is possible
10.Actually it uses excel as a tool. It means it has been used for presentation to the user convenience. So that they can edit and store as a excel file and it's not a repository. All meta data are stored in BW server in BW meta data repository
11. See answer for the question number 5
12. Yes...certainly
13. Yes use BAPI (another example is ODBO)
14. a) Use AWB ( I believe the transaction is RSZV)
      b) ?
      c) No conditional operators. But you can perform calculation like SUM, AVERAGE, MAX ....
      d) Yes
      e) Yes
15. ?
16. Multiple queries can be used with the Excel Workbook level. That means you can insert a query in a worksheet and such a way you can insert in another too.
17. It is purely based on user roles. If u given the access, yes they can..
18. B) Third party tool access thru BAPI interface(One of its component is ODBO)

Hello. .......based on your questions, I conclude that you have the knowledge in data warehousing or you are working with other data warehousing software(s). As far as concerned with me.....SAP BIW is the robust one than any other data warehousing software available with the market. I would like to tell you one thing, most of your questions are repetitive or the answer for that are same. Anyway I tried to answer for your questions, the ? means that either I dont know the answer or I couldn't understand your question. Write me about your current job, age and position.

Hope this would help you to know something about BW

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