Going Live With Xcelsius - Options, Tricks, and Tips · Going Live With Xcelsius - Options, Tricks, and Tips Jackson Whitfield. 2009 SAP BusinessObjects User Conference 2 ... Using

Going Live With Xcelsius - Options,

Tricks, and Tips

Jackson Whitfield

2009 SAP BusinessObjects User Conference 2

Learning Points

Tips on designing an interactive, low maintenance

dashboard.

Understanding of various connection methods and security

Best practices when promoting dashboards from a test to a

production environment.

Return on Investment

Following the tips in this presentation will reduce the labor

hours spent maintaining dashboards.

Ensure data can be accessed quickly by the right people.

Give confidence in knowing dashboards released into

production have been tested and properly promoted.

2009 SAP BusinessObjects User Conference

What is Xcelsius?

A user friendly dashboarding tool

Works with Excel to create interactive visualizations that

can display data in real time

Components are mapped to Excel, but data does not have

to be contained in Excel

Allows users to perform what-if analysis

Looks really cool!

Best Practices – The Design Phase

Consider how your data will behave in the future and what

can be done to account for that.

The Design Phase

In Xcelsius, extend data selection beyond current data to

account for future data

The Design Phase

Use Ignore Blank Cells feature on charts and selectors to

suppress blank values.

The Design Phase

Notice what happens as blank values are filled in

The Design Phase

Have a company logo or some other type of image? Not

embedding the image will ensure the dashboard updates

as the image does.

The Design Phase

Add in a link to your company’s website

Design Phase

Remove the URL label and its background to create a hot

spot over the logo

PPT Note – Embedding Xcelsius SWF Files

Slides with Xcelsius swf files embedded in them must be

exported to PPT, and saved as PPT, not PPTX

The Design Phase

Have multiple charts with a changing scale?

The Design Phase - Smooth out the Display

Add an entry effect on the charts so they don’t look as

jumpy when toggling back and forth, and set manual scale.

The Design Phase - Smooth out the Display

Add a background to make switching charts appear even

more seamless

The Design Phase – Maintenance Free Scale

In Excel, use the Max function to return the largest data

point in your data range

Use the Round function on that value so your scale will

have an even max value

The Design Phase – Smoothing out the Display

Have a single value component that should be used just as

an output component? Add in a background.

Connection Methods Overview – XML data

Can load XML data directly into a Xcelsius dashboard to

display data real time.

Relies on a process to query data from the database and

return it into an XML file.

The dashboard refresh will be dependent upon the refresh

of the XML file.

Connection Methods Overview – Web Service

Uses an existing SOAP web service to connect a Xcelsius

dashboard to under lying data source.

Allows for dashboard users to be able to perform real time

queries against a data source.

Connection Methods Overview – QaaWS

Query as a Web Service works similar to the previous

method of connecting to a SOAP Web Service.

Real time queries against data source.

Difference is, using the QaaWS builder, users actually

create their own web services based off of SAP data.

Connection Methods Overview – Live Office

Xcelsius dashboards can connect to SAP data using a Live

Office connection.

Can use a preexisting Web Intelligence document, Crystal

Report, or a new Universe query.

The Design Phase – Incorporating Live Data

If we have a prompted query, we can use the selectors in

our Xcelsius model to respond to the prompt and trigger the

refresh of the query.

This can be accomplished with Live Office and Query as a

Web Service.

We will setup the yellow highlighted cell as the cell

that triggers the input to the prompted query. Pink

cells will display data

The Design Phase- Live Data - QaaWS

The trigger cell for Query as a Web Service is setup in the

connections properties.

The Design Phase- Live Data – Live Office

If using Live Office, we must first bind the prompt to what

will be the trigger cell in Excel.

The Design Phase- Live Data - Live Office

The Live Office object(s) and prompt(s) will be displayed

Choose Excel Data Range

Bind to trigger cell

The Design Phase – Incorporating Live Data

In Xcelsius the refresh trigger setup is the same for LO or

Connection Properties Selector Properties

We can manipulate the data returned for a better fit with

Xcelsius components.

Using Ignore End Blanks in Xcelsius, the 0’s will still be

plotted

Hard coding text will prevent this, and the text will be

overwritten when data exists

Best Practices – Using the Final SWF

How Live Office, Query as a Web Service, and SWF files

work together

Refreshing data

Keeping the data secure

LO and QaaWS in the Completed SWF File

SWF – Originally known as Shockwave Flash and later

changed to Small Web Format, uses a flash player to

display interactive content.

The completed Xcelsius model can generate a stand alone

SWF file which can be sent out to users via email, Infoview,

a network drive, and embedded in Microsoft applications.

Xcelsius will not be required at this point.

All components and data connections will be contained in

the SWF.

SWF will be able to show real time data.

LO and QaaWS in the completed SWF - Security

Unless viewing through Infoview, user will be prompted

when refreshing the SWF:

Must have a BO login with privileges to the Universe and

Universe connection that the LO or QaaWS is based on.

PC attempting the refresh must have access to the BO

server.

LO and QaaWS in the completed SWF – Refresh

If SWF is created with best practices, a QaaWS dashboard

can show the most up to date data each time a dashboard

user triggers the refresh.

With Live Office, the dashboard will refresh only to the

extent that the underlying report is refreshed (unless setup

with a binded prompt as in previous example).

Dashboard cannot be scheduled but the underlying document

In the underlying LO document, a last update function can be

placed so the dashboard users will know the actual time of

the refresh.

Best Practices - Promotions

Before a dashboard is deemed production ready, it should

be tested, often in a test environment.

The following slides will illustrate how to move a dashboard

that has been signed off on in a Staging environment to a

Production environment.

Focus on Live Office and Query as a Web Service.

Promotion – Query as a Web Service

Create the Query as a Web Service in the source

environment and Import it into Xcelsius.

Remove the server reference from the Web Service URL.

Build your dashboard and export to Infoview.

Once tested and signed off on, run the Import Wizard to

promote to the Production environment.

Create a biar file from the source content.

Select the following options to import.

Choose the QaaWS, SWF file, and universe.

Once the biar file is created, run the Import Wizard again to

promote the biar to the destination environment, select

same content.

No need to overwrite anything, but if you decide to, it is

recommended that you take a biar file back up of the

destination environment first.

After following the rest of the Import Wizard steps, the

SWF, web service, and universe will all exist in the

destination environment.

SWF will now refresh inside of Infoview off of production

For the SWF to work outside of Infoview, the server must

be included in the Web Service URL in Xcelsius.

Promotion – Live Office

Create a Live Office enabled spreadsheet and import into

Xcelsius.

Build dashboard and promote to production using similar

promotion steps as QaaWS.

Select the report and universe that is being used, as well as

the SWF file.

Promote to a biar and then into the Production

environment.

SWF will refresh inside and outside of Infoview.

Key Learnings

We have looked at a basic overview of connection methods

Dashboard design

Security and promoting of a dashboard

Questions?

Thank you for participating

Please remember to complete and return

your evaluation form following this session.

SESSION CODE:

Going Live With Xcelsius - Options, Tricks, and Tips · Going Live With Xcelsius - Options, Tricks, and Tips Jackson Whitfield. 2009 SAP BusinessObjects User Conference 2 ... Using

Documents

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