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Putting Mobile First…The NEW BI Priority!

Putting Mobile First…The NEW BI Priority!

TAKE NOTE(Insights into the SAP solution and technology)

The phrase “mobile first” perfectly summarizes the new priorities around business intelligence and the end-user experience. Mobile first means that when thinking about business intelligence (BI) or analytic tools or clients, the first design process is not for a PC. In the spirit of delivering compelling, interesting, and reliable mobile solutions, SAP seems to have laid out plans to make the SAP mobile experience an outstanding one.

With the possibility of a post ADOBE Flash era coming,  you might be asking “What’s SAP’s mobile analytics strategy?” The answer to that is actually pretty straightforward and consists of three analytics-specific experiences they are currently delivering or plan to deliver to their customers.

  • A structured mobile analytics experience that will bridge existing BI content with mobile devices. Today, SAP enables customers to extend their existing BI investments to their mobile device with SAP BusinessObjects Mobile.
  • A semi-structured mobile analytics experience called high-definition analytics, focused on new content. Today, SAP calls this SAP BusinessObjects Explorer  and some exciting enhancements are just around the corner in early 2012, including a new feature set called Exploration Views.
  • A completely open mobile analytics experience, where a user can define any mobile analytic/BI app he or she dreams up using a simple design tool, like having a mobile analytics design studio

Flexible Access to Analytics

The goal is to create an overall experience that supports a range of mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, RIM OS, Windows Mobile, QNX, etc.) and flexible ways for people to access analytics data on those devices.

  • If someone wants to access predefined reports and analytics on an iPad, SAP BusinessObjects Mobile can help.
  • If a user wants to have a high-definition dashboard with flexible access to any data in a single view, he or she can use SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.
  • If someone wants to have a completely custom analytic app on their iPhone where a giant button turns green when a KPI is met, mobile apps from SAP is the way to go.

The good news is that both SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer have mobile apps available today in the Apple App Store and will support additional key mobile platforms, including Android and RIM in 2012. Additionally, in Q1 2012 SAP is releasing a new version of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer with offline capability and a new feature called Exploration Views! A preview is available on the App Store today. Search “SAP Experience”, (look for the full release in XI4 feature pack 3).

SAP also plans on launching a new app this year that will be like a mobile analytics design studio.

BI Collaboration in the Cloud with SAP StreamWork

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention SAP StreamWork. While it’s not core analytics, everyone reading this should check out www.streamwork.com and see how users can collaborate on BI data in the cloud…absolutely killer!  In fact, SAP StreamWork can be used today to collaborate within all of the  mobile apps – just enable email access within an SAP StreamWork account and start collaborating instantly!

It’s pretty compelling, for me, that SAP has a broad offering of mobile solutions that deliver an insanely great experience.  The bottom line, SAP seems to be working hard to make an outstanding mobile user’s experience…viva la mobile!

 


 

UNDER DEVELOPMENT(Information for ABAP Developers)

The New Enhancement Framework

The Enhancement Framework Technologies

Because you can only attach an enhancement where there is a hook, it is important to know the different kinds of enhancement options that are available.

In addition to the new kernel-based BAdI, there are many other types of  enhancement options that are part of the new Enhancement Framework. You implement these enhancements using the Enhancement Framework tools,  which are integrated into the ABAP Workbench — you simply switch to the enhancement mode directly within the ABAP Workbench tool that you are using, in the same way that you switch to the change mode.

Read More

 


 

Q&A(Your Questions answered)

Q.Hi,I am running a report in background on daily basis. I am using cl_gui_custom_container class here and calling the constructor of this class. I am getting a CNTL_ERROR exception at this point. But if i run the same report directly, it is not throwing any exception. The problem is if i schedule it to background. I am not able to sort it out.

A.The reason for this error, is that the Custom GUI container relies on the GUI being present, since your code is running in the background, there is no GUI, hence the control error. You can get around this by using a “Docking Container” instead. Actually you can bullet proof almost any code you suspect may ever be run in backgound by coding something like this…

* ALV Grid
DATA: R_GRID TYPE REF TO CL_GUI_ALV_GRID.
DATA: R_CONTROL TYPE REF TO CL_GUI_CUSTOM_CONTAINER.
DATA: G_DOCK TYPE REF TO CL_GUI_DOCKING_CONTAINER.

IF R_CONTROL IS INITIAL. * Check whether the program is run in batch or foreground
IF CL_GUI_ALV_GRID=>OFFLINE( ) IS INITIAL. * Run in foreground
CREATE OBJECT R_CONTROL EXPORTING CONTAINER_NAME = ‘CONTAINER’.
CREATE OBJECT R_GRID EXPORTING I_PARENT = R_CONTROL.
ELSE. * Run in background
CREATE OBJECT R_GRID EXPORTING I_PARENT = G_DOCK.
ENDIF.
ENDIF.

CALL METHOD R_GRID->SET_TABLE_FOR_FIRST_DISPLAY
EXPORTING……etc..etc

If you have a technical question you’d like answered, post the question to our facebook page www.facebook.com/itpsapinc

 

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