What's new with SAP Business Objects (BI) 4.0 - WebI

I'm currently working on a project to upgrade existing BO 3.1 system to BO 4. As part of feasibility study, we explored new features available in BO 4. I'm listing down few of what I've come across in literature, and my experiences working on sandbox. This post would be restricted to the new features from BO WebI perspective.



1. Queries can be built directly on BEx or Analysis views

BO queries reporting on SAP BW data source can now be built directly on BEx  queries; bypassing need for creation of universes. Alternatively analysis views can be created from OLAP Analysis .




2. Data Preview option in Query Design screen

A little 'nice to have' feature is the ability to preview data in query design screen itself

3. BO Query properties has option for query stripping

Query Stripping feature optimizes the query to fetch only data which will be directly or indirectly rendered on the report, thus decreasing the response time and providing faster display of reports to users. This feature is available for OLAP universes only; this option will be grayed out for relational universes. This option should be set both at query level and document level.

Query Stripping property at Query level

Query Stripping property at Document level

4. BO 4 also provides the ability to change the data source of an existing query to either universe or BW query




5. Variable related functions

New set of functions - more related to hierarchies - are added in BO 4. Below snapshots provide the list and short description for each function



6. Operators - in addition to hierarchy related functions, there are also a new set of operators available

After - Tells the Descendants function to return the descendants below a specified level
Before - Tells the Descendants function to return the descendants above a specified level
Before_After - Tells the Descendants function to include all descendants except those at a given level
Leaves - Tells the Descendants function to return all leaf descendants above a specified level
Self_After - Tells the Descendants function to return the descendants below a specified level and to include the current member
Self_Before - Tells the Descendants function to return the descendants above a specified level and to include the current member
Self_Before_After - Tells the Descendants function to include all descendants and the current member

7. New Charts - new chart types available in BO 4

Pie chart with depth
Scatter charts
Bubble charts
Box plot
Heat map
Tree map