When data is loaded or refreshed, the associated connections are executed in parallel by default. This is a great feature because it dramatically reduces the total loading time of the dashboard.
To check the loading state of all your connections, it is a good practice to create a custom debug mode that lets you monitor how the connections are performing.
- Add a Spreadsheet Table component to the canvas.
- Set up the spreadsheet as shown in the following screenshot:
- Go to the Data Manager and select the Usage tab. Here you'll find a section called Load Status. For each connection, bind the Insert In field to the corresponding spreadsheet cell.
- Bind the Spreadsheet Table component to the spreadsheet area.
- Publish and Launch the dashboard and see what happens while the connections are executed.
You can use Dynamic Visibility to make the Spreadsheet Table component appear and disappear when required. Read Chapter 4, Dynamic Visibility, to learn more about this feature.
As we have seen in the Using the SAP NetWeaver BW Connection recipe in Chapter 8, Dashboard Data Connectivity, we can use the same BEx query that provides the transaction data (the result set) to load the master data values. These master data values are mostly used to fill up the labels of selection components. A connection with such a setup has, of course, a longer execution time, since more data has to be loaded.
If you are using only one of the connections to load the master data values for multiple characteristics, this connection could slow down the overall loading performance in case of a lot of available master data. A solution would be to divide the loading of the master data values over multiple connections. Let's say you need to load all values for the characteristics, calendar year, country, and project into your dashboard spreadsheet, to fill the labels for three selection components. You also have multiple connections in the Data Manager that all use the same dataset as a source. You then could load the calendar year values from connection 1, the values for country from connection 2, and the values for project from connection 3.
You could even consider creating a specific, separate connection for the loading of (a part of the) master data values.