When the first edition of this book was published back in 2011, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards served as the only and premier dashboarding solution within the SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio. A lot has changed since then. In 2012, SAP released the first version of SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio. This new tool has been built from scratch and lets you create interactive applications and dashboards that are fully HTML5-compatible and support direct connectivity to SAP HANA, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP BusinessObjects Universe (UNX) sources.
In this appendix, we will discuss the following topics:
- What is SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio?
- SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards versus SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
- What is the SAP roadmap for dashboarding?
Design Studio is a fresh new tool within the SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio to create dashboards and interactive applications.
Design Studio tackles two of the biggest problem areas of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards:
- Connectivity to SAP source systems
- Compatibility with mobile devices without any dependency on Adobe Flash
Design Studio fully supports SAP HANA, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP BusinessObjects Universe (UNX) sources. Since the tool is HTML5-compatible, we can run the applications we make on any device, whether it is a personal computer with a browser or a mobile device such as an iPad or iPhone.
App created with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
Just as in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, the Design Studio development environment lets you drag and drop components you want to use in a dashboard into a canvas and position them exactly as you want. A wide set of such components is available within Design Studio. Analytical components such as tables and charts can be used to visualize and display the data. Also, several filter, button, text, image and drop-down box components are present to facilitate interactive options. To facilitate the grouping of components, a set of container components is available. In addition, developers can create their own Design Studio components using the Design Studio SDK.
SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio Integrated Development Environment
To create interactivity between components, Design Studio uses scripting with JavaScript. For example, if a user selects a filter value from a drop-down box component, the datasource has to execute that filter and refresh the chart or table that displays the result. To make this work, a script has to be added to the drop-down box component so it will be executed each time the component is used. A wizard is included to support the developer in writing these scripts.
Scripting in SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
Design Studio offers the option to fully take control of the look and feel of a dashboard or an application by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). In CSS, the specific look of a component can be defined, such as its background color and its font size. Such a piece of CSS code can be used throughout the application for multiple components, while the CSS definition remains in a single location. These CSS files can be stored on a central server location and even be reused by multiple applications.
Design Studio applications can be deployed in three types of SAP environments: SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP HANA.