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Xcelsius Reports Guide
March 2012
1 Introduction
SAP Sourcing, in addition to its native reporting capabilities, offers very rich reporting and analysis
capabilities using Xcelsius® software. Xcelsius reports are interactive and allow the end user to search and
manipulate SAP Sourcing data based on the capabilities defined by the Xcelsius Designer. Xcelsius reports
consist of Adobe Flash files created with SAP Business Objects Xcelsius Designer.
Xcelsius report features include the following:
• Interactive charts and UI components for data visualization
• Support of “what-if” analysis
• Data refresh on schedule or on demand
• Passing of filter values to queries from dashboards
• Links from the dashboards to the business document
• Multiple query results in one or multiple charts or UI components
• The ability to combine external data sources with query results from SAP Sourcing
1.3 Terminology
Collection: A group of data of the same type, subordinate to a parent document. In the UI, this data is
rendered in a tabulated form.
Extension Collection: A collection that is user defined.
Query Definition: An object containing an SQL query along with capabilities such as formatting, prompting,
charting, etc.
Dashboard Definitions: An object containing one or more Query Definitions.
Xcelsius Dashboard: A business intelligence dashboard designed in Xcelsius.
Xcelsius Report: A report that contains the Xcelsius dashboard in SAP Sourcing.
Xcelsius Work Area: The Xcelsius authoring environment – which includes menus, toolbars, components,
the object browser, and the canvas – used to design and create dashboards and data presentations.
Xcelsius Source File: The XLF file created during the development of Xcelsius data presentations. It is the
working development file used in the work area.
Xcelsius Data Presentation File: The output of the work area for deployment to presentation/dashboard
viewers. An Xcelsius data presentation is a Flash file, also known as a SWF file for its file extension (.swf). It
can be exported to, and is fully operational in, Microsoft PowerPoint®, Microsoft Outlook® and the Web.
1.4 Prerequisites
1.4.1 System Requirements
SAP Business Objects Xcelsius Designer is required to create Xcelsius dashboards. The supported release
is Xcelsius 2008 SP3.1.
1.4.2 Preparation
For the best outcome, it is recommended to have the following items in concrete design beforehand:
• UI mockups for the dashboard, including color themes, text details and user interactions
• Detailed design for queries that will be used for the dashboard
• Mapping logic between dashboard UI components and queries
2 Process Overview
The following diagram shows the Xcelsius report creation steps.
1. The report developer logs into SAP Sourcing and creates one or more queries that will be used
as a data source in building the Xcelsius dashboard.
2. The report developer designs the Xcelsius dashboard in the Xcelsius On Premise Designer.
SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius 2008 is a required client tool for Xcelsius design.
3. The application previews Xcelsius in the Xcelsius Designer with live data.
4. The report developer exports Xcelsius to a Flash (SWF) file that will be used for the Xcelsius
Definition in the Xcelsius Designer.
5. The report developer logs back into SAP Sourcing and navigates to Setup to create a new
Dashboard Definition by providing Xcelsius information and uploading the Flash SWF and the
Xcelsius source file in XLF format.
6. The report developer creates a new report by providing metadata about the reports, adding
Dashboard Definitions as one of the report elements, and specifying the access list for users.
3 Xcelsius Dashboard
3.1 Xcelsius Template
3.1.1 Download SAP Sourcing Xcelsius Template
SAP Sourcing provides an Xcelsius template that can be used as a starting point. This section describes
how to download a copy of the Xcelsius template.
1. Log on to SAP Sourcing as a user with configuration access. Navigate to Setup Æ System
Setup Æ Queries and Reports Æ Dashboard Definitions.
3. Click Attachments in the toolbar. The Xcelsius template is displayed in the Attachments table.
defined in the Dashboard Definition will overwrite the values defined in the Query Definitions used in the
Dashboard Definition.
The following diagram shows the overwrite logic of single filter values.
The above logic allows the design of mixing filter values from the Xcelsius dashboard with filter values from
Dashboard Definitions or Query Definitions.
3.1.1.2 UI
This page controls dynamic visibility of UI components in the dashboard. Typically, 1 means to show the
component, whereas 0 or any other value means to hide the component.
3.1.1.3 Query(number):
Every query used in the Dashboard Definiton should have its own sheet, so that data mapping and UI
component mapping are clearly maintained. The naming conversion for the sheet is Query with suffix of an
index, for example, Query1, Query2. In the Microsoft Excel template, there are 3 pages reserved for 3
queries.
3.1.1.4 Messages
This page lists all information, warning, and error messages from queries. It is recommended that one query
correspond to one message.
3.1.1.5 Texts
All texts that need to be localized, such as title, subtitle, or free texts, should be maintained in this page.
3.1.1.6 SystemInfo
This page contains timestamp or other system-related information that can be displayed on the dashboard.
Color Description
Real-time data from SAP Sourcing query
Bright Yellow results
You should be able to see the template loaded in your work area as shown below.
Recommendation
We recommend using Arial font, size 11.
Note
Skip this step if you are using the Xcelsius template.
1. In Xcelsius 2008, open Data Manager from Data Æ Connections. In Data Manager, click Add Æ
XML Data. An entry for XML connect will open as shown below.
3. On the Usage tab, configure Refresh Options by checking either Refresh On Load or Refresh
On Schedule.
Note
To make the dashboard appear to load faster, do not check Refresh On Load.
Note
Skip this step if you are using the Xcelsius template.
1. In Data Manager, click Add Æ Flash Variables. An entry for Flash Variables should be
appended as shown below.
2. Add a Flash variable and name it ServletURL. Be sure to spell the entry as indicated here. It is
case sensitive.
3. Map the field Range to the XML Data URL cell in the Configuration page.
Note
Skip this step if you are using the Xcelsius template.
You use the Refresh button to connect the query framework and execute queries at runtime.
1. In ComponentsÆ CategoryÆ Web Connectivity, drag and drop the Connection Refresh Button
on the canvas.
2. Check SAP Sourcing Connection in Available Connections.
The naming convention for the Name field is: Query(number). Map the Range field to the query parameters
in the Configuration page.
The naming convention for the Name field is: Query(number). Map the Range field to the rows and columns
in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. At runtime, the dashboard will trigger a server call to run queries that
defined in Xcelsius definition for this dashboard, transform the query results to XML format, and then
populate data in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet range.
Once the Microsoft Excel range is mapped to the UI components, data will be shown in the UI components,
as indicated in the following section.
Note
XML data for Microsoft Excel range mapping is transformed from SAP Sourcing query results.
The XML data always contains metadata as the first row and rest for the actual data. For
instance, in Query4, the first row returns table headers Object ID, Class ID, Name, Last Name,
First Name, and so on. The table headers are localized in SAP Sourcing. They can be mapped
to the Table UI component in the dashboard directly, without additional localization.
If only the actual data is needed for charting, and table headers are not required to be shown in
the dashboard, be sure to map the actual data starting from the second row of the range.
Note
Make sure that each resource ID ends with a comma.
− Filter Parameter Value: a formula that shows the value maintained in the
Resource ID column on the Texts page, for instance,
=Texts!A2&Texts!A3&Texts!A4&Texts!A5&Texts!A6&Texts!A7&Texts!A8&Texts!A
9
2. Create a new Dashboard Definition using the following screen to upload the Xcelsius content.
When you click the value help button for the field Xcelsius Flash File, a popup window is
shown for the file upload. Upload the Xcelsius data presentation file and Xcelsius source file
created in Xcelsius Designer.
3. On the Dashboard Elements tab, add required queries and their corresponding parameter
values.
If a query has required parameters, a checkbox indicating that the parameter is required is activated. A
validation message is also shown if the Dashboard Definition is saved without entering the required
parameters.
The checkbox Enable Global Parameter enables the dashboard to take the very first parameter value
if there are identical parameter names from different queries. For example, if there are two queries and
both have a parameter called “Name”, If Enable Global Parameter is checked, even through
parameter value for “Name” in 2 queries are specified differently, the dashboard will only take the first
parameter value in the list for query 1, and apply the value for parameter “Name” in both query 1 and
2.
2. To add Dashboard Definitions to the report, click Add Dashboard Definition and select the
Dashboard Definition on the Dashboard Definition List page.
B.2 Localization
Since Xcelsius does not support internalization, no texts should be hard-coded in Xcelsius dashboards.
All texts, including legends, should be passed from the platform. Data and number should be formatted
properly from query results and fed to Xcelsius reports.
B.3 Inconsistent UI
The Xcesius UI controls such as buttons, tabs and tables are flex components. Currently, they appear
different from the SAP Sourcing HTML UI controls.
Note: If query results contain special characters, the XML may not be viewable in the browser. In
this case, use Notepad or another XML tool to see the XML structure.
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