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Reporting

Lesson: SAP HANA Database Connectivity Options

Lesson Overview
This lesson gives an introduction to the different available HANA Database
Connectivity options.

Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Understand connectivity options for reporting on top of SAP HANA

Business Example
You have created Information Models in SAP HANA and are about to create
reports on top of these. You need to discuss with your client the connectivity
options the client tools offer.

Figure 1: Architecture Overview – SAP HANA Database and Surroundings

The BI4 reporting client products are shown in the area above the SAP HANA
database.
The components listed here are:
• The SAP HANA database itself, which hosts the actual data stores, a
persistence layer, a calculation/execution engine, interfaces and other
components

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 HA100

Client tools for reporting off HANA. These tools might need components in a
BusinessObjects Enterprise system (such as Information Design Tool) or database
clients (JDBC, ODBC, ...).
In the following slides we take a look at several reporting tools connecting to
SAP HANA.

Figure 2: Reporting on HANA 1.0 with Business Objects Client and

Connectivity Options

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP HANA Database Connectivity Options

SAP HANA provides various interface reporting options

• ODBO – OLE DB for OLAP
– Microsoft-driven specification for multidimensional (cross-tab style)
reporting
– Requests are sent to the database via MDX (MultiDimensional
eXpression language)
• ODBC – Open DataBase Connectivity
– Microsoft-driven specification for relational reporting
– Database requests are made via SQL (Structured Query Language)
– Heavily adopted in industry
– No longer Microsoft-centric – Unix and Linux drivers exist for ODBC
• JDBC – Java DataBase Connectivity
– Relational reporting drivers specified by the Java community. Popular
on Unix platforms
• BICS – BI Consumer Services
– SAP Proprietary interface that offers advantages for OLAP access over
MDX on multidimensional reporting objects
– Common driver technology used by SAP BusinessObjects Analysis,
Office Edition and Semantic Layer based Business Objects clients for
connectivity to SAP NetWeaver BW
• SQLDBC is SAP native database SDK

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 HA100

Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Understand connectivity options for reporting on top of SAP HANA

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2013
HA100 Lesson: Microsoft Excel

Lesson: Microsoft Excel

Lesson Overview
This lesson gives an overview on using Microsoft Excel as a reporting tool on
top of SAP HANA.

Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Understand how Microsoft Excel can query SAP HANA using an ODBO
connection
• Create a pivot table in Microsoft Excel using a Calculation View

Business Example
You have successfully deployed Information Models in SAP HANA Studio. You
now want to see how these can be used from an end user perspective. You have
decided to use Microsoft Excel for this purpose.

Figure 3: Reporting on SAP HANA – Native Excel interface – Pivot Tables

(ODBO)

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 HA100

Figure 4: Reporting on SAP HANA – Native Excel Interface via ODBO

Figure 5: Reporting on HANA – Native Excel Interface – The Pivot Table

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2013
 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects

Lesson Overview
This lesson will walk you through the different types of SAP Business Objects
tools available for you to use with SAP HANA.

Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Understand the Business Objects platform and reporting possibilities

Business Example
You have deployed SAP HANA at a client who is also a user of SAP Business
Objects. You want to decide which Business Objects client tool will work best for
the different reports you are aiming to create on top of your Information Models.

Business Objects Clients

Figure 6: Business Objects Clients (I)

Role-specific and configurable interfaces for all levels of user wherever they are

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 HA100

The platform covers the full spectrum of BI capabilities, including reporting,

query and analysis, discovery, dashboard, and predictive analysis. Everyone from
the business analyst to the casual information consumer can get to the information
they need with minimal dependence on IT resources and developers.
Business Users can interact with highly visual tools and immediately answer
business questions
BI platforms must include interfaces for all types of users – including those
that are not comfortable with traditional reporting and query and analysis. SAP
BusinessObjects includes a number of intuitive, next-generation usability solutions
such as Explorer, one that combines the speed and simplicity of search with the
power and reliability of BI
Advanced Users can leverage the most complete BI toolset in the marketplace
A successful BI platform has to support all the information access, interaction,
and analysis needs of the different profiles of users across your organization.
Using advanced analytics such as SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, financial and
business analysts can interrogate complex historical data, look for trends and
patterns and build predictive models.
Casual Users have easy to use self-service access to explore information
A key goal for BI platforms remains helping you extend the reach of fact-based
decisions to all users, not just the estimated 15% that traditionally use BI tools.
Casual users must be able to have self-service access information through the
familiar interfaces and workflows that they already use in their daily work, whether
it’s the browser, Microsoft Office suite or directly on their desktop using widgets.

Figure 7: Business Objects Clients (II)

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects

The SAP BusinessObjects philosophy has always been to give each user persona
the right best of breed tool for the way they work. Power users who want to
analyze data need a different experience then an executive who wants to track and
monitor ongoing strategic and tactical organizational initiatives. Over time we’ve
broadened the capabilities within each persona experiences.
That being said, not everyone in an organization is using BI today – typically
about 15%. To address that fundamental challenge that we looked for models of
even greater simplicity, like the world of search. Think of how easy it is to find
basic information with Google. It’s a great, simple way to begin an investigation.
Shouldn’t BI be that easy? No doubt and enterprises large or small are seeking
new simpler, faster ways of providing information access to their employees. We
have recognized that need and as you will see later, we are offering an innovative
BI solution. One that offers a highly-intuitive interface, so users can “walk”
through the data, guided by the product, answer questions and gain insight. The
name of this solution is SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and we will provide more
details later in the presentation.

Figure 8: Pixel Perfect Reporting – SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

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 HA100

Reporting – SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

• For SAP Crystal Reports, the goals are:
– Provide the most powerful report designer for the professional report
author with the lowest TCO for the entire report lifecycle (creation,
maintenance and delivery)
– Support all elements of the reporting lifecycle by integrating tightly
with our BI platform and more specifically with our new semantic layer
– Global reach with multilingual reporting
– Support seamless access to OLAP data (OLAP Client – Crystal Reports
Interoperability)
• Next-Generation Report Designer Experience
• Our intent is to increase report author productivity with:
– A new CR designer client including new styling with ribbon bar look
and feel.
– Support our new dimensional semantic layer across all data sources
– Easier, faster, and more consistent query design experience across all
data sources since it is based on the same metadata model (the new
semantic layer).
– Improved native access to SAP NetWeaver BW data sources – no
universe required.

Figure 9: Dashboarding & Data Visualization – SAP BusinessObjects

Dashboard Design

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects

Figure 10: Ad Hoc Query and Reporting – SAP BusinessObjects Web

Intelligence

Figure 11: SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Office Edition

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 HA100

Figure 12: Data Search and Exploration – SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Figure 13 The Business Intelligence Place – SAP BusinessObject Launch

Pad

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects

BI Workplace – InfoView
• Easier Content Navigation for All Users
• We deliver a more engaging user experience across the entire SAP
BusinessObjects BI suite, including one of the main user touch points,
the BI portal known as SAP BusinessObjects Launch Pad (previously:
InfoView). The BI Launch Pad is an important part of our strategy of
enabling organizations to access and deliver decision-making information
to the majority of employees in corporations who arent using it today. Its
often the door to the wealth of existing corporate information and as such it
must be able to present the information available in an efficient and visually
attractive way so users dont loose time manually sifting what is relevant
from what is not for their particular task or decision. Filtering and pertinent
search options are therefore critical to assist users in quickly finding the right
trusted information. Companies using SAP BusinessObjects and Launch
Pad as the means to store and access BI information should expect greater
user productivity with a much improved BI portal experience and improved
BI search relevancy and usability.
BI Launch Pad
New modern styling and more intuitive look and feel.
• For example, it allows users to work multiple documents at the same time
– BI Launch Pad had revamped search capabilities and new filtering
widgets allowing users to narrow down the content they are looking for
• For example, users are able to navigate to a particular folder and use a filter
(for this folder only) in order to limit the number of items listed so they can
retrieve the report, dashboard, or analysis they are looking for.

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 HA100

Figure 14: User personalized BI Workspace – SAP BusinessObjects

Workspace

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2013
 HA100 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects

BI workspaces
• BI workspaces is a browser-based application that is provided as part of the
SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise professional package.
• It is an evolution of the Dashboard Builder product and includes most of
the capabilities found in its predecessor, especially those related to content
layout.
• New workspaces can be viewed, created, and modified using the BI launch
pad. They can also be viewed via openDocument or in your favorite
Enterprise Portal using the Portal Integration Kit.
• BI workspaces are most suitable for displaying BusinessObjects reports and
applications, such as: Dashboards (Xcelsius), Web Intelligence, Analysis and
Crystal Reports. It can also display other content types such as external web
pages, Microsoft Office documents and BI launch pad modules.
• Note that every content item that is displayed on the page or in the module
library is called a module.
• The key capabilities of BI workspaces include:
– Organizing and displaying modules
– A simple and intuitive Runtime Authoring environment for designing
the workspace pages
– An integrated inter-portlet communication framework for enabling
components on the page to exchange information
– And last but not least: Page Preview and the option to print a page or
the entire workspace

Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Understand the Business Objects platform and reporting possibilities

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 HA100

Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Lesson Overview
This lesson explains how SAP Business Objects Explorer works when reporting
on SAP HANA.

Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Explain when to use SAP Business Objects Explorer on top of HANA
• Explain how to configure SAP Business Objects to use HANA
• Create an Explorer Information Space to explore HANA data within
Explorer.

Business Example
Your organization has got a vast amount of data and there is a business need to
explore the data and find patterns to which no set reports exist.

Figure 15: Overview BusinessObjects Explorer

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 HA100

Figure 16: And Then Its Exploration of the Results

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Figure 17: Explorer for SAP HANA – Setup

• newdb.connections.enabled = true
• Enables Explorer to use the JDBC connections to HANA systems defined
from the Information Design Tool
• Alternate configuration settings (similar to BWA but limits to one HANA
instance):
– newdb.system.alias in the name that will be visible in the Explorer
application
– url is the url to the newdb JDBC access point
• Authentication.mode here is set to the simpliest mode, that is we give
user/password for testing purpose.
• Another mode exists that is mode=DatabaseConnection which means that a
mapping is defined between BI users and HANA users, this mapping has to
be handled by hand by administrator, SSO to come later.
• User / password, self speaking

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 HA100

Figure 18: Explorer for HANA – Information Space Creation

Figure 19: Explorer for SAP HANA – Leveraging SAP HANA Model with
BO Explorer

Various connectivities exist:

• ODBC / JDBC / ODBO / SQL DBC (native library for SAP HANA DB)
• SAP BusinessObjects client tools can be used to report on SAP HANA
Crystal Report, 2 versions:
• CR Enterprise included in Business Objects with connectivity through
Business Objects
• CR 2011 and CR 2008 standalone reporting tool, connectivity through
ODBC or JDBC
Lesson: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards
and Web Intelligence

Lesson Overview
This lesson will go through the usage of Crystal Reports for Enterprise,
Dashboards and Web Intelligence together with SAP HANA and why a Semantic
Layer is useful.

Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
• Use different client tools to report on SAP HANA

Business Example
Following business requirement analysis you have decided to create some pixel
perfect Crystal Reports for Enterprise reports, a number of Dashboards and Web
Intelligence reports. You want to create a Semantic layer as a mediator.

Using Business Objects with SAP HANA

Figure 20: SAP BusinessObjects Semantic Layer

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 HA100

Figure 21: Semantic Layer Mission

Figure 22: Common Semantic Layer

TCO, reduction of landscape complexity, and lifecycle management enhancements

across SAPs entire BI and EIM portfolio remain priorities.
COMMON because it will be the same semantic layer for all data sources: the
best on SAP data, the best in the market for all other vendors sources thanks to the
agnostic support which comes with the historical Business Objects architecture.
COMMON because it will be the single language that will be used by all kinds
of client tools to speak about data and metadata: BI clients as well as metadata
management or data quality applications will use the Common Semantic Layer
to exchange information about data and metadata they need to manipulate.
The semantic layer will be open to third parties applications so that the whole
enterprise data can be covered by the same concepts and mechanism.

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards and Web Intelligence

COMMON because independently of the underlying source or of the requesting

client, it will provide a unified interface for data and metadata on premise, on
demand and on device or a mix of the three.

Figure 23: Relational Reporting on HANA 1.0 with Semantic Layer (1)

Figure 24: Relational Reporting on HANA 1.0 with Semantic Layer (2)

Figure 25: Information Design Tool – Steps to Create an Universe

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 HA100

Figure 26: Information Design Tool – Create a Local Project

Figure 27: Information Design Tool – Create a Connection

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards and Web Intelligence

Figure 28: Information Design Tool – Driver Selection

Figure 29: Information Design Tool – Connection Details (1)

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 HA100

Figure 30: Information Design Tool – Connection Details (2)

Figure 31: Information Design Tool – Create Data Foundation (1)

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards and Web Intelligence

Figure 32: Information Design Tool – Create Data Foundation (2)

Figure 33: Information Design Tool – Design Data Foundation (3)

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 HA100

Figure 34: Information Design Tool – Create Business Layer

Figure 35: Information Design Tool – Define Objects and Test Queries

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2013
HA100 Lesson: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards and Web Intelligence

Figure 36 SAP BusinessObjects – Publish the Connection and Business

Layer

Figure 37: SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

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 HA100

Figure 38: SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards – Universe Queries

Figure 39: SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence
Copyright

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