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SAPBusinessObjectsCloud

5PracticalTipsforBusinessObjectsCloudBeginners.
PostedbyClemensKrominSAPBusinessObjectsCloudon09Aug201610:58:46
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The last two months we Norbert Maijoor and I have been exploring the possibilities of BusinessObjects Cloud
(BOCfromherefurther).Inthispiecewewillsharewithyoufivepracticaltipsthatwefindwillsaveyoualotoftimeand
frustrationwhenworkingwithBOC.

Pleasenote:ThesetipsarebasedonalivedataconnectionwithHANACloudPlatformandwithBOCversion1.0.56.
Further, we assume that you have followed the OpenSAP course Implementation of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.
Therefore,wewillrefrainfromastepbystepexplanation.Doyouwantadditionalinformationorhelp?Justleavea
commentandwewilltrytohelpyou.

1.Besaving
YourbestfriendinBOCisthesavebutton.Saveregularly!AtthemomentBOCdoesnothaveanautosaveandundo
feature.Meaningthatifsomethinggoeswrongyouwillloseeveryprogressyoumadebeyondyourlastsave.Thus,
haveyoubeenworkingonavisualizationformorethan10minutes?Ordoyouwanttoexperimentwithyourdataand
visualization?Saveyourprogress.

2.Beblocking
Ormorespecificusetextblockstoyouradvantage.Weliketousethemintwoways.

2.1Aligningcharttitlesmoreflexibly

Aligningtitleswithinvisualizationsislimited.Acharttitleisshowninthelefttopcorner.SeeFigure1.

Figure1.StandardChartTitle

Youcanuseatextblocktopositiontheheadermoreflexibly.Forexample,aboveorbelowthechartasinFigure2.

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Figure2UsingTextBlocks

Pleasenote:whenyouusedynamicfiltersinyourvisualizationyoullneedtoshowthechartdetails.Thesearealso
showninthetopleftcorner.Therefore,pleasemakesureyoudonotputthetextblockoverthesedetailswhenyou
needthem.

2.2Hidingpartsofvisualizations

SomepartsofvisualizationscannotbehiddenusingthesettingsofBOC.Forexample,certainvaluelabelsorpartsof
atable.Youcanusetextblocks(withorwithouttext)tohidetheseparts.

Youllneedtoinsertatextblockandgototheformattingtabandgivethebackgroundcoloroftextblockthesamecolor
asthebackgroundofthechart.Thenyouarrangethetextblockinfrontofthechart.Thiswayitwilloverlapthepartof
thechartyouwantitto.Belowweprovidetwoexampleshowweappliedthistrick.

Example1.

Thebulletchartwillautomaticallyshowadatalabelcontainingboththemeasuresandthedimensionvalues.Thisis
fine since these describe what youre seeing in the chart. However, we wanted to show a bullet chart based on a
measurewithoutdimensions.Atthemomentthisisnotpossible.Soweusedadummydimension.Theresultcanbe
seeninthetopofFigure3.

Wehadtwoissueswiththisresult.First,thedimensionlabel(1inourexample)beingshown.Wedidnotwantthis1
to be displayed. However, at the moment you cannot remove this dimension label. Second, we wanted to use a
differentlabelnamethanthedescriptionofthemeasureforthisspecificchartbutwewantedtokeepthedescriptionfor
othercharts.Unfortunately,tochangethedescriptioninthemodelwouldmeanthatitwouldbechangedforallcharts.

Figure3Example1

Weusedtwotextblockswithbackgroundcolortoeasilysolvethetwoissues.Theresultisshowninthebottompartof
Figure3.

Example2.
Sometimesyoumightwantsodisplaydetailedinformationinatable.However,atthemoment,thisisvisualizedasa
spreadsheet.Unfortunately,youcannotformatthisspreadsheet.SeeFigure4.

Figure4TableWithoutTextBlocks

Inordertomakeitmoreavisualizationthanaspreadsheetweaddedtextblockstohidecertainpartsandtobetter
positionthecolumnheaders.SeeFigure5.

Figure5TableWithTextBlocks

3.Becalculating
Calculatedmeasuresofferyoualotofpossibilities.Asimplecalculatedmeasurethatjusthasthecalculation=[name
ofmeasure]makeseverythingbetter.Belowyoullfindtheusesforacalculatedmeasure.

3.1Renamingthemeasure
Usingaconnectedmodel,thenameofameasureisdisplayedasitislabeledinthesource.Thisisfineofcoursebut
sometimesyoumightwanttoshortenorchangethemeasurelabelthatisdisplayed.Atthemomentthisisnotpossible
withthemeasurescomingfromtheconnectedmodel.Thisiswherecalculatedmeasurescanhelpyouout.Justenter
thenameyouwantunderNameintheCalculationEditor(Figure6).

Figure6CalculationEditor

InFigure6thestandardlabelisWetenRegelgevingPercentage.Whichwewanttouseinsomevisualizationsbut
inothersitistoolong.Soweabbreviatedthelabel/nametoW&R%usingacalculatedmeasurewhichonlycontains
themeasurefromthemodel.

3.2Formatthemeasure
UsingaconnectedmodelwithinBOCwillresultinmeasuresthatcannotreallybeformatted(youllhavetothisinthe
data source). In the modeler you can tell BOC how a measure should be displayed, but at the moment this isnt
workingproperly.Thiswillbefixedinafuturerelease.

For now, this entails that measures from your model which should be shown as a percentage are displayed as in
Figure7.Notethattheonlywaytodeterminethatthisisapercentageisinthesubtitleinthelefttopcorner.Thec
denotesthatthevalueisapercentage.Unfortunately,youcannotdomuchaboutthis.

Figure7Measureaspercentage

However,usingacalculatedmeasureyoucannowformatyourmeasureproperly.SeeFigure8.

Figure8Formattingmeasure

Wesettheformattopercentagewithonedecimalspaceandtheresultisfarmoresatisfying:

Figure9Formattedmeasure

3.3Usingmorethan1format.
The format you used for a measure will be applied to all visualizations in the story. This means that if you have
formattedameasuretodisplayonedecimal,itwilldosoinallvisualizations.Doyouwanttousethesamemeasure
anddisplayonedecimalinvisualizationAandfivedecimalsinvisualizationB?Youcannotdoso.


Luckily,youcanaddanothercalculatedmeasure.Youcanusetheexactsamecalculation.Nowyoucanusethisnew
calculationtoformatthemeasurewithfivedecimals.Mindyou,youllhavetogiveitadifferentname.Continuingthe
exampleofFigure7,Iusedtwospacesinthename:W&R%.Unfortunately,BOCdoesnotacceptspacesbeforeor
afterthename.TheresultcanbefoundinFigure10.ThebarchartusesthemeasurewithonedecimalandtheKPI
chartusesthesamemeasurewithfivedecimals.

Figure10MultipleCalculatedMeasures

3.4Usingmorethan1threshold.
Thesamerulesthatapplytoformattingameasurealsoapplytoconditionallyformattingameasure.Youcandefinea
thresholdforameasuretodeterminewhatcolorsshouldbeshownwhen.Thisthresholdisfixedtothemeasure.Thus,
youcannothavemultipleconditionalformatsforonemeasure.

Figure11DefiningaThreshold

Yetsometimesyoumightwanttoapplyadifferentconditionalformattoameasurewithinthesamestory.Forexample,
whenworkingwithdifferentfiltersonthesamemeasure.Luckilyyoucandosowiththesamemethodas3.3.Justadd
anothercalculatedmeasureandyoucanusethattoaddanotherthreshold.

4.Becoloring
Asdiscussedintip2youcannothidealltextorvaluesofavisualization.Yetsometimesyoumightwanttohideadata
label because the meaning of the value is already apparent because of other elements on your page. As an
alternativetothetextblockyoucanalsohidethetextbygivingthatspecifictestthesamecolorasthebackground.
Importanttonoteisthatyoullhavetomakesureyouregivingthecorrecttextthecolorofthebackground.Fortunately,
thisiseasytoaccomplish.Firstselectthevisualizationandthenclickonthetextyouwanttohide(inFigure12this
wouldbetextwithinthebluebox).

Figure12Selectingthecorrecttext

IntheDesignermodeunderFormattingyoullnoticethatChartPropertieswillsayCustom.Nowyoucaneditthe
coloroftheselectedtextandhideit.Inaddition,werecommendresizingthattextassmallaspossible(size10inthis
version). Remember that the text is still there. So by resizing it you make sure that its impact on the size of the
visualizationsislimited.SeeFigure13fortheoptionsandresult.

Figure13Formattingtext

So when do you use Text blocks and when do you use coloring? It depends on the circumstances and your
preferences.Weadvisethefollowinggeneralruleofthumb.Doyoujustwanttohidethetext?Colorit.Doyouwantto
usethespaceofthetext(aswiththeexampleofthebulletchartsintip2)?Usetextblocks.

5.Beexploring
CurrentlyyoumightfindthatBOCcannotdoeverythingwhatyouwantittodo.However,BOCoffersyouarangeof
otherpossibilitiesyoumightnothavethoughtofbefore.Sowerecommendtoexploreandexperimentwithallfeatures
ofBOC.Thiscouldgiveyounewperspectivesondataandvisualizations.Anditisfun!

Thisconcludesour5practicaltipsforbeginners.Whattipsandtrickswouldyousharewithbeginners?Andwhatare
yourthoughtsonourtips?Wehopetohearfromyou!

Kindregards,
ClemensKrom&NorbertMaijoor.

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Categories:SAPBusinessObjectsCloudforPlanning,SAPBusinessObjectsCloudforBI,SAPBusinessObjectsCloudfor
Predictive
Topics:business_intelligenceTags:sap,cloud,visual,what's_new,boc,cloud_for_analytics,c4a,business_objects_cloud

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