SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence has been rolled out to users starting 2020 with a complete overhaul of the tool, here are some of the improvements and changes.
Interface
There is a big difference in the design of SAP BOBJ 4.2 mimicking the older Office Suite environment, which was a carry over to the design of SAP BOBJ 4.0.
SAP BOBJ 4.3 has been overhauled to integrate SAP’s own Fiori design to the web interface.
Screenshot from SAP Blog (https://blogs.sap.com/2020/06/15/sap-bi-4.3-whats-new-in-web-intelligence-and-semantic-layer/)
JAVA Applet No More
BOBJ 4.3 has completely removed the JAVA Applet view in BI Launchpad.
Since the introduction of BOBJ 4.2 SP1, SAP started integrating its functions that are previously exclusive to both JAVA applet and Rich Clients. There were two main reasons:
- JAVA support has been limited. Chrome (this includes all browsers derivatives from Chromium including the new Microsoft Edge) and in Mozilla Firefox has removed its support for JAVA. The only browser (as of this time) that supports JAVA Applet is Internet Explorer 11, which has already reached its end-of-life.
- Migration to modern web functions. Improvement in the Web-based HTML Interface greatly helped SAP Webi in shifting most of the functionalities from the JAVA Applet and Rich Client and preparing the tool for modernization.
With the release of Web Intelligence 4.3, the two views that can be utilized: HTML (via BI Launchpad) and Rich Client. With the introduction of these two views alleviate the following problems from Webi 4.2:
- Complicated steps to make it work. Development in Webi 4.2, especially in older versions, the following steps were needed:
- Install an outdated browser, which has been terminated.
- Install the right JAVA version, which sometimes does not work due to JAVA’s own security settings.
- Use WINDOWS Operating System, which Mac OS and Linux-based lack support for JAVA.
2. Tricky and Time-consuming development. Since not all features are available specially in older versions of Webi 4.2, . developers need switch from HTML and JAVA applet if they need to do the following:
- Add and modify other supported Web Intelligence Data Sources that is not available in HTML (Early versions only have Universe as Data Source for HTML).
- Change data sources.
- Use exclusive features like adding and modifying Conditional formatting and adding complicated query conditions.
This has been resolved in BOBJ 4.3, which makes development easier and less time-consuming.
Revamped Settings
BOBJ 4.2 relies mostly in popups for additional options to add depth into the data.
In Webi 4.2, when creating/changing into a different visualization , it is displayed into a new popup screen.
In Webi 4.3, most of the additional options have been placed into panes. The pane appears when selecting a specific element within the Document. It also changes options depending on what element is selected.
The Option Pane is divided into two main tabs: Build Pane and Format Pane.
Build pane mostly handles additional settings within the element.
Format pane handles aesthetic-related options like Text formatting.
The Option pane consolidates all options with the exception of Conditional Formatting, Change Data Sources, Tracking options, and Input Control options.
Conclusion
There is a great improvement from BOBJ 4.2 and 4.3, which leaned to modernization and ease of use.
