Screenshots of BI Diagnostics & Support Desk Tool

I have mentioned the BI Diagnostics & Support Desk Tool in one of my previous posts.
Here is 2 screenshots of what it looks like, very handy indeed in solving BI Java issues.

New cache mode for BI 7.0 without directory

As of BI 7.0 Support pack 16 SAP has introduced a new query cache mode. Have a look at note 1026944

Functional Enhancements Schedule for BI in SAP NetWeaver 7.0

SAP regularly updates this nice document with the planned new capabilities of BI in Netweaver 7.0 in future support packages. It nice to see what they have in stall for us!

Netweaver 7.0 Support Stack 13 : Get All New Data in Source Request by Request

In SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SPS 13, the following enhancements are available in the data transfer process (DTP) in BW which is quite helpful in loading large datasets :

In DTP maintenance, you can specify that a DTP request is to get only one source request. By doing this, you can prevent DTP requests from becoming too large. Until now, when this option was used, only the first source request was retrieved. To get all source requests one after the other, the DTP had to be executed manually a number of times. You can now specify in DTP maintenance that the DTP is to get all new data from the source, one request after another. This makes it easier to process mass data using process chains and helps to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). The function also has a positive effect on the process monitor display in the process chain log view: When a DTP retrieves all new data request by request, rather than displaying just one request, the system displays a list of DTP requests.

Source

BW upgrade to BI 7.0 - New Web Reporting

You've probably heard about all the new functionality that comes BI 7.o , especially around web reporting. You can actually upgrade to BI 7.0 "as is" without having to do all the BI-JAVA stuff but then you won't be able to use the new web reporting functionalities that come with BI 7.0 like :

• New BEx Web Application Designer (Unicode, Command Wizard, ...)

• Exporting to PDF and Printing

• Integrated Planning

• Drag&Drop (Analysis Web Item)

• Web Items (Container Layout, Menu Bar, Tab Pages, Button Group, ...)

• Formatted Reporting with BEx Report Designer

• Document Integration with storage in Knowledge Management

To use the new functionalities you need a BI-JAVA stack, in essence a Netweaver Portal with BI business packages installed on it. You can either utilize your existing Portal or install a dedicated Portal for BI Web reporting.

SAP has a comprehensive note regarding setting this, see Note 917950 - SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Setting Up BEx Web. Also check the handy attachments to the note .

One thing I can add to this : Please try and run this on a 64bit Portal as the BI reports use a lot of memory on the Portal's J2EE. The reason for this is that the query data is transferred to J2EE as a whole during runtime, and we how big BI queries can be! (Note 996600 - 32 Bit platforms not recommended for productive NW2004s apps, Note 1044330 - Java parameterization for BI systems)

Setting Up BEx Web in BI 7.0

Did you recently upgrade to or install BI 7.0 and want to make use of the new functionalities of BI and Java?
Look at Note 917950 - SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Setting Up BEx Web.
It contains a few attachments which is very handy in setting this up.