In this article I discuss the specific details for creating advanced Web Intelligence (sometimes referred to as WebI or WEBI) document links. These advanced links provide features that the users expect over and above the more basic links I covered in my other  Web Intelligence linking article, “3 Examples Show How to Link in Web Intelligence Documents.” For example, to make really user-friendly Web Intelligence documents, you should allow linking in the logos of your companies’ divisions and provide links that pass parameters to commonly used Web sites.

Figure 1 shows the advanced linking I’m explaining how to create. The numbers 1 and 2 show advanced hyperlinking: Parsing and passing parameters within the system as well as to URLs outside BusinessObjects. This includes showing how to pass a document’s (ZIP Code or postal code) as a parameter to a weather Web site (number 1 in Figure 1) and issues associated with linking to cells containing pictures (2 in Figure 1). A business example for number 1 might be a salesman reviewing  a delivery report,  with a destination ZIP Code field. With one click, they could access the weather at the delivery Zip Code as additional critical information. Number 3 shows advanced open document linking, including linking to document instances (prior scheduled executions of a document). Linking to instances is mostly used to improve the speed of access over links that open and refresh the target document.

Figure 1

Summary of links

Now for the how-to details you need to accomplish these advanced linking concepts.

Advanced Hyperlinks to the Web

In my other Web Intelligence linking article I showed you how to simply attach a link to your Web Intelligence summary document, which took you to the SAP training Web site. Here I show you the more advanced concepts of parsing URLs and passing parameters. My example scenario is based on passing the ZIP Code parameter to a weather site; another might be to pass the customer’s company from a Web Intelligence document to the Google search results for that company. These are the neat things you need when linking to external sites.

Passing Parameters to URLs

Some Web site URLs parse easily. (Parsing means separating the URL into the core Web site address and the parameters that make the Web site dynamic.) When the ZIP Code is clicked in the summary report (Figure 1), the screen in Figure 2 is accessed, which shows an example of the weather in Los Angeles.

Figure 2

MSN weather report screen – Highlighting the URL

Figure 2 shows the link to the weather you get by clicking on the ZIP Code in Figure 1. If you look closely and know your ZIP Codes, you’ll notice that there are no Los Angeles ZIP Codes on the list, yet the weather is displayed for this city. To demo my real weather report link to the weather I could not use an invalid ZIP Code, so I had to code a work around. In Figure 3 you see that the tooltip pop-up says Weather for 90004; this appears no matter what link you choose from the list as this is a valid ZIP Code. So as you read my example, realize that the logic is more complicated than you might need assuming your reports have accurate data. Unfortunately, my report uses the SAP-supplied eFashion data base of fake data.

Figure 3

Tooltip 90004

Figures 4, 5 and 6 show the configuration steps you need to take to build the link. Starting from the design mode in the Web Intelligence document, the pop-up screen in Figure 4 is accessed via the context menu (normally a right click) > Linking > Add document link. Figure 4 shows the hyperlink pasted in to the link editor prior to parsing. Once you click the Parse button, the screen looks like Figure 5.

Figure 4

The URL in the hyperlink editor prior to parsing

Figure 5

The weather URL after parsing

Figure 6

Reference the ZIP Code data in a formula

Notice that after parsing, Web Intelligence automatically identifies the URL parameter ZIP and then assigns the value originally in the link. This would work if I wanted to ignore the actual ZIP Code and replace it with 30096, but in this case I want to use the zip field from the Web Intelligence report and link it to each weather report for each ZIP Code. If the ZIP Codes in my source were accurate this would be as easy as entering the formula =[Zip Code] as shown in Figure 6.

One way is just to type it in; another way is to choose the Select object option from the drop-down menu (Figure 7) on the right side of the zip box, and then select ZIPCode. This drop-down box has two options: Select object and Build formula. You choose the Select object option if you just want a simple solution replacing the value of an object in the resulting URL. In my case, the ZIP Codes were not valid, so I needed to access the formula editor using the Build formula option for a complex rule (Figure 8).

Figure 7

The URL parameter drop-down options

Figure 8

My complex formula for deriving a valid ZIP Code

Again, just for the purposes of getting a valid ZIP Code, Figure 8 shows a convoluted formula that basically always derives 90004, because the normal formula of =[zip code] would (in my case) result in an invalid ZIP Code. You can enter a formula or a variable here to derive whatever you want. In this case, my code basically says “if the ZIP Code field is any  number  make it 90004, and if it is not any number still change it to 90004.”

In addition to the formula in Figure 8, an additional formula is used to generate the tooltip that tells users what they will be linking to when they hover over the ZIP Code link. This tooltip formula is: Weather for + if(isnumber…).  In the real world with good ZIP Code data the formula would be weather + [ZIPCODE]. This formula is shown along with the completed weather link configuration in Figure 9.

Figure 9

The completed weather Edit Hyperlink pop-up screen

Note
When you use the Web user interface and the associated paths identified above, the system is building a complex formula for the cells and columns. The resulting formula is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10

The system-built formula for linking to the weather via ZIP Code

Advanced Open Document Linking – Instances of Reports

In my first article, I simply passed parameters to another Web Intelligence document. In this more advanced scenario, I am suggesting that the details document might take a long time to execute. When a business scenario involves the need to execute a long-running report as it does in my hypothetical story, one option to improve performance might be to jump to a pre-generated (scheduled) instance of this details report. Although in the end the link on the margin field still brings the user the details, it is an older snapshot that is accessed much faster.

Preparation

In preparation for this special linking example, I schedule a document to be executed periodically. Scheduling and the related topic of publications are beyond the scope of this article. That said I have included a screenprint of the process steps (numbered in Figure 11) for your edification. Simple scheduling is accessed via the context menu on the document in the launch pad. You can learn more details about this in the BOW320 class—there are multiple options for scheduling—but for the purposes of my example, I am focusing on the prompt settings in Figure 11.

Figure 11

Web Intelligence document scheduling options

When you click any of the options on the left, under Schedule, you open the screen on the right where you can set all the options for exactly how your document can be scheduled for automatic execution. Here is an overview for each of the options I discuss in this article.

Instance Title: Click this option and provide a name so that you know which completed document you are opening.

Recurrence: Choose this option to select how often you want the document to be refreshed. In my example, it is run each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Prompts: Here you set the values of the prompts; in this case, a specific state and year.

Formats: Here you select what kind of format you want the system to create when it runs, either a PDF or another format. In this case, I set the format option to format as a Web Intelligence document.

Caching: You use this option to tell the system where to store or email the finished documents.  In this case, I used the defaults.

When you have finished all your entries, click the Schedule button to start the process.

After the process to schedule the Web Intelligence document to run periodically is started, the system continually runs the document according to a set of specific prompts. In my example I have run the details document just for California and for the year 2013. Figure 12 shows a review of the document instances that have been generated. This history option is also accessed via the context menu on the document.

Figure 12

History and Instance overview showing the successful details document run

Configuring Links

Now that I’ve completed the set-up steps for scheduling the execution of your Web Intelligence document links, I show you the advanced options for the Open document link. In my example, the target of the link is to an instance of the Details Document that has been stored on the BI Platform.

Access the cell link options via the context menu, and select the Add document link option. Figure 13 shows the required settings to link this margin data for a specific state and year to the instance of the details document.

Figure 13

Settings for Open Document Linking to an instance of the detailed report

The text entered in the field to the right of the Link to document instance check box (Figure 13) ensures that only instances with the same parameters are opened via the link. The settings for the Enter State: and Enter value(s) for Year: fields pass the state and year associated with the margin number to the instance search. If I choose a California margin for 2013 it will find one. This is because I have only scheduled this combination of state and year.

The results of the detailed report are shown in Figure 14. These results look the same to the user, but in actuality they are based on an older snapshot of the data. Again, the advantage of this is the speed of access and reduced server load during the high demand period.

Figure 14

Instance of Detailed Sales Report (California; 2013)

Advanced Hyperlinks to the Web – Image Based

In my other article, I put a simple link to the SAP Web site behind this text: click here to go to SAP.com. In this article, I want to add a little nuance related to linking via an image. In this example I break down the link behind the SAP.com logo (shown in Figure 1). As you would expect, clicking this logo takes you to SAP.com. The reason I’m discussing this here is because Web Intelligence is not designed to be the ultimate dashboarding tool (like BusinessObjects Dashboards or Design Studio)—this hyperlink is not actually linked to the image as it is with these tools. However, there is a workaround to make this logo hyperlink work as you would expect it to, which I discuss below.

Image Preparation

The first step is to put a single blank cell on the Web Intelligence report (Figure 15). Figures 16 and 17 show the settings for the image. In this case, the image is referenced from a location on a server accessible to all; another option for the image would be to upload it.

Figure 15

Adding a cell to a Web Intelligence document

Figure 16

General format cell options for linking an image

Figure 17

Adding an image to a cell

In Figure 15 click the Blank button, which opens the field below it where you can insert the link into the document. Access the Context Menu on the cell and choose the Format Cell option. Select the General option (on the left of Figure 16), and choose the Hyperlink option from the Read content as: drop-down menu.

Now click Appearance on the left and in the resulting screen (Figure 17) enter the image location information where you have your image stored (e.g., select the Image from address radio button and enter the address in the field to the right). In my example it’s https://www.sap.com … /usa. Here I reference an image that would be accessible over the network, but another (maybe better) option would be to use the (upload) Image from file option. All of your choices for adding images are shown in Figure 17.

Image-Based Hyperlinking Basics

So far I’ve covered the normal setup for creating an image to your Web Intelligence document, with no hyperlink variations. Now you need to complete the normal setup for the hyperlink. You do this via the Context Menu on the cell, and using the standard path previously discussed (Figure 18).

Figure 18

Adding a hyperlink to an image

Now enter the link destination as you would normally (Figure 19) and click the OK button.

Figure 19

Adding a hyperlink

Image-Based Hyperlinking Nuances

Now for the nuance. Using the context menu in the top box in the screen in Figure 19 (e.g., Enter the address below), right-click and access the formula editor. In the formula editor add some blanks to the hyperlink formula as shown in Figure 20. These blanks are actually what the user clicks on.

Figure 20

Add blanks to the formula URL

This final step makes the entire logo clickable (if you don’t complete this step only the bottom of the logo is clickable). This is caused by the default font size of the blanks that you added in Figure 20. To solve this issue, follow the Context Menu one more time. This time access the path Text > Font. On the Font menu, experiment with the proper font size to make it just big enough to encompass your image, but no bigger. There is no special magic to figuring this out, just trial and error. The font does not matter as these are just blanks that no one actually sees. In my example, shown in Figure 21, I made the font Arial, Bold, and size 36. Click the OK button to save your changes.

Figure 21

Change the font size of the blanks

This size font, combined with the number of blanks I added before, makes for a large clickable area around my image.

Ned Falk

Ned Falk is a senior education consultant at SAP. In prior positions, he implemented many ERP solutions, including SAP R/3. While at SAP, he initially focused on logistics. Now he focuses on SAP HANA, SAP BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver BW), SAP CRM, and the integration of SAP BW and SAP BusinessObjects tools. You can meet him in person when he teaches SAP HANA, SAP BW, or SAP CRM classes from the Atlanta SAP office, or in a virtual training class over the web. If you need an SAP education plan for SAP HANA, SAP BW, BusinessObjects, or SAP CRM, you may contact Ned via email.

You may contact the author at ned.falk@sap.com.

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