5 tips to kickstart SAC Application Design
SAP Analytics Cloud Application Design is expected to be available somewhere at the beginning of 2019, so let’s already have a look at some tips to get you started with this first release.
In case you haven’t heard about Application Design, this is a brand new solution within the SAP Analytics Cloud, which allows you to build your own applications. It makes use of the components that we already know from the BI, Planning and Predictive areas in SAP Analytics Cloud, but lets you use scripts to extend these capabilities. It is basically SAP Lumira Designer in the cloud.
1. Fast scripting
For those familiar with SAP Lumira Designer this one won’t come as a surprise. Also in SAC Application Design you can (and should) use the content assistent (CTRL + SPACE) to help you write scripts. It is fast and prevents mistakes. Just hit CTRL + SPACE and you’ll get a list of possible options.
You can find the SAP Analytics Cloud Application Design API Reference with all options here. Note that – just as in SAP Lumira Designer – you can also use “this“, instead of the name of the object that you are adding a script to. This is fast and flexible, as you can easily reuse the same code without having to adjust the name of the widgets. “me” doesn’t work by the way.
2. Debug with console.log();
With console.log(); you can pass values to the console of the web browser. You can use this to debug your application and see what is happening with your code.
3. Info Panel
The built-in Info Panel contains two tabs: Errors and Reference List. The Errors will show you incorrect scripts and scripts with warnings. You can click the error and immediately go to the script and the line.
The Reference List shows you all the scripts where the selected object is used in.
4. R Visualization widget
Just as in SAC stories you can use the R Visualization widget in Application Design. Very interesting is the fact that you cannot only use this to visualize a custom R chart, but you can also use the variables that you define in the R script editor in your Application Design scripts. You could for example use R to do some advanced calculations, and display the result through another widget.
5. Get the largest monitor you can
Make sure you got a large monitor when you want to properly work with this tool. I was using my 13″ MacBook Pro, but with these massive panels on all sides there isn’t much space left for the actual application canvas and you don’t want to be scrolling and opening/closing panels all the time.
HackingSAP.com - Dec 9, 2018 | Featured, SAP Analytics Cloud
Tagged | Application Design, SAP Analytics Cloud