SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio: The Comprehensive Guide (2nd edition) coming early 2016

SAP Design Studio has changed and improved a lot over the past three years; arriving at version 1.6 last month. It was clear that our 2013 book Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio needed a big update, as it included only the features up until Design Studio version 1.1.

So the wait is almost over and in early 2016 the fully updated and extended version of the book will be available under the name SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio: The Comprehensive Guide (2nd edition). Make sure you create some room in your bookcase because with about 750 pages this book has gotten really fat. For this project I teamed up with my Interdobs colleagues and Design Studio specialists Jeroen van der A and Dwain Chang.

I will post some more info on the book as we approach the release date. Below is already the outline from the SAP Press and Amazon page.

SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio: The Comprehensive Guide

750 pages, 2nd, updated and revised edition 2016, Print edition hardcover
ISBN 978-1-4932-1297-2

SAP Press | Amazon.com | Goodreads

Breathe some life into your analysis applications and dashboards with this guide to SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio! Updated for release 1.6, this second edition is jam-packed with the need-to-know details for report developers and designers from using the IDE to implementing CSS styles and classes. Enhance your applications even further with information on advanced scripting and SDK extensions. It’s time to take your BI to the next level are you ready?

* Walk through installation, configuration, and usage scenarios
* Build full-scale applications for planning, OLAP analysis, and more
* Learn how to use and develop SDK extensions

Installation and Configuration
Install the system and the Design Studio Client Tool, then walk through configuration steps for SAP BusinessObjects BI, SAP Enterprise Portal, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP HANA, universes, and custom data sources.

Designing and Building Applications
Learn how to integrate planning functionality into your applications, use CSS for further customization and artistic flair, and master design principles for complex, performance-tuned applications.

The Software Development Kit
Explore Design Studio s SDK for custom extensions. See how to install, update, and deploy SDK extensions and build components.

Highlights include:

• Installation and configuration
• Capabilities and use cases
• Applications, reports, dashboards
• Components and properties
• Scripting
• Planning applications
• CSS
• SDK
• Integrated Development Environment
• Design Studio vs. Dashboards vs. BEx WAD

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook now available

I’m very happy to announce the release of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook. The book is available right now in both eBook and paperback editions and can be ordered by most major online book vendors. It will also be available on several online book libraries.

As I blogged last month co-author David Lai and I decided to go for another run to update and improve the original SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook to make this the ultimate resource for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius). We worked on this second edition for the past 10 months and are very content with the final result. With about 100 recipes and over 450 pages of content (100 pages more than the first edition) this is thé ultimate and definite guide for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 developers!

In this updated version of the cookbook we broadened the scope a bit for the beginning SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developer as well for the more experienced user. We now provide some more introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards tool itself before diving into the practical step-by-step recipes right from the start. For the more seasoned users we added chapters about dashboard performance tuning and development productivity, plus a bunch of new tips & tricks throughout the book.

The original cookbook was released almost five years ago and covered version 4.0 of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The second edition is updated up to the latest version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1. Together with a team of technical reviewers, existing of some world class SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developers, we checked the existing content from the first cookbook on its relevance, correctness and completeness. Most recipes have been updated, some a bit more than others, and we decided to keep a few of them out of the new book.

Of course we also added a lot of new recipes to feature the new 4.1 features and include more tips & tricks. We discuss all the new components, the new mobile dashboards concept and the new connectivity options, complemented with new chapters on performance tuning and development productivity. At the end of the book the other dashboarding solution by SAP (Design Studio) is introduced.

For more information on the book you can check this page on my site. You can also go to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook page at Packt Publishing, where you can also download a sample and buy the book.

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook, by Xavier Hacking and David Lai, Packt Publishing, ISBN 9781784391959, 452 pages.

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com (paperback)

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com (Kindle)

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Goodreads

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook (2nd edition) coming this spring

We are currently in the very final stages of editing the second edition of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook. We expect the book to be available in an eBook and paper edition in just a few weeks from now (April 2015).

For this updated version of the cookbook we broadened the scope a bit for the beginning SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developer as well for the more experienced user. We will for example provide some more introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards tool itself before diving into the practical step-by-step recipes right from the start. For the more seasoned users we added chapters about dashboard performance tuning and development productivity, plus a bunch of new tips & tricks throughout the book.

The original cookbook was released almost five years ago and covered version 4.0 of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The second edition is updated up to the latest version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1. Together with a team of technical reviewers, existing of some world class SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developers, we checked the existing content from the first cookbook on its relevance, correctness and completeness. Most recipes have been updated, some a bit more than others, and we decided to keep a few of them out of the new book.

Of course we also added a lot of new recipes to feature the new 4.1 features and include more tips & tricks. We discuss all the new components, the new mobile dashboards concept and the new connectivity options, complemented with new chapters on performance tuning and development productivity. At the end of the book the other dashboarding solution by SAP (Design Studio) is introduced.

With 100 recipes and 470 pages of content (almost 150 pages more than the first edition) this will be thé ultimate and definite guide for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 developers!

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook, by Xavier Hacking and David Lai, Packt Publishing, ISBN 9781784391959, 472 pages.

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com

New SAP Business Intelligence books by SAP Press

SAP Press has added a bunch of new interesting BI related books to its portfolio recently. Especially in the HANA domain a lot of new and updated content is provided for us. Here is the list with (e)books:

Making the Case for SAP HANA, by Michael Mattern and Ray Croft, ISBN 978-1-4932-1036-7, 616 pages, published 11/2014.

Implementing SAP HANA, 2nd edition, by Haun, Hickman, Loden, Wells, ISBN 978-1-4932-1176-0, 864 pages (!!), published 01/2014.

Getting Started with SAP HANA Cloud Platform, by James Wood, ISBN 978-1-4932-1021-3, 575 pages, expected 07/2015.

SAP BW on SAP HANA, by Merz, Hügens and Blum, ISBN 978-1-4932-1003-9, 480 pages, expected 05/2015.

SAP BW 7.4 – Practical Guide, 3rd edition, by Paler, Patel and Shiralkar, ISBN 978-1-4932-1191-3, 860 pages (!!), expected 04/2014.

SAP Data Services, by Hanck, Chen, Hanck, Hertel, Lissarrague and Médaille, ISBN 978-1-4932-1167-8, 625 pages, published 03/2015.

Getting Started with SAP Lumira, by Christian Ah-Soon and Peter Snowdon, ISBN 978-1-4932-1033-6, 540 pages, published 11/2014.

Make sure you use the coupon code SVYTE10 (expires April 30, 2015) to get a 10% discount.

Audiobook: The Martian (Andy Weir)

I listened to a great sci-fi audiobook last week: The Martian by Andy Weir. The plot is that a human mission to Mars goes horrible wrong a few days after arrival. The crew has to evacuate when they get in a big dust storm. During the evac the main character Mark Watney is heavily wounded, and believing he didn’t survive it, the other astronauts leave Mars.

Imagine being the only person on a planet, with broken machinery, no way to communicate and very limited food. What would be your plan?

Watney writes a log of all of his experiences and tells us all about the science and calculations he uses to fix things, create water and how to grow food. On Mars! Of course the story also switches to what is happening at NASA back on earth and to the returning spacecraft with the other astronauts.

The narration of this audiobook is excellent. Even when I arrived at home I stayed in the car for a few minutes to finish a chapter or a section of the book. Regarding the story I like the fact that there is no unnecessary/unwanted deviation from the core storyline. So no romantic bs woven into it.

In 2015 a movie will be released based on this novel. Director is Ridley Scott and Mark Watney is portrayed by Matt Damon. Looking forward to that one!

The Martian – Andy Weir – ISBN 978-0091956141 – Audiobook version