Books
SAP BI Bookstore.com
Last week I added a little section to this site called the SAP BI Bookstore.com. Keeping the old list I had with SAP BI related books and publications up to date was a bit too time consuming (yeah bit lazy IK), so I switched it to an Amazon aStore which does most of the work for me now. 😉 For your convenience I put the books in logical categories. You can reach the page by going to www.sapbibookstore.com or by clicking the link in the top-right corner of this blog.
I might bring back the page with all the SAP BI related links to blogs, sites, videos, tools etc. but I have to update them first. In the meantime you could check the resources list at EverythingXcelsius.
Posted in: BooksBook review: Discover ABAP
I have been working with SAP BW for some years now and ABAP coding has always been a pain in the ass for me. Fact is, also within BW you can’t really get around without any ABAP knowledge. It is used to enhance data extractors, to transform the data within the BW data model (with the start, field, end and expert routines in transformations) and to create variables to make dynamic selections in queries, DTP’s and InfoPackages.
So most of the time I just looked at some pieces of existing code, copied it, searched Google or SAP Help, tweaked it a bit so it eventually did what I wanted it to do, and went on. Just like I managed to do this with html, php and other coding languages for the last 15 years. If things got too complex I turned to a ABAP-consultant who normally managed to solve these problems in a few minutes doing some magic tricks that always seem simple when you read the code afterwards.
Now I found this book Discover ABAP by Karl-Heinz Kühnhauser ($39,95) which promises to give you a 101 course on the ABAP basics for us n00bs, so I decided to try it. Although this book is on the market for a few years already I still want to acknowledge it here.
This book is easy to read, gives many many examples, explains every concept in details and keeps things simple to understand. Kühnhauser demonstrates how to get the data from tables, use variables, transform or modify values, make calculations with them, use internal tables and how to set up logical expressions. Furthermore the Function Modules are discussed and the book shows how you can use them in your code.
I think that over 70% of the book’s text consist of examples or explaining them (line by line!!) which is very important for newcomers. All features of the ABAP editor are explained and it shows you how to really use the Debugger.
Since I only want to use ABAP in the BW domain (no, I don’t have any ambition to be a ABAP programmer someday!) I could fast-read/skip most of the sections on the data dictionary, creating database tables and building selection screens. But I think still 80%+ of the book was useful for me.
The only thing I miss in this book is the follow up advice on where to go next if you want to learn more. But if you are curious about the basics of ABAP you should check out this book for sure!
Posted in: Books, SAPCookbook Tweetaway Winners
I want to thank everyone who participated in the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook Tweetaway contest over the last 2 weeks! Over 100 tweets have been sent.
Congrats to the 2 lucky tweeps who have won an eBook copy of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook! The winners are @rodri_m_d and @montoyainigo. We’ll be contacting you guys shortly to give you your copies of the Cookbook.
Have fun baking!
Posted in: Books, Cookbook, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusSAP BO Dashboards cookbook Tweetaway
Okay guys, it is time to give some stuff away. On behalf of Packt Publishing we can give away two eBook copies of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards cookbook we released a few weeks ago.
Joining this giveaway Tweetaway is easy: Just send out a tweet with a link to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards’ cookbook page on PacktPub.com in it. You can use the share buttons on the cookbook page itself, or just click this link. Retweeting other tweeps is also allowed and you can tweet as much as you want.
On monday 25th July we will pick the two winners and grant them access to their free eBooks. Good luck!
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook released
I am very happy to announce the release of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook I worked on the past year with co-author David Lai and the team at Packt Publishing.
In this book we discuss over 90 so-called recipes that give a step-by-step explanation of the possibilities of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, formerly known as Xcelsius to create advanced dashboards. We cover the ins & outs of the Dashboard Design components, creating drill-downs, applying dynamic visibility, alerts and exporting & publishing. Also we show you how to improve the look and feel of your dashboard and how to use the spreadsheet in an optimal way. Furthermore dashboard connectivity options (i.e. SAP BW, BI4, XML) are included and we discuss the top third-party add-ons for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards like the GMaps plugin and Antivia XWIS.
Each recipe is supported by a large number of screenshots and for most of the recipes we included XLF source files for even better understanding. Throughout the book you will find lots of tips, tricks and best practices.
The book is published in eBook (ePub and DRM-free PDF) and paperback format and is available from the Packt Publishing website. Here you can find more info on the book, the table of contents and a sample chapter. Also this is the place to download the XLF and SWF source files we provide with the book.
