Classic FTW!
Relative OpenDocument links
In the BI Platform each document and folder has its own direct Document Link. Via this OpenDocument concept the specific object can be opened instantly, without having to browse through the BI Launchpad. You can find the Document Link by right-clicking a document in BI Launchpad/CMC.
In addition, we can use this link to pass parameters between reports. This video explains how to do this in Design Studio:
Lately I got several questions on using OpenDocument links in Design Studio dashboards in the context of BI landscapes with multiple BI Platform installations, let’s say with separate Development, Test, Production systems. For example, what to do when a Design Studio dashboard needs to link to another dashboard?
If we just use the OpenDocument URL it will always reference to the object on a specific system (i.e. Production), independently of the installation the dashboard is running on. This will definitely lead to issues during development and testing, as the referenced object is on a different environment giving probably some unrelated results, and might even not be available or accessible at all!
The solution is pretty simple, but you just have to know this: Always use relative URLs instead of the full absolute URLs. This relative URL should look like: /BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?sIDType=CUID&iDocID=<CUID>
So it’s basically the OpenDocument Link without the http://<server>:<port> part. This setup will also reuse a session on the BI Platform, saving login time and platform resources.
Reading SAP Community blogs via RSS
I’m not too happy with the new SAP Community, so I’ll try to avoid it as much as possible. Luckily we can still track the blogs via RSS via the tags…
1. Find the tag. You can go to blogs.sap.com, enter a search term like Design Studio or Lumira and click the tag.
2. Copy the URL. Some RSS readers require you to add ?feed=rss to the end of the URL.
OMG they killed SCN
The new SAP Community (formerly SCN – SAP Community Network) must be one of the biggest cluster fucks of 2016. It seems to meet all the conditions of the definition:
clusterfuck (plural clusterfucks)
(slang, vulgar) A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong. It is often caused by incompetence, communication failure, or a complex environment.
After a few weeks and several hopeful attempts I’ve totally given up on this platform. And I’m apparently not the only one. The problem with the previous SCN was that it was hard to find stuff. But, when you finally found the right spaces it kinda worked as you could easily browse the discussion topics you were interested in and see whether questions are already answered.
My Lumira question from 23 November has now 6 (!!!) views and 0 replies. And there are lots of other Lumira topics with even less views. If I look at the Design Studio area I see the same thing. Most of the topics have max 10 views. On the old SCN this was a very popular space and people were almost fighting to provide help. Oh, and the upvoting feature isn’t used at all.
The main problem is that the new SAP Community lacks any clear structure (yes, there are ‘tags’) and the bizarre thing seems to be that this is by design! I get the feeling that it doesn’t want to be like a classic forum for some unclear reason.
De Nederlandse BI Podcast – Episode 25
SAP TechEd Barcelona and sitNL 8 recap in this edition of De Nederlandse BI Podcast! Topics:
- TechEd Recap
- BW/4HANA Roadmap/implementation
- BusinessObjects Cloud, what’s new?
- Predictive Analytics
- IBCS en BusinessObjects, a match made in heaven?
- BusinessObjects admin met GB&Smith
As always, you can find the show in iTunes, on our website or just use the Podcast player below to listen instantly. Warning: Dutch content only!
sitNL 2016
Yesterday was the 8th edition of the yearly SAP Inside Track The Netherlands (sitNL). The event was sold-out and even had a waiting list! Wow! Luckily the new location at the Ciber office in Eindhoven was very spacey and I’d say large enough to host even more participants. Also it is only a 20 minute drive – by bike – for me, so really excellent location (although I missed the free car wash ?).
The BI track had a very interesting and nicely balanced program. Some high-level sessions, some more detailed ones, back-end stuff, front-end stuff, admin stuff. Good stuff.
Highlights for me were the TechEd recap by Ronald Konijnenburg en Sven van Leuken and the demo of 360Suite (skip the slides next time guys, the demo tells the story ?). I also went to the excellent Machine Learning 101 session by Fred Verheul, which reminded me to finally finish the Data Science for Business book I started reading earlier this year.
Below I put some #sitNL tweets as an impression.
familypicture #sitNL pic.twitter.com/LL1iYG9Ajy
— Wim Snoep (@wsnoep) November 26, 2016
