{"id":1701,"date":"2012-06-13T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T11:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2012-10-17T12:24:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T10:24:31","slug":"a-first-look-at-zen-sap-analysis-edition-for-application-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/a-first-look-at-zen-sap-analysis-edition-for-application-design","title":{"rendered":"A first look at ZEN (SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week we got access to the beta program for one of the new upcoming SAP BI tools: <strong>SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Edition for Application Design<\/strong>, codename <strong>ZEN<\/strong>. I played around with it for about an hour to get a quick first impression and to see how fast I would be able to create my first ZEN app with some interactivity.<\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t heard about ZEN before you should check the following blogposts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/scn.sap.com\/community\/businessobjects-analysis-ms-office\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/zen-analysis-edition-for-application-design--asug-webcast-summary\" target=\"_blank\">ZEN, Analysis Edition for Application Design &#8211; ASUG Webcast Summary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/scn.sap.com\/community\/bi-dashboards\/blog\/2012\/05\/03\/zen-and-the-future-of-xcelsius\" target=\"_blank\">ZEN and the future of Xcelsius<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The user guide gives the following definition of ZEN:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for application design enables application designers to create analysis applications and dashboards for browsers and mobile devices on top of BW and SAP HANA data sources. It is the product of choice when full support for BW and HANA data models and engine capabilities is required. The product offers a design tool that allows you to create applications in an easy and intuitive way without the need for native HTML and iPad UI programming skills.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Looking at the SAP BI tools, the features of the current <strong>BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)<\/strong> and <strong>SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius)<\/strong> will be merged into this one tool (to rule them all!). Note that ZEN is now in beta, ramp-up is planned for end 2012 and it will be general availability not before the middle of 2013!! So we have enough time to learn about this new tool.<\/p>\n<p>The ZEN software installer required me to install Internet Explorer 9 on my Windows 7 VM. This could lead to some problems in production environments that are using WAD, since WAD only works well with Internet Explorer 8. At one of my current projects we now also have this problem after upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 with IE9. Check SAP note <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stechno.net\/sap-notes.html?view=sapnote&amp;id=1635870\" target=\"_blank\">1635870<\/a> for more info on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Setting up the connection to the SAP BW system was easy; just copy-pasting the settings from the SAP logon settings. There is no &#8216;check connection&#8217; option, so you have to execute the app to check if your settings are correct. Interesting is the option to create multiple SAP BW and SAP HANA connections. Also it seems like you don&#8217;t need a live connection to work on an app. In WAD this was required.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1703\" title=\"zen01\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen01.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen01.png 973w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen01-150x90.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen01-300x179.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 973px) 100vw, 973px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The program looks a bit like WAD and Xcelsius, with several components to choose from on the left, a canvas in the middle and on the right the properties of the selected component.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1703\" title=\"zen02\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen02.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->First I created a new connection with a SAP BW query. In WAD or BEx Analyzer this would be called a Dataprovider; ZEN uses <strong>Data Source<\/strong>. This might be a bit confusing since in SAP BW there is specific object called with the same name for data extraction from a source system.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1703 alignnone\" title=\"zen03\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen03.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"299\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1706 alignleft\" title=\"zen04\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen04.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen04.png 478w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen04-85x90.png 85w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen04-284x300.png 284w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Next I dragged a Crosstab component into my app and I dragged the new Data Source on top of this component to make the connection. The results of the query are shown in the cross tab. In the workspace I can&#8217;t edit the query output by for example deleting one of the characteristics or doing some sorting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1703\" title=\"zen05\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen05.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After adding a chart I tried to include some kind of selector in the app. Here things become a little difficult. Some scripting is needed to enable interactivity. ZEN uses BI Action Language which is a subset of JavaScript\/ECMAScript. Luckily they already included a wizard to get you going.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1719\" title=\"zen10\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen10.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen10.png 628w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen10-132x90.png 132w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen10-300x204.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1709\" title=\"zen07\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen07.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"522\" height=\"774\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen07.png 522w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen07-60x90.png 60w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen07-202x300.png 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 522px) 100vw, 522px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Switching the Theme to SAP Mobile makes the table and the buttons a bit more iPhone-like.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1710\" title=\"zen08\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen08.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen08.png 293w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen08-150x47.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1711\" title=\"zen09\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen09.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen09.png 474w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen09-67x90.png 67w, https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/zen09-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/>So after this quick look at this first beta release for ZEN I think this is a good start, but a lot of work still has to be done to come close to the flexibility that Xcelsius already offers. I&#8217;m a bit concerned about the required scripting to make apps interactive. This might slow down the development and learning process for new ZEN developers, coming from an Xcelsius environment in which you only needed some basic MS Excel knowledge to quickly create cool interactive dashboards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week we got access to the beta program for one of the new upcoming SAP BI tools: SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Edition for Application Design, codename ZEN. I played around with it for about an hour to get a quick first impression and to see how fast I would be able to create my first ZEN app with some interactivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44,56,42,4,9,163,153],"tags":[154,28,164,134,296,132,155,285,294],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knowledge-sharing","category-new-technology","category-preview","category-sap","category-sapbusinessobjects","category-sap-businessobjects-design-studio","category-zen","tag-analysis-edition-for-application-design","tag-dashboards","tag-design-studio","tag-sap-bi","tag-sap-businessobjects-design-studio","tag-sap-bw","tag-web-application-designer","tag-xcelsius","tag-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pKaa2-rr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3219,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/sap-bi-product-name-shake-up-the-2017-edition","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":0},"title":"SAP BI product name shake-up: the 2017 edition","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"May 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Another year, another set of product names for our beloved SAP BI tools. Seemingly out of nowhere a list of new names were presented last week at the SAPPHIRENOW event\u00a0in Orlando FL. Even after all the name changes we had in the past 10 years ('member Xcelsius?), this still came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/featured"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1902,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/getting-ready-for-sap-design-studio-zen-with-codecademy","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":1},"title":"Getting ready for SAP Design Studio with Codecademy","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"October 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Word got out that SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio (formerly named as ZEN) will be generally available next month! This week (9 October 2012) SAP is doing a Design Studio 1.0 Product roadmap webinar to explain this early GA and show us the future milestones of this product. If you're unfamiliar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Knowledge sharing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knowledge sharing","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/knowledge-sharing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/braceyourselveszen.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/braceyourselveszen.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/braceyourselveszen.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1127,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/bi4-product-names-xcelsius-dashboards","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":2},"title":"BI4 product names for Xcelsius","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"March 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Overview of the new BI4 product naming for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (fka Xcelsius).","rel":"","context":"In &quot;SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards&quot;","block_context":{"text":"SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/sapbusinessobjects-dashboards"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2192,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/sap-design-studio-and-conditions","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":3},"title":"SAP Design Studio and Conditions","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"June 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I got an email this week by Ado A. from Atlanta, GA about an issue he has with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio. He is trying to filter a set of data in Top N categories, for example to get the 10 regions with the highest sales numbers (Top 10). Unfortunately,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Knowledge sharing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knowledge sharing","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/knowledge-sharing"},"img":{"alt_text":"DScond1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DScond1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2281,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/getting-started-with-sap-businessobjects-design-studio-book-sap-press","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":4},"title":"Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio book","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"September 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, it's not even three years ago that I announced the release of the\u00a0SAP BusinessObjectsDashboards 4.0 Cookbook here at this place, and now I can already announce a second book I worked on: Getting Started with\u00a0SAP BusinessObjects\u00a0Design Studio, which will be published by SAP Press.\u00a0This time I teamed up with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/books"},"img":{"alt_text":"DesignStudioCover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/DesignStudioCover-288x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2871,"url":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/design-studio-1-5-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1701,"position":5},"title":"Design Studio 1.5 Preview","author":"Xavier Hacking","date":"May 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Later this quarter the next big\u00a0SAP BusinessObjects\u00a0Design Studio update will be generally available: version 1.5. Let's have a look at what we can expect in this edition. Performance, performance, performance Despite the fact that\u00a0Design Studio is\u00a0developed in\u00a0a much more future proof way than\u00a0SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius), it still appears to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Preview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Preview","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/category\/preview"},"img":{"alt_text":"Design-Studio-1.5-3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Design-Studio-1.5-3.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hackingsap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}