So after I read a lot about BW/4HANA, I decided to create a own SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 [Developer Edition] instance on my Amazon AWS account. First I had to extend my normal AWS account with a IAM
user. For this you choose under Security, Identity & Compliance >> IAM. Under Users you click on Add user.
Amazon AWS add user
You have to give the user a name, in my example bw4hana and as access type I choose Programmatic access. Next step is to set the permissions. I only attach
existing policies directly, because it is only a test user. The following policies are needed:
AmazonEC2FullAccess
AmazonVPCFullAccess
ReadOnlyAccess
AWSAccountUsageReportAccess
After you created the user, you have save your access key id and secret access key. These are required for the set up on the page cal.sap.com. After you logon you can choose the SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 [Developer Edition] easily by click on Create Instance. Now
you need the access key id and the secret access key to set up your instance. The costs are:
1,31 USD per hour when the system is active and you use it
23,00 USD per month when the system is suspended
So you can see you don’t have to spend a lot of money to test the new technology. The setup process takes about 60 minutes.
Note: The interesting part is you don’t need a S-User, you can also use a P-User.
SAP Logon Pad with BW/4HANA
After the setup is done, you can access the systems via RDP oder directly through a SAP Logon Pad. I used the SAP Logon Pad, because on my machine is also Analysis Office, Design Studio and the BW Modeling Tools
installed. So I ran into my first issue, there is no RSA1 anymore. You have to use the BW Modeling Tools. Which is in some places hard to use, I hope they will fix some stuff there.
After a little bit playing with new objects and load some sample data my first test ended here. So stay tuned. If there are any questions post them down here in the comments.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
After we can log on to a BI platform with our .Net application, we want to open a document for
example a Analysis Office workbook. First we have to define several variables.
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Dim boInfoStore as InfoStore
Dim boEnterpriseService as EnterpriseService
Dim boInfoObjects as InfoObjects
Dim boEnterpriseSession as EnterpriseSession
After we have now all variables, we expand our source code from the previous post. So if something isn’t clear, feel free to write a comment.
Now we connected the EnterpriseService with the InfoStore-Object, so we are able to execute SQL commands. You can find all objects inside the BI platform with SQL statements. You can reach the AdminTools via http://yourBIplatform:8080/AdminTools/ to test your SQL statements.
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boInfoObjects = boInfoStore.Query("SELECT * from CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_KIND = 'AO.Workbook'")
This command makes a SQL Select Statement and delievers all Analysis Office Workbooks. You can now open or display all boInfoObjects. If there are any questions feel free to ask.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
A new feature of Analysis for Office 2.4 is that you have a function called Customize User Interface. On the
first view it looks similar to the Excel customize ribbon function. But it has more flexiblity to switch between different interfaces. First you have to open the Customize User
Interface dialog via File >> Analysis. The following dialog appears.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface
To define a new profile you have to click into the drop down box and enter a name, e.g. reyemsaibot. After you entered your profile name, the save button is active.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface save profile
After you saved your profile, you can delete it or set it as standard profile.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface saved
Now you can modify the ribbon interface by select or unselect the groups and elements. If you want to add a own function, make right click and add a New Group.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface add new group
You can now define the group.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface define group
After you add the group, you are able to add your own elements to this group. Make a right click and select New Element. You can choose between Button, Separator, Split Button and Toggle Button as element. For all elements except for Separator you have to define a Label, Macro, Size and an Image.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface add new element
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface Ribbon
For example I add a Button Open Workbook and choose my macro SAPOpenWorkbook. You can choose your macro either in this workbook or in an external source like a Excel add-in. So you are able to design different interface for different people or use cases. The interfaces are stored under C:Users<User>AppDataRoamingSAPCofUser Interface. There you find a xml and an image folder, in which are the selected images are saved.
Appdata User Interfaces
If you want to distribute them in your company, take these files (xml and the image folder) and move them to C:ProgramDataSAPCofUser Interface. Now it is a company user
interface and can’t be deleted by the user.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface Company Interface
If there is any question feel free to write a comment. I think it is a cool feature if you want to restrict the view of the ribbon and distribute it in your company. If it will be used a lot,
will we see in the future. So stay tuned for other Analysis for Office 2.4 content.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
Since yesterday Analysis for Office 2.4 is available. You can download it with a S-User under Support Packages and Patches >>
By Alphabetical Index (A-Z) >> A >> SBOP Analysis Office >> SBOP Analysis MS Office 2.4.
The SAP help page isn’t updated yet. But I think it would be updated in the next days.
A new feature is to protect your workbook. You can choose between the complete workbook and only
sheet protection. It seems like a stripped down protection from Microsoft Excel. Why this should be necessary must be clarified.
SAP Analysis for Office Protect Workbook
SAP Analysis for Office Protect Workbook Options
Also a new feature is to load and save comments directly from the SAP Business Objects BI platform. How this exactly works I
have to discover. A really cool feature is the Customize User Interface where you can
easily configure different user interface. Maybe you can also configure them through the file system
settings.
SAP Analysis for Office Customize User Interface
You can now define in the properties of the design panel to set a dimension to No Display.
SAP Analysis for Office Design Panel Properties
The Table Design Rules editor now has a copy button, if the previous restrictions are obsolete now, have to be seen. You can now also exlcude copy and paste values from clipboard or file.
Values for clipboard copy and paste
SAP Analysis for Office add filter via clipboard
Also new is Link Dimension. This means when you filter on the main Crosstab it will also affect the linked Crosstabs. You can see the little icon that indicates the Crosstabs are
linked.
SAP Analysis for Office Link Dimension
SAP Analysis for Office Dimension Linked
A really cool feature is Group Crosstabs. This means, that you combine to Crosstabs to one.
SAP Analysis for Office Group Crosstabs
SAP Analysis for Office Components View Group Crosstabs
Here is the result of the Group Crosstabs.
SAP Analysis for Office Group Crosstabs
So a first look at Analysis for Office 2.4 is done. I hope SAP release the necessary help files so we can found more about this version.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
First you have to install the BIP .Net SDK. You can download it from the SAP marketplace. Go to Installations and Upgrades >> By Alphabetical Index (A-Z) >> B >> SBOP BI Platform (former
SBOP Enterprise) >> SBOP BI Platform 4.2 >> Installation and Upgrade >> SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP03 ENTER .NET SDK Runtime Windows. You need a S-User with download
credentials. For more information about the SDK commands you can look into the help file and the documentation.
So now start a new Visual Studio project and add the following dlls to your project.
CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.Framework
CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.InfoStore
After you added these two dlls, we can build a test application in Visual Studio. We need a new button, which test if we have a connection to the BI
platform. First we need a session manager.
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Dim mySessionMgr as SessionMgr
We also need variables for user, password, url, port and authentication.
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Dim user asStringDim password asStringDim url asStringDim port asStringDim auth asString
Now we have all variables which we need. So we can build our log on to the BI platform.
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mySessionMgr =New SessionMgr
user = txt_username.Text
password = txt_password.Text
url = txt_url.Text
port = txt_port.Text
As authentication we can use between Enterprise or Windows Active Directory. But after we created the logon via Active Directory, we should use this authentication.
So now we have all information to build our logon.
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If mySessionMgr.Logon(user, password, url &":"& port, auth) then
Messagebox.Show("Login was successful")
Else
Messagebox.Show("Login wasn't successful")
Endif
So now you can see if your logon is working or not. In the next article I write how to open a file on the BI platform (for this we need the dll CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.InfoStore). If you have
any questions, feel free to comment under this article.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
This week I want to test the integration of a BI Platform to my .Net program. So I want to
install a test version of the BIP, but my virtual machine hadn’t enough space. The first step was to extend the space of the disk. It is very easy in VirtualBox to extend the disk.
Open the Windows Console
Go to the path where you installed Virtual Box. (Default: C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox)
Type VBoxManage.exe modifyhd „Path to the disk“ –resize 100000 (=100 GB)
Press Enter and your VirtualBox will be extended
After my VirtualBox was ready I could install the BIP. But the next issue was found very soon. I need a license key.
You can find on the support page of SAP the Emergency License Keys. With this emergency license keys you can install a trail version of the BI platform. After the installation was done, we have to set up the Windows Active
Directory, so that we can use Single sign-on (SSO).
In this article I will walk through step by step on setting up single sign-on with SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 SP3 and in my case a Windows Server 2012 R2. The Windows Server part is similar in other
Windows Server versions. The technical specifications used to accomplish single sign-on in this guide.
Domain Controller (DC): win2012.corp.reyemsaibot.com (Windows Server 2012 R2)
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform: srv2016.corp.reyemsaibot.com (BusinessObjects 4.2 SP3 on the same server as the DC)
Domain: corp.reyemsaibot.com
SAP BusinessObjects Web Application Server: Tomcat
Service Account Name: bi_sso_service
Service Account Password: Reyemsaibot.com
Windows Active Directory Group: BI Platform Users
Test Account Name: reyemsaibot (is member of BI Platform User)
Test Account Password: HelloWorld!2016
Setup Windows Active Directory sign on
Step 1
First we need a Active Directory service account. You have to create it in the Server Manager on the Domain Controller server.
Windows Server 2012 Open Server Manager
Open the Active directory Users and Computers management tool.
Windows Server Manager Active Directory Users and Computers
Create the service account that will handle the sign-on requests. Click right on the users folder, select new and then user. Use this informationen to create the user:
First Name: BI SSO
Last Name: Service
User Name: bi_sso_service
Password: Reyemsaibot.com
Active Directory add new user
When the user bi_sso_service has been created, the delegation properties must be edited. Click right on the user bi_sso_service and select Properties. Select the Delegation tab and select the option Trust this user for delegation to any service (Kerberos only). The Delegation tab is only available when you set the SPN
first.
User Properties Define Delegation
Step 2
Now we need three Service Principal Names (SPN) for the service account bi_sso_service. This can either be done on the Domain Controller or on the BI platform server. Open the
command prompt. Type the following setspn commands so that it allows Tomcat to communicate with the Active Directory. The option -a means add a new SPN. The
first SPN will be called BICMS.
setspn -a BICMS/bi_sso_service.corp.reyemsaibot.com bi_sso_service
If it was successful, it wil display a message that is has registered the SPN and it has updated the object. Now we create the second SPN for Tomcat and link it to the new user account.
setspn -a HTTP/srv2008 bi_sso_service
And finally, we need to qualify the server address.
setspn -a HTTP/srv2008.corp.reyemsaibot.com bi_sso_service
With the command „I“ we can verfiy that all SPN are created.
setspn -l bi_sso_service
Command Prompt setspn
Step 3
As next step we create a user and a user group that we will use for the Windows Active Directory authentication. Create on the Domain Controller a new user.
First Name: Tobias
Last Name: Meyer
User Name: reyemsaibot
Password: HelloWorld!2016
Active Directory create user
Create a new user group called BI Platform Users. Click right on the user folder, select New and then Group.
Active Directory create group
Add the user, which we created before to the user group by right clicking on the group, selecting Properties and then adding it from the Members tab.
Active Directory add user to group
Step 4
Now we will setup the Windows Active Directory authentication on the BusinessObjects server. You have to log into the CMC with a user that as administrator privileges. Then go to the Authentication area.
Central Management Console
Click on Windows AD to open the authentication options for Windows Active Directory.
Central Management Console Authentication
Select the checkbox Enable Windows Active Directory (AD) to enable this option.
Central Management Console Authentication Windows Active Directory
Click on the double quotes besides the AD Administration Name.
Enter the service account as well as the domain name. Note: The service account is bi_sso_service and the domain is corp.reyemsaibot.com.
Now define the group you want to map. In this case it is corpBI Platform Users.
Under Authentication Options select Use Kerberos authentication and type as Service prinicpal name BICMS/bi_sso_service.corp.reyemsaibot.com (It is the SPN from Step 2). Select also the option Enable Single-Sign-On (SSO) for the selected authentication mode.
Central Management Console Authentication Options
Under Alias Update Options select Create New Alias when the Alias Update occurs and under New Users Options, select New users are
created as named users. Now this is finished, click the Update button at the bottom of the window.
Central Management Console Authentication New User Options
Step 5
Now we are verifing that the group BI Platform Users and the test user reyemsaibot has been added to the BI platform. In the Central Management Console
(CMC) go to Users and Groups and you wll see that the user reyemsaibot has been added under User List and the group BI Platform
Users has been added unter the Group List.
Step 6
Before we can log in with the Windows Active Directory user, we have to configure the BusinessObjects server appropriately. On the BusinessObjects server, we
have to add the user to the Local Administrator Group. Select the Computer Management in the Server Manager.
Server Manager open Computer Management
Select Local Users and Groups and then Groups. Double click on the Administrator Group and then click Add.
Computer Management Administrator Group
Enter the service account name bi_sso_service.
Computer Management add service user
Now you will see the service account in the local administrator group. Click Apply and then OK.
Computer Management Administrator Group
Step 7
We need to edit the local policy for the service account on the BusinessObjects server. So open the Local Security Policy. Expand the Local Policies folder,
click on the User Rights Assignment folder and open the policy Act as part of the operating system.
Local Security Policy Act as part of the operating system
On the properties window, click on Add User or Group and enter the service account bi_sso_service.
Local Security Policy add service user
The service account is now part of the local policy. Close the window with Apply and OK.
Local Security Policy
Step 8
Our next step is to modify the Central Configuration Manager (CCM) so that the service account bi_sso_service is used. Open the Central Configuration
Manger (CCM) on the BusinessObjects server.
Server Intelligence Agent Stop Server
We need to stop the Server Intelligence Agent (SRV2016). Click on the Server Intelligence Agent (SRV2016) and click the stop button.
The server has to be running with the service account bi_sso_service. Under the Log On As section uncheck the box beside System Account and type
the service aaccount and password. Click Apply and Ok to save the changes.
Server Intelligence Agent Log On As
Start the Server Intelligence Agent (SRV2016) server again by pressing the start button.
If the Windows Active Directory user reyemsaibot is working, click on Manage Servers. Login with this user account and make sure Windows AD is
selected for the Authentication type.
Central Configuration Manager Log On Test
If you see an empty window, as long as you don’t get an error message it means taht the Windows Active Directory login is working.
Central Configuration Manager Manage Servers
Step 9
The penultimate step is to create two files (krb5.ini and bsclogin.conf) and configure Tomcat to read them during start up so that the BI
Launchpad and Central Management Console recognize Windows Active Directory logins. On the BusinessObjects sever, create a new file under C:Windows called bsclogin.conf. Edit it and insert the following code into it:
You can access the BI platform manually with a Windows Active Directory account.
BI Platform Logon with Windows Active Directory Account
Enter the correct login credentials for the user and make sure that you have selected Windows AD as authentication. If you can login successfully, your Windows Active Directory
authentication has been set up correctly. In Part 2 we setup the single sign-on so that users don’t have to log on manually every time.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
So it is done, Part 2 finally is written and an example is uploaded to github. It took me about 8 months to release Part 2 of these series. Part 1 was released in March 2016 and now I had time to write an example for Part 2 and upload it to github. Part 1 discover the basics about a
RFC Server with the SAP NCo Connector, part 2 now explain how to build a RFC Server more flexible.
First you have to create a new Microsoft Visual Studio project. In my case it was a Windows Form Application. I add some labels and textboxes so
it look like this:
SAP NCo RFC Server Sample Part 2
I also add some fields in the application settings:
Visual Studio Project Settings
After the fields are done, we can add our code for the save button.
So now we are able to save our settings directly into the application settings. To switch between normal mode (able to save the settings) and a console mode I add a new module which checks if
there are any arguments. In this case I check if the argument -R (remote) is available.
Public Sub Main()
Dim args() As String = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()
If args.Length > 0And
String.Equals(args(1).ToUpper, „-R“) Then
You can check if the argument works when you add in the project properties under debug -R
Visual Studio Project Properties Command line arguments
So if you run now Visual Studio in debug mode, the command line argument is executed. And code after this if will be executed.
If args.Length > 0And
String.Equals(args(1).ToUpper, „-R“) Then
So as you can see the RFC Server is build from the previous defined settings and it is more flexible than Part 1. And after we started the function module as in Part 1 described, our RFC Server now response.
SAP NCo RFC Server Response after call from NetWeaver BW
So that’s it. I hope you like the quick example and if there are any questions feel free to ask.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
If a SAP Design Studio Application has been developed in local mode or on a develop machine, these can be exported and then imported into a new system. Here is a short guide.
Export
Step 1: Choose Application >> Export
SAP Design Studio Export Application
Step 2: Add refrence files like logos etc.
SAP Design Studio Export Application Configure Export
Step 3: Select export folder and name and close with finish.
Import
Step 1: Choose Application >> Import
SAP Design Studio Import Application
Step 2: Select the zip file directory
SAP Design Studio Import Application Target Application
Step 3: Define name and description for the application.
SAP Design Studio Import Application Referenced Files
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
This week the new open SAP course BW/4HANA in a Nutshell started. It is a free course.
One big thing is that BW/4HANA no longer supports the good old BEx Suite. You now have to use the BW Modeling Tools based on Eclipse. In this and further posts I will go deeper into the BW Modeling Tools and what is possible and what is not possible at the
moment.
If you have any questions feel free to ask or correct me 😉 So let’s get started.
First we need Eclipse, which we can download here. But be aware when you download the Mars version,
you need the Mars version of the BW Modeling Tools. And if you download the Neon version, you need the Neon version of the BW Modeling Tools.
After you installed Eclipse you can download the BW Modeling Tools directly in Eclipse.
In Eclipse, choose in the menu bar Help >> Install new software and enter for Neon version (https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/neon) and for
Mars (https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/mars). Press Enter to display the available features.
Eclipse Install new software
Eclipse Select BW Modeling Tools
Select the Modeling Tools for SAP BW powered by SAP HANA and choose Next. On the next page you get an overview of features to be installed. Choose Next. Confirm the licenseagreements and choose Finish to start the installation.
After the installation is done, you need to set up da new BW project to access the
BW-Repository. More about the Modeling Tools will be covered in future articles. So stay tuned.
I am Tobias, I write this blog since 2014, you can find me on twitter and youtube. If you want you can leave me a paypal coffee donation. You can also contact me directly if you want.
