blog.

A new function in Analysis Office 2.7 is "Select Data Source for Defining Formulas". But what does this mean? First the prerequisites:

• BW/4HANA SP8 and apply the following notes: 2624495 and 2600508
• BW 7.50 SP12 (or >= SP8 and apply the following notes: 2579842, 2627315, 2624495 and 2600508)

So I just logged into my BW 7.50 test system and what I have to see, we only have a BW 7.5 SP11. So I have applied the notes and each note need further notes to implemented. I just want to test something and now I have to implement more than 30 notes.

After this was done I could start finally to test this function. Alexander Peter showed in the latest DSAG webcast an example so I had a slight idea what to do.

First I logged to my BW 7.5 and selected my query. You have to make sure that the option Use Data Source Formula-Optimized is active. If not, you cannot use it. If it is not active you can in return create a Crosstab which you cannot do if it is formula optimized.

In my project I have now the opportunity to build SAP HANA Calculation Views. We use Calculation Views to combine two different Advanced DataStore Objects. First you have to set the parameter External HANA View in the setting of your ADSO. When you activate this setting a SAP HANA Table is created which you can use in a Calculation View.

Today Analysis Office 2.7 was released. Thanks to Zisi1990, who pointed me seconds after it was released that it is available. You can download it with a S-User. Here is a short overview what's new in Analysis Office 2.7:

• You now have to two ribbon tabs. One for the analysis and one for design
• There is a new formula called SAPSelectMember. The formula returns a member of a dimension, this might be interressting for VBA.
• You can now save comments to BW/4HANA. The history of these comments is available in the new tab Comments in the design panel and you can now select the preffered platform for your comments. Either BW/4HANA or BI platform.
• There are also two new file system parameter:
• PreferredDocumentStorage
• EnablePreferredDocumentStorage
• You now can use Planning Data with SAP Analytics Could models.

After a short vacation over Pentecost I have now time to write "What's new in Analysis Office 2.6 SP3". A short overview yo find in this post. The user guide shows some new things:

• The formula SAPSetFilterComponent has two new parameters: MEMBERSELECTOR
• You can now copy Table Design from one Crosstab to another. This is really cool.
• Table Design formulas can now be restricted

The admin guide has 20 new pages to the Analysis Office 2.6 guide. The settings chapter is new organized and in my opinion a little bit better organized than before. Also new is the topic how to use the BI Platform with hyperlinks and variables like the old BI Portal. This is described in section 5.9.4 in the admin guide.

Since yesterday Analysis Office 2.6 SP3 is available. You need as always a S-User to download the latest version. Here is a short overview what it might fix.

• "Create Web Application" button is not enabled when SAP Lumira Designer is installed (s-note 2636541)
• Correct sorting of members of type CalendarDay or DateTime in Filter Dialog (s-note 2625487)
• Exception after saving workbook as PDF (s-note 2633496)
• Filter Dialog does not update Hierarchy after switch of Access Mode (s-note 2637491)
• Grouped Crosstabs: Expanding and Filtering in the Columns does not work (s-note 2637846)
• Inserted chart does not reflect complete data (s-note 2635814)
• Link Dimensions: Issues with drag and drop (s-note 2610471)
• Performance Issue related to many Shared Strings in Workbook (s-note 2638243)
• Restart option missing (s-note 2633506)

An overview what's new will be released soon. If you find something interesting, please feel free to post a comment.

In my current project we run into an issue that we have to match navigation attributes from one ADSO to an infoobject of another ADSO. The old feature of a MultiProvider was to Identify (assign).

I hope you can help me, to find out if there is any interesting about a book that covers BW Backend topics. I think about a book which covers SAP HANA, AMDP/ABAP, BW Administration and so on. Thanks for your time.

If you want to create a Composite Provider in the BW Modeling Tools, you have to choose New >> Composite Provider in the context menu of your InfoArea or File >> New >> Composite Provider.

Since last week the new version of my book SAP Analysis Office - The Comprehensive Guide is now available. You can find it only here in my shop. The book is based on Analysis Office 2.6 and covers now all about:

• Customizing Analysis Office including file system settings
• The basic stuff with Analytics Cloud
• The advanced stuff like Table Design and Group Members
• The API and formula functions
• Troubleshooting and so on

The table of content can be found here. If you have any questions feel free to write them into the comments.

One question from me:

Is it ok, that there is only Paypal as payment method or do you need more? Just write it in the comments and I will see what I can do.

Analysis Office 2.6 SP2 is available since two weeks. There are only some slight changes to Analysis Office 2.6 SP1. You are now able to set the selection type for the formula SAPSetFilterComponent to MEMBERSELECTORBYRANGE. So you can use it to define the filter dialog with range option as standard.

Also a new selection type for the VBA API SAPCallMemberSelector is now available. It is called MULTIPLEBYRANGE, which allows you to select a range of members for filtering. So if you found new functions, feel free to write them down in the comments.

Since two days the new version of Analysis Office 2.6 is available. You need as always a S-User to download the latest version. Here is a short overview what it might fix:

• AO 2.x: Table Design Formulas causes crash on initialze of Design Rules Tab if no applicable Data was found (s-note 2609841)
• Analysis Office: Existing workbook in favorites folders on BIP will not be overwritten (s-note 2614892)
• Analysis Office: Grouping crosstabs from different worksheets throws an exception (s-note 2614536)
• Analysis Office: System alias of a query defined on BIP server is overwritten (s-note 2616663)
• Filter Component results in error with Manual Calculation Mode (s-note 2605076)
• Filter on Characteristics used in Restriction is lost after additional characteristic is used (s-note 2614466)
• No drop down to select the date for between condition (s-note 2615430)
• Undo operation for restriction fails (s-note 2606838)

A overview what's new will be available next week. If you find something interesting, please feel free to post a comment.

Here is a short post about something I just found and never used until now. You can create restrictions in Analysis Office by either using the context menu of a measure or via the ribbon menu entry under Calculations >> Add Restrictions. It will display a new dialog where you can define your restrictions.

Analysis Office 2.6 SP1 is available since last week. When you look at the What's new guide from SAP, you see nothing spectacular new. You have now a new file system setting called AlwaysDoApplicationSteps. You can use this setting to write entries into the table RSDDSTAT_OLAP afer each action without the need to close Analysis Office.

There is also a new style called SAPDataRemoved, to format cells whose data was removed with the workbook property Remove Data Before Saving. Also you have now more options for scheduling a workbook on the BI platform. 

That's it. As you can see it is not much new. I think the most what was done is bug fixing.

In my current project I have a file to import, which only delivers me a string with a length of 1000. I also get a description what is in this file. Like the following points:

• Customer from 1 to 10
• City from 11 to 50

The file looks like: 0000123456London............................ So I have a file and a description how to decode this file. Now I need to find a way to separate this information into InfoObjects. I build a Z-Table which contains the decode information.

Since today Analysis Office 2.6 SP1 is available. You need as always a S-User to download the latest version. Here is a short overview what it might fix.

• AO 2.6 Table design rule: Error with Formula VLOOKUP to external excel (s-note 2590137)
• AO: Exceptions occur when loading AO after opening an AO workbook (s-note 2595959)
• Analyis Office: Text and Key are concatenated in new line attributre cells (s-note 2586756)
• Analysis Office: Saving a workbook destroys the layout of the workbook (s-note 2594627)
• Prompts dialog: Hierarchy variable shows wrong value (s-note 2587530)
• Scheduling A.O. Workbook Generates Corrupted Workbooks (s-note 2589444)
• Sheets option are lost when Excel document is opened from server repos (s-note 2593473)
• Table Design formats are not applied (s-note 2594716)

 A overview what's new will be available next week. If you find something interesting, please feel free to post a comment.

Lately, all my posts started with "In my current project", so now something else, even if it was developed in the current project. The problem we are facing with is that we get a data extraction which deliver us only the new data records, not the reverse data record.

A feature which I didn't know even it is available since Analysis Office 2.2 is to search and filter by attribute. First select a dimension you want to filter.

In my current project we have a lots of source systems which delivers our data in a key figure model. In a normal case is this not a problem. But we need the values of the key figures in a hierarchy. So there are two ways to realize it. First way would be we build a structure with restricted key figures and get our hierarchy. Here is the problem, the customer will need different queries to realize his needs. If there is a change, we need to adjust different queries (each has a light different hierarchy) and the maintainace is immense.

As you might know, Analysis Office 2.6 is available now. To download it, you need a S-User with download credentials. First SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Office is now called, SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office. Damn I have to rewrite my book, just kidding. Here is a short overview of What's new in Analysis Office 2.6:

• You can now copy a Table Design formula by using Microsoft Excel Fill Handling
• The formula SAPSetFilterComponent has a new selection type MEMBERSSELECTOR.
• The API Command NumberOfNewLines can now set the number of new lines for a crosstab
• According to Matthew Shaw you can now connect to/report on SAP Analytics Cloud.

So I just downloaded Analysis Office 2.6 and maybe I can write a little bit more in the next days.

In the last month I was very busy with my thesis and my project at work, so I had no time to write a lot of blog posts. So here is a short overview what Analysis Office 2.5 SP2 fix. But keep in mind, Analysis Office 2.6 is up coming.

•  An execption is thrown when grouping crosstabs (s-note 2530837)
• Formula SAPGetVariable does not return value for BASEINFOOBJT if variables are merged (s-note 2529886)
• Group Crosstabs / Compact Display does not work properly (s-note 2527113)
• Native date, date time and time span rendering (s-note 2482546)
• Not able to change presentation of attribute (s-note 2525435)
• Refresh in Open dialog does not work (s-note 2536320)
• Launching a second workbook starts an empty Excel (s-note 2551513)

There are a lot more bugs which are now patched, so install the latest version.