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Copyright
Copyright 2004 SAP AG. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, S/390, AS/400, OS/390, OS/400, iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries, z/OS, AFP, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli, and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group. Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape. MaxDB is a trademark of MySQL AB, Sweden. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.
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Additional icons are used in SAP Library documentation to help you identify different types of information at a glance. For more information, see Help on Help General Information Classes and Information Classes for Business Information Warehouse on the first page of any version of SAP Library.
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Sample text
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Contents
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer: User Guide........................................................................ 8 Abbreviations Used in this Manual ...................................................................................... 10 System Requirements.......................................................................................................... 11 Logging On to Visual Composer .......................................................................................... 12 Understanding the Visual Composer Desktop..................................................................... 13 Workspace........................................................................................................................ 14 Task Panel........................................................................................................................ 15 Main Menu and Toolbar ................................................................................................... 16 Customizing the Visual Composer Desktop ........................................................................ 16 Customizing the Main Toolbar and Toolbox Buttons ....................................................... 17 Modifying the Location of the Task Panel Toolbar ........................................................... 17 Customizing Visual Composer Storyboard ...................................................................... 18 Getting Help ......................................................................................................................... 20 Quick Start - A Sample Work Session ................................................................................. 21 Create a New Model......................................................................................................... 22 Create a Page and an iView............................................................................................. 22 Design the iView Logic ..................................................................................................... 23 Import the Function....................................................................................................... 23 Test the iView Function ................................................................................................ 25 Add the User Input Form .............................................................................................. 26 Define the Output.......................................................................................................... 28 Customize the iView Layout ............................................................................................. 29 Deploy the iView to a Portal ............................................................................................. 30 Model Management - The Basics ........................................................................................ 32 Creating a New Model...................................................................................................... 33 Opening an Existing Model .............................................................................................. 33 Navigating the Model........................................................................................................ 34 Navigation Icons ........................................................................................................... 37 Searching through the Model........................................................................................ 38 Rearranging the Model Hierarchy .................................................................................... 39 Saving a Model................................................................................................................. 39 Exporting and Importing a Model ..................................................................................... 40 Printing a Model ............................................................................................................... 41 Creating or Changing a Model Password ........................................................................ 41 Managing Models ............................................................................................................. 42 Closing a Model................................................................................................................ 42 Closing Storyboard........................................................................................................... 42
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Creating Portal Content ....................................................................................................... 43 Model Hierarchy ............................................................................................................... 44 Adding Main Components to a Model .............................................................................. 45 Building an iView .............................................................................................................. 46 Defining Data Services ................................................................................................. 47 Adding Data Services to Your Model ........................................................................ 49 Testing the Data Service (Optional).......................................................................... 50 Defining the Properties of the Data Service.............................................................. 51 Using the BI Query Wizard .................................................................................... 53 Selecting a System ............................................................................................ 56 Selecting a Query Template .............................................................................. 57 Count (OLAP)................................................................................................. 60 Configuring Count Parameters ................................................................... 61 Cumulative Total (OLAP) ............................................................................... 64 Configuring Cumulative Total Parameters ................................................. 65 Grand Totals (OLAP) ..................................................................................... 68 Moving Average (OLAP) ................................................................................ 69 Configuring Moving Average Parameters .................................................. 70 Percentage Growth (OLAP) ........................................................................... 73 Configuring Percentage Growth Parameters ............................................. 74 Percentage Share (OLAP) ............................................................................. 76 Configuring Percentage Share Parameters ............................................... 77 Planned vs. Actual (OLAP) ............................................................................ 79 Configuring Planned vs. Actual Parameters............................................... 80 Rank Change (OLAP) .................................................................................... 84 Configuring Rank Change Parameters....................................................... 85 Top N (OLAP)................................................................................................. 87 Configuring Top N Parameters................................................................... 88 Trend Over Time (OLAP) ............................................................................... 90 Configuring Trend Over Time Parameters ................................................. 91 Zero Activity (OLAP)....................................................................................... 93 Configuring Zero Activity Parameters......................................................... 94 All Data (Relational) ....................................................................................... 96 Count (Relational) .......................................................................................... 97 Freeform (Relational) ..................................................................................... 98 Heatmap (Relational) ..................................................................................... 99 Configuring Heatmap Parameters ............................................................ 101 Minimum/Maximum (Relational)................................................................... 103 Configuring Minimum/Maximum Parameters ........................................... 104 Selecting a Cube.............................................................................................. 106
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Defining Filters ................................................................................................. 107 Selecting a Table ............................................................................................. 109 Selecting Fields................................................................................................ 110 Selecting Fields - Count................................................................................... 111 Selecting Fields - Heatmap.............................................................................. 113 Configuring Joins ............................................................................................. 114 Configuring Filters............................................................................................ 116 Specifying the Sort Order ................................................................................ 118 Previewing the Result ...................................................................................... 119 Working With BW Query Views ....................................................................... 120 Selecting a Query......................................................................................... 121 Selecting a Query View................................................................................ 122 Configuring Queries Directly in Data Services .................................................... 123 Using the MDX Editor .......................................................................................... 125 Using the SQL Editor........................................................................................... 128 Working With Queries.......................................................................................... 130 Modifying Existing Queries .............................................................................. 131 Query Properties.............................................................................................. 132 Further Configuring Your Query ...................................................................... 133 Creating BI Queries................................................................................................. 136 Adding Siebel Data Services .................................................................................. 136 Defining the UI Logic .................................................................................................. 138 Adding UI Components ........................................................................................... 138 Defining Input to the Data Service....................................................................... 139 Defining Output from the Data Service................................................................ 141 Adding Fields to a View ....................................................................................... 144 Adding Operators ................................................................................................ 145 Performing Data Binding Between UI Components ............................................ 147 Defining UI Component General Properties ........................................................... 148 Defining UI Component Field Properties ................................................................ 149 Dynamic Expressions Editor ................................................................................... 151 Overview of Dynamic Expressions...................................................................... 152 Using the Expressions Editor .............................................................................. 152 Frequently-Used Dynamic Expressions .............................................................. 153 Defining a Chart ...................................................................................................... 161 Defining an HTML View .............................................................................................. 162 Defining Eventing Between iViews ............................................................................. 164 Tracing Dependencies................................................................................................ 166 Validating the iView Logic........................................................................................... 167 Customizing the iView UI............................................................................................ 167
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Selecting Objects in the Layout Workspace ........................................................... 168 Defining iView Display Properties ........................................................................... 169 Customizing the View Layout and Behavior ........................................................... 170 Customizing the Controls Displayed in a View ....................................................... 172 Customizing the Position and Size of iView Components ...................................... 174 Previewing the iView ...................................................................................................... 176 Generating Model Documentation ..................................................................................... 177 Automatically Generating Model Documentation ........................................................... 177 Defining Documentation Properties for Model Components.......................................... 178 Deploying the Model .......................................................................................................... 180 Debugging the Model......................................................................................................... 182 Accessing the Debugger ................................................................................................ 182 Viewing a Log of Portal Server Actions.......................................................................... 183 Using the Events Monitor ............................................................................................... 184 Using the Data Inspector................................................................................................ 185 Importing Visual Composer Content into the Portal .......................................................... 186 Performing Backup and Restore........................................................................................ 186 Customizing the Design Workspace.................................................................................. 187 Design Toolbox .............................................................................................................. 188 Graphic Symbol Properties List...................................................................................... 189 Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................. 190 Using Log Files for Troubleshooting .............................................................................. 191 Appendix: Examples .......................................................................................................... 193 Example 1: Customer Address iView............................................................................. 194 Example 2: Expanded Banks iView ............................................................................... 197 Example 3: Salesorder iView ......................................................................................... 200 Example 4: BI iView ....................................................................................................... 205
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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer can produce iViews that run on both SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 SP2 (Patch 4 and above) as well as SAP NetWeaver 04 SP Stack 05 and above. Siebel connectivity (through iWay connectors) is available only with SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 SP2, while SAP BI connectivity is available only with SAP NetWeaver 04.
Features
From the Visual Composer client the Storyboard you can design models that include your hierarchy of pages and their required iViews. All aspects of the iViews can be constructed, including: The Data Service Layer Visual Composer provides tools that let you connect via the portal to back-end applications defined in the portal system landscape. This connection enables you to import into your Visual Composer model the relevant Remote Function Calls (RFCs), Business APIs (BAPIs) and other data sources on which you want to base your iViews. The User Interface (UI) Logic The UI logic defines which UI components are presented to the user at runtime, how the user may interact with the components, and what the underlying data queries are. You construct the UI logic by dragging and dropping icons that represent the elements of your iView, such as the forms it displays at runtime. As you construct the UI logic, Visual Composer writes the underlying code. The UI Layout The layout defines all the visual aspects of the iView. The Storyboard provides wysiwyg tools for customizing the iView layout. The model you build with Visual Composer is automatically coded in the proprietary Generic Modeling Language (GML). When your Visual Composer model is complete, you use the Visual Composer compiler to convert the GML code into a format supported by the portal. You can also export your model to another Visual Composer, and import other models as well.
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The following figure depicts the general architecture of the Visual Composer system.
Web Browsers / Clients
Pages / iViews
Data
Design Time Connectivity
Runtime Connectivity
Metadata
SAP Apps
JDBC
Non SAP
Web Services
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Architecture The Visual Composer compiler lets you generate business packages that can be deployed to any portal using the standard deploy procedure. Once deployed, the pages and iViews created by Visual Composer can retrieve data from the SAP Enterprise Portal runtime connectivity framework and display this information just like any other hand-coded portal pages and iViews.
For more information, see the following sections in the portal Administration Guide, accessed from SAP Help Portal at help.sap.com\nw04 SAP Library SAP NetWeaver People Integration Portal Administration Guide System Administration. User permissions: Permissions, Role/User Distribution and Object Locking Portal Permissions User mapping: User Management Configuration Defining systems and assigning system aliases: System Configuration System Landscape Creating Systems
Be sure to read SAP Note 716752 for the latest information about limitations, known issues, and workarounds for SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer. You can find the SAP Note at SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com/notes.
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UI URL URN
XMLA
between a client and an analytical data provider working over the Internet
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System Requirements
In order to log on to and work with Visual Composer Storyboard, be sure that your Visual Composer client machine meets the following software requirements: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or higher Microsoft XML Parser 4.0 Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0
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http://vcserver1.sap.com:1000/vcserver/ (where vcserver1 is the name of the Visual Composer Server host, sap.com is the domain, and 1000 is the IIS port in use by the Visual Composer Server installation.
The last segment of the URL, vcserver, is the default name of the virtual home directory. If you defined a different directory name during the Visual Composer Storyboard installation, replace the segment vcserver in the URL with your Home directory name.
Result
When you log on to Visual Composer Storyboard for the first time, the following screen appears, displaying an empty workspace and a Get Started task panel to the right.
At your next logon(s), Visual Composer Storyboard can display your last work sessions, depending on your system preferences. SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer: User Guide 12
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Tabbed Workspace
Task Panel
Workspace Toolbox
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Workspace
Definition
The grid on which you build your model.
Structure
The workspace can contain up to four tabs, or model views: Tab Design Layout Preview Source Use Constructing your model Customizing the layout of iViews Previewing and validating the logic of iViews Reviewing the code that is automatically generated by Storyboard as you build your model
The various tabbed workspaces are available according to the model component you are working with. Each tab has its own workspace toolbox, which provides a set of tab-specific tools to assist you with the tasks you perform in that workspace. By default, the toolbox appears at the bottom of the displayed workspace. You can change its location or hide it by choosing Tools Options, or by right-clicking the toolbox and choosing the docking option from the context menu. See Customizing the Visual Composer Desktop [Page 16].
To facilitate construction of your model, you can open a model component in an additional window, showing the different levels of the model at the same time. For example, you may want to view all the iViews of a page in one window, while viewing one of the open iViews at the same time. To open multiple windows: In the Design workspace, right-click the component that you wish to open in a different window and from the context menu, choose Open in New Window.
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Task Panel
Definition
The task panel to the right of the workspace displays one set of tools at a time. Each tool set can be displayed using the task panel toolbar to the right of the panel. The following task panels are available:
Toolbar Button
Menu Option
Description Appears when no model is open in the workspace. Lets you open an existing model or create a blank model.
Search
Displays a hierarchical tree that represents your model. You can use the tree to modify the model hierarchy and to navigate the model. Used to configure the fields of a UI component.
Model
Model
Used, in conjunction with the Layout workspace, to customize the layout of your iViews. Used, in conjunction with the Design workspace, when defining the flow of information in an iView. Used to define properties of the various model components. Some of the properties relate only to the design environment, while others relate to the behavior and display of content at runtime. Used, in conjunction with the Design workspace, to import data services into your model. Used to compile and deploy the portal business packages. Used, in conjunction with the Preview workspace, to validate the logic of your model.
Define Fields
Model
Define Properties
Model
Model
Build
Build
Structure
The tools on the task panels are dynamic and context driven. In other words, the displayed task panel provides options relevant only to the model component currently selected in the workspace. For example, if a page is displayed in the Design workspace, only elements that can be added to a page are displayed in the Elements task panel. You can hide the task panel by clicking the X that appears at the top right of the task panel toolbar. If the task panel is hidden, you can display it by dragging it open using the side bar to the right of the task panel toolbar.
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Procedure
1. Right-click the toolbar/toolbox. 2. Choose Customize from the context menu. (To customize the main toolbar, you can also choose Tools Customize.)
Result
The Customize dialog box is displayed. The up and down arrows move the selected button in the Current toolbar buttons list (on the right) up and down. The left arrow adds a selected button from the Available toolbar buttons list (on the left) to the toolbar. The right arrow removes the selected button from the Current toolbar buttons list.
Procedure
...
1. Choose Tools Options. 2. From the Taskbar list of the Options View dialog box, select either Dock Right or Dock Left. Alternatively, you can right-click the task panel toolbar and choose the appropriate option from the context menu.
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Activities
To access the dialog boxes, choose Tools Options. The dialog box that appears has the following tabs: View, for positioning the task panel and the workspace toolboxes, and adjusting the layout of multiple workspace windows Edit, for fine-tuning general Visual Composer operations Draw, for defining workspace visualization parameters Portal, for defining processes for deployment
Features
The following table describes the customizing options available in the Options dialog boxes. Tab Name View Taskbar Toolbox Option Description Options for manipulating the main components of the Visual Composer desktop. Lets you position the task panel toolbar on either the right or the left of the desktop. Lets you position the current workspace toolbox above, below, to the right or the left of the workspace. You can also hide it entirely. Enables you to define how multiple windows are displayed. Used to automatically display the last model worked on when you next access Visual Composer. If this is not selected, you need to open a model each time you access the application. Options for defining parameters for Visual Composer editing operations. Maximum undo levels Maximum history size Number of times you can perform undo sequentially. Number of times you can use a left or right arrow to navigate backwards/forwards (respectively) in your tree structure. Number of multiple windows that can be open at the same time. Options for defining display parameters when manipulating model components in the workspace.
Edit
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Tab Name
Option Automatically fit diagram on open Clip shapes to diagram boundaries Show diagram caption Drag shapes smoothly Show drag and drop sprite Select partially within area Optimize screen refreshing
Description Adjusts the size of the last-opened model in the workspace when you first access Visual Composer. Restrains a model component icon when it is moved to the edge of the workspace. Displays (or hides) the title of the model component in the workspace. Enhances the resolution of model icons as they are dragged in the workspace. Displays the animated shape of the object you are dragging. Lets you select a group of objects by dragging the bounding rectangle partly over them. Enhances the speed and quality of the model display. Options used for the deployment process.
Lets you define the prefix of all PAR files created by Visual Composer. Lets you indicate the path to the Portal Catalog folder that will include the compiled file (for faster location of the file later and to prevent overwriting an existing file). This should be the URL of a portal content directory (PCD). If different than the default PCD URL, be sure that the folder already exists in the portal, with administrator Full Control permissions. For more information about portal permission levels and setting permissions, see the portal Administrator Guide at help.sap.com\nw04 SAP Library SAP NetWeaver People Integration Portal Administration Guide System Administration Permissions, Role/User Distribution and Object Locking Portal Permissions. Enables you to enter the setting used to display results of BI queries using the Heatmap display. Contact your Business Information Warehouse (BW) System Administrator if you need help determining this URL. The suffix to the URL for your BW query view Web service. The default listed is a common configuration. This setting is used to display results of BI queries based on native BW data services. Contact your BW System Administrator for assistance.
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Getting Help
You can get online help at a number of locations in Visual Composer Storyboard: To display the first topic in the online SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer User Guide (with access to the entire guide), choose Help Help or click the toolbar. To get information about a section of the screen, click the button in the
click the question-mark-cursor ( ) on the area for which you need help. If no help is available at that point, the question-mark-cursor is not shown. To get information about a screen or dialog box, click the displayed Help button.
If you attempt to get help and receive a Help is not currently available message, the Visual Composer online help package has probably not been installed. It needs to be downloaded from the NetWeaver 04 Help portal (at help.sap.com\nw04) to the Storyboard server. This must be done by the Storyboard server administrator. Instructions for running the Help installer are found in the Readme.txt file in the Help installer .zip package.
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1. Create a New Model [Page 22] 2. Create a Page and an iView [Page 22] 3. Design the iView Logic [Page 23] 4. Customize the iView Layout [Page 29] 5. Deploy the iView to a Portal [Page 30] For additional examples of creating iViews, see Appendix: Examples [Page 193].
Features
In this sample work session, a page with an iView is created to enable a portal user to view a list of banks in a specified country. It will look something like this:
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Procedure
...
1. Choose File New Model. 2. In the Create New Model dialog box, enter a Model Name; for example, QuickStart1. (No spaces are allowed in the name.) 3. Make sure that SAP Portal User Interface Model, EP kit is selected. 4. Click OK to display the Design workspace and begin building your model.
Procedure
To create the page:
...
1. In the workspace, click the Design tab, if it is not already displayed. 2. From the Elements task panel at the right, drag the Module icon onto the workspace. The module is named automatically. 3. Double-click on the module icon to open it. 4. From the Elements task panel, drag the Page icon onto the workspace. 5. Enter a name for the page, such as Banks Page, by overwriting the existing one. (You can also right-click the Page icon, and from the context menu, choose Rename.)
1. Double-click the Banks Page icon to display the page. An empty workspace with the page name is displayed. 2. From the Elements task panel, drag the iView icon into the workspace. 3. Rename the iView Banks iView. 4. Double-click the Banks iView icon to display the iView. Note that different elements are displayed in the Elements task panel, according to the component opened in the workspace.
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Process Flow
To define the logic of this iView, you do the following: Import the application function on which the iView functionality is based: BAPI_BANK_GETLIST (see Import the Function [Page 23]). Add a user input form to the iView (see Add the User Input Form [Page 26]). Define the relationship between the input form and the imported BAPI. Add a table view to the iView in order to display the list of banks returned by the BAPI (see Define the Output [Page 28]).
Procedure
...
1. Choose Model Select Data Services. (Alternatively, click the Data button in the task panel toolbar.) 2. In the Portal field at the right end of the main toolbar, enter the URL of the portal from which you can access the back-end system used by the iView. For example, you could enter: http://myportal.sap.com:50000, where: