SAP BI 2025: What’s New In Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer

[christian_ah-soon]

Over the years, SAP BusinessObjects - Web Intelligence (WebI) users have sought greater interactivity and advanced dashboarding features. SAP BI 2025, the first release in the new SAP BI maintenance model, delivers with groundbreaking features that address these demands but also solidify its versatility as a multi-solution product.

• First, this release boasts new table, charts, filters, and interactive elements, alongside the new export format for sharing document content.
• Continuous improvements in Data mode enhance data preparation and usability, making it more powerful than ever.  
• With improved reporting and query capabilities, Web Intelligence remains important for operational reporting.
• As always, SAP BI 2025 comes packed with long-awaited innovations, customer-requested features, and usability enhancements.

This release simplifies also the platform by discontinuing less-used products and features, allowing for a sharper focus on the most popular features within SAP BI.

This article is part of the What’s New in Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer series and summarizes these innovative capabilities:

• Web Intelligence: New Report Elements
• Web Intelligence: Web Intelligence Document eXtract Format
• Web Intelligence: Reporting
• Web Intelligence: Data Mode
• Web Intelligence: Query
• Web Intelligence: Export
• Web Intelligence: Scheduling / Publishing
• Web Intelligence: BI Launch Pad Tile
• Web Intelligence: Usability Enhancements
• Web Intelligence: Administration
• Semantic Layer

Web Intelligence: New Report Elements

One of the key features of SAP BI 2025 is the introduction of new report elements that add interactivity in Web Intelligence. These new elements don't replace the ones existing in SAP BI 4.3, that are still supported in SAP BI 2025. But to take advantage of new interactivity features and export format, you must use these new elements.

New Report Elements Overview

All report elements can be added to the document from the Insert section of the toolbar, or from the Quick Access side panel > Report Elements tab. The're all listed under the following categories that contain both the new report elements and the ones already available in previous releases:

• Tables: All tables, including the classic vertical, horizontal, and cross tables and a new scrollable table.
• Comparison, Trend, Proportion, Distribution, Charts, Correlation, Geographic, Indicator, Multiple: The charts categories available since SAP BI 4.3, that gather the different charts, based on their intention.
• Filters: A new category for the new interactive filters.
• Cells: The different cells.
• Actions: A new category for components that can trigger an action.
• Containers: A new category for components that contain other elements.

The new interactive elements aren't processed and rendered by the Web Intelligence server but by the browser client interface. This reduces the number of calls to the server to display a report, and allows the introduction of offline, standalone processing in the new WIDX format.

These new report elements can be identified thanks to their icons that have another color than ones for the "classic" report elements. But they rely on the same framework:

• The objects they display can be set in the Build > Data > Feeding tab. Their values can be filtered, sorted, or ranked in the Filter, Sorting and Ranking tabs.
• Positioning them in the report and formatting them is done in the Build > Format tab, that contains the General, Layout, and Appearances sub-tabs. Two sub-tabs are introduced for these new report elements:
  • Specific Settings: To define the report element content formatting.
  • Advanced Settings: To define advanced settings.
• If they display object values, they can be used as target or source of elements linking.
• All new report elements except filters can be added in a section where they display the corresponding values in each section instance.

New Report Element Feeding

The next sections detail these new interactive elements before reviewing their advanced settings.

Tables > Scrollable Table

The scrollable table has a fixed size that doesn't change even if its number of rows change (Request 102341). If needed, vertical, or horizontal scroll bars appear so you can navigate in its dataset.

In the Build > Data tab and its sub-tabs, you define what objects to display in each column and if their values must be sorted and ranked.

In the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, you can define how each object values are displayed by selecting this object in the Column drop down list.

Scrollable Table

If the object data type is a string, you can select in the Display as drop-down list:

• Text: To display the value as text.
• Hyperlink: If the text returned by the object is a URL, then display it as a clickable URL.
• Image URL: If the text returned by the object is an image URL, then display this image.

Both Hyperlink and Image URL must have been authorized in the Authorized URLs in the Central Management Console (CMC).

If the object data type is numeric, then you can select in the Display as drop-down list how these values are displayed: as a text, a Bar graph, a Bullet graph, a Harvey Ball graph, or a Radial graph. Then depending on your selection, you can set the following parameters:

Parameter Name	Supported by	Description
Alternate Color	Text, Bar, Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial	Defines to alternate gray and white backgrounds for the table rows.
Color Ranges	Bar, Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial	Defines the graph color depending on the value.
Target, Forecast, Min, Max	Bullet	Define Target, Forecast, Min, and Max values for the Bullet chart. These values are static in SAP BI 2025.
Compact	Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial	Defines if the chart must be compact or if it must display the value as well.
Based on	Harvey Ball, Radial	Defines if the value must be based on the measure aggregated sum or greatest value.

The parameters in the Table Font section allow you to set the font for the whole table. For the moment, it isn't possible to set a font for a specific line, row, or cell in the table.

As opposed to the classic tables, it isn't possible to define breaks or footer calculation on this new scrollable table.

Charts

To add interactivity to the charts and support them when exporting a WIDX file, some charts have been redeveloped with the SAPUI5 library as new report elements. These 22 new charts are organized in the same chart categories available in SAP BI 4.3:

• Comparison: Column, Bar, Combined Column Line, Vertical Waterfall, Horizontal Waterfall, Stacked Combined Bar Line.
• Trend: Line, Area.
• Proportion: Pie, Donut, Stacked Column, 100% Stacked Column, Stacked Bar and 100% Stacked Bar.
• Distribution: Tree Map, Heat Map, Radar.
• Correlation: Scatter, Bubble.
• Indicator: Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial.

Except Horizontal Waterfall, Stacked Combined Bar Line, Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial, these charts are available since previous releases as "classic" charts.

Some New Interactive Charts

In the Build > Data tab, you add the objects to display in the chart axis and if their values must be sorted and ranked. For example, you can define how the Target, Forecast, Min, Max values displayed in Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial graphs are fed; which make them dynamic as opposed to their micro version displayed in the Scrollable Table.

In the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, you define the parameters specific to the chart. Depending on the chart type, the parameters you can set are:

Parameter Name	Supported by	Description
Palette	All charts, except Vertical Waterfall, and Horizontal Waterfall	The color palette to apply to the chart.
Title	All except Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial	To display a header on top of the chart. By default, it's the chart type name, but you can modify it in the Text text field. You can also select this title justification through the Alignment buttons.
Value Label	All charts, except Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial	To display or not the values as label in the chart.
Legend	All charts, except Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial	To define if the legend must be displayed. If displayed, you can define in the Position drop-down list where it must be displayed.
Category Axis	All charts, except Pie, Donut, Scatter, Bubble, Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial	To define if the axis that holds dimension(s) and/or detail(s) values must be displayed and, in this case, if their name(s) must be displayed.
Category Axis 2	Heat Map	To define if the additional axis that holds dimension(s) and/or detail(s) values must be displayed and, in this case, if their name(s) must be displayed.
Value Axis	All charts, except Pie, Donut, Tree Map, Heat Map, Bullet, Harvey Ball, and Radial	To define if the axis that holds measure(s) values must be displayed and, in this case, if their name(s) must be displayed.
Values Axis 2	Scatter	To define if the additional axis that holds measure values must be displayed and, in this case, if its name must be displayed.
Coloring	Tree Map, Heat Map	Defines the two colors used for the map color range ends.
Target	Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial	Display the target feeding defined in the Build > Data > Feeding tab.
Forecast, Min, Max	Bullet	Display the forecast, min and max feeding defined in the Build > Data > Feeding tab.
Color Ranges	Bullet, Harvey Ball, Radial	Defines the graph color depending on the displayed value.
Based on	Bullet	Defines if the value color must be based on the value or the percentage of the value compared to the target or forecast.
Fonts	All charts, except Harvey Ball	Defines the fonts of all strings displayed in the chart.

These charts don't propose as many capabilities and parameters as their classic same charts.

Cells > Rich Text

The Rich Text cell can be used to apply different formats to a text in the same cell (Request 109007).

You can edit the cell text in the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, in the Text text field.

This text field toolbar contains the usual formatting options: Font, Size, Color, Bold, Italic, Underscore, Justification, Bullet, Numerated bullet, Indent, Add Hyperlink, Remove hyperlink. Clicking one of these buttons applies the corresponding formatting to the selection in the text field.

You can use the Visual or HTML button to view the final rendered text or its HTML version. Click the Edit button to open this editor in a larger Edit Rich Text dialog box.

Edit Rich Text Dialog Box

You may also add objects in the report element’s Build > Data > Feeding tab and use the last icon of the toolbar, Objects, to select one of these added objects. The object values are evaluated in the element context and displayed in the cell. In HTML, the tag to insert these values in the text is {[Object name]}.

In the Layout section, you may set the following properties for this text:

• Wrap text: Defines to wrap text so it appears on multiple lines to fit the cell width. Otherwise, a horizontal scroll bar is displayed to view the text that does not fit the cell width.
• Horizontal Padding: Defines the space displayed before the text.
• Vertical Padding: Defines the space displayed on top of the text.

In the Multiple Value Management section, you may define how object values are displayed:

• Distinct dimension values: To display all values, or only distinct values.
• Separator: Defines the string to separate the values.
• Display separator as HTML: To interpret the separator as HTML or not.

Cell  > Image

The Image cell allows you to easily include a PNG, JPEG or SVG picture in your document. Once the Image element has been inserted in the document, click the Upload link to select the picture in your file system or drag and drop it into the element to display it in the cell.

Image Cell

In the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, you may change:

• The image display mode in the Display mode drop-down menu. The available options are:
  • Fit: To display the picture in the report element frame.
  • Normal: To display the picture in the element without changing its size.
  • Stretch: To expand or reduce the image to fit its width in the element frame.
• The image by clicking the Browse button and selecting a new image in your file system.

Filters

In addition of the input controls that are located only in the Filters bar, you can add filters directly in your report (Request 108300) to filter the other elements and create interactive reports. The filters that can be added are already available as input controls since SAP BI 4.3, except Date Range and Toggle Buttons that are new:

• Calendar: A calendar displayed in the report to select a date.
• Date Range: Two text fields that can pop-up two calendars to define a date range.
• Entry Field: A text field where the value can be entered.
• Mono Combo: A drop-down list where only one value, including the All choice, can be selected.
• Multi Combo: A drop-down list where several values can be selected.
• Mono List: A list where only one value, including the All choice, can be selected.
• Multi List: A list where several values can be selected.
• Slider: A slider to select a numeric value.
• Double Slider: A double slider to select two numeric values.
• Spinner: A spinner used to select a numeric value.
• Toggle Buttons: A group of clickable buttons with the values of a dimension or a detail.

In the Build > Data > Feeding tab, you must add the object to use as a filter.

In the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, you can set in the Filter Properties section some parameters that depend on the filter type:

Parameter Name	Supported by	Description
Operator	Calendar, Double Slider, Entry Field, Mono Combo, Multi Combo	Defines the operator that filters the targeted blocks. The possible operators depend on the filter type.
Minimum value Maximum value Increment	Slider, Double Slider, Spinner	Defines the filter range and its increment when the values are changed.
Default value	Slider, Spinner	Defines the filter default value.
Default minimum value Default maximum value	Double Slider	Defines the default values of the two sliders.
Show search	Mono List, Multi List	To display a Search field to search the values
Show footer	Multi List	To display an Apply button to confirm the selected values.
Show week numbers	Calendar	To display week numbers before the week rows.
Show input field	Calendar	To display an entry field where the user can manually enter the date.
Start date label End date label	Date Range	Defines the labels used to identify the two dates.
Multi-Selection	Toggle Buttons	To allow multiple values to be selected. If this option is not selected, then selecting a button unselects the previously selected button.
Display "All" button	Toggle Buttons	To display a button to select all values.
Horizontal orientation	Toggle Buttons	To display the buttons horizontally or vertically.
Alignment	Toggle Buttons	Defines how the text is justified on the buttons.
Number of buttons	Toggle Buttons	Defines the maximum number of buttons to display.
Variable buttons width	Toggle Buttons	If this option is selected, then the buttons width depends on its string width. Otherwise, you can set a fixed size (in pixels) for all buttons.

Other sections contain parameters that are supported by all filters:

• Title: To display a label on top of the filter.
  • By default, it is the name of the object used as a filter, but you can modify it in the Text text field.
  • You can select this title justification through the Alignment buttons.
• Filter Target: To select the report elements, including other Filter reports elements, in the report to filter. By default, they are all selected.
• Font: To define the fonts of all strings displayed by the filter.

Filter Specific Settings

In the report, selecting values on this Filter report element filters its selected targets. Clicking the Reset button in the filter’s floating toolbar resets the selected values.

The filers' selected values are saved in the document.

Actions > Show/Hide

The Show/Hide element can be used to easily hide or show other elements in the report through a group of clickable buttons added in the report.

In the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab, click the + icon to add a new button. Then, in the Create Group dialog box:

• Enter the text to display in the button.
• Select the reports element to display when this button is clicked. When you select one report element, it is highlighted with a blue frame one second in the report to help you identify it.

Add as many buttons as needed. You may use the arrow buttons or drag-and-drop to change the buttons order.

Show/Hide Buttons

Other properties in the Build > Format > Specific Settings tab define these buttons appearance:

• Horizontal orientation: To display the buttons horizontally or vertically.
• Alignment: To define how the text is justified on the buttons.
• Variable buttons width: To define if the buttons width depends on the string width or if you can set a button size (in pixels).
• Allow no selection: To allow no button to be selected. If this option isn't selected, then at least one button must be selected.
• The Font section contains parameters to define the font of the text on the buttons.

In the report, when clicking a button of this Show/Hide element:

• The report elements linked to it are displayed.
• Report elements linked to other buttons are hidden.
• Report elements that are linked to no button are always displayed.

By using the Show/Hide element and overlapping some elements, you can simulate tabs behavior in a report. Using this element can be a workaround to address the single report support limitation in WIDX. Relative positioning between elements isn't changed, even if elements are hidden through these buttons.

When exported to Excel, PDF, or HTML, these buttons are replaced by a warning picture. The report elements hidden by these buttons when the report is exported are not exported.

Advanced Settings

In the Build > Format > Advanced Settings tab, you may fine-tune a report element behavior by:

• Changing the maximum number of values it may display, to avoid performance issues since the browser cannot manage as many rows as a server, the number of rows they can support is limited. When the number of rows exceeds this max number of rows, a warning message is displayed on the chart. This warning can be hidden by selecting the parameter Hide warning icons in widgets in the Main > Parameters tab.
• Defining a CSS style for this report element in the CSS Class Editor text field. This capability is offered for experiments, and it is not guaranteed to be supported in future versions.

Advanced Settings Tab

Web Intelligence: Web Intelligence Document eXtract (WIDX) 

SAP BI 2025 introduces a new interactive, export format that can be easily and widely spread.

WIDX Advantages

Displaying the new report elements introduced in SAP BI 2025 does not depend on the Web Intelligence server. As they are written in JavaScript and WebAssembly, their computation and rendering are delegated to the browser used as the client interface. To propose another solution than PDF or Excel to share document content, SAP BI 2025 takes advantage of this client-side processing to introduce a new file format named Web Intelligence Document eXtract (WIDX) containing:

• The report elements JavaScript and WebAssembly code.
• The static dataset displayed by these report elements.

With these two components required to leverage the document content, a WIDX file can reproduce the document behavior, including the interactivity proposed by the report elements.

Everybody can read a WIDX file since this does not require:

• Any application installation, except a Chrome or Edge browser used as the application run-time.
• Any access to an SAP BI server to authenticate to the BI Platform repository.
• Any extra license to benefit of these new capabilities.

Furthermore, reading a WIDX file can be very fast since it is processed locally, without any server calls.

A WIDX file can be generated both from the Web Intelligence user interface, but also through a schedule or a publication.

Generating WIDX

When you create a document to share as a WIDX, you should use only the elements supported in WIDX:

• New interactive elements introduced in SAP BI 2025.
• Free cells.
• Sections that are not dynamically filtered.

These elements are listed under the Insert elements supported when exporting to WIDX under the Insert toolbar or in the Quick Access > Report Elements tab after you have clicked the Display elements supported when exporting to WIDX button.

In the Main > Structure tab, you can click the Highlight report elements not supported when exporting to WIDX button to check what report elements are supported in WIDX.

You can generate a WIDX file in any mode (Reading, Design, or Data). To do so:

1. In the toolbar, select the Export command to open the Export dialog box.
2. Select the WIDX section and then the report to export.
3. Once you have clicked OK, your WIDX file is generated in a ZIP file in the Downloads folder of your file system.
4. Unzip this file.
5. Go into the extracted folder that contains:
   • A WIDX link whose name is the report name.
   • .internal folder with the report content.
   • .debug folder with debug information.

WIDX Export

Double-click the link to open the WIDX. The application opens without any authentication in the browser used as the application run-time and displays the first page of the exported report. The page does not have any toolbar or side panel, but it displays the report like in Web Intelligence with the interactions proposed by the report elements. In the WIDX, you can:

• Use the tables scroll bars.
• Use the filters to filter other blocks.
• Use the Show/Hide buttons to show or hide other blocks.
• Zoom in/out the charts that support it by pressing the [Ctrl] key with using the mouse wheel button.

WIDX Display

Non-supported report elements replaced by warning pictures in the exported WIDX file.

In the CMC, through customization, you can prevent users to export Web Intelligence documents to WIDX file format.

WIDX Limitations

Because of the new architecture that runs the new report elements and the new WIDX format, this first release has some limitations that may be addressed in future releases. In SAP BI 2025:

• Only one report and only its first page can be exported. In Design mode, you can use the Display > Show First Page Limit checkbox in the main toolbar to show in the report the borders of this first page.
• A WIDX file can be opened only on a Windows machine, where the default browser is Chrome or Edge.

The following content is not exported in the WIDX:

• Classic tables, graphs and custom elements, that are replaced by a warning picture.
• Sections that are dynamically filtered, that are replaced by a warning picture.
• Report header and footer. Only the report body is exported in the WIDX.
• Input controls and element linking. However, the exported dataset is filtered by their values when the WIDX is generated.
• Custom tooltips. In the WIDX, the default tooltips with the hovered value are displayed.
• Intra-document links. The cells are exported without their links.
• Comments.

The WIDX format does not propose the following Web Intelligence capabilities:

• Interactive sorts, ranking, drills are not supported.
• Dataset is static and cannot be refreshed.
• Formulas are evaluated before the WIDX export and only their results are exported.

Although these limitations, this new format has a huge potential that can modify how you use and share Web Intelligence content.

Web Intelligence: Reporting

Combined with the new interactive elements and the new WIDX format, new options offered in reporting may incite you to explore new use-cases with Web Intelligence.

Custom Tooltip

You can customize the tooltip displayed in Reading mode when hovering the mouse over a table or a chart. To do so:

1. In Design mode, right-click this report element and in its contextual menu, select Edit tooltip.
2. In the Edit Tooltip dialog box, select the Display a report or a report element from radio button to change the default tooltip.
3. In the Select a target report drop-down list, select a report. This report may be hidden.
4. In the Select a target block drop-down list, you may select an element of this report that is not contained in a section. If you do not select any and keep (None), then the report first page is displayed in the tooltip.
5. You may hover your mouse over the icons beside the drop-down lists to preview the selected target.
6. In the table listing the objects of the report element, you may select the checkbox beside an object name to use it as a filter for the tooltip content. Then, for each of these objects:
• In the Operator drop-down menu, select the operator to use for the filter.
• In the Target Objects drop-down menu, select the object in the target report or report element to filter.
7. You may select some display options in the Options tab:
• Fit to content: To shrink the target report or report element to fit it in the tooltip frame.
• Show filter bar: To display a filter bar on top of the tooltip to display the filters, if any, applied to the target report or report element.
8. Click OK.

Edit Tooltip Dialog Box

Once the tooltip has been created, you can see it in Reading mode when hovering the mouse on the selected report element. If you have defined filters, then the tooltip content is filtered accordingly to the hovered value and the filters definition. You can cumulate the tooltips and create a tooltip on top of another one.

Predefined Report Size

Predefined report sizes are organized by categories:

• Papers: All paper predefined sizes (A3, A4…) including new ones:
  • Raw A3 (RA3)
  • Raw A4 (RA4)
  • Super Raw A3 (SRA3)
  • Super Raw A4 (SRA4)
• Envelope: All envelops predefined sizes (#9, #10…) including a new one: #7 ¾ (Monarch).
• Monitor: New predefined sizes for monitors.
• Smartphone: New predefined sizes for smartphones.
• Tablet: New predefined sizes for tablets.

These new categories and predefined sizes are available in the Build > Format > Layout tab, in the Print dialog box and the new Quick Access side panel.

Custom Report Layout

In addition to the new predefined sizes, you can also define a custom size. This can be useful to define a report size displayed in a custom tooltip (Request 110320). To do so, click the Custom Layout link in the Build > Format tab. This opens the Edit Layout dialog box where you can:

• Set the report’s width and height.
• Click the Keep ratio checkbox to keep the same ratio when changing the width or the height.
• Click the 16:9 or 4:3 button to modify the height to get a 16:9 or 4:3 ratio with the width.
• Set the report orientation through the Portrait and Landscape buttons.

The preview shows how the current report fits into the selected layout.

Edit Custom Layout Dialog Box

In Design mode, when the report is displayed in Draft view, click the Show First Page Limit checkbox in the Display section of the main toolbar to show the borders of report’s first page body.

Geographical Database

For geographical charts, Web Intelligence uses the upgraded 2024 version of the Here geographical database.

Web Intelligence: Data Mode

Introduced in SAP BI 4.3 SP3 and improved in SAP BI 4.3 SP4, the Data mode allows you to view, modify, clean, and merge the datasets retrieved by document queries. New SAP BI 2025 capabilities make it a powerful data preparation tool.

Transformation Based on Formula

Since SAP BI 4.3 SP3, you can apply a predefined operator to the values of a dimension or a detail. In SAP BI 2025, you have more flexibility, and you can define a transformation based on a custom formula on a dimension, a detail, or a measure (Request 330863).

To do so, in the Dataset View, select the contextual menu in a column header and select Formula...  The Edit Formula dialog box opens, where you can enter the transformation formula. This formula may contain:

• Functions of the Web Intelligence formula language contained in the Character, Date & Time, Logical and Numeric categories, as well as the If, Then, Else, and ElseIf functions. For example, you may use the IsNull operator to find and replace null values (Request 328596).
• All objects of the object’s cube, except its local variables.

Transformation Formula in Formula Editor

Once the formula has been validated, the object values are updated in the object column in the Dataset View.

You can define several transformations, predefined or based on a formula, on an object. These transformations are applied in their order in the Build > Properties tab. In this tab, you can also add or remove a transformation, change its formula or its order.

Transformations in Object Properties Tab

Local Variable

To reduce the number of variables listed under the Variables folder in Design mode, you may create a local variable if its formula is based on a single cube’s objects.

To do so, select a cube in the Graph Panel or the Main > Objects tab. Click the Create local variable button in the Main > Objects tab toolbar or select the Create local variable command in the cube contextual menu. The Create Cube Variable dialog box opens, where you can enter the variable name, qualification, associated dimension (if it is a detail), description, and formula. This formula may contain:

• Functions of the Web Intelligence formula language contained in the Character, Date & Time, Logical and Numeric categories, as well as the If, Then, Else, and ElseIf functions.
• All objects of the cube, including its other local variables.

New Variable in Formula Editor

Once the variable is created, a new column with its computed values is displayed in the Dataset View.

In the Main > Objects tab, local variables are displayed under their cube. Their contextual menu contains the following commands:

• The Edit, Rename, and Delete commands to manage the variable.
• The Hide or Show commands to hide or expose the variable.
• The Search in variables command to search this variable in other variables definition.

An icon is displayed beside these variables and the cubes that contain them.

You may edit the local variable properties (Name, Qualification, Data Type, Description, and Formula) in the Build > Properties tab.

Local Variable Properties

It is not possible to apply a predefined or formula-based transformation to a local variable.

In Design mode, when you display objects by queries or by folders, local variables are displayed under their cubes.

Combine Cubes

Two new operators have been added to combine cubes:

• Right join
• Right join without intersection

They are like the left join and left join without intersection, but with the primary and secondary tables that are reversed. You can select these new operators when combining cubes, in the Operators drop-down menu.

Combining Cubes Operator

Synchronizing data flows through cube combination in Data mode is simpler than through merged objects and should become a best practice.

Usability Enhancements

In the Graph Panel, the contextual menu of a query contains the commands to refresh, edit, duplicate, purge, change its source, or delete this query. If this query contains prompts, you can select to purge the query with or without its prompts’ previous values.

Graph Panel: Query Contextual Menu

In the Dataset View, select the contextual menu in a column header and select Properties...  to directly access the Build > Properties tab.

In the Main > Objects tab, an object contextual menu contains the Search in variables command to search this object in local variables’ definition.

Web Intelligence: Query

For data sources queries, the two main changes are the new OLAP Cube data source and how to change the settings of Excel, Text and Free-Hand SQL data sources.

New OLAP Cube Data Source

The previous connection based on MDX used to access MSAS or Essbase multi-dimensional databases is no more supported. It is replaced by a new connection based on BICS that can be created in CMC or Information Design Tool.

Web Intelligence can query its underlying database:

• Through a universe created in Information Design Tool on this connection. You can create a query on this universe like any universe in Web Intelligence.
• Or through the connection (Direct Access). A new data source type, OLAP Cube, is available in the list of BI Repository data sources. Once you have selected this data source, browse the BI repository to select this connection, and in the Query Panel that opens, you can create your query by selecting the objects from the database.

OLAP Cube Data Source

This connection relies on the BICS driver. Hence, it does not support:

• Query filters on measures.
• Calculated members and named sets.
• Member selections with Ancestors, Parents, and Exclude functions.
• Hierarchical measures for Essbase.

SAP HANA Views in SAP Datasphere

SAP HANA views migrated in SAP Datasphere can be used as data source for Web Intelligence.

1. In Information Design Tool, you must create a relational connection to the SAP Datasphere system containing these SAP HANA views.
2. In Web Intelligence, select SAP HANA as the data source type.
3. In addition to the relational and OLAP connections to SAP HANA, the Select a HANA view dialog box lists also the relational connections to SAP Datasphere. Select the connection to the SAP Datasphere system containing your SAP HANA view.
4. You can expand the connection and select the SAP HANA view to query.
5. Click OK.
6. The Query Panel opens where you can select the objects to query.

These relational connections to SAP Datasphere are not displayed if you select SAP Datasphere as data source; only the OLAP connections are proposed.

Change Source

In SAP BI 4.3, to change the source of a query based on an Excel file, a Text file, a Free-Hand SQL, a Web Intelligence document, you must create the target query before and then select it as a target. In SAP BI 2025, it is still possible, but you do not need to create the query beforehand. Like for universe, SAP BW or SAP HANA data sources, you can create on the fly the target query based on an Excel file, a Text file, a Free-Hand SQL, a Web Intelligence document, or an OLAP Cube data source.

In the Change Source dialog box, when you select the Specify a new data source for this query option and click Select a Data Source…, the Select a Data Source dialog box opens, with all the supported data sources.

The Change Source dialog box usability has been improved:

• It presents more details about the different data sources.
• The option to create a query has been moved on top of the box.
• If the document contains only one query, you are no longer asked to select the query to change.

Change Path / Change Properties

If your query is based on an Excel or Text data source, in the Query Panel, you can click the View Settings button to see the Excel or Text file’s settings. But you cannot modify them here.

Excel Data Provider Settings

To change them, the new workflow requires selecting Change Source in the Query section of the main toolbar. After selecting the query to change:

• To replace its data source, select the Specific a new data source for this query radio button to select another data source type and browse for a new Excel or Text file. Select the mapping strategy and then how to map the objects.
• To keep the same data source but change its settings, select the Change the query settings and check its object mapping radio button.

Then to avoid ambiguities in object mapping, select the mapping strategy, map the objects, and finally create a new query based on the new objects.

Identically, if your query is based on a Free Hand SQL data source, in the Query Panel, you can click the View query script button to see this SQL. But you cannot modify it anymore here. To change this SQL, the new workflow requires selecting Change Source in the Query section of the main toolbar. After selecting the query to change:

• To replace its data source, select the Specific a new data source for this query radio button to select another relational connection and enter the SQL query.
• To keep the same data source but change the SQL, select the Change the query settings and check its object mapping radio button and modify the SQL query.

Then, in both cases, to avoid ambiguities in object mapping, select the mapping strategy, map the objects, and finally create a new query based on the new objects.

Change Source Options Choice

Usability Enhancements

 Several usability enhancements have been done for query management and edition:

• In the main toolbar, the Query Panel button has been replaced by two buttons:
• Edit: To open the Query Panel. The document’s number of queries is displayed beside this button.
• Add new data source: To open the Select a Data Source dialog box. The drop-down menu associated to this button allows you to directly select a new data source type or a recently used data source.

Toolbar: Add Query Button

• In the Filters toolbar, in the Prompts Summary, the prompts are organized by groups, if any.
• Browsing the repository to select a universe data source is faster, thanks to optimized requests. Furthermore, universes are displayed by batches of 500 to reduce waiting times.
• The Free-Hand SQL and Custom SQL dialog boxes propose some capabilities already offered by the Formula Editor (Request 322499) since SAP BI 4.3 SP2: line numbers, undo/redo and wrap text.

Free-Hand SQL Dialog Box

• In the Query Panel, nested filters are more visible in the Query Filters section.
• In the Purge Data Providers dialog box, the choice to purge the prompt values is done through a new checkbox Purge last selected prompt values displayed at the bottom of the dialog box instead of a confirmation dialog box. This selected option is saved in user’s settings and reused as default for next purge (Request 302433).
• You can delete all queries of the document.
• When creating a document, a default table is no longer inserted with the first query’s objects. When adding a new query, the Insert a query dialog box proposing you to add a new table or not is no longer displayed. In both cases, the object queries are added to the Main > Objects tab, and you must explicitly add a new report element.

• In the Prompts dialog box, the search settings are saved in user’s settings (Request 272799).

Web Intelligence: Export

In addition to the new WIDX export format, some new options are proposed when exporting Web Intelligence content.

Cube Export

You can export datasets of cubes created in Data mode to Excel or CSV. In the Export dialog box, when you select the Data radio button, these virtual cubes are listed at the top of the document’s queries.

Export: Selecting Virtual Cubes

In Data mode, you can export all queries and cubes, even if they are hidden, whereas you cannot export these hidden queries and cubes in other modes.

Excel Formatting Export

When exporting reports to Excel, the Options tab contains the following choices under the Formatting section:

• Maintain the original document's formatting in the exported Excel file: This option, named Privilege data display in previous release, keeps all possible formatting in the generated file.
• Keep the original formatting while aligning neighboring cells to reduce the number of columns: This option, named Privilege data processing in previous releases, tries to reduce the generated file size by merging close columns.
• Remove all formatting for easier data processing in Excel: This new option exports only the reports’ raw data and removes all charts and formatting (Request 331736).

Excel Export Options

CSV Export

When exporting cubes and queries to CSV, you may select the Generate one archive file containing one separate CSV per cube or report checkbox to save all selected queries or cubes in one archie file (ZIP). Without this option, all datasets are concatenated into one single CSV file.

Set as Default Values

When exporting to Excel, PDF or HTML, you can select the Set as default values checkbox in the Options tab. When selected, this checkbox saves the options set in this tab in your settings and are re-used next time you export or schedule a document in this format.

This checkbox is already available for CSV export since SAP BI 4.3 SP3.

Web Intelligence: Scheduling / Publishing

For schedule and publication, in addition to the WIDX support, some useful options have also been introduced.

WIDX Format

WIDX files can be generated from the Web Intelligence user interface, but you can also generate them with a schedule or a publication.

The Web Intelligence WIDX choice is offered when scheduling a Web Intelligence document, in the Formats drop-down list. If you select this format, you can select the target report through the schedule or publication. Because of the WIDX size, the BI Inbox and Email destinations are not supported.

Schedule Report to WIDX

In the CMC, through customization, you can prevent users to schedule or publish a Web Intelligence documents to WIDX file format.

This output format is available only in BI Launch Pad, and not in the CMC.

Schedule Options

In BI Launch Pad, when scheduling or publishing a Web Intelligence document:

• When scheduling reports to Excel or PDF formats, the same options offered when exporting from Web Intelligence can also be set, including the Set as default values checkbox.

Schedule Report to Excel Options

• The Prompts dialog box displays the groups of prompts, if any.
• If the document contains prompts with dynamic answers, two buttons are displayed to set all prompts as Dynamic or Constant (Request 313295).
• Warning icons are displayed beside mandatory prompts, if any.

These output options are available only in BI Launch Pad, and not in the CMC.

Open Instances

In Web Intelligence main toolbar, the Open > Instances drop-down menu lists the document instances whose type is Web Intelligence, Excel or PDF (Request 340175). This list is limited to 50 instances. Click one of these instances to open it if it is a Web Intelligence instance or either open it in the browser or download it locally in the file system.

Open Document Scheduled Instances

Other output formats are not supported and not displayed.

Web Intelligence: BI Launch Pad Tile

You can customize your BI Launch Pad Home page by adding a tile that displays an element from a saved Web Intelligence document. All report elements are supported, except the "classic" cells and tables available in SAP BI 4.3, and the new filters and Show/Hide report elements.

To do so, in Reading mode, select the Pin to Home button in the floating toolbar of a supported report element. In Design mode, the same command is available in its contextual menu. The tile is added at the bottom of the BI Launch Pad, in the My Tiles section. You can change the tiles order by selecting the Edit Home Page command in your BI Launch Pad Settings menu.

My Tiles Section in BI Launch Pad

The tiles display is based on an OpenDocument URL. If you select the Edit Properties command of the tile contextual menu, you can edit this OpenDocument URL, for example by using the sRefresh=Y to force the report element refresh.

In the CMC, under the Applications > BI Launch Pad > Properties > Pin to Home Page section, you can:

• Prevent users from adding tiles by unchecking Enable Pin To Homepage.
• Define the maximum number of tiles they can add. By default, this number is 5 and it can be increased to 10.

Web Intelligence: Usability Enhancements

As part of the usability continuous improvement, several enhancements requested by customers have also been implemented.

General

The following changes have been done to simplify the user interface:

• The tabs of Main and Builds side panels are displayed vertically so they are not limited by the side panel width. You can:
  • Navigate from one tab to another by clicking its button on this vertical toolbar.
  • Click the button of the current tab to collapse its side panel and display only the vertical toolbar.
  • If a side panel is collapsed, click a tab to expand it.
• You can still hide / show a side panel (including its vertical toolbar) by selecting the corresponding checkboxes in the Display section of the main toolbar: Show Quick Access Panel, Show Main Panel and Show Build Panel.

Show Side Panels Checkboxes

• In the Open and Save As dialog boxes, the Options > Show temporary folder parameter can be used to show or hide the Personal Folders/~WebIntelligence temporary folder. It is not recommended to use it since it is reserved for internal usage. However, it remains accessible if in previous versions, you have saved documents into this folder.
• In the Navigation Map tab:
  • Sections are filtered and sorted if filters and ranks apply.
  • If the report contains sub-sections, the toolbar contains a Collapse All button to collapse all expanded sections at once.
• In the toolbar, the File > Shortcuts command opens the page dedicated to shortcuts in the Web Intelligence Online Help.

Reading Mode

The following usability enhancements specific to Reading mode are available in SAP BI 2025:

• To reduce the number of side panels, the Rank and Sort tabs are no longer displayed in the Build side panel, but in the Main side panel. Only the Main side panel is displayed since the Quick Access panel is also not used in Reading mode.

Main Side Panel in Reading Mode

• The floating toolbar contains the Pin to Home button to display the selected block as a BI Launch Pad tile.
• You can hide or display the floating toolbar by pressing the [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F6] keys.
• In Design mode, in the Main > Properties tab, new options in the Reading Options section can be used to propose a dashboard experience-like in Reading mode:
  • Hide floating toolbar: To hide the floating toolbar that appears when you select a report element.
  • Hide report tab: To hide the bar containing the reports tab (Request 340208). This can be useful to save space if your document contains only reports or intra-document links that already allow navigation between these reports.
  • Show only "Print layout": To display the document only in Page mode and remove the button to switch to Draft mode from the vanishing toolbar.

Managing Reports

The Main > Structure tab has been extended to manage all document’s reports:

• All reports are listed, but by default, only the current report’s structure is displayed. Click on another report to download and display its structure and open the report. Different icons are used to differentiate downloaded reports and the ones that you must explicitly click to download.
• You can change the reports order through drag and drop or by using the Top, Up, Down and Bottom buttons in the side panel footer (Request 104421).
• The report contextual menu contains the main commands to manage the report (New, Rename, Duplicate, Delete, Hide, Copy Link of the Report) and some shortcuts to access panels in the Build side panel.
• The number of reports in the document is displayed in the side panel footer.
• In the toolbar, you can click the Collapse All button to collapse all downloaded reports’ structure. The Search text field can be used to search a report element by its name in all downloaded reports.

To help you finding the elements that are not supported when exporting to Excel, PDF, HTML or WIDX, you can use the toggle buttons in the Structure tab toolbar:

• Display elements supported in Web Intelligence document
• Highlight report elements not supported when exporting to Excel, PDF or HTML
• Highlight report elements not supported when exported to WIDX

The two last buttons can be used to find not supported report elements, but only in the downloaded reports:

• The warning icon is displayed beside the not supported report elements and their names are crossed out. This icon is also displayed beside reports containing unsupported elements.
• The success icon is displayed beside reports containing only elements that can be exported.

Structure Tab

Quick Access Side Panel

In Design mode, a new side panel has been introduced to ease documents creation by providing shortcuts to the most common actions. This Quick Access side panel contains three tabs:

• Data Sources: To add a new query.
• Report Elements: To insert a new report element or convert a report element into another one.
• Layouts: To set a predefined size for the current report.

Quick Access Side Panel Tabs

The Data Sources tab is like the Select a Data Sources dialog box: it displays the list of data source types (organized by categories) and the recently, used data sources. Click:

• A data source type to open a browsing dialog box and select a data source.
• Or a recent data source to create a query on this data source.

The Report Elements tab lists all report element types organized by categories that mix the new interactive with those already available in previous releases. Beside each report element type, you can select the Add to Favorites icon to add it in the list of favorites, listed at the top of the tree in the Favorites category, or in the main toolbar, under the Insert > Favorites drop-down menu.

Favorites Drop-Down Menu

You can expand the panel beside the Report Elements header to display three toggle buttons to filter the report elements:

• Display elements supported in Web Intelligence document: To display all report elements, since they are all supported in a Web Intelligence document.
• Display elements supported when exporting to Excel, PDF or HTML: To hide the new interactive report elements since their interactive capabilities are not leveraged in these export formats. They are replaced by a warning picture.
• Display elements supported when exporting to WIDX: To hide the report elements that are not supported when exporting to WIDX. Only the new interactive report elements, the cells, and sections (if not filtered) are supported. Others are replaced by a warning picture.

To insert a report element in the report, drag and drop it from the Quick Access > Report Elements tab. This adds a report element frame in the report that you can complete by adding the objects to display, if needed, or setting its parameters.

When you select a report element in the report, the Turn To icon is displayed beside the report elements into which it can be converted. Click this icon to turn it into this report element.

The Layouts tab lists the predefined report sizes, organized by categories. Click a predefined size to change the current report size. You can expand the panel beside the Report Layout header to display the current size. The layout of a new added report is the layout of the current report.

As with report elements, you can add predefined sizes as favorites. They are listed under the Favorites category, at the top of the tab, for quicker access.

The top of these three tabs propose search, expand and collapse capabilities, as well as a button to define how the list is displayed.

Design / Structure Modes

The following changes are available in Design and Structure modes:

• When folding a table break, or hiding a column in a table, the focus remains on the table.
• In the Build > Data > Break tab, editing break properties opens a larger Edit Break Properties dialog box where you can set a new property, Enable fold/unfold, that defines if the break supports fold/unfold.
• When inserting a new report element that requires objects, the Feeding tab is selected by default in the Build > Data tab. Icons and tooltips detail what objects are mandatory or optional and what object and data types are expected.
• You can create OpenDocument URL on other documents than Web Intelligence ones (Request 330736).
• When clicking a report element, a floating toolbar is displayed with some shortcuts to access tabs in Main or Build side panels. You may disable or enable this toolbar by pressing the [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F6] keys.
• The Custom Order dialog box supports multi-selection, drag and drop and two new buttons Top and Bottom to quickly order the values (Request 333033). The text field used to enter a new value is also used to filter the list of values on the fly as you type.
• In the Main > Properties tab, the Instant Apply checkbox can be selected to immediately apply parameters change when they are entered or to wait for an explicit validation through the Apply button (Request 340174).
• In the Build side panel, you can expand and collapse all parameters categories with the Expand and Collapse buttons.
• In Structure mode, limits are displayed for sub-sections, and not only for sections.

Web Intelligence: Administration

Some enhancements have also been made in the Web Intelligence administration area.

Customization

In SAP BI 4.3, if a user belongs to several groups on which customization has been defined, then the customization defined for the group with the lowest ID applies. To make it more predictable and easier to administrate, you can select to hide a feature if it is hidden for at least one group containing the user.

In the CMC, go to the Applications > Web Intelligence page and open the Properties dialog box. You can set a new parameter Customization Aggregation with the following two options:

• Hide features disabled for the lowest ID group containing the user (Default): To aggregate the customization, like in SAP BI 4.3 and use the group with the lowest ID. For compatibility, this is the default choice.

• Hide features disabled for at least one group containing the user: With this new option, you can better control this aggregation since a feature is hidden if it is hidden for at least one group containing the user.

CMC: Web Intelligence Customization Aggregation

New customization features have been added:

• Data source > OLAP Cube: To hide the new OLAP Cube data source.
• Export to > WIDX: To hide the new WIDX option when exporting a report.
• Schedule and publishing > Export to > WIDX: To hide the new WIDX option when scheduling or publishing a document.

Authorized URLs

Since SAP BI 4.3 SP4, all URLs used as hyperlinks in Web Intelligence must be explicitly authorized in the CMC, in the Applications > Web Intelligence > Properties > Authorized URLs panel.

To simplify administration tasks (Request 322629), new actions are available in this panel toolbar:

• Enable the selected URL(s).
• Disable the selected URL(s).
• Remove a URL from the list.
• Export the list of URLs: You can select to export the list of enabled URLs, disabled URLs, or both, into a JSON file.
• Import a list of URLs: You can select one or more JSON files from your files system. The list of enabled URLs they contain are added to your list as enabled. URLs marked as disabled in these files are not imported.

CMC: Web Intelligence Authorized URLs

This sample returns a JSON file, that can be directly imported thanks to the new Import a list of URLs capability.

Charts Rows Limit

The default maximal number of rows supported by classic charts and Custom Elements is 50 000. You can extend this Chart maximum rows number property until 250 000 (Request 340232). You can change this property in the CMC, in the Servers > Server List > WebIntelligenceProcessingServer > Properties dialog box, under the Web Intelligence Common Service section.

Web Intelligence Rich Client

To reduce installation time, the Web Intelligence Rich Client is no longer installed by default on the server and hence, it is no longer proposed for installation in the BI Launch Pad Settings dialog box.

To add it back, you must:

1. Copy the download folder from the oneinstaller\BusinessObjectsServer_One\Collaterals\WebiWeb folder on your installation package into the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\webi-websetup folder.
2. Go into the SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\wdeploy folder.
3. Run the following command-lines:

./wdeploy.bat <APP SVR> -DAPP=webi-websetup predeploy

./wdeploy.bat <APP SVR> -DAPP=webi-websetup deployonly

Once done, the WebSetup.exe download link is available inside BI Launch Pad Settings dialog box so users can download it, if they are authorized to do so.

Semantic Layer

In Semantic Layer, the main changes are related to the supported data sources and the removed features and products (SAP KBA 3560025).

New Supported Data Sources

These data sources have been added to the SAP BI 2025 Product Availability Matrix:

• MongoDB BI Connector
• GreenPlum 7
• PostgreSQL 16
• Oracle 23ai
• Microsoft Excel 2021
• MySQL 9
• Single Sign-On OAuth for Databricks

Removed Data Sources

The Simba drivers used for Amazon Redshift, Hive, Impala and Spark are no longer released with SAP BI 2025. You may download them from the distributor web site and install them on your machine.

This should be transparent to you, except for MongoDB since you must use the new MongoDB BI Connector released in SAP BI 2025.

The following connection are also removed and cannot be used anymore:

• Google BigQuery BusinessObjects, replaced by Google BigQuery JDBC.
• SAP Vora 1 and Vora 2.
• SAP HANA Vora.

MDX Support Removal

OLAP Connections based on MDX are no longer supported. This impacts the OLAP Connections based on MDX, and the multidimensional universes based on these connections, to:

• SAP HANA
• Microsoft MSAS
• Oracle Essbase

You can replace them with connections based on BICS created in Information Design Tool or the CMC. In Web Intelligence, you can then change the source to these new connections or multidimensional universes created on these connections.

These connections have the following limitations:

• Query filters on measures.
• Calculated members and named sets.
• Member selections with Ancestors, Parents and Exclude functions.
• Hierarchical measures for Oracle Essbase.

The MDX removal also impacts multidimensional universes on:

• SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) for Microsoft Platform
• SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management (PCM)
• SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation (FC) for Microsoft Platform.

that are also no more supported.

Universe Features Removal

The biggest removal in SAP BI 2025 is the Universe Design Tool and the universes created with this tool (UNV). Universe conversion has also been removed from Information Design Tool so it is important to convert all your universes into the new Information Design Tool universe format (UNX) before migrating to SAP BI 2025.

In Information Design Tool, some features are also no more supported:

• Multi-source universes. The Data Federator Administration Tool is no more part of the installation.
• Federated tables
• BI Sets

Finally, Query and Document as Web Service (QaaWS & DaaWS) that were deprecated since SAP BI 4.3 are no more supported.

If you have Web Intelligence documents based on these no-more supported universes, you can still open them to change their source, but you cannot refresh them anymore.

OLAP Connection

In the CMC, the OLAP Connections page is removed and managing OLAP connections is done in the Connections page. This page toolbar contains the following new commands:

• New OLAP Connection
• Copy OLAP Connection
• Edit OLAP Connection

If you select to create an OLAP connection, select the target data source in the Choose Connection Type panel. Then, click Next to set the data source parameters in the Connection Properties panel. Click Test Connection to test the connection and Create Connection to create it.

If you select to copy or edit a connection, the Connection Properties panel directly opens where you can change the parameters for the copied or edited connection.

CMC: New OLAP Connection