Technology Blogs by SAP
Learn how to extend and personalize SAP applications. Follow the SAP technology blog for insights into SAP BTP, ABAP, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP HANA, and more.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Former Member
1,801
This blog covers some of the latest new features and enhancements in SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Digital Boardroom release 2018.18. Please note that the Analytics Cloud Help documentation is updated at the same time as the upgrade to this release, so the links here may not yet reflect what is described below until after the upgrade is complete.
Upgrade your SAP Analytics Cloud agent to the latest agent version 1.0.121 to take advantage of all the data acquisition types!
If you haven’t upgraded yet, here are the data acquisition minimum requirements:

  • Version 1.0.109 for SAP Business Warehouse (BW)

  • Version 1.0.99 for SAP ERP / SQL databases

  • Version 1.0.91 for SAP Universe (UNX)

  • Version 1.0.75 for all other data source types


For more information, see System Requirements and Technical Prerequisites.

Highlights of this release:

Learn with our latest video tutorials

Planning


Reassign in-progress input tasks


Don’t sweat it if your input tasks need to be reassigned! Even if your input task is in progress you’ll still be able to reassign it to someone else.


Apply pre-defined calculations on single or multiple measures


We’ve designed this feature to simplify your interactions with tables. For tables, you can now select a single measure header or multiple measure headers in the table and then apply a predefined calculation such as Average, Running Total, and so on.


Set read-only status


Now, you don’t need to worry about your tables being modified by other users! When you’re creating formatting rules, you can now set the read-only status for table cells. With the new drop-down box, if you apply a parent cell to read-only, the status will carry over to its children too.


Forward input task to different organization level hierarchies


Maybe someone sent you an input task that’s a better fit for someone else. It’s okay! Now, you can now forward the input task to someone else, even if they’re at a different level in your organization's hierarchy.


Calendar Gantt improvements


In the Calendar Gantt year view, you can now drag and drop objects to different dates. Also, you can now see the tasks that you own (assigned as Owner) in both calendar and Gantt view.


Calendar enhancements


By setting the Activate option in the calendar, you can now send the tasks or processes out to other users. Also, users can choose whether they want assignees to see other assignees for a task or not.


Data Integration


Improvements to SQL data acquisitions


Increase your productivity! Now that SQL Data is acquired synchronously, you can work while the data is being processed. The SQL data sources can now be queried from within stories, support Incremental load and sharing of connections. These improvements are on par with ODATA, Google Big Query, Google Drive, SAP BW, SAP Universe, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Cloud for Customer and SAP S/4HANA.


View data file uploads via the Data Sources Tab


New uploads after 2018.18 now supports viewing of data file uploads for models on the Data Sources tab.


Support for live connections to BPC embedded configurations


You can now directly connect to BPC embedded model, build a story on BPC live model, lock cells and submit data back to BPC. Functions such as workstatus, disaggregation, formulas, currency translations, etc. in BPC embedded models can be used as well.

With the option of leveraging tables and charts as a client, you can enjoy a high flexible and LOB-tailored user experience. The powerful planning engine in BPC embedded is used to realize an advanced and complex enterprise-wide planning.

Please note that advanced planning, predictive, Data Actions, and VDP are not yet supported.


Mobile


SDK enablement support


This enablement now supports customers who want to host the SAP Analytics Cloud app in their internal Appstore's, in addition to managing the life cycle of the app. This will be available in SMP for download and requires XCod 9.X, iOS 10 or iOS 11.

 

Administration & Infrastructure


Additional infrastructure improvements


Say goodbye to the times from when it was necessary to first revert to the default authentication before switching to a different custom IdP. With this new update, system owners who have already configured for custom SAML authentication can now switch directly from one custom IdP to another.
Administrators can now see in System > Monitor if they are licensed for Digital Boardroom.

On systems provisioned on Cloud Foundry/AWS, system owners can now enable custom SAML authentication using custom SAML NameID mappings rather than having to use email as the NameID. In addition, system owners can register OAuth clients for API Access through System > Administration > App Integration.


Smart Assist


Search to Insight enhancements


Get ready, everyone, because we have some great Smart Assist enhancements coming your way! When using the Search to Insight feature, you can now search HANA live models included in your story.

Please note that this is for HANA live models only and requires SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12 rev 122.14 or higher.



Scenario 1: User creates a model from a connection for the first time and hasn’t saved the model yet. Search to Insights is under the “General Model Settings” and the Create Index button is disabled.



Scenario 2a: Model is saved and has never been indexed before, therefore it doesn’t show the last indexed timestamp. Create Index button is enabled.



Scenario 2b: User starts indexing. At this stage, the confirmation dialog will appear with an estimate of how long indexing will take for this model. Don’t close or refresh the brows when it is being processed!


User opens the indexed model preference’s dialog. A timestamp will be shown for the last updated index of this model and the “delete index” will be visible as an option.


Data Visualization


Configure initial explorer view


Story designers can now open explorer from a chart or table and configure it to control what viewers see when they launch explorer. Multiple Explore tabs can be configured, where one can be set as default. However, explorer in Digital Boardroom only currently shows the default view. Story designers can use explorer to show more details in a table, for example.


Bookmark personal explorer views


Story viewers can create multiple views in explorer and persist these in a story bookmark. These bookmarks remain private and contain filter, input controls, prompts and explorer views.


Intelligent Enterprise


Choose variable value from a Customer exit or SAP BW backend


When using an SAP BW Bex Query, you can now choose whether a variable value comes from a Customer Exit, either of which is dynamically processed during runtime form backend, (e.g. current day, changes every day), or from a saved value that is a manually input by the user (saved in the story).

For example, a date value like “10.10.2018” only changes when a user is setting another value.



Additional resources:

Previous feature summary blogs:

**Legal disclaimer
SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this blog or any related presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This blog, or any related presentation and SAP’s possible future developments, products and or platforms directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. The information in this blog is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. This blog is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. This blog is for informational purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such damages were caused by SAP’s willful misconduct or gross negligence.

All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
1 Comment