Working with multiple connections - SAP BO

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP allows you to have multiple connections in a single workspace. You can even mix the DATA CONNECTIONS on a single sheet.
For this particular section, let us create a new workspace and then add multiple queries to the workspace, and learn how we can use different components working with multiple connections.

1. Open the BI Launchpad via Start > All Programs > SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.0 > SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform > SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Java BI Launchpad.
2. Logon with your SAP credentials and the SAP authentication for your SAP NetWeaver BW system.
3. Select the menu Applications.
4. Select Analysis, Edition for OLAP. In the next step, you are presented with the list of available OLAP Connections.
5. Select the connection, which we have created previously pointing to your SAP NetWeaver BW system.
6. Click Next. You are now receiving the list of available BEX QUERIES. You can also use the tab Find to search for specific queries.
7. Select the BEx Query which was created previously and click OK.

Figure 5.5 List of connections

8. In the Data panel, you can now see the connection we have created. The connection is shown with the connection name (in our example SAP_BW_SERVER) and the name of the BEx query (in our example QUERY_SIMPLE) you selected (see Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5 Workspace Connection

9. In the top part of the Data panel (see Figure 5.6), you can see the list of connections and you also have the option to add additional connections using the button and you can also remove connections using the button.
10. Click on the button to add an additional connection to your workspace.
11. The list of connections will appear and you can use the Next button to see the list of available BEX QUERIES.
12. Click on Next and select another BEx query from your SAP NetWeaver BW system.
13. Click OK.

Figure 5.7 Workspace Connections

14. The second connection is shown in the list of available connections (see Figure 5.7).
15. Select the newly added connection in the list.
16. Navigate to the tab Insert.
17. Click on the button and select the option Insert a new analysis.

Figure 5.8 Insert a new analysis

You now have two cross tabs as part of your workspace, where the upper cross tab points to the first connection and the lower cross tab points to the second connection.

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You can also recognize this by selecting either the upper or lower cross tab, and you will notice that the selected connection in the Data panel will change (see Figure 5.9).

Figure 5.9 Analysis Workspace

18. Select the first connection that we have added to the workspace.
19. Navigate to the tab Insert.
20. Click on the button and select the option Insert a new analysis.
21. You have now added a new cross tab to the workspace, which points to the first connection.
22. Click on the Outline button on the far left hand side (see Figure 5.10).

Figure 5.10 Workspace Outline

The list of components on each sheet of your workspace is shown to you, and each of the components shows which connection is being used for this component.

When you are working with multiple connections in a single workspace, the selected connection is being used, when you create a new Analysis or a new sub-analysis. When you select an existing component as part of your workspace, the corresponding connection will be highlighted in the list of connections. In this section, we learned how to use multiple connections in a single workspace, and how we can differentiate between components pointing to different connections. In the next section, we will add charts to our workspace and configure the properties of those charts.