SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook

As a professional in the Business Objects world, I've read a lot of books on the subject. This book is still by favorite out of any other in the whole BOBJ suite. I've recommended this book countless times to others who wish to learn how to create dashboards.This book focuses on one SAP Dashboards component at a time (eg. map, line chart, bubble chart, etc...) and walking you through every step of the way. At no time will you feel lost which is very important when just starting out. They are very good at showing you what data underneath the components so every time, your dashboards look just like the pictures.I cannot recommend this book enough.

This is a nice book. If there was an accompanying CD with xlf files it would be great. Great job in packing the book!

This is a really great manual for those who are familiar with SAP. The lessons and chapters are easy to follow and well developed.

An exceptional reference work, with a great deal of useful information, detail, and tips.

I have been using xcelsius for about 6 years to include this SAP version. Excellent.

Great

Packt Publishing recently released SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook and I was pleased to receive an eBook edition to review. Authors Xavier Hacking and David Lai channel their inner Julia Child with tasty results.First of all, the book is truly a cookbook. So instead of thumbing through a reference manual that teaches about various chart components, dynamic visibility, and data access devoid of practical application, readers can easily find clearly organized recipes like "Opening up a Web Intelligence report using dashboard parameters", "Building a pop-up screen", or "Analyzing trends". There's over 90 recipes to choose from, including 7 recipes for data connectivity (even SAP BW) and 7 recipes for third-party components (from Antivia, Centigon Solutions, IdeaCrop, and Inovista). To help readers work through the recipes, a collection of sample Xcelsius (XLF) and Adobe Flash (SWF) files can be downloaded from the Packt Publishing web site.Although the book is entitled "Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook", most of the recipes can be baked with Xcelsius 2008 and do not require Dashboards 4.0, which is a huge plus. On the downside, I wished the book would more clearly indicate which recipes are specific to Dashboards 4.0 (and therefore not possible in Xcelsius 2008). One example is the recipe for "Using Universe queries", as it requires Dashboards 4.0 and new UNX universes created with the SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool 4.0, not legacy UNV universes created with the Universe Design Tool. Also, integration with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform is shown using Enterprise XI 3.1, not BI 4.0. However, neither of these deficiencies take away from the usefulness of the cookbook. I would guess that the authors might easily address these items in a second edition timed for the release of BI 4.1.As an instructor of SAP's official BOX310 "Xcelsius 2008 Enterprise: Core & Connectivity" training class, I'm disappointed that the curriculum hasn't been updated since the initial release of Xcelsius 2008. Students tend to leave the class unfulfilled and unprepared to use new and interesting features introduced through service packs. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook not only covers these newer features, but presents them in a task-oriented "cookbook" format that allows readers to quickly find information on implementing specific functionality in their Xcelsius dashboards.

This is a very good book for those who want to understand the new version 4 of BOBJ dashboarding. In fact, I just bought another four copies for my developers, even those who are just finishing their SAP training class.There are simply too many good examples in this book that I know my employees will need in the future as they are developing custom dashboards.The authors provide a no-nonsense approach to this book and shows step by step images and screenshots for how to complete almost 100 tasks. It is clearly not a reference book for looking up individual items. Instead this 333 page book provide practical guides for HOW to complete task, instead of what you 'need to do' which has been a short-coming in other dashboarding books. I particularly liked Chapter 8 that devotes eleven pages on BW connectivity and Live Office connectivity.Chapter-3 is at the heart of this book. It deals with dynamic dashboarding and why BOBJ are somewhat different that other dashboarding tools that just present data, but does not allow you to interact with the data. This chapter together with the information in chapter-8 on how to pass flash variables between dashboards (pp. 229-234), makes this cheap book worth the money by itself.Overall a very solid step-by-step book that should be on every BOBJ dashboard developer's desktop. The timeliness of its release with BI-4.0 and the lack of other relevant training material and books make it even more compellingDr. Berg

If you Learn SAP BO & know each & every Basic things. This books is Good for Beginners....Go for it