SAP has introduced a way to set the User Option in EPM add-in for SAP BPC 10. Here is a little write up about how you can set up the “user options” while developing EPM Add-in reports using SAP BPC 10.

Business Case

While deploying a report, sometimes you want to force a Refresh when the context is changed.  Earlier, the users could activate this option manually. In other words, this option is enabled or disabled by the user, the implementation team had little control* over this.

The process of setting up the options manually by the users.

User Options >> Automatic Refresh on Context Changes

Solution

The solution of this is to create a simple API based VBA code to set this option.  This document will guide you to set-up this option as part of the work book open event. This will make sure that every time the user opens the work book this AutoRefresh is set.

Step 1: Open the Visual Basic Development Window (shortcut ALT + F11)

Step 2: Add reference to the FPMXLClient

Step 3: Add a new module (this works as a place holder of your methods, functions and variables)

Step 4: Add the following code.

Function AFTER_WORKBOOK_OPEN()

    Dim EPMObj As New FPMXLClient.EPMAddInAutomation

    EPMObj.SetUserOption "AutomaticRefresh", True

End Function

Step 5: Save the work book as the macro enabled work book or template. The macro will not be saved if this step is not followed.

The AFTER_WORKBOOK_OPEN() event is a SAP BPC EPM Add-in related event. This event allows you to trigger a code every time when the work book is opened. The SetUserOption function allows you to set the user options. You can use this function for manipulating any option in the user option section.

Link

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boeo10/en/EPMofc_10_user_en.pdf Please refer to the latest EPM Add-in documentation.

Prerequisite

• Some knowledge of VBA
• SAP BPC EPM Add-in
• Access to SAP BPC server and client

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW

BPC-MS

EPM-XLS

BPC-RELATED

RELEASED SUPPORT PACKAGES

BPC-NW

*BPC NW 7.0 reached end of maintenance on 31-03-2013.

BPC-MS

EPM 10 Add-in

*Central Notes links updated. Just click on release names.

(This was documented using version 10.0 SP17 Patch 2 of the EPM Add-In for MS Excel.)

As you jump into the EPM Add-In for MS Excel to access data
in SAP BPC , you will see there is
something called the Context Pane:

 
If you are not already on the EPM ribbon and logged in to a
model, then you will not see the Context Pane.

Above, you see 11 dimensions represented by the 11 drop-down
boxes.  Many of these will not be
familiar to most of the users, and consequently, choosing the wrong parameter
can lead to very wrong results.  There
are some cases, however, where the user might choose the time period, the
entity, the account, or the category (version), etc.  In these cases, you might have a “favorite”
context that you would like to work with.
In these instances, you can set a favorite context and save it for future
use.  This document will show you how.

While already logged in to a model (Consolidations, for
example), and on the EPM ribbon, perform the following:

1. Click on the drop-down option beside “Options”
   and select Context Options:
   
   
2. Click on the Context Favorites tab, and then
   click on the Selected Member of the Dimension you would like to adjust.  In this example, we will click on Total
   Balance Sheet for the Account dimension:
   
   
3. The Member Select appears, and then choose Total
   Income Statement:
   
   
   
   Click OK.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all dimensions that
   need to be adjusted.  Some to consider
   are RPTCURRENCY (US Dollar), SCOPE, TIME (choose some relative period, although
   you will likely need to change this after selecting the favorite context,
   particularly if you are updating a monthly report), and MEASURES (Year to Date –
   for Balance Sheet related reports; Periodic – for P&L related reports).
5. Then, enter a name for this favorite, and click
   on Create Favorite:
   
   
6. Now, you should notice a couple of new buttons
   as well as the option to either select the favorite you have just created or to
   create a new favorite:
   
   
7. Click on the Context Display tab to set the Context
   Favorite display option:
   
   
   
   Check the box for Show Context Favorites and then either choose to put the
   Context Favorite at the start or the end of the Context.  I would suggest the start so that it will
   always be visible when the EPM Context is visible.
   
   Click OK.
8. Now, you should notice the Context Favorite
   drop-down in your EPM Context:
   
   
9. Click on the drop-down and choose your newly
   created Context Favorite:
   
   
   
   Notice that the context changed according to the settings for your favorite but
   the data in the report did not change.
10. You can update the report in a couple of
    ways.  You can simply click on the
    Refresh button in the EPM ribbon:
    
    
11. Or you can change a setting to automatically
    refresh the worksheet on Context changes.
    You may find that you do not prefer this, but you can simply reverse
    these settings to undo this selection.  While
    on the EPM ribbon, click the drop-down beside Options, and then select User
    Options:
    
    
12. Check Automatic Refresh on Context Changes, and
    then click OK:
    
    
13. Reselect your context favorite to create a “context
    change,” and then your report will refresh.

I hope you find this useful.
Feel free to post comments, questions, or suggestions as you use this
functionality in the EPM Add-In for MS Excel in conjunction with the SAP BPC
content.

SAP has introduced an option to standardize the EPM formatting sheet across the environment in EPM add-in for SAP BPC 10.

Business Case

As part of implementation, to give a similar look and feel to all reports and schedules, we would like to apply the same formatting sheet to all reports and schedules across the environment.

Solution

We can use two predefined templates provided that are stored in the server at the following locations.

• admin\webexcel\teamtemplatelibrary\reports\report_formatting_template.xslx
• admin\webexcel\teamtemplatelibrary\input schedules\input_formatting_template.xslx

Optional Step

The two templates must have identical names (extension included) on the server and in the FPMXLClient.dll.config file located on the client computer. The two keys whose values you can modify in the FPMXLClient.dll.config file are the following

• <add key="ReportFormattingTemplateFileName " value="Report_Formatting_Template.xlsx"/>
• <add key="InputFormattingTemplateFileName " value="Input_Formatting_Template.xlsx"/>

Additional Note

This functionality works only provided no formatting sheet has been yet defined in the workbook, when clicking View Formats in the EPM tab of the Ribbon, the following formatting sheets are automatically generated in the workbook: the blank formatting worksheet (standard for any connection) and the two formatting sheets generated from the server.

Steps

Step 1: Create your own formatting sheet as base template.

Step 2: Save this template file in one of the following location

• admin\webexcel\teamtemplatelibrary\reports\report_formatting_template.xslx
• admin\webexcel\teamtemplatelibrary\input schedules\input_formatting_template.xslx

    Note: If you don’t have ADMIN team, please create the same.

Step 3: Open a new excel file.

Step 4: Click on the “View Format” option

Step 5: This will add our custom formatting tab along with the standard formatting tab.

Additional Note

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boeo10/en/EPMofc_10_user_en.pdf

Please refer to the latest EPM Add-in documentation for further help.

Introduction

This document covers the approach of passing scope/prompt from SAP BPC data manager package to SQL Server stored procedure. This applies to all versions of SAP BPC Version for Microsoft. This approach can be used as an alternate to the approach specified in my earlier document on How to Pass Parameters to SSIS package.

Business Case

The business case is to pass the parameters from SAP BPC data manager package to a stored procedure.  The BPC users will pass the scope (selections) via the data manager prompts. This selection will be passed to a stored procedure via the data manager package. The stored procedure will receive the scope(selections) from BPC data manager package and store it to a table.

BPC Setup

BPC model with the following structure

Environment Name: BADSHELL

Model Name: Planning

Development Details

Step 1: Create a scope table to receive the scope (selections) passed from SQL Server. This table will be used to receive the parameters passed from the BPC data manager package.  Execute the following script in the SQL Server side.

USE[BADSHELL]

GO

CREATETABLE[DBO].[BPC_SCOPE](

       [SCOPETBL][NVARCHAR](100)NULL,

       [DIMENSION][NVARCHAR](32)NULL,

       [MEMBER][NVARCHAR](32)NULL

)ON[PRIMARY]

GO

Step 2: Create stored procedure. This stored procedure will receive the selection from BPC and store it in a table (BPC_SCOPE). This table can be used in the further operations like a filter table. To facilitate parallel call of the data manager package this table (BPC_SCOPE) should always be used with the filter SCOPETBL = @SCOPETABLE.

Execute the following script in the SQL Server side. Please read the comments and insert your code...

USE[BADSHELL]

GO

CREATEPROCEDURE[DBO].[USP_CALC_BLOG]

(

@SCOPETABLEVARCHAR(50)

)

AS

BEGIN

EXEC('INSERT INTO [BPC_SCOPE] SELECT '''+@SCOPETABLE+''', DIMENSION, MEMBER FROM '+@SCOPETABLE)

       /*

       INSERT YOUR CODE HERE, YOU CAN USE THE BPC_SCOPE TABLE TO FILTER RECORDS

       TO MAKE SURE WE ISOLATE CONCURRENT EXECUTION USE THE VARIABLE  @SCOPETABLE

       TO FILTER BPC_SCOPE TABLE.

       */

       /*

       FINALLY YOU CAN DELETE ALL THE RECORDS IN THE BPC_SCOPE TABLE

       DELETE FROM BPC_SCOPE WHERE SCOPETBL = @SCOPETABLE

       */

END

Step 3: Create BPC script logic to call the stored procedure. %SCOPETABLE% variable passes the parameter table to the stored procedure.

Step 4: Create data manager package to invoke the script logic

On the web server side, copy the standard “Default Formulas” data manager package (BLOG_10)

Configure the package in the data manager interface in EPM add-in for excel. Go to Data Manager >> Organize package list >> Add package and select the copied package

Modify the package and add the following by specifying following script

Step 5:  Execute data manager package by selecting prompts

Step 6:  Check the results

Important Notes

• Add necessary dimensions to the data manager prompt
• Clear the scope table after the calculation (note SQL section commented in the document)
• Set up appropriate data base security and connection credentials as suited to your need
• For further reference refer to SAP’s help documentation

Reference Links

How to pass a custom parameter to Data Manager Package

SAP BPC MS: Passing Data Manager Selection (Scope) to SSIS Package

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW

BPC-MS

EPM-XLS

RELEASED SUPPORT PACKAGES

BPC-NW

*BPC NW 7.0 reached end of maintenance on 31-03-2013.

BPC-MS

EPM 10 Add-in

*Central Notes links updated. Just click on release names.

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW

BPC-MS

EPM-XLS

RELEASED SUPPORT PACKAGES

BPC-NW

*BPC NW 7.0 reached end of maintenance on 31-03-2013.

BPC-MS

EPM 10 Add-in

*Central Notes links updated. Just click on release names.

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW

BPC-MS

EPM-XLS

BPC-RELATED

RELEASED SUPPORT PACKAGES

BPC-NW

*BPC NW 7.0 reached end of maintenance on 31-03-2013.

BPC-MS

EPM 10 Add-in

*Central Notes links updated. Just click on release names.

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW

BPC-MS

EPM-XLS 

BPC-RELATED

RELEASED SUPPORT PACKAGES

BPC-NW

*BPC NW 7.0 reached end of maintenance on 31-03-2013.

BPC-MS

EPM 10 Add-in

*Central Notes links updated. Just click on release names.

Summary

Transport Process is one of the most important phase during the implementation of SAP Business Objects Planning and Consolidation (BPC) in Net weaver Landscape. This paper presents a detailed steps of transport movement from Development to QA (Quality) and to Production systems. Best practice can be determined and implemented based on the requirement dependent on the customer system.

Authors: Kanchana Subbiah, Pavan Kumar Bollineni, Dinesh Mallineni

Manual Transport of BPC Objects which are not feasible via Transport Connection:

• Audits: We are unable to transport audit reports from one system to other system as audit reports are specific to individual systems.

• Work status:  Work Status configuration is controlled by table UJT_TRANS_CHG via transaction SM30 and object type u201CWSTA. This setting allows you to control whether work status configurations are imported into your target system when importing a BPC transport. If this object is flagged to u201CDevelopmentu201D in the source system, all work status configuration within the application will be collected in the transport.

• Delta Initialization:  The data load process through Data Manager Package or Package links, where the Delta initialization is set up in the source system, they will have to be manually configured in the target system.

Transports can collect the work states that are defined as well as any work status settings that are defined. Transports do not include any work status locks that may have been set in the source system.

Dependency check for successful transport movement:

To transport successfully, make sure that the dependent objects exist either in target system or transport request. For example, application Appl1 depends on dimension Dim1, so to transport Appl1, make sure Dim1 has already exists in target system or Dim1 has been collected in the transport request Otherwise, the transport Appl1 will fail.

One more example related to DM packages. We should transport DM package folder before sending DM packages as it will check for destination folder to copy the DM package. If it didn’t find then transport fails with error messages.

Below are the three major dependency checks:

• During the transport creation process the transport framework will check the existence of the dependent entities. The transport framework will raise a warning message of missing dependent entities when the transport request is released. The user can continue to do transport by selecting “continue with warning message”. If the dependent entities already exist in the target system, transport will succeed otherwise the transport will fail.

• During the Import process a dependency check is also executed. If it fails, a roll back will happen on the single entity (corresponding to transport granularity) that encounters error during transport and it will not affect other entities.

• The Data checker is executed after importing Roll back will not be executed at this step. Error or warning message will be returned back when there are issues during this step. Besides these three types of dependency check, the transport framework will check the existence of the Environment information when the transport request is released. If the Environment information has not been collected in a transport request, a warning message of missing Environment information will be returned back by transport framework even if the Environment information has not been set as the dependent entity.

Note: If a transport fails for an object, the changes for that object are not made in the target system. The object in the target system remains unchanged. This does not affect the transport of other objects to the target system.

BPC Object Collection in a TR (Workbench Request): Best Practice.

1. Before releasing the transport, always check the object consistency and request consistency for each of the sub-tasks present under the main transport.

2. It’s a good practice to run SCI/EPC checks on the objects before capturing them and locking all objects in the transport before releasing it.

3. Always do a syntax check on the classes/BADI before capturing it in the transport. Also, once the transport moves, run the syntax check again for all the transported objects in the target system and report if any issues are found.

4. Do not capture any standard objects (like interface/class etc.) in the transport.

5. If the structure of a class changes, then the entire class needs to be transported (we cannot send only our limited changes). For example, consider a class with 4 methods that exist in both source and target systems. Now someone creates a new method in this class (total methods in source is 5 now) in the source system and you make a change to previously existing method (1-4). However, the developer does not want to send the 5th method but we would like to send the changes. We capture only our method in the transport and do not capture the newly developed method. This transport will fail.

6. It’s OK to send only the changed methods of a class (and not the entire class) in the transport if we’re confident that the class structure has not changed (no new methods added, no new global types declared, etc.)

7. Always capture all the dependent objects used in the objects to be transported (if they’re not already available in the target system).

Verify the BPC collected objects: You can verify the object technical names to validate whether you collected correct objects or not by going to transport connections. Releasing objects: You can collect objects till those are not released. Once the objects are released you can’t add any further objects to this transport. You can release the objects by right click --> “Release Directly”

Basis team will take care of moving transports form source system to destination system once objects are released.  

Common errors and Resolutions:

• Debugging Transport Issues: The Log reports the successful completion of a transport request, as well as warnings and errors encountered during the transport. To find only the transport logs specific to BPC use transaction SLG1 and in the Object field enter UJ and in the Sub object field enter UJT. Click the execute button. Messages, like the “Environment status not offline; cannot export/import transport request”, appear which guides you to the exact source of the issue.

• You can check the information related to transport failure in this screen.

Introduction

This guide demonstrates how to create dynamic member selection from BPC input forms or reports and pass the selection dynamically back for data manager package for execution.  The guide is divided in two parts,

• The first part of this session will illustrate how to create dynamic check boxes on BPC’s report or input schedules
• The second part of this session will cover how to determine the members selected by the users and pass it back to data manager

Overall Business Case

To facilitate member selection from the EPM Add-in reports using a check box type of functionality. The check box should be dynamically applied on the input form or report. The selected members should be used for running a data manger package.

The members of account dimension will be selected by the users from EPM Add-in excel report and the selected members should be pass to data manager - clear package.

Steps

Step 1: Create a simple report using EPM 10 add-in with one dimension (account in this case) in row key range. Make sure that you have one column available before the report/input form.

Step 2: Create a new range named “rngRowSelectionSrc”.

Step 3: Format this cell to look like a selection box and choose the font a “Wingdings 2”

Step 4: Paste the following code in the Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Create a new module named “modCheckBox”
• Add reference to FPMXLClient
• And paste the code below, this  code create the function that allows the creation of new named range “rngRowSelection”     

Public Const iNumberofRowDim As Integer = 1

Sub CreateCheckBox(sRptNumber As String)

Dim oEPMObj As New FPMXLClient.EPMAddInAutomation

Dim oInitRange As Range, oRange As Range, oCell As Range

Dim iColShift, iTopLeftCell, iBottomRightCell, iColumn, iFirstRow, iLastRow As Integer

iColShift = oEPMObj.GetShift(ActiveSheet, sRptNumber, True) * -1

iTopLeftCell = oEPMObj.GetDataTopLeftCell(ActiveSheet, sRptNumber)

iBottomRightCell = oEPMObj.GetDataBottomRightCell(ActiveSheet, sRptNumber)

iColumn = Range(iTopLeftCell).Offset(0, iColShift).Column - iNumberofRowDim

iFirstRow = Range(iTopLeftCell).Offset(0, iColShift).Row

iLastRow = Range(iBottomRightCell).Row

Set oRange = Range(Cells(iFirstRow, iColumn).Address & ":" & Cells(iLastRow, iColumn).Address)

                ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:="rngRowSelection", RefersTo:=oRange

Range("rngRowSelectionSrc").Copy

Set oInitRange = Selection

Range("rngRowSelection").PasteSpecial xlPasteFormats

               Application.CutCopyMode = False

              oInitRange.Select

End Sub

Step 5: Paste the following code in Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Create a new module named “modEPMAddinAutomation”
• Add reference to FPMXLClient
• And paste the code below, this code will invoke the function that will facilitate the creation of named range “rngRowSelection” every time the report is refreshed

Function AFTER_REFRESH()

    CreateCheckBox "000"

    AFTER_REFRESH = True

End Function

Function BEFORE_REFRESH()

     On Error Resume Next

    Range("rngRowSelection").ClearFormats

   Range("rngRowSelection").Clear

End Function

Step 6: Paste the following code in Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Double click the sheet which contains the report
• Paste the following

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)

If Not Application.Intersect(Range("rngRowSelection"), Target) Is Nothing Then

    If Target.Value = "P" Then

        Target.Value = ""

    Else

        Target.Value = "P"

    End If

End If

Cancel = True

End Sub

Output

The report output will be like the following

Step by Step Video

Next Session

In the session we will cover how to determine the members selected by the users and pass it back to data manager. (How to enable check box for member selection in SAP BPC EPM Add-in reports – Session 2)

Introduction

This guide demonstrates how to create dynamic member selection from BPC input forms or reports and pass the selection dynamically back for data manager package for execution.  The guide is divided in two parts,

• The first part of this session will illustrate how to create dynamic checkboxes on BPC’s report or input schedules
• The second part of this session will cover how to determine the members selected by the users and pass it back to data manager

Overall Business Case

To facilitate member selection from the EPM Add-in reports using a check box type of functionality. The checkbox should be dynamically applied on the input form or report. The selected members should be used for running a data manger package.

The members of account dimension will be selected by the users from EPM Add-in excel report and the selected members should be pass to data manager - clear package.

Session 2 - Steps

Step 1: Follow the session 1 and setup the reports http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59363 as mentioned in the link. You should be looking at an EPM add-in report like below.

Step 2: Add the following function in the Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Add the following function to the module named “modCheckBox” (this module should already exist based on session 1)
• This function will help to get the selected members as comma separated value

Public Function fnGetSelected() As String

1. Application.Volatile

Dim strWIP, strTmpAddress, strTmp As String

For Each oCell In Range("rngRowSelection").Cells

    If oCell.Value = "P" Then

        strTmp = ""

        strTmpAddress = oCell(1, 2).Formula

        strTmp = Mid(strTmpAddress, InStrRev(strTmpAddress, "[") + 1, InStrRev(strTmpAddress, "]") - InStrRev(strTmpAddress, "[") - 1)

        If strWIP = "" Then

            strWIP = strTmp

        Else

            strWIP = strWIP & "," & strTmp

        End If

    End If

Next oCell

fnGetSelected = strWIP

End Function

Step 3: Add the following function in the Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Create a new module named “modPackageAutomation”
• Add reference to following components

• And paste the code below,  this allows passing parameters to package using VB (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-32636)

Public Sub executeDmPackageWithParameters(sPackage As String, sParameters As String)

    createAnswerPromptFile sPackage, sParameters

    Dim objDMautomation As EPMAddInDMAutomation

    Set objDMautomation = New EPMAddInDMAutomation

    objDMautomation.RunPackage objPackageFromSheet(sPackage), strFileName(sPackage)

    Dim objEPMAutomation As New EPMAddInAutomation

objEPMAutomation.DataManagerOpenViewStatusDialog

End Sub

Private Function strFileName(strRange As String) As String

    ' Get the range in which the DM package paramteres is set

    Dim rngPackageRange As Range

    Set rngPackageRange = Application.Names(strRange).RefersToRange

    ' Loop through the rows

    For i = 1 To rngPackageRange.Rows.Count

    If rngPackageRange(i, 1).Value = "PromptFile" Then

    strFileName = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Exit Function

    End If

    Next

End Function

Private Function strPackageDescription(strRange As String) As String

    ' Get the range in which the DM package paramteres is set

    Dim rngPackageRange As Range

    Set rngPackageRange = Application.Names(strRange).RefersToRange

    ' Loop through the rows

    For i = 1 To rngPackageRange.Rows.Count

    If rngPackageRange(i, 1).Value = "PackageId" Then

    strPackageDescription = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Exit Function

    End If

Next

End Function

Private Function objPackageFromSheet(strRange As String) As ADMPackage

    ' Get the range in which the DM package paramteres is set

    Dim rngPackageRange As Range

    Set rngPackageRange = Application.Names(strRange).RefersToRange

    ' Create the ADM Package object

    Set objPackageFromSheet = New ADMPackage

    ' Loop through the rows

    For i = 1 To rngPackageRange.Rows.Count

    Select Case rngPackageRange(i, 1).Value

    Case "Filename"

    objPackageFromSheet.Filename = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "GroupId"

    objPackageFromSheet.GroupId = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "PackageDesc"

    objPackageFromSheet.PackageDesc = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "PackageId"

    objPackageFromSheet.PackageId = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "PackageType"

    objPackageFromSheet.PackageType = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "TeamId"

    objPackageFromSheet.TeamId = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    Case "UserGroup"

    objPackageFromSheet.UserGroup = rngPackageRange(i, 2).Value

    End Select

    Next

End Function

Private Sub createAnswerPromptFile(strPackageName As String, strParametersName As String)

    ' Create a new XML document

    Dim objDOM As DOMDocument

    Set objDOM = New DOMDocument

    ' Set the processing instruction of the XML document

    Dim objProcessingInstruction As IXMLDOMProcessingInstruction

    Set objProcessingInstruction = objDOM.createProcessingInstruction("xml", " version='1.0' encoding='utf-16'")

    objDOM.appendChild objProcessingInstruction

    ' Create root element

    Dim objRootElem As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objRootElem = objDOM.createElement("ArrayOfAnswerPromptPersistingFormat")

    objDOM.appendChild objRootElem

    ' XSI Attribute

    Dim objMemberRel As IXMLDOMAttribute

    Set objMemberRel = objDOM.createAttribute("xmlns:xsi")

    objMemberRel.NodeValue = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

    objRootElem.setAttributeNode objMemberRel

    ' XSD Attribute

    Set objMemberRel = objDOM.createAttribute("xmlns:xsd")

    objMemberRel.NodeValue = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"

    objRootElem.setAttributeNode objMemberRel

    ' Get the range of cells containing the parameters

    Dim rngParameters As Range

    Set rngParameters = ThisWorkbook.Names(strParametersName).RefersToRange

    'Excel.Names(strParametersName).RefersToRange

    '

    Dim objCurrentStringPairParent As IXMLDOMElement

    ' Loop through each row

    For i = 1 To rngParameters.Rows.Count

    ' See which type of parameter is being passed

    Select Case rngParameters(i, 2).Value

    ' If it is a single Parameter, then add a parameter node to the root node

    Case "Parameter"

    addSingleSelectionParameterToXML rngParameters(i, 1).Value, rngParameters(i, 4).Value, objRootElem, objDOM

    ' If it is a list of values

    Case "StringListPairs"

    ' If it's a new set of String List Pairs, then create a new parent

    If rngParameters(i, 1).Value <> strCurrentStringPair Then

    strCurrentStringPair = rngParameters(i, 1).Value

    Set objCurrentStringPairParent = getStringListPairParent(rngParameters(i, 1).Value, objRootElem, objDOM)

    End If

    ' Add the Dimension Name and Value to the parent

    addStringListPair rngParameters(i, 3).Value, rngParameters(i, 4).Value, objCurrentStringPairParent, objDOM

    End Select

    Next

    ' Create the File object

    Dim objFile As FileSystemObject

    Set objFile = New FileSystemObject

    ' Create a stream to create and write to the file

    Dim objStream As TextStream

    Set objStream = objFile.OpenTextFile(strFileName(strPackageName), ForWriting, True)

    ' Write the name of the DM package first and then the XML output

    objStream.WriteLine strPackageDescription(strPackageName) & "{param_separator}" & objDOM.XML

    ' Close the file

    objStream.Close

End Sub

Private Function addStringListPair(strVariableName As String, strValue As String, objParent As IXMLDOMElement, objDOM As DOMDocument)

    ' Create the "StringListPair" node

    Dim objStringListPairElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objStringListPairElement = _

objDOM.createElement("StringListPair")

    objParent.appendChild objStringListPairElement

    ' Create the "Str" element containing the variable name

    Dim objStrElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objStrElement = objDOM.createElement("str")

    objStringListPairElement.appendChild objStrElement

    objStrElement.Text = strVariableName

    ' Create the "lst" element

    Dim objLstElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objLstElement = objDOM.createElement("lst")

    objStringListPairElement.appendChild objLstElement

    ' Create the "string" element containing the variable value

    Dim objStringElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objStringElement = objDOM.createElement("string")

    objLstElement.appendChild objStringElement

    objStringElement.Text = strValue

End Function

Private Function getStringListPairParent(strVariableName As String, objParent As IXMLDOMElement, objDOM As DOMDocument) As IXMLDOMElement

    ' Create the "AnswerPromptPersistingFormat" node

    Dim objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement = _

objDOM.createElement("AnswerPromptPersistingFormat")

    objParent.appendChild objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement

    ' Create the "_ap" node

    Dim objApElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objApElement = objDOM.createElement("_ap")

objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement.appendChild objApElement

    ' Create the parameter name element

    Dim objParameterElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objParameterElement = objDOM.createElement("Name")

    objApElement.appendChild objParameterElement

    objParameterElement.Text = strVariableName

    ' Create the values element

    Dim objValuesElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objValuesElement = objDOM.createElement("Values")

    objApElement.appendChild objValuesElement

    ' Create the "_apc" node

    Set getStringListPairParent = objDOM.createElement("_apc")

objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement.appendChild getStringListPairParent

End Function

Private Function addSingleSelectionParameterToXML(strVariableName As String, strValue As String, objParent As IXMLDOMElement, objDOM As DOMDocument)

    ' Create the "AnswerPromptPersistingFormat" node

    Dim objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement = _

objDOM.createElement("AnswerPromptPersistingFormat")

    objParent.appendChild objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement

    ' Create the "_ap" node

    Dim objApElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objApElement = objDOM.createElement("_ap")

objAnswerPromptPersistingFormatElement.appendChild objApElement

    ' Create the parameter name element

    Dim objParameterElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objParameterElement = objDOM.createElement("Name")

    objApElement.appendChild objParameterElement

    objParameterElement.Text = strVariableName

    ' Create the values element

    Dim objValuesElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objValuesElement = objDOM.createElement("Values")

    objApElement.appendChild objValuesElement

    ' Create the string element with the value passed to the parameter

    Dim objStringElement As IXMLDOMElement

    Set objStringElement = objDOM.createElement("string")

    objValuesElement.appendChild objStringElement

    objStringElement.Text = strValue

End Function

Step 4: Add the following function in the Excel VBA.

• Press ALT + F11
• Add the following function to the module named “modEPMAddinAutomation” (this module should already exist based on session 1)
• This procedure will aid in running the data manage package using the procedures mentioned in Step 3

Sub RunPackage()

    executeDmPackageWithParameters "rngPACKAGE", "rngPARAMETER"

End Sub

Step 5: Add a sheet named “PACKAGE” following the document http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-32636 .

• Add a sheet named “PACKAGE”
• Add two ranges “rngPACKAGE” and “rngPARAMETER” following the steps mentioned in the document
• Once configured the sheet should contain the following elements (refer the link for more details)

Step 6: Add the following formulas in the sheet “PACKAGE”.

Output

Step by Step Video

Reference Links

Passing parameters to package using VB (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-32636)

How to enable check box for member selection in SAP BPC EPM Add-in reports (http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59363)

Introduction:

I have been working on BPC projects (Implementation/ Enhancement/ Support). In all projects transports collection is a common activity. Many times we keep this activity as a last step. Due to which it takes lot of attention during the objects collection. At times we may miss details of few objects and we wander for details and leading to delay in the Transport collection. But with SAP given features we can over come the delay and try for a quicker collection process.

After working for 10 projects in BPC Planning and consolidation projects. I found this is one of the simple processes for collecting object for transportation.

Step-1. BPC Transports are needed to move changes from DEV to UAT and PROD. The respective system needed to bring offline during the movement of a transport.

1. Log into BPC Web
2. Under planning and consolidation
3. Manage Environments

Step-2.

Go to the GUI logon and type transaction code RSA1

2. Select the Environment 
3. All the objects in the BPC are collected here.
4. Use the find option to find any object (BPC) of need ..

For Example:

Result: Will show up all the objects with name matching (Just like Google Search)

All files with “lgf” are displayed and can be selected and transported accordingly. (Above Image)

Hint: This process will enable us to drill down the objects W.R.T Models. Sometimes we may forget the “object name” but we always remember the model/environment.

This rule applies also across the models too.

Once identified the objects. For collecting the objects use the following steps (common process WRT BW)

1. Navigate to Transport Connections
2. Double click on Object Types
3. Navigate to More Types
4. Double click on ‘Select Objects’ 
5. Place Curser over checkbox & right click
6. Select ‘DO NOT TRANSPORT ANY BELOW’ 
7. Select Objects to be transported
   1. Some objects are located under each component type. (As below)

Lesson Learned/Achievement: With the above process I could do 1) The objects collection and 2) Transport movement from DEV à UAT à PRODUCTION in 30 mins. I thought this a value addition to our day to day job.

Introduction

As part of BPC development where there are multiple reports/forms to be delivered, the major time is spent on editing and updating excel reports/forms. The tasks involved in editing one report could potentially be.

• Un-hiding the sections of reports which were reserved for editing
• Un-freeze panes
• Enabling the row and column heading of the work sheet
• Unprotecting the sheet (using EPM options)

Once these updates are completed, the above tasks will have to be repeated in reverse order. Most of the time; the changes to the reports/forms takes lesser time than performing these activities. Not to mention that most of these changes come up during time and resource critical UAT phase (User Acceptance Test) of the project and there is a possibility of human error in these repetitive tasks.

Overall Business Case

Establish an approach to reduce the number of steps involved in making a report/form change. The aim of this approach is to

• Reduce the time for each change
• Reduce the manual errors and mistakes
• Allow the developers to focus on the change

Session – Steps

Each report/form should be developed based on the following approach in the project.

Step 1:  Create an environment level variable for keeping the password in the developer’s machine.

Go to My Computer >> Properties >> Change Settings >> Go to Advanced Tab >> Click on Environment Variable and add a new variable named “EPMPASS” and give it a value.  Note that the value specified in this environment variable will be used as the password to lock your EPM Report or form.  This should be done only in the BPC forms developers machine, this need not to be done for the end users.

Step 2:  Go to your report and create a named space called “rngSheetConfig”

  .

Step 3:  Maintain the settings and values in the range as shown above

Step 4: Go to VBA editor in your report (press Alt + F11). Add a new module and then add reference to FPMXLClient.

Step 5: Copy the following VBA code to you project.

Dim EPMObj AsNew FPMXLClient.EPMAddInAutomation

Sub ShowHidePanes()

OnErrorResumeNext

Dim rngCel As Range, rngCurrentState As Range, rngHideRow As Range, rngHideCol As Range, strSheetPass AsString, bitDisplayHeading AsBoolean, rngFreezePane As Range

'Gets the password from the environment variable

strSheetPass = Environ("EPMPASS")

If strSheetPass <> ""Then

    'Gather the information needed from the "rngSheetConfig" range

    ForEach rngCel In Range("rngSheetConfig").Cells

        If rngCel.Value = "CurrentState"Then

            Set rngCurrentState = rngCel.Offset(0, 1)

        ElseIf rngCel.Value = "HideRow"Then

            Set rngHideRow = Range(rngCel.Offset(0, 1).Value)

        ElseIf rngCel.Value = "HideCol"Then

            Set rngHideCol = Range(rngCel.Offset(0, 1).Value)

        ElseIf rngCel.Value = "DisplayHeading"Then

            bitDisplayHeading = rngCel.Offset(0, 1).Value

        ElseIf rngCel.Value = "FreezePane"Then

            Set rngFreezePane = Range(rngCel.Offset(0, 1).Value)

        EndIf

    Next

    If rngCurrentState.Value = "OPEN"Then

               'Closes the work area and locks the sheet

        rngHideRow.EntireRow.Hidden = True

        rngHideCol.EntireColumn.Hidden = True

        rngFreezePane.Select

        ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True

        ActiveWindow.DisplayHeadings = bitDisplayHeading

        rngCurrentState.Value = "CLOSED"

        EPMObj.SetSheetOption ActiveSheet, 300, True, strSheetPass

    Else

               'Unlocks the sheet and opens the work area

        EPMObj.SetSheetOption ActiveSheet, 300, False, strSheetPass

        rngHideRow.EntireRow.Hidden = False

        rngHideCol.EntireColumn.Hidden = False

        ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = False

        ActiveWindow.DisplayHeadings = True

        rngCurrentState.Value = "OPEN"

    EndIf

EndIf

EndSub

Step 6: Assign the method (macro) ShowHidePanes to the logo. You can assign this to a button too.

Video

Additional Info

• Refer to latest EPM Add-in guide for BPC 10 for further details
• Add appropriate error handling in the VB code

SAP Financial Consolidation on HANA – Value and benefits

The support of SAP HANA for BFC v10 as an underlying database, in addition to Microsoft SQL and Oracle, has been released a year ago with the SP12 in Q4 2013. The second step for SAP has been to leverage the in-memory technology from a reporting perspective, in order to considerable simplifies the BFC reporting architecture. With SAP Financial Consolidation 10.0 SP15, SAP brings SAP HANA integration for BFC to the next level and helps you unleash the power of real-time analytics on consolidated data.

Simpler, faster, bigger

In a nutshell, BFC on HANA reporting is about reporting simpler, faster, and bigger, and simplifying your overall architecture.

1- Report Simpler:

Get a real-time finance data reporting base ready to consume:

• No more data replication and cubes complexity
• Guarantee to always query on the latest available data
• Through SAP EPM Add-in, SAP BI tools, and any BI tools supported by SAP HANA.

2- Report Faster:

Faster decision making:

• More time for value-add financial analysis and simulations

3- Report Bigger:

Deal with big data but no compromise on performance:

• Merge seamlessly consolidation reporting with any other HANA reporting

Leverage existing application and push back the limits:

• Increase reporting granularity

Prepare for the future:

• Ability to respond to CFO / management requests and support key initiatives

4- Simplify your architecture:

• Simplified environment (one single database for transactional and analytics)
• Security synchronization
• Real time data, metadata and security update
• Unrivalled performance
• Big data ready

Benefits of BFC on HANA for business users and the IT organization:

Immediate benefits for business users:

• Leverage existing FC application and push back the limits
  • No big bang and no risk (existing FC App will be adapted to HANA platform but no project redo)
  • Performance improvements in all the different modules of FC solution
  • Get better, deeper insight into all your financial consolidated data

• Get a high speed finance data reporting base ready to consume
  • Faster access to financial information for decision making - Real time reporting and management book setup through SAP EPM Microsoft Office Add-In (no more data replication and cubes complexity)
  • More time for value-add financial analysis and simulations
  • Ability to respond to CFO / management requests and support key initiatives
  • Deal with Big Data but no compromise on performance: with one single version of truth to serve any type of reporting analysis and user typology

• Prepare the future
  • Flexible and scalable to be extended to other EPM solutions (FP&A, possibly Intercompany, Disclosure Management) in the near future
  • Reinvent your Reporting Strategy and Give real time consolidated figures access to a larger number of business users

Immediate benefits for IT:

• Reduce, simplify and harmonize technical platform
  • DB storage reduction (impacting backup and restore procedures): 6 to 7 times less HD space required
  • No more data replication and SSAS cubes administration
  • No more transfer time from FC DB  to MS cubes

• Typical immediate performance gains:
  • Standard FC Reports: Performance Gains are 30 to 40% without any parameterization changes
  • XLS retrieve reports: Performance Gains are 50 to 100% without any parameterization changes
  • Consolidation run duration: Performance Gains are 20% max without any parameterization changes
  • 200 million rows of FC consolidated data populate HANA views in less than 1 min.
  • EPM add-in: 2 seconds to navigate into report dealing with 1 billion rows of FC consolidated data

BFC on HANA real-time reporting:

The goal of HANA real-time reporting through FC 10.0 SP15 is to provide our customers with:

• A simplified environment to run their financial reporting on top of FC consolidated data
  • Simplified functionally: only the relevant dimensions and hierarchies will be selected for the reporting
  • Simplified technically:  the IT landscape is also simplified through less technical layers such as MS Data Pump, UDF for security or SSAS
• Security synchronization
  • FC security settings defined in Data Access Groups (DAG) are available in HANA within roles and analytic privileges
  • DAG are being updated overtime so that HANA and FC security are always aligned
• Real time update of data, metadata and security
  • Any time new dimension members and consolidated data are available in FC, they are instantaneously visible in the reporting
  • Any time a DAG are updated, they are updated in HANA
• Unrivalled performance
  • With HANA the performance is just amazing (benchmarks and customer reference’s data available on demand)
• Big data ready
  • The reporting is real time even with big data / massive amounts of records (merge in HANA data from several sources)

Fig 1 – Universal direct reporting

The ultimate objective is to retrieve data in BI tools or Microsoft Excel. This data is the consolidation data processed by FC and stored in the HANA database.

To achieve this, we first have to create a unique fact table with the consolidation data that must be retrieved. We create this unique “fact table” to easily retrieve data coming from different consolidations in one single dashboard or report. Even if there is a replication of data in FC, we still talk about real time because the fact table is refreshed with new data very quickly, managed by FC with the frequency that the customer want.

How does it work? It’s a stored procedure executed by a consolidation rule. So you can execute it at the end of the consolidation, or at the frequency you define in the FC scheduler.

Fig 2 – Prepare data for reporting: the fact table

Then we create HANA Information Views (or Analytic Views). The views are a logical definition on top of FC data and metadata: there is no replication of data in the cubes, like in SSAS or BW. That’s why there is real time with FC.

Fig 3 – Generate the HANA views for reporting

The HANA Information View can be manually created in HANA Studio, but what SAP provides is an end-user UI where the views are defined. Basically in this UI you will define which dimensions and hierarchies will be exposed or not. We use SAP Cube Designer UI. Cube Designer is the existing client that already creates SSAS and BW cubes. We only use the UI part, not the “Deployer” part of the product.

Fig 4 – Leverage the Cube Designer client to create the HANA views

If needed, the HANA Information View can be enriched in HANA Studio for example to combine HANA Analytic Views from different sources (e.g. BW on HANA) into a single HANA Calculation view that can be accessed by reporting tools.

Fig 5 – Enrich the FC HANA views with HANA Analytic Views from different sources

Conclusion

In conclusion, the release of Financial Consolidation v10.0 SP15 on HANA is a major opportunity for our customers to get much more of their existing BFC platform and investment, with a straightforward technical upgrade, while considerably simplifying their existing infrastructure. We can really say that HANA allows BFC to do more: faster, better, and bigger reporting; with less: one single compressed in-memory database instead of two databases with replications, interfaces and batches to manage.

RELEASED NOTES AND KBAS

BPC-NW