Before we start

Before we start creating our dashboard, the canvas size needs to be set, as resetting it later would require a lot of rework for dashboard components, which will result in loss of time and resources. Similarly, the resolution of target devices needs to be considered. For example, if we are going to build desktop dashboard that we will display on desktop machines, we need to determine the most suitable dashboard resolution that will fit and be correctly displayed on all the business users' machines who will be using that dashboard. On the other hand, the dashboard resolution will be different if we are going to build a mobile dashboard that will be displayed on mobile devices, for example, and so we need to be precise about this option from the beginning.

Note

The recommended canvas size for Mobile dashboards that will be displayed on an iPad is 1024*768 pixel.

So, let's try to change our dashboard canvas size by performing the following steps:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Document properties.
3. Select the Preset Size option under Canvas size in pixels area.
4. Then, select 1024*768 from the drop-down menu.
5. Click on OK.

   The following image will make things easier for you.

   

We can change the canvas size from the following two places, as we can see in the preceding screenshot:

• Preferences…
• Document Properties…

We will discuss them in more detail in the following sections.

Preferences

Preferences are used to control the application settings, such as canvas size, grid options, and MS Excel options. Any change to these settings will be automatically loaded whenever the application starts again. For example, if we change the canvas size to 800*600 and save it, then it will become the default canvas size value for any new dashboard, it will also be the default value to see in the canvas size even when we restart the dashboard application.

We have the following tabs under Preferences…:

• Document
• Grid
• Open
• Languages
• Excel Options
• Accessibility

However, let's learn how to open the Preferences window before ping into the details of each setting, as follows:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Preferences….

   We can see the Preferences window in the following screenshot:

   

We will discuss document, grid, and Excel options as the remaining options are not very important.

The Document tab

In the Document tab, we can control the main document setting such as:

• Canvas size in pixels: We can use one of the preset canvas sizes or a customized canvas size by entering the canvas width and height in pixel.

  Note

  We recommend you to select your canvas size based on one of the preset options as it already contains most common and known canvas sizes that will fit perfectly on the corresponding screen resolution.

• Default Theme and Default Color Scheme: We will talk in detail on themes and color schemes in Chapter 7, Styling Up, but for now, all we need to know that we can change the default settings from here. The default settings will be used whenever we start creating a new dashboard. It will save you a few moments, as you can always change this from the document (dashboard) itself.

  Tip

  The best practice is to build your color scheme that will be matching with your organization color scheme and use it from the beginning.

• Save Query Results with document: This option will help us save sample data retrieved from the Business Intelligence platform in the .xlf file. This is very useful if you want to demonstrate our dashboard in the offline mode.

  Note

  The .xlf file is the file extension for the dashboard document.

The Grid tab

Grids are small vertical and horizontal lines that will only be visible in the design mode but not at runtime. It will help us align our components easily and to have a more homogeneous design. As a best practice, we always recommend that you enable your grid. We can see the Grid tab in the following screenshot:

In this tab, we need to enable Grid option to help us adjust our dashboard layout by performing the following steps:

1. Tick the Show Gird option.
2. Tick the Snap To Grid option.
3. Change Width and Height to 100.

The Excel options

Excel model is the core of any dashboard. It contains the data on which any calculation or logic would be applied before displaying it. The success of SAP BO Dashboards is also attributed to the fact that MS Excel is powerful, simple, and a widely known tool among end users.

We have many options here that we will revisit while progressing through our book, but we just need to take care of the Maximum Number Of Rows setting. Dashboards are usually built on the summarized data and the best practice is to do the aggregation behind the scenes and to bring the summarized aggregated data to the Excel model inside the dashboard. By default, the maximum number of allowed rows in Excel is 512.

Note

Increasing Maximum Number Of Rows in Excel will negatively affect the performance of our dashboard at runtime, and it will also affect the dashboard generation, exporting, and publishing time.

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files from your account at http://www.packtpub.com for all the Packt Publishing books you have purchased. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

Here, we will just learn how to change it, but it is strongly recommended that you do not change that, unless you know that your data will go beyond 512 rows. You also need to avoid massive use of Excel calculations and formulas as it affects the performance. We can see the Excel Options window in the following screen:

Document properties

Document properties can be used to control the current dashboard settings without the need to change the same setting in application preferences. Remember that changing preferences will affect all new dashboards, so it is more reasonable to change the dashboard settings that we need to change from Document Properties if we want these changes to be only applied on the current dashboard. The default values displayed in the Document Properties window are inherited from the Preferences… settings.

We can see the Document Properties window in the following screenshot: