What's New in
BusinessObjects Planning
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Introduction
About this guide
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
Introduction
Business Objects is pleased to announce the release of BusinessObjects
Planning XI Release 2 (11.20). This document details the enhancements
included in this release. For more information on these enhancements, please
see the appropriate system documentation.
For additional information on this release, see the Release Notes document
located in your product distribution. If you have any questions on this release,
please contact Support.
Who should read this guide
This guide is intended for Master System Users of BusinessObjects Planning.
Upgrading from version 10.x
Customers who want to upgrade from BusinessObjects Planning version
10.x or earlier should contact their Business Objects representative for
upgrade information. To upgrade to Planning XI, your system must first be
reviewed and certified.
If you are a current Planning XI customer, see the BusinessObjects Planning
Installation Guide for information on performing an upgrade.
™
New Features
Dashboards
BusinessObjects Planning XI Release 2 (11.20) contains a new set of
dashboard features designed to provide enhanced dashboard management
and the ability to update dashboards on demand. Using dashboards, you
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning 3
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
New Features
can present financial data and key performance indicators (KPIs) to users
in an interactive Flash format.
Note: Upgrading to 11.20 from a prior version of Planning XI will not affect
any current dashboard.swf file that you are using. If you want to use the
new dashboard features, you must specifically enable them on a per-system
basis.
For more information on dashboard features, see the Planning Professional
Edition Administrator's Guide or the Planning Professional Edition Online
Help.
Summary of dashboard features
Using the new dashboard feature set, administrators can:
• Enable dashboard features on a per-system basis.
• Enable dashboard publishing on a per-area basis. The following areas
can display dashboards: Professional Edition home page, Enterprise
Desktop home page, Enterprise Desktop system pages.
• Manage a list of dashboards to publish to users.
• Specify which users and groups can view each dashboard.
• Configure dashboards to support data updates from the Planning
database.
Once dashboards are published, users can:
• Choose from a list of multiple dashboards to view.
• Select a default dashboard to view upon entry to the system.
• Update dashboards on demand to reflect the most current data from the
Planning database. Users' data filters apply on data update.
Dashboard creation
The dashboard SWF files are created using Crystal Xcelsius, based on data
gathered from BusinessObjects Planning reports. BusinessObjects Planning
comes bundled with five license keys for Crystal Xcelsius Designer. These
licenses give you the right to develop and generate dashboards based on
BusinessObjects Planning data only.
Dashboard creation is a three-step process:
• Generate a BusinessObjects Planning report that contains the data you
want to present in the dashboard.
4 What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
• Import the report into Crystal Xcelsius, and develop the dashboard
visualization (XLF file).
• Export the visualization as a SWF file.
Note: Business Objects has issued a Crystal Xcelsius patch that enables
the ability to import BusinessObjects Planning reports directly into Crystal
Xcelsius. This patch is available on the BusinessObjects Planning product
distribution.
Enabling the dashboard to support data updates requires a few additional
configuration steps:
• Each range of data that you want to be updated in the dashboard must
have a defined range name in the BusinessObjects Planning source
report. The named ranges must start with _plnexp.
• In the Crystal Xcelsius visualization, each of the _plnexp named ranges
must be configured as updateable.
• The Crystal Xcelsius visualization must be configured to source data from
the Planning web service.
Dashboard publishing
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
New Features
For a dashboard file to be visible to Planning users, the dashboard must
meet two requirements:
• The SWF file must be saved to the \Dashboards folder within the system's
User Directory.
• Within the Professional Edition, the SWF file must be defined as a valid
dashboard in Setup ➤ Dashboards .
Within the dashboard setup area, you can define the following for each
dashboard:
• The dashboard name to be displayed to Planning users.
• Whether the dashboard is enabled for data updates.
• The source report to use for updating.
• Which users and groups can view the dashboard.
Dashboard viewing
If dashboard features are enabled for a system, the dashboard viewer
appears at the top of the splash page in the Professional Edition and
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning 5
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
New Features
Enterprise Desktop. Users must have Adobe Flash Player 7 or higher to view
dashboards.
When a user first accesses the dashboard viewer, the user is prompted to
select a dashboard. The list of dashboards is drawn from the list defined in
the Professional Edition, and is limited to only those dashboards that the
user has rights to view.
Using the Choose Dashboard button at the bottom of the dashboard control
area, users can select dashboards to view, and can specify a default
dashboard. The default dashboard is saved per user name.
If a dashboard has been configured to support data updates, the Update
button is available at the bottom of the dashboard control area. Updating a
dashboard populates it with the most current data from the Planning database,
filtered by the user's data filter.
Planning dashboards can also be accessed from outside of the Professional
Edition or Enterprise Desktop. You can copy the dashboard viewer (dash
boardviewer.swf) into any environment that supports Flash. When the SWF
file is run, it prompts the user for the URL of the Planning web server and
for Planning user credentials. Once authenticated, the user can interact with
dashboards just like within BusinessObjects Planning.
Enabling dashboard features
Dashboard features are enabled within the Planning Configuration Manager.
Two sets of configuration settings are required to enable Dashboarding:
• Dashboarding must be enabled globally under Global Parameters ➤
Dashboarding .
• For each system in which you want Dashboarding features enabled, you
must add Dashboarding to that system.
Siteminder integration
BusinessObjects Planning now supports use of CA SiteMinder®to control
access to the Planning web access options.
Once SiteMinder integration is configured, users use a special login page
(loginsm.aspx) to access Enterprise Desktop.
6 What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
For more information, please see the BusinessObjects Planning Security
Administrator's Guide.
Enhancements
Home page enhancements
Home page reorganization
The home page "splash" area was reorganized to enhance usability and to
allow more space for the dashboard viewer. This applies to Professional
Edition Home, the Enterprise Desktop home page, and the Enterprise Desktop
system pages.
• The right-hand sidebar was removed. Links are now located in the main
splash area. In Enterprise Desktop, alerts and favorites are now located
in the left-hand sidebar.
• The Bulletins area is now named Announcements.
• Splash content now appears in the following order (from top to bottom):
Dashboards, Currently Assigned, Announcements, Links, and At a
Glance. If no content exists for an area, that area will not appear.
• You can now jump directly to specific areas on the page by using
hyperlinks at the top of the page. A scroll bar is also present to scroll
through the content.
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
Enhancements
Editing announcements and links (Professional Edition only)
You can now edit announcements (bulletins.txt) and links (links.txt)
directly from Professional Edition Home. To edit these areas, click the Edit
hyperlink underneath the Announcements or Links header. The
announcements or links are displayed in a dialog where you can edit the
text.
This feature is only available to administrators.
Process Control enhancements
User interface enhancements were made to the Process Control
Management, Process Control Ownership, and Stage History screens.
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning 7
What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
Enhancements
• A Status column was added to Process Control Management to
graphically show the current status of each plan workbook. The column
contains a green light if the workbook is on time, and a red light if the
workbook is past due.
• In Process Control Management, the same color is now used to highlight
completed stages and the current stage, creating a graph-like view of
workbooks' progress through the stages.
• The Graph View tab was removed from Process Control Management.
• The color scheme of all screens was updated to better match the overall
BusinessObjects Planning color palette.
Login dialog enhancements
The BusinessObjects Planning login dialog was updated to match the login
dialog design for other Business Objects products.
8 What's New in BusinessObjects Planning
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