Refresh of Data in Xcelsius from Web Intelligence Results

Question

Hello,
I am new to the forum but not to Business Objects/Xcelsius.  I attended the SAP Sapphire Event last May and spent time in the Business Objects lab.  Two Product Managers demonstrated how I would be able to refresh the data in an Xcelsius dashboard using Live Office by retreiving results from a Webi document without refreshing the Webi query. 
For example, my Webi document contains 100,000 result rows.  I want to be able to select a dropdown in my dashboard and have Live Office retreive only a subset of the 100,000 rows.  This being done without having the Webi query being refreshed from the database.  The Webi query would be refreshed nightly.
The Product Managers advised that this functionality would be available in Service Pack 3 or before.  As of now I cannot find out how to make this work.  Any help or information would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello Charles,
WebIntelligence Input Controls are a way to enhance and customize user experience with report filters, they are therefore based on report filters and the feature is more focused on user interface & experience rather than exposition outside web intelligence.
Anyway, AFAIK, report filters are not available from Live Office report parts, you can only filter content with prompts, which requires the document to be refresh from the database, which has a direct impact on performance and scalability for consumers.
However, if you are with WebIntelligence XI 3.1 SP2 you have the alternative to publish from WebI Rich Client, report elements (any table or chart) as web services (called BI Services).
This tool is based on Qaaws technology, and share some of its features (main being that is uses the same Xcelsius Data Manager connection), it exposes a large part of WebI interactions to external consumers (esp. Xcelsius) : report filters, drill, prompts.
Besides this tool provides a set of call input parameters to tune web service consumption for best performance and scalability, enabling to leverage WebI document management features like scehduling, publishing and refresh, so consumers can balance performance with real-time data.
More information is available from WebIntelligence Rich Client user documentation from section sharing webi content with other web applications.
I recommend you install the latest fix pack (SP2.5 and above), as some initial fixes were required to ensure full compatibility with Xcelsius.
Hope that helps,
David.