SAS BI Dashboard 4.31

Overview of SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 and 4.31

Several new features and enhancements were added in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3. Many of these features did not change for SAS BI Dashboard 4.31, which runs on SAS 9.3.

Here are some of the new features that were added in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3:

configuration information is now saved in the metadata, which simplifies the ability to deploy the SAS BI Dashboard in a clustered middle-tier environment.
more integration with other SAS products, such as the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office.
a new dashboard designer that enables you to create a dashboard by using a drag-and-drop operation.
optimization of screen space so you can view the entire dashboard at once. You also have the ability to zoom in on each indicator.
the ability to filter all dashboard indicators at once.
bookmarks to quickly access your favorite dashboards and indicators.
the ability to create and view comments on dashboards and indicators.

For more information about the new features and enhancements, see the “What’s New in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3” topic at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/bidashboard.

Upgrading from SAS BI Dashboard 4.2 or a Previous Release

Changes in the Appearance of the Dashboard

Here are the changes that you might see when viewing a dashboard in SAS BI Dashboard 4.31:

In bar charts, solid colored bars are used. In SAS BI Dashboard 4.2, the bars were gray for bar charts with reference lines. Using solid colors enables you to more easily identify the individual bars.
The values of the column that is assigned to the Column group by role appear at the top of the graph. In 4.2, these values appeared at the bottom of the graph and were labeled with the name of the column that was assigned to the Column group by role.
Some labels on the X axis might be repeated.
The bars on the right side of the graph might be wider than the bars on the left side of the graph.
HTML is not supported in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3. For example, if an indicator includes HTML output from a SAS Stored Process, then these indicators are blank or display an error message in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3.
If you used HTML to change the color of a label in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2, then this HTML code is displayed as part of the label in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3. Use the new static label functionality that is available in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 to customize your labels.
SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 automatically aggregates the data for you, so you will not see bar charts stacked on top of each other or pie charts with numerous slices. Tooltips are not available for any summarized indicator. To display tooltips on a summarized indicator, optimize the query so that the query (rather than the indicator) aggregates the data.
If an indicator from a previous release of SAS BI Dashboard contains images, then the images might not be displayed when these indicators are migrated. To view the images in these indicators, open the dashboard that contains the affected indicators in the dashboard designer. Click the indicator in the workspace. In the Object section of the dashboard Properties pane, select Use proxy. Then save the dashboard. You must make this change in each dashboard that uses an affected indicator.

As a result of these changes, your output in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 could be different from your output in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2. In SAS BI Dashboard 4.3, you can edit the objects in the dashboard (such as change the size of an indicator or modify a label) to meet your needs.

Review SAS Notes for SAS BI Dashboard 4.3

Before you upgrade to SAS BI Dashboard 4.3, review SAS Note 40474: SAS BI Dashboard is completely new software at http://support.sas.com/kb/40/474.html. From this SAS Note, you can view other SAS Notes for SAS BI Dashboard 4.3.

Location of Dashboards and Indicators

After you upgrade to SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 or 4.31, dashboards and any objects in the dashboard (for example, indicators, models, and ranges) are metadata objects and are saved in SAS Folders. Any dashboards that you created prior to SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 are saved as metadata objects. The default location for these metadata objects is the

SAS Folders\Products\BI
                        Dashboard 4.3

directory. This directory contains the DashboardConfigs, IndicatorDefinitions, ModelConfigs, and RangeDefinitions subdirectories. For more information, see Folder Structure after an Upgrade in SAS Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide.

Documentation Enhancements

Instead of the traditional Help delivery system, SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 now includes more embedded user assistance, so you can get help when you need it. Additional documentation is available from the SAS BI Dashboard: User’s Guide at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/bidashboard.

Upgrading from SAS BI Dashboard 4.3

Changes in SAS BI Dashboard 4.31

The following administration features are available in the 4.31 release of SAS BI Dashboard:

Using the Export SAS Package and Import SAS Package wizards that are provided by the SAS Intelligence Platform, you can promote individual metadata objects or groups of objects in SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 from one server to another or within the same metadata server.
The frequency with which the data cache is inspected for caching updates can be configured and customized for your environment by supplying a custom value for the configuration property in SAS Management Console.
Two new configuration properties are available for data caching. The values for these configuration properties can be customized in SAS Management Console. These values enable you to determine the frequency with which configuration objects or dashboard objects are updated in the cache.
Message logging is accomplished with logging contexts that are added to the SASBIDashboard-log4j file.

For more information, see Administering SAS BI Dashboard in SAS Intelligence Platform: Web Application Administration Guide.

Features Ported from the 4.3 Release

The following enhancements and changes that were introduced in the 4.3 release have been ported to the 4.31 release:

Storage folders for SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 now exist in both the SAS Metadata Repository and the SAS Content Server.
Content folders for SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 can be located anywhere below the SAS Folders directory on the Folders tab of SAS Management Console. In SAS BI Dashboard 4.2, you were required to use predefined storage folders.
Configuration files for SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 are stored on the SAS Content Server. Previously, all files were stored in a file system.
You can use the SAS Content Server Administration Console to manage SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 files and WebDAV folders in the SAS Content Server.
You can enable users to log on, view, and interact with a dashboard by creating metadata identities for the users.
You can register a stored process and make it available to SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 users.
Three types of caching are available: data caching, content caching, and client caching.
Data caching was available in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2. Beginning with SAS BI Dashboard 4.31, files for data caching are stored in the SAS Content Server.
Content caching, which is a new type of caching, is enabled by default in SAS BI Dashboard 4.31.
Client browsers that display dashboards with SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 use Adobe Flash Player (Version 10.0 or later) in the Rich Internet Application (RIA) architecture. Client caching is enabled by default.
Image files are no longer cached.
SAS BI Dashboard 4.31 supports the SAS Comment Manager. All users that can log on to the application can view and add comments. To edit and delete comments, users or administrators must belong to the Comments:Administrator role.
DSX files are stored in the SAS Content Server.
DSX files are modified by exporting the DSX file from SAS Management Console, making necessary changes to the files, and importing the files.
The SAS BI Dashboard Portlet is installed along with the other SAS BI Portlets. This portlet enables users to display a dashboard that is created with the SAS BI Dashboard application. The configuration of this portlet is identical to the configuration of the SAS BI Portlets for the WebSphere Portal.
You can specify a session time-out interval for inactive user sessions.
You can alert users by displaying a warning message before they are logged out of their inactive sessions.