We want to access the BI launch pad and view which reports are displayed in our main home screen window.

Open a web browser that is installed on your computer and type the SAP BI4 server URL in the address bar.

Usually, the server URL is http://ServerName:8080/BOE/BI.

On the login page that will appear, we will choose the authentication type Enterprise, as shown in the following screenshot, and enter our username and password that are usually supplied by the SAP BI4 administrator:

After successful login, we will reach the main home screen, which by default displays four main report areas, an application launch bar, and a main home tab.

There is also a general top-right toolbar that enables options such as Log Off, Preferences, search, and running applications, as shown in the following screenshot:

The BI launch pad is a web application being run and hosted on the SAP BI4 server, and it functions as a website that can be accessed through a web browser, allowing the users and the organization to access their BI content using the Internet.

This setup requires configuration at the server side, IT, and security within the organization, but is considered a basic practice that leverages the launch pad accessibility and usability.

The login screen and the home screen can be customized and can be changed so that the look and feel will fit the organizational format and logo as well as the user requirements by using the customization kit.

We want to navigate from the main home screen and explore the other options as well as understand the main screen options.

The Home tab is the default tab. This screen is divided into the following five major parts and another report navigation tab:

By clicking on any report name in any one of the report subareas, the relevant report will open and display its data. The relevancy of the data in the report is dependent on the date and time the report was refreshed and saved. For example, we can open a report that ran on yesterday's data three days ago.

The Documents tab presents the user-personal folder, inbox, and other personal objects such as alerts and subscribed alerts, as shown in the following screenshot.

The main folder is the personal folder where the user can watch all their private reports.

Under the user-private objects, there is an accordion menu that can direct us to the public folder view.

In Public Folders, we will be able to view, depending on the user's security, the organizational/company report tree structure.

In the public folder, all kinds of reports are kept and are ready to be used by the various types of users. This folder also has a structure that corresponds to the departmental divisions of the organization.

Here, the user can simply navigate to the relevant folders that they use, as shown in the following screenshot:

The BI launch pad also enables simple file-folder navigation, allowing the user to switch between their personal data and views and the public and corporate reports, which are organized in a folder structure.

We can use the BI launch pad toolbars by performing the following steps:

The availability of the toolbar is based on marking the relevant object; once we do that and mark, for example, a report, the main toolbar becomes fully available.

The Preferences button is located in the BI launch pad main bar, as shown in the following screenshot:

By clicking on the Preferences button, a new screen will appear, structured from the following seven main categories:

The preferences control the basic settings of the view options, the BI launch pad's look and feel, and enable the user to configure the main screens and panels for their way of working.

We are looking for a report that relates to the sales revenue.

Using the search engine on the top-left bar, we will enter the search words sales revenue.

The results will be presented in a list of relevant objects that correspond to the search results as well as categorized search results in the left panel, such as by type of the report, folder location, and objects, as shown in the following screenshot:

All the objects in the BI launch pad are being indexed, and as a consequence, this allows the user to search reports not just by the report name, but also by the data inside the reports.

The search results can be expanded by clicking on the bottom option Show More Filters.

In order to create a report using Web Intelligence, we will launch the appropriate application from the home screen and the right-hand side application launch bar, as shown in the following screenshot:

By clicking on the Web Intelligence icon, the Java runtime message will pop up first asking us to enable this application to run.

Once this application is approved, the message won't reoccur and we will be able to launch Web Intelligence and other applications that are using the Java runtime without the following intermediate stage:

The Java runtime activates an applet that enables rich functionality while working with Web Intelligence reports. This option can be configured by changing it in the Web Intelligence category. In order to get a better understanding of what are the differences in terms of functionality between Java and the HTML panel, I suggest you to read: http://scn.sap.com/community/businessobjects-web-intelligence/blog/2013/12/16/feature-differences-between-the-web-intelligence-clients-bi41-sp02. Now, the report interface will be launched and will be ready for the next step of creating the Web Intelligence report, as shown in the following screenshot:

The BI launch pad can access all the report applications from one main toolbar.

The main idea behind the application toolbar is that although you have different types of reporting and analysis tools, you can launch them from one centralized place.

Working with the application launch, we can choose which tools we want to operate and address the relevant type of business question as well as its functional requirements.

The question of which application the organization and the business users should adopt is one of the main questions in Business Intelligence technologies in general, and can easily fill an entire book.

For further reading on this matter, I recommend reading the official SAP article regarding choosing the right SAP BusinessObjects BI client at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-38981, or just search Which BI tool + SAP BI4 on Google.

We want to explore the right-hand speed menu options, and by right-clicking on any Web Intelligence instance, we will get the following menu:

The report menu has the following options:

In order to view a report's schedule history, right-click on the report name. Go to the History option. In the next screen, we can view the report's history data, as shown in the following screenshot:

As we have seen, the right-click menu simply enables us the same functionality as in the main toolbar by speeding up the basic functions that can be applied on a report.

We want to understand the basic difference between folders and categories.

Folders and categories are both used for report organizing and grouping, while folders can be seen as the physical layer that actually contains the files, and categories are the logical layer enabling report navigation and can be seen as a pointer to a folder.

The basic idea behind categories is that this structure supports multiple locations by using one report file.

The system administrator can give permissions to a folder while organizing the reports in a totally different category structure.

We want to add one of the reports to a category. We will right-click on one of our reports and choose Categories, as shown in the following screenshot:

In the next screen, we will chose the category that we want to add the report to:

After adding the report to the category, we can navigate to the report and confirm that the report is there, as shown in the following screenshot:

As we have seen, the BI launch pad is the heart of the SAP BI environment that contains all kinds of different objects: report file types, scheduled objects, hyperlinks, and other type of objects.

All the objects can be organized in a folder structure and can be grouped in a category structure as well.

Once we have the basic structure of the report's folders, we can allow users from the entire organization to access, share, send, edit, and create reports in one secured and easily accessed environment.

By enabling different types of objects to be hosted at the same environment, the organization can adopt a centralized approach towards its BI content, and can manage and run the reports, automatic scheduled jobs, users, and other standard repository objects that can be accessed through workstations, laptops, mobile devices, and tablets.