Creating a New Story Report

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to create new SAP SuccessFactors Story Reports.

Story Overview

Story is a presentation-style report that uses visualizations (charts, images, text, tables, shapes) to describe data. Story reports consists of pages. Pages are made up of the following:

  • Visualizations of data
  • Filters and input controls to manipulate the data

Stories use data sources (queries) that retrieve your desired reporting and use widgets to represent the data. To build or update queries, you work in the Query Designer. To manage the representation of the data the queries retrieve, you work with Story Designer on pages.

Story Overview page shown.

Optimized Story Experience

Overview

SAP SuccessFactors introduced Optimized Story Experience (OSE) in Report Stories in the 1H 2023 release.

The Optimized Story Experience (OSE) consists of two modes:

  • Optimized View Mode (OVM) – In the View mode of a Story
  • Optimized Design Experience (ODE) – In the Edit mode of a Story

These two features together create an optimized experience that brings the following value of the Classic mode:

  • Usability Improvements: OSE provides several usability improvements to make viewing, exploring, and interacting with Stories easier.
  • Added Features: New features that make using Stories simpler and more convenient. A few examples are:
    • Undo/Redo
    • Ghost Loading Widget Indicator
    • Active Viewport Rendering
  • Performance Enhancements: OSE offers performance improvements depending on the characteristics of the Story reports created and the workflows executed.

Optimized View Mode

Features available in Optimized View Mode enabled stories:

  • Undo/Redo feature - OVM allows viewers to reverse actions quickly.
  • Ghost Loading Indicator - A ghost widget is a preview version of a widget that appears grayed out and helps viewers see which objects are still loading, especially for smaller items.
  • Story Filter Appearance - Story filters and input controls are updated with a more noticeable dropdown and increased menu width for better readability.
  • Performance Improvement - OVM improves dashboard performance in specific situations, addressing client-side issues but not server-side or network problems.
  • Active Viewport Rendering with Tables - Active Viewport Rendering, the new default experience, only processes visible objects, pausing those outside the viewport until they are scrolled into view.
  • ToolTip Position - Tooltips moved closer to the mouse for easier access, with extra actions in right-click menu.

Note

Enabling OVM and additional details on the features will be provided in the lesson on running reports.

Limitations of Optimized View Mode:

  • Grid Pages are not supported. To convert a story to OVM, recreate a grid in Canvas.
  • Non-Optimized Presentation Table is not supported in OVM. To convert a story in OVM, enable the Optimized Presentation table in the Builder pane.
  • Sections must start on a new page. If a section is not at the start of a page, it is not supported. To enable this, go to the Styling panel, select Show all instances on pages and then choose Start section on a new page.
  • Explorer mode is not supported in OVM. Data Analyzer replaces it.

Optimized Design Experience

Features of Optimized Design Experience (ODE):

  • Available Object List - The Available Object List will display all objects that are associated with the respective data model.
  • Apply Selection Button for Multi-Selection Filter – The Apply Selection button will be default in all the filters for ODE enabled stories. However, the designer can enable/disable it on a filter basis.
  • Improved Chart Builder Panel - Sections within the Builder Panel are now collapsible. Furthermore, we’ve consolidated all charts into a single dropdown menu and introduced a Chart add-ons section for better discoverability.
  • Data Analyzer - Data Analyzer enables you to save your drill-down data state and analysis as insight. Data Analyzer contains a table, a filter area, and a builder panel with navigation capabilities to add and remove dimensions and measures from the table. Data Analyzer replaces the previous Data Explorer feature.

Note

Enabling Optimized Design Mode is covered when creating a new report.

Limitations of Optimized Design Experience (ODE):

  • Unsupported Features in ODE:
    • Grid Pages
    • Clock Widget
    • Error bars
    • Duplicate Pages or Copy to New Page
    • Conversion of story filter to page filter
  • Blending of data is not currently supported in tables

Introduction to Story Creation Video Tutorial

Many of these steps will be further detailed in the following lessons.

Create a Story Report

The high-level steps to create a story report are listed below.

  1. Navigate to Report Center.
  2. Choose New and select Story.Report Type options shown.
  3. Select a Design Mode Type (Optimized or Classic).Select design mode type options shown.
  4. Build a query in Query Designer.
    1. Browse the module data sets in the Available Data section, and expand the data set for your report.
    2. To select a table for your query, double-click it or drag-and-drop it on the query canvas.
    3. On the query canvas, select the table on which you want to build your query.
    4. Add columns and filters to build your query, using the options on the Action menu.
    5. When you have completed your query, choose Finish.
    6. Enter a data source name.
    7. Choose OK to save the query.
  5. Add and configure widgets in your story in Story Canvas.
    1. Add charts and tables to represent your data.
    2. Add filters and input controls to help analyze the data.
    3. Add text, images, and shapes to support the display and understanding of the report.
  6. Save the Report using the File Menu.
  7. Return to Report Center.
Classic Stories are being phased out. It is recommended that you create your Story in Optimized Design Experience.

Summary

Story Reports Overview:

  • Presentation-style reports using visualizations (charts, tables, text) to display data from queries.
  • Built in Query Designer (data retrieval) and Story Designer (data representation).

Optimized Story Experience (OSE):

  • Includes Optimized View Mode (OVM) and Optimized Design Experience (ODE).
  • Improves usability, performance, and adds features like undo/redo and active viewport rendering.

Key Features of Optimized Story Experience:

Optimized View Mode: Ghost loading indicators, improved filters, and better tooltip positioning.

Optimized Design Experience: Collapsible chart builder, Data Analyzer (replaces Data Explorer), and multi-selection filters.

Learning

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