Choosing Between Optimized and Classic Design Modes

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain the function of the modes and know when to use them.

Classic Design and Optimized Design Modes

When you create a story, you are prompted to choose Classic Design Experience or Optimized Design Experience mode:

Select Design Mode Type dialog with Classic Design Experience showing a Depreciation Warning.

Optimized Design Experience

SAP encourages you to use Optimized Design Experience mode. The Optimized Design Experience includes many usability and performance improvements and is the prerequisite for future story enhancements like the integration of analytics design capabilities and digital boardroom features into the story.

Note

There are features that may not be available at this time as SAP continues to enhance the Optimized Design Experience mode; however, these and other new features are being added with each quarterly release and will be made available only in the Optimized Story Experience. Furthermore, it will be the new default experience in future releases.

The benefits of using the Optimized Design Experience include:

  • Ghost loading indicators when the system is doing background work
  • Navigation of large hierarchies
  • Improved tooltip interactions
  • More with each quarterly update
  • Ability to toggle Advanced Mode

Advanced Mode within the Optimized Design Experience provides additional functionality and widgets that allow you to create customized interactions through JavaScript. If Advanced Mode is toggled off, you are limited to adding charts, tables, input controls and very basic widgets to your stories, with no option to write JavaScript interactions.

If Advanced Mode is toggled on, you can:

  • Include and write script for the following widgets:
    • Button
    • Checkbox Group
    • Dropdown
    • Filter Line
    • List Box
    • Radio Button Group
    • Range Slider
    • Slider
    • Switch
    • Input Field
    • Text Area
    • Flow Layout Panel
    • Page Book
    • Tab Strip
    • Popup
  • Access JavaScript scripting related elements and tools:
    • Script variable
    • Script object
    • Technical objects
    • APIs related to SAP Analytics Cloud
    • Info Panel
  • Use the CSS Editor
  • Configure global settings:
    •  Global CSS class
    • Loading indicator
    • Schedule publication
    • Save planning data reminder
  • Enable mobile support for canvas pages in Story Details
  • Configure view time visibility settings for widgets
  • Always initialize on startup for widgets
  • Configure data refresh settings for charts and tables

In the example below, you can see an SAP Analytics Cloud story and the options available to you. The top image shows the options available when Advanced Mode is turned off and the bottom image shows the options when it is turned on.

Screen shots of Advanced Mode off (top) and on (bottom)

Classic Design Mode

The Classic Design Experience will still be available and provide access to features developed prior to Q2 2022. However, it will not receive any performance, functionality, or usability enhancements. There are also elements that will not be available at all in the Optimized Design Experience because there are more suitable substitutes. These elements include:

  • Explorer: Replaced by Data Analyzer as the new exploration tool
  • Grid Pages: Replaced by the Optimized Presentation table option within Responsive and Canvas Pages
  • Old SAP HANA and SAP BW Versions: Always use the latest BW and HANA version to ensure that you have the latest performance and feature functionality in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Note

For the most current information on what features are available with each design experience mode, always refer to the SAP Analytics Cloud Help in your current SAP Analytics Cloud tenant.

Converting a Story to Optimized Design Mode (Optional)

If your organization has been using SAP Analytics Cloud prior to 2021, you probably have classically designed stories. Over time, you will want to convert these stories to Optimized design. Currently, there is no conversion tool to convert all stories at one time, but the conversion process is very simple.

In View mode of a story, select Convert to Optimized Design Experience from the File menu. In Edit mode of a story, select Convert to Optimized Design Experience from the Save options. Enable Optimized View Mode only adds optimized enhancement while viewing a story, but no design enhancements.

If your story contains any elements that are not yet supported in Optimized Design, you will receive a warning with information about what you must change in your story. You can either make the changes and convert, or delay the conversion until Optimized Design supports the elements. Certain elements are deprecated for Optimized Design, so you must manually substitute that element with the optimized equivalent widget or functionality.

The following figure shows an example of the warning message displayed for a specific story.

Sample warning message when converting to optimized design experience. Convert to Optimized Design Experience dialog. Options at the bottom include Convert (to overwrite your current story), Convert & Save As (to keep your current story and convert a copy of it) , and Cancel.

Note

Grid pages are not supported in Optimized Design Experience. You must copy the table on the grid page to either a new responsive or canvas page and delete the grid page.

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