Implementing Shared Elements

Shared Elements were introduced to ease the report creation through the ability of saving report elements in the repository.

Hence expert designers can save report elements which can then be used by other designers. When a shared element is inserted into a document, a link between this shared element and the document is created. When a document is opened, you can check thanks to this link, whether an updated version of the shared element was published and, if needed, resynchronize the content of the shared element with the document.

Shared Element: See text before image for more details.

Create a Shared Element

Any report element can be saved as a Shared Element. When it is saved, all items required to create this report element are also saved:

The report element itself and its properties: type, description…
The objects and variables (if any) used by the report element.
The queries used by these objects and variables.
The data sources of these queries.
The format defined for the report element: labels, colors, chart, and their properties…

To create a Shared Element, you must be in Design mode.

Save Shared Element: See text after image for more details.

Procedure: To Create a Shared Element

Follow these steps to create a shared element:

Select a report element.
Right-click a report element, then choose Shared Element → Save As.
Browse the location where you want to save the Shared element.
Enter the file name.
In the Options tab, add a description and keywords.
If you do not want to keep the format attached to the report element, select Remove Format in the Options tab.
Choose Save.

Insert a Shared Element

To use a Shared Element in a document, you must be in Design mode.

Insert Shared Element: See text after image for more details.

Its full content (report element, query, data source, variable, format) is then copied into the document and the link to the source shared element is created.

The Shared Elements that are linked to the document are listed in the Shared Elements tab of the Main Side Panel. All occurrences of each Shared Element in the document are also listed in this tab.

Procedure: To Use a Shared Element

Follow these steps to use a shared element:

In the Insert section of the toolbar, choose More → Shared Element.
Select the Shared Element.
Choose Insert.
Click on the report page where you want to insert the shared element.

Update a Shared Element

When a Shared Element is inserted into a document, its content is explicitly copied into the document. A link between the shared element and the document is created. As this is a copy and not a dynamic reference, some differences may exist between the Shared Element and its copied content.

When a document is opened, Web Intelligence checks if the version of the shared element’s instance copied in the document is still aligned with the one in the SAP BI Platform Repository. If a Shared Element version in the SAP BI Platform Repository is different from the one saved in the document, an icon is displayed in front of the name of the Shared Element.

Update Shared Element: See the text before and after the image for more details.

To synchronize the copied content in the document with the updated Shared Element in the SAP BI Platform Repository, select Update in the context menu of the Shared Element. To update all Shared Elements in the document, click the Update button in the Shared Elements tab toolbar.

Unlink a Shared Element

Unlinking a shared element from a document removes the link between the shared element and the document. When you unlink a document in the Main Side Panel, the application unlinks all the instances that the document contains.