Publication date: March 2025
đź“Ś New Side Panel
In Design mode, a new side panel has been added to simplify document creation by providing quick access to the most common actions. This quick-access side panel includes three tabs:
- • Data Sources: To add a new query.
- • Report Elements: To insert a new report element or convert an existing one into another.
- • Layouts: To define a predefined size for the current report.
đź“Ś New SAP UI5 Widgets
One of the key features of SAP BI 2025 is the introduction of new report elements that bring interactivity to Web Intelligence.
These new elements do not replace those from SAP BI 4.3, which are still supported in SAP BI 2025.
- • Scrollable Table, Comparison, Filters, Cells, Rich Text, Action, Container, CSS Editor.
However, to benefit from the new interactive capabilities and the new export format, these new elements must be used.
Limitations of the new SAP UI5 widgets
- • No drillable components
- • No filterable tables
- • No population pyramid, Gantt chart, or expected new charts
- • SAP UI5 widgets offer fewer formatting options than SAP BO 4.3 widgets
- • No online maps such as Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, ING, USGS, or drillable maps
- • No pivot table / data analyzer
- • The CSS editor may not be supported in future releases (provided as an experimental feature)
đź“Ś New WIDX Export Format
SAP BI 2025 introduces a new interactive export format that can be easily and widely shared.
Anyone can read a WIDX file:
- • No access to an SAP BI server or additional license required
- • A WIDX file can be generated both from the Web Intelligence user interface and via scheduling or publication
The WIDX format is compatible only with the new SAP UI5 elements, free cells, and sections that are not dynamically filtered.
Limitations of the WIDX format
- • Only one report and only its first page can be exported
- • WIDX can only be opened on a Windows machine using Chrome or Edge as the default browser
- • Only the new SAP UI5 components are exported
- • WIDX does not support interactive sorting, ranking, or drill-downs. The dataset is static and cannot be refreshed
- • The WIDX format is not responsive
- • Printing is not supported (neither in WebI nor in the Chrome viewer)
- • WIDX is a .zip archive → Minimum size of 30 MB when extracted
đź“Ś New Report Options
- • Custom tooltips: You can customize the tooltip displayed in Reading mode when hovering over a table or chart
- • Predefined report size (Canvas): Paper, Envelope, Monitor, Smartphone, Tablet, Custom layout
- • Geographic database: For geographic maps, WebI uses the 2024 version of the HERE geographic database
- • Tiles in BI Launch Pad: Pin saved WebI document elements directly to the home page
Limitations of the new options
- • Custom tooltips are not supported in the WIDX format
- • Predefined report sizes are not exported responsively → You must know in advance which device the report will be viewed on
đź“Ś New Data Mode
- • Formula-based transformations: Greater flexibility by defining transformations using custom formulas for dimensions, details, or measures
- • Local variables: To reduce the number of variables listed in the Variables folder in Design mode, you can create a local variable if its formula is based on objects from a single cube
- • Combine Cubes: Two new operators are available to combine cubes: Right Join and Right Join without Intersection
- • Formulas can include:
- • Web Intelligence formula language functions from the Character, Date and Time, Logical, and Numeric categories, as well as If, Then, Else, and ElseIf functions.
For example, you can use the IsNull operator to find and replace null values. - • All cube objects, except its local variables
- • Web Intelligence formula language functions from the Character, Date and Time, Logical, and Numeric categories, as well as If, Then, Else, and ElseIf functions.
🗑️ Features Removed in BI 2025
→ and recommendations
- • UNV and multi-source universes → Use BO 4.3 SP4+ to get the latest enhancement for UNV to UNX migration
- • BusinessObjects Mobile → N4V Publisher
- • Data Federator and Multi-Source Universes → Rebuild as single-source, if needed. Use new data-mode feature
- • Live Office → ODATA + N4V Publisher
- • Crystal Reports on Linux → Add Windows servers to existing Linux cluster
- • Crystal Reports for Enterprise → Convert to Crystal Reports 2020+
- • Lumira Discovery 2.x → N4V FOR WEBI
- • Lumira Designer 2.x → Still supported. No new features. N4V FOR WEBI is recommended
đź“… Why migrate to SAP BI 2025?
SAP BI 2025 brings a major modernization of BusinessObjects:
- • A modern, fast, and intuitive interface
- • Offline exports for mobile users
- • A stable roadmap through 2031
- • A robust alternative to cloud BI solutions
🚀 N4V FOR WEBI: unique capabilities
N4V FOR WEBI is the natural complement to SAP BI 2025 for creating and customizing operational reports and dashboards with pixel-perfect rendering, integrating filterable and scrollable tables, leveraging the most advanced widgets on the market (some of which are not available in SAP BO), enabling geographic and map-based visualizations, and widely distributing content in HTML format without loss of interactivity and without requiring additional SAP BO licenses.
Source: Need4Viz and SAP : https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-bi-2025-what-s-new-in-web-intelligence-and-semantic-layer/ba-p/14033408
