SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence has 3 different clients available:
- Web
- Java - Rich Internet Application
- Desktop - Desktop (Windows only)
Each of the Business Objects Web Intelligence clients have unique features that are not available in the other clients.
There isn’t a Business Objects Web Intelligence client that has all the features.
Feature
Web
Java
Desktop
File > New Document
NO
YES
YES
Report Element > Linking > Add Document Link
YES
NO
NO
Report Element > Linking > Edit Document Link
YES
NO
NO
Format > Numbers > Define Custom Number Format
NO
YES
YES
Format > Numbers > Apply Custom Number Format
NO
YES
YES
Data Access > Data Providers > New Data Provider
NO
YES
YES
Data Access > Data Providers > Edit Data Provider
NO
YES
YES
Analysis > Conditional > New Conditional Formatting Rule
NO
YES
YES
Web Service Publisher
NO
YES
YES
Data Mode
NO
YES
YES
Excel Data Provider
NO
NO
YES
Text Data Provider
NO
NO
YES
Web Service Data Provider
NO
NO
YES
The only difference between the Web Intelligence Rich Internet Application (Java) and the Web Intelligence Desktop client is that in the Windows Desktop client you can use excel, text, and web services as a data provider. If you don’t need these data provider sources, the java client has all the functions you need. The Web client does not allow you to create new documents and data providers. However there is one significant feature of the Web Intelligence web client in that it allows you to create document links between documents. This analysis is with Version 4.0 Support Package 2 Patch 13 of SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence. If you know of a feature difference that I missed, please leave a comment.