How to create a SAP Variable that must be specified by user like prompts do?

Question

I am trying to build reports using RESTful API for Business Objects 4.2. In the "SAP BusinessObjects RESTful Web Service SDK User Guide for Web Intelligence and the BI Semantic Layer", section "6.5.1 Parameter Response Body Schemas" mentioned that parameter may be a context, prompt or sapVariable. I was able to create a report with context selection and prompt. But what is sapVariable?

<parameters>
    <parameter type="context|prompt|sapVariable" optional="Boolean" dpId="string">

How is it possible to create a variable that will require an input from the user?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

SAP Variable prompt kind are prompts coming from BEX/BW queries. This prompt is a parameter inherited from the BW Query and automatically passed to the end-user during the refresh process.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what a SAP variable is (It's hardly described in the IDT guide, mostly to do with HANA variables in the context of semantic layer). Seeing that there is no mention of Sap variable in the context of parameters, business layers etc., it's quite conceivable that it's a Universe feature that didn't make the cut in 4.2, but may become available later. In which case, I suppose it could give the ability to leverage HANA variables in the business layer directly.

I'm not sure if I understand your question regarding creating a variable that requires a user input, since you mentioned that you have already created a report that supports context and prompts. There is a UserResponse function in Webi you can use to get the prompt values. Alternatively, you can also create a universe object with @Prompt that you can incorporate in the result of your query, and manipulate that directly into your report.