How to create the perfect PDF export from SAP Lumira Discovery

With Lumira Discovery, data analysts and BI novices can create beautifful infographics and storyboards based on SAP data and other data sources. From SAP's point of view, these results shall be mainly consumed directly in the Lumira Discovery client or, when published to the BI platform, via a web client.

There is also a rudimentary PDF export - unfortunately it creates a 1:1 screenshot of the storyboard. Headers, footers and other design elements are missing.

I have already demonstrated in my previous blog posts how you can enhance the export capabilities by exports to PowerPoint and Word. Even better our extension biExport for SAP Lumira Discovery can also create the perfect PDF export!

Before we dive into the details, here is a short demo of the PDF export feature:

Let's have a look at the standard PDF function first. When you choose to export to PDF, Discovery asks you whether to export the full storyboard or just a few pages of it. Optionally, you can display filters in the appendix, as shown in the following German screenshot:

The result - from my point of view - is a bit disappointing. If I export my demo application....

... the PDF document looks rather "plain", without any headers, footers, logos etc.:

With biExport however, we can easily make use of the Word export to create a PDF document. The idea is rather simple: We already have a sophisticated Word export in place. And you all know the "Save as... PDF format" feature of Word.

For PDF export we simply reuse this feature. This has several advantages - you can:

• flexibly design your PDF document, and follow your corporate design
• add headers, footers, title pages, table of contents, any text, and so much more
• create the PDF desgin in Word, an application that you use every day (we call these "Export templates")
• easily upload and use this template for your PDF export

The result looks as follows:

   

Here is how easily you can achieve this result:

1. Download the trial version from www.lumira-export.com
2. Instal the extension in Lumira Discovery
3. Create a new chart of type "Extensions" - "biExport" in your existing story
4. Navigate to the chart's properties in the "Design" view and change the Export format to "PDF"
5. Start the "Preview" and start the PDF export.

Have fun with the enhanced PDF Export for SAP Lumira Discovery!