Suppressing BEx Variable pop-up screen when opening dashboard in SAP portal

When the dashboard is published in SAP portal and it is based on a BEx query connected with a Netweaver dataconnection and that BEx has mandatory variables without default values, the variabele screen is always displayed before actually loading the dashboard. It does not matter if you set the default values within Xcelsius or have not set to refresh a dataconnection before loading.

If you cannot set a default value to the mandatory variable in BEx, then you could call the dashboard with the mandatory variable value defined in the URL in order to suppress the variable screen, as most likely your dashboard will override it anyway.

Eg technical name variable = zcs_calendar_year with value 2012
Eg technical name dashboard = zcs_dashboard

URL:
/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd!3aportal_content!2fcom.sap.pct!2fplatfo rm_add_ons!2fcom.sap.ip.bi!2fiViews!2fcom.sap.ip.bi.bex?DASHBOARD=ZCS_DASHBOARD&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1- VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE- VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING=2012&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=ZCS_CALENDAR_YEAR

So add the 4 parts of the variable to the url call
1: &BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE
2: &BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1- VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING
3: &BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE- VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING=[value]
4: &BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=[tech.name var]

In case of a second mandatory variable add the 4 parts but replace BI_COMMAND_1 with BI_COMMAND_2.

By the way: the same url built up can be used for opening a BEx report like the BO open document statement. All you have to do is change the DASHBOARD= into TEMPLATE=xxxx&QUERY=xxxxxx .