Crystal Report Integration 

Purpose

Integrating Crystal Reports in SAP NetWeaver BI provides you with additional options for creating formatted reports (Crystal Reports). Formatted reporting is especially suited for form-based reports with very limited analytical functioning. The basis for these reports is a query in tabular form. You must specify the options for interaction when designing the report.

With SAP NetWeaver BI, you also receive templates for reports that relate to Business Content queries in Business Content. Using the Crystal Enterprise server component, you can publish these reports on the Web, making them available to your users.

If, in addition to the reports delivered by SAP as Business Content, you want to create your own Crystal Reports, you will need the Crystal Reports Designer. For more information, see the Crystal Reports Designer documentation.

You can see the integration of Crystal Reports in the following graphic:

Integration

The integration of Crystal Reports into SAP NetWeaver BI provides additional options for formatted reporting.

Features

The following graphic shows the components of the integrated architecture and its functions in greater detail.

The tool used to create Crystal Reports is the Crystal Reports Designer, which is installed on the client.

The BI server contains the BI data and queries that form the basis of the Crystal Reports.

The Crystal Connector is the interface between the Crystal Reports Designer and the BI Server. The BI query metadata is transferred to the Crystal Reports Designer across this interface. The BI query is the basis of the report.

After creating the report layout, the BI query data is displayed in the preview of the Crystal Reports Designer.

Next, the Crystal Report is saved in a BI role, transferred to the BI server via the Crystal Connector interface and then stored here.

The interface between the BI server and the Crystal Enterprise server is called the Publishing Interface. You can only view Crystal Reports after they have been published on the Crystal Enterprise server. They are published using the Publishing interface.

The Crystal Enterprise Server stored the reports in rtp format.

During the publishing process, translation into the required languages takes place and the users and BI roles are synchronized.

The report’s metadata information is transferred to the Crystal Enterprise server between the BI server and the Crystal Enterprise server via the data interface. When the user calls up the Crystal Report, at the same time the report data is transferred to the Crystal Enterprise server via this interface.

The reports that were stored on the Crystal Enterprise server can be viewed using a Web Browser or via the SAP NetWeaver Portal. The Crystal Enterprise Server also supports single sign on.

 

See also:

 

Creating and Distributing Crystal Reports

Administration of Crystal Reports