Defining Crystal Reports Queries Settings 

Use

The Reporting Agent allows you to precalculate BEx queries (as “useful queries”) for Crystal reports in the background. This is a device used to improve system performance when executing Crystal reports.

Prerequisites

·        In the BEx Query Designer, you have defined a “useful query” for Crystal Reports and determined variables for the required characteristics.

·        You may want to apply a filter when pre-calculating this “useful query” using a control query (see “Parameter Filtering” in the section below). In this case, you need to have created an additional suitable query in the BEx Query Designer.

The associate variable must have the type “Changeable with Query Navigation”. You can find additional information about defining a variable of this type with the Variable wizard under Details. Other variables can have any type.

Procedure

...

       1.      You are in the Reporting Agent function area of the Administrator Workbench. Choose  Crystal Reports in the navigation frame of the Administrator Workbench.

       2.      Navigate to the required query in the left-hand Reporting Agent Scheduler tree.

       3.      You can create a new setting in the following ways:

-         Choose New Setting from the context menu.

-         Select  Create New Setting.

The New Reporting Agent Setting dialog box appears.

       4.      Enter a technical name and a description.

The following information is displayed on the General tab page:

-         The functional area of the setting is Pre-definition of Crystal Reports Queries.

-         Under the Query group header, information is shown on the query, for which you are creating a setting (description, technical name, InfoProvider).

-         After the setting has been saved for the first time, the system displays, under the Last Changed On/By group header, details of the last person, who changed the setting, and the time this change was made. 

-         Under the Setting is Used in Packages group header, the system displays information about the packages in which the setting is used, and how they are scheduled. This information can only be displayed if you have defined the setting and assigned one or more scheduling packages to it.

       5.      Choose the Parameter tab page.

       6.      Determine whether precalculation of the Crystal Reports queries are to be parameterized using a filter and using variants.

You can find additional information and recommendations for choosing parameters in a straightforward example under Parameterizing Crystal Reports Queries Setting.

Filtering Parameters

No Filters

When you do not want to use a control query to precalculate variables, choose No Filter.

You can combine this option with parameterization using Variables (see below).

Explicitly Using Query Result

If you want to use a control query when filtering, choose Explicitly Using Query Result. You can now make entries in the Control Query and Variants fields.

Specify the technical name of the control query. Input help is available for this. After you save your entries, the system updates the information according to your selections.

You only need to specify a variant when the control query contains ready-to-enter mandatory variables. This does not happen very often, however. You can find additional information about variants for a query under Saving Query Variants.

You can combine this option with parameterization using Variables (see below).

Parameter variants

After making your setting for filtering a parameter, you can process variant for the individual characteristic values of the variables set in the „useful query“. 

Note: The variable screen only offers such variables when they have not already been filled by the control query. (This can also include variables of type “Changeable with Query navigation”, as long as they aren’t filled by the query).

The following functions are available:

 Create a Variant

A dialog box appears in which you can choose values for the SAP variables used in the “useful query”, in the Query Selection area. Input help is available for those InfoObjects for which SAP variables have been created.

Enter the data that the system asks you for.

Choose .

 Change Variants

 Delete Variants

If you have already created one or more variants, the system lists these in the lower part of the screen. Choose the variants you want to change or delete and choose the appropriate function.

Result

You can call up the precalculated MDX request result sets via the OLAP BAPI. 

 

See also:

In a similar way, control queries can also be used in the precalculation of Web templates. You can find further information under Control Query for Precalculating Web Templates.