crystal reports and sap landscapes · 2019-11-12 · best practices for integrating sap crystal...

Best Practices for Integrating SAP Crystal

Reports with SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW

Ingo Hilgefort, Director Solution Management

February 2011

© 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

This presentation and SAP’s strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is provided

without a warranty of any kind either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Disclaimer

The information in this presentation is confidential and proprietary to SAP and may not be disclosed without

the permission of SAP. This presentation is not subject to your license agreement or any other service or

subscription agreement with SAP. SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this

document or any related presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This

document, or any related presentation and SAP's strategy and possible future developments, products and

or platforms directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time

for any reason without notice. The information on this document is not a commitment, promise or legal

obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. This document is provided without a warranty of any

kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness

for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. This document is for informational purposes and may not be

incorporated into a contract. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except

if such damages were caused by SAP intentionally or grossly negligent.

All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results

to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-

looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making

purchasing decisions.




Agenda

Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP

Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP NetWeaver BW

Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 and SAP NetWeaver BW

Common Best Practices for BEx Query Design

Crystal Reports – Highlighted Functionality

Wrap-up

Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP




The de facto standard for reporting

Proven world standard for report design

Ubiquitous reporting assets and expertise for

fast implementation

Chosen reporting solution by over 500 major

independent software vendors

Deploy a common framework for all

enterprise reporting needs

Build any kind of report – such as business,

financial, legal, and regulatory reports

Sophisticated report formatting: create multi-

page, multi-query, pixel-perfect reports

Templates and wizards to speed up

report creation

Secure, large-scale distribution of reports

over the Web

Connectivity to any data source

BI Solution: Enterprise ReportingProduct : Crystal Reports




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERPData Connectivity Overview

Required software components

Crystal Reports 2008 Designer

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 or SAP BusinessObjects Edge XI 3.1

SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP Solutions XI 3.1

SAP ERP available data sources

Classic InfoSets and InfoSet Queries

ABAP dictionary

ABAP functions

Transparent, pool, and cluster tables

ABAP data cluster




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERPData Connectivity – SAP ERP InfoSets




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERPData Connectivity – SAP ERP InfoSets

Crystal Reports provides access to InfoSets and InfoSet queries

Allows for re-use of logical database and custom logic

Crystal Reports provides the view of Global and Local InfoSet / InfoSet Queries

Crystal Reports honors the User Group assignment in transaction SQ02

– In fact it is a mandatory step

Performance Considerations

In cases where you plan to leverage two InfoSets in a single Crystal Reports object, the

creation of a new InfoSet providing all data should be considered (client side join vs. server

side join)




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP Data Connectivity – ABAP Functions

FUNCTION BAPI_SFLIGHT_GETLIST

IMPORTING

VALUE(FROMCOUNTRYKEY) LIKE BAPISFDETA-COUNTRYFR

VALUE(FROMCITY) LIKE BAPISFDETA-CITYFROM

VALUE(TOCOUNTRYKEY) LIKE BAPISFDETA-COUNTRYTO

VALUE(TOCITY) LIKE BAPISFDETA-CITYTO

VALUE(AIRLINECARRIER) LIKE BAPISFDETA-CARRID DEFAULT SPACE

VALUE(AFTERNOON) LIKE BAPI_AUX-AFTERNOON DEFAULT SPACE

VALUE(MAXREAD) LIKE BAPI_AUX-MAXREAD DEFAULT 0

EXPORTING

VALUE(RETURN) LIKE BAPIRET2 STRUCTURE BAPIRET2

TABLES

FLIGHTLIST STRUCTURE BAPISFLIST




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP Data Connectivity – ABAP Functions

The ABAP functions need to have defined return types for each of the outputs

The ABAP functions cannot use complete tables as input parameters

You cannot call entire programs. You can only leverage individual functions

All input parameters will result in fields with a prefix ―I_‖ in the technical name

– These fields can be used in the record selection

The output fields are available in Crystal Reports and the technical name depends on the

type of output

In our case the output is a table with the name FLIGHTLIST, and therefore, the fields are

named with the prefix combining ―T_‖ (for table) and the name of table (e.g.,

T_FLIGHTLIST.CARRID)

ABAP functions can be joined with tables from the ABAP dictionary




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP Data Connectivity – ABAP List Viewer (ALV)

Crystal Reports Viewer and Crystal Reports Designer are able to leverage ABAP List

Viewer (ALV) as a data source for reporting

– This integration becomes available with SAP Business Suite Innovation 2010 (ERP 6.0 EHP 05 / NW

7.02)

You will be able to use Crystal Reports objects as layout option for Web Dynpro ALV and

SAP GUI ALV layouts

You will be able to create Crystal Reports objects as templates for all users

Crystal Reports objects become part of the software logistics of the ALV




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP ERP Additional Considerations

Security definition editor

Allows for definition of user, table, and row-level security

Batch processing

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise processing tier can be configured to leverage SAP’s batch

processing




Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP NetWeaver BWData Connectivity Overview

Required software components

Crystal Reports 2008 Designer

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 or SAP BusinessObjects Edge XI 3.1

SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP Solutions XI 3.1

SAP NetWeaver BW available data sources

SAP NetWeaver BW queries

SAP NetWeaver BW InfoProvider

SAP NetWeaver ODS / DSO (DataStore Object)




SAP NetWeaver BW

Query Element

Crystal Reports Designer Element

Characteristic Separate fields for key, and description per characteristic

Hierarchy Fields representing a parent-child relationship

Key figure Measure element in a grouping called Key figure.

Each Key figure can have up to three elements: numeric value, unit, and

formatted value.

Calculated Key figure Measure element in the folder Key figure.

(Information about the details of the calculated Key figure is not available in

Crystal Reports.)

Restricted Key figure Measure element in the folder Key figure

(Information about the details of the restricted Key figure is not available in

Crystal Reports.)

Filter Filters will be applied to the underlying query but are not visible in the

Crystal Reports designer.

Navigational attribute Separate fields for key and description per navigational attribute

Crystal Reports 2008 and SAP NetWeaver BWMeta-Data Mapping




SAP NetWeaver BW

Query Element

Crystal Reports Designer Element

Display attribute Each display attribute becomes one field in the field explorer. The display

attributes are grouped together with the actual characteristic.

SAP variables Parameters with list of values

Custom structure The structure without Key figures is being returned as a single field with

several rows. The structure with Key figures is returned as separate fields.

Conditions Conditions are not supported for Crystal Reports and need to be re-created

using Crystal Reports Grouping Expert.

Exceptions Exceptions are not supported. You can leverage conditional formatting,

highlighting, and alerting in Crystal Reports.

Keydates A single keydate variable per query is supported

Display settings Not supported (i.e., number of decimals)





17






SAP toolbar

When reporting from BEx queries

Uses SAP NetWeaver BW query or SAP

BW MDX driver

If you don’t use the SAP toolbar when

reporting off BEx queries, you miss

the list of values from variables

Menu File > New

When reporting from InfoSet, table, cluster,

function, ODS or InfoCube

You can select the specific driver to use




Crystal Reports and SAP NetWeaver BWPublishing to SAP NetWeaver BW

When you save your Crystal Reports, you can choose to save them to SAP

BusinessObjects Enterprise or you can save them to SAP NetWeaver BW and publish to

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

It is not mandatory to save to SAP NetWeaver BW and publish to SAP BusinessObjects

Enterprise, but some functionality is missed if you just save to SAP BusinessObjects

Enterprise:

– Online list of values for prompts

– Hierarchical display for hierarchical node prompts

– SAP variable personalization

– Life cycle management of Crystal Reports (from DEV to QA to PROD) with SAP transports




Crystal Reports and SAP NetWeaver BWSAP Variables

List of Values for Variables are always static in Crystal Reports Designer (please don’t

change to dynamic); they are dynamic/online in InfoView

Hierarchy node variables always flat in Crystal Reports, hierarchical display in InfoView

Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 and SAP NetWeaver BW




Crystal Reports & SAP BusinessObjects 4.0

With the release of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0, there will be two

versions of Crystal Reports available.

SAP Crystal Reports 2011

Incremental update to CR

2008 with a few new

features

Focused on serving the

needs of Partners and

Volume customers

SAP Crystal Reports for

Enterprise 4.0

Major update & re-design of the

Crystal Reports Designer and

associated processing servers

Focus on the needs of the Large

Enterprise & customers with SAP

deployments

Provides the foundation for all

future releases of Crystal Reports




SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Streamlined UI

Easier UI navigation for

existing and new report

designers

Align common UI elements

across the entire SAP

BusinessObjects suite




SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Streamlined Report Design

Smart Guidelines

Guidelines for easy column resizing

Handles for column reordering

Automatic resizing and column shifting

for object / column insertion

Smart Default Formatting

The designer detects patterns in

formatting settings in the document and

adjust defaults automatically




SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Common Semantic Layer – New Report

Auto Generated Report




SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Hierarchy Aware Common Semantic Layer

Hierarchy in

Crosstab

Hierarchy in

Chart




SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Improved Multi-Lingual Capabilities

Crystal Reports metadata

Text Objects

Prompts

Tooltips

Anything with text…

Translation Manager

Translate Locally or via Export/Import using XLFF

Schedulable Translation

Schedule reports in multiple languages

Benefits

Reduces the time taken for the creation of reports in

multiple languages

Reduces the number of reports required for global

deployments




Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0Data Connectivity Options for SAP Customers




Crystal Reports 2011Data Connectivity Options for SAP Customers

Data Federator Connectivity to SAP ERP is currently available on the

Innovation Center @ SDN and is planned for a future product version




BEx Query Element BI Client Tool mapping

Characteristic Each Characteristic is available with all modeled descriptions and all

modeled Display Attributes.

Hierarchies All hierarchies are available as part of the available meta-data and can be

leveraged in the reporting tool.

Keyfigures All keyfigures are available as numeric value and a separate field for the Unit

and for the Formatted Value is available

Calculated / Restricted

Keyfigure

Each calculated / restricted keyfigure is treated like a keyfigure. The user

does not have access to the underlying definition in the BI Client tool

Filter Filters will be applied to the underlying BEx query but the user does not have

access to the actual filter definition (exceptions : Advanced Analysis and

Xcelsius do provide the Filter definition).

Navigational Attributes Navigational Attributes are being treated identical to a characteristic.





BEx Query Element BI Client Tool mapping

Display Attribute Display attributes are available as sub-ordinates of the characteristic

Variables Variables from the BW query are treated as prompts and are available to

Crystal Reports

Structure Structures are available and elements of a structure can be selected /

deselected

Conditions Supported

Display Settings Most display settings supported. Exceptions are local calculations (like

calculate values as ranking)





Crystal Reports in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0

SAP Data Connection Options

Crystal Reports 2011

Improved Direct Access to SAP BW Query via MDX

Migration path for existing BW Query Crystal Reports 2008 reports

Set database location to Crystal Reports 2011 BW MDX Driver

Crystal Reports for Enterprise XI 4.0

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 suite consistent Data Access to SAP BW

Access SAP NetWeaver BW via dimensional universes

Direct Access to BEx Queries via transient universes (BICS)

Functionality planned for future release

Direct access to SAP ERP for Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0





Lifecycle Management


Crystal Reports objects managed by BW Publisher and transport integration with SAP

NetWeaver BW


SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 Suite approach

Leverage one solution for all Lifecycle Management via integration between SAP

BusinessObjects Lifecycle Manager and SAP CTS+

Functionality planned for future release

As Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 reports are no longer saved to SAP NetWeaver BW

repository, the following features are not available:

Support for Report Report Interface

Support for variable personalization





Prompting


Functionally identical to Crystal Reports 2008


Support for SAP variable concepts natively in Crystal Reports Designer and SAP

BusinessObjects Enterprise

Key date

Hierarchy / Hierarchy Node

Hierarchical LOV





SAP Integration - Summary

SAP Crystal Reports 2011

Continues the same direct connectivity to SAP BW as in Crystal Reports 2008

Continues the same direct connectivity to SAP ERP as in Crystal Reports 2008

Lifecycle Management integration with SAP NetWeaver BW

Multi-lingual capabilities for SAP-based reports managed via SAP NetWeaver BW

SAP prompting support via online prompting feature including Report Report Interface and

Personalization

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0

Leverages improve suite wide connection to SAP NetWeaver BW

No direct connectivity to SAP ERP in the SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 release

Integrated with suite wide integrate between Lifecycle Manager and CTS+

Multi-lingual capabilities via SAP BusinessObjects Translation Manager

SAP prompting support handled via common semantic layer

Common Best Practices for BEx Query Design




Best Practices for BEx Query Design

Overall recommendation

BI queries:

– Are recommended as data sources for generating universes

– Offer a flexible extension to the data modeling environment and require less effort to change than

InfoCubes

– Offer significant functionality to create customized data sources that meet end-user requirements, such

as calculated Key figures, restricted Key figures and SAP variables

You do NOT need a BI query for every report

Focus the implementation strategy on limiting the number of BI queries that share common

elements

Build a small set of BEx queries focusing on sharing common elements

Crystal Reports report definition is the primary influence factor on how much data is being

retrieved from SAP NetWeaver BW

In some situations extremely large queries and universes can adversely affect performance




Best Practices for BEx Query Design (cont.)

Consider splitting up the large queries into smaller ones

Depending on number of objects (dimensions and measures) utilized per report, it might

make sense to find common groupings of objects to service reports on

Grouped by Commonality

Group A Group B

Group C Group D

Measu

res

Dimensions

= Report





Placement of characteristics or Key figures — no direct impact on generation of

Crystal Reports

―Allow External Access‖ option should be set in the properties of the BEx query

Items not supported via InfoCube data access:

Variables (e.g., Authorization Variables)

Restricted or calculated Key figures

Filters

Custom structures

Navigational attributes

For large sets of Key figures, use option ―Use Selection of Structure Members‖

Leverage the capabilities of the restricted key and calculated Key figures where

possible

As part of the underlying BI query, they will be processed by the BW back end

Can be shared across queries, minimizing development downstream

Data level security and BW

Use BW authorizations for data level security





Leverage SAP variables as part of the SAP NetWeaver BW query

Can be shared across queries, minimizing development downstream

List of values are being generated automatically

Time-based structures and calculations

Leverage EXIT variables as part of the SAP NetWeaver BW query




BI Metadata Feature SAP OLAP BAPI Support Level

Characteristics (includes Time and Unit) InfoCube/BI Query

Hierarchies InfoCube/BI Query

Basic Key figures InfoCube/BI Query

Navigational Attributes BI Query only

Display Attributes InfoCube/BI Query

Calculated Key figures and Formulas BI Query only

Restricted Key figures BI Query only

Custom Structures BI Query only

Variables BI Query only

SAP NetWeaver BW Query Design




Best Practices for SAP NetWeaver BW Query Design

This simple property change

helps improve performance

in situations where there are

a lot of restricted Key figures

and other calculations in the

query definition

(>>Transaction RSRT)

This ensures that structure

elements are sent to the

database for processing

Crystal Reports – Highlighted Functionality




Crystal Reports and End-User Empowerment

Problem

End-users have specific sorting and

filtering needs

Workaround

End-users must refresh report data to

change filters and sorts, or export to

Microsoft Excel

Solution

Crystal Reports 2008 with sorting and

filtering




Crystal Reports and End-User Empowerment (cont.)

Problem

End Users have different grouping

and visualization requirements

Workaround

Different groupings and visualization often

result in multiple reports

Solution

Crystal Reports 2008 with interactive

parameters and conditional formatting





Problem

End-users require simple what-if

capabilities

Workaround

Today Crystal Reports provides only static

information

Solution

Crystal Reports 2008 with embedded

Xcelsius 2008 models





Problem

End-users require the capability to

trigger actions from reports

Workaround

Today users will need to use several

applications independent of each other

Solution

Crystal Reports 2008 with the

functionality to embed Adobe Flex

applications

Wrap-up




7 Key Points to Take Home

Crystal Reports

… is able to connect to SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW, providing you multiple choices

… is becoming the standard reporting tool for Enterprise Reporting as part of the SAP

Business Suite

… is able to be integrated with Xcelsius and act as a ―data source‖ for your Xcelsius

Dashboard, allowing for dashboards with SAP ERP data

… is able to provide formatted reporting, but also provides limited user interactivity

… is able to leverage SAP NetWeaver BW queries or SAP ERP sources in a one-to-many

relationship, meaning no need for one SAP NetWeaver BW query for one report

Start your BI projects

… with the business users and spend more time in understanding their requirements

… with the BI part, not with the data warehouse




Resources

SAP BusinessObjects Community

SAP BusinessObjects BI Solution Architecture

www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/bi-solution-architecture

Crystal Reports Step by Step Guidance (TechED 2010)

Xcelsius 2008 Step by Step Guidance (TechED 2010)

Web Intelligence Step by Step Guidance (TechED 2010)

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Step by Step Guidance (TechED 2010)

BI Student Club Presentations

SAP Crystal Reports and SAP NetWeaver

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis and SAP NetWeaver

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence and SAP NetWeaver

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and SAP NetWeaver

BI Student Club

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/bi-solution-architecture





http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/403ddef9-52ca-2d10-9193-9ffd190219fe



http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/909108a9-d0ce-2d10-b682-ad3ba0d9e90f



http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/00e4664c-52ca-2d10-b8ba-ae6fad55a57e

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/80d0c0cc-cfce-2d10-c984-f0efbe946899





http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/004eccb2-801a-2e10-aca4-c52a16ad783a

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/9073a1ae-811a-2e10-9b9c-9cc062f56cc6

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/e000127d-831a-2e10-67b3-b740d48816a9

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/a00fe45a-7d1a-2e10-52bb-f72ef7ac931f

https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/uac/student_bi_club




Available at SAP Press

Ingo Hilgefort, Reporting and Analytics using SAP

BusinessObjects (SAP Press, 2010)

Ingo Hilgefort, Inside SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer (SAP Press, 2010)

Resources (cont.)

Ingo Hilgefort, Integrating SAP

BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Tools with

SAP NetWeaver (SAP Press, 2009)

Ingo Hilgefort, Inside SAP BusinessObjects

Advanced Analysis (SAP Press, 2010)

Thank You!

Contact information:

Ingo Hilgefort

Director, Solution Management

Customer Insight & Action

email: [email protected]

Twitter: ihilgefort

Copyright

© Copyright 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information

contained herein may be changed without prior notice.

Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors.

Microsoft, Windows, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, System i, System i5, System p, System p5, System x, System z, System z10, System z9, z10, z9, iSeries, pSeries,

xSeries, zSeries, eServer, z/VM, z/OS, i5/OS, S/390, OS/390, OS/400, AS/400, S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, PowerVM, Power Architecture, POWER6+,

POWER6, POWER5+, POWER5, POWER, OpenPower, PowerPC, BatchPipes, BladeCenter, System Storage, GPFS, HACMP, RETAIN, DB2 Connect,

RACF, Redbooks, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks

of IBM Corporation.

Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, PostScript, and Reader are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States

and/or other countries.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.

UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group.

Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc.

HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C®, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape.

SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their

respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business

Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the

United States and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational

purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational

purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only

warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if

any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

crystal reports and sap landscapes · 2019-11-12 · best practices for integrating sap crystal...

Documents