Contents
- Overview
- Tests Performed
- Setup and Configuration
- Feature Example
- Test Notes
- Issues and Incompatibilities
- Test Environment
- Other Sources of Information
- Vendor Contact Information
Overview
This section describes each of the products tested and how they were used during testing. This report documents only the platforms and products tested for certification. Other possible combinations of these products and platforms are not certified by Sybase. For more information about Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, including known issues not encountered during this certification or those occurring on other platforms, see the Release Bulletin for the specific platform and version. For more information about any of the products, please refer to the product literature or manufacturer website.
- SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise XI 4.0 (hereafter called the "CR4E") is the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise (hereafter called the BOE) report design tool which integrates with the BOE XI 4.0 platform as well as the universe and semantic layer.
- SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform version 4.0 (hereafter called the "BOE Client") SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform version 4.0 (hereafter called "BOE") provided the enterprise reporting software. BOE consists of the following components:
- BOE Client, which consists of multiple 32-bit Microsoft Windows applications, including the Information Design Tool (IDT). IDT is for designing relational connections and universes, which are key data objects in BOE. These objects are published to the BOE Server for use in BOE reporting tools throughout an enterprise. For this test, IDT was used to create connections and universes for the Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise database and then used with Crystal Reports.
- BOE Server, is the enterprise reporting software, consisting of multiple Web applications and processes. The relational connections and universes of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise data were published to this server. Reports created with Crystal Reports were also published to the BOE server for enterprise distribution.
- Other tools included are the Universe Design Tool, and Webi Rich Client tools which were not tested as part of this certification.
- Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 15.7 (hereafter called "Sybase ASE") is the Sybase OLTP database. It was installed before the BOE Server installation and configured to host the BOE repository. Other databases were also created within this RDBMS for use as data sources for the reporting tools.
For more detailed information about the machines used in this environment, see the section Test Environment later in this report.
The following diagram illustrates the test environment. The BOE Server was installed on a Microsoft Windows 2008 server.
Back to Contents
Tests Performed
This section contains a detailed explanation of the tests performed.
Installation Tests
- On the machine that will host the BOE Client:
- Installed the Sybase ASE PC-Client (database client) software, which includes Open Client and jConnect, and configured Open Client to connect to a remote Sybase ASE.
- Installed Crystal Reports for Enterprise XI 4.0 software.
- Installed BOE BI Platform Client Tools which includes the IDT, and created objects which provided connection and meta data information for the CR4E reports.
Report Creation Tests
- Used the IDT to create the following objects:
- Universes with Sybase data.
- Projects, which organize related objects in IDT.
- Local relational connections, which are objects that define the connectivity protocol and target data source, including host, port and database name if appropriate. Sybase Open Client connections were created for Sybase ASE.
- Secure relational connections, which are connections that are published to the BOE server and made available for use in other projects and universes. To be published successfully to the BOE repository, a universe must be based on a data foundation defined with a secure connection.
- Data foundations, which select the objects from the data source accessible through the selected secure connection. Relationships, keys and cardinalities are all either detected or specified in the Data Foundation.
- Relational data source business layers, which combine the secure connection and data foundation into one object and become universes after they are published to the repository. The creation and use of measure objects for aggregation were also tested. The Publish Universe wizard was used to publish the Business Layers as universes to the BOE repository.
- Used CR4E to create reports:
- Built reports based on universes available in the BOE Server.
- Used the Query Builder to create the queries on which the reports would be based. Depending on the data defined in the universe, this includes selecting columns for inclusion in the result set, specifying filter criteria, and adding any measure objects.
- Used the Design View to lay out the report.
- Reports were then saved, also called "published," locally and to the BOE repository.
- Used the BI Java Launcher to view and refresh published reports.
Back to Contents
Setup and Configuration
The following information relates to the installation, setup and configuration of the test environment.
The setup and configuration tasks are described in the following sections:
Note: Sybase ASE served as the host for the BOE repository, the ASE data sources and BI Java Launcher application used in the testing environment. It was installed on a Windows 64-bit Server 2008 system. Detailed instructions about installing and configuring the BOE and ASE Server environments are provided in the Sybase Certification Report: SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0 with Sybase ASE 15.0.5 and IQ 12.7 (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1094236&id=1094236).
Install and configure the BOE Client environment
This section describes how to install and configure the BOE Client environment.
It includes the following sections:
- Installing the BOE Client
- Installing and configuring the Sybase database client software
- Configuring the BOE Client for data access to the Sybase data sources
Installing the BOE Client
- Read the BusinessObjects product installation documentation for system requirements. Note that the BusinessObjects Client applications are available as 32-bit Microsoft Windows applications only.
- Ensure the two pre-requisites are satisfied:
- Install the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 or higher
- Use a user with Administrative privileges to run the BOE Client installation program.
- Run the installation program. It starts by running a pre-requisite check. Following are the installation options selected in the test environment:
- Default English language
- All Selected Feature defaults for Client Components and Developer
- All selected defaults for Data Access and Security Components, except the following options which were de-selected: Netezza, Ingres, Greenplum, IBM Db2, Informix, Progress Open Edge, Oracle and Teradata.
- Ensure the two pre-requisites are satisfied:
- Proceed to install the selected products. In the test environment, the installation ran for over an hour and the machine was subsequently rebooted.
- Check the Start menu. SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0 should be available.
- Verify the installation by launching the Information Design Tool (IDT). Choose SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0 | SAP BusinessObjects Client Tools | Information Design Tool from the Start menu. Note that you will not have any projects or repositories listed the first time you open the IDT.
- Create a session to your BOE Server repository by locating the Repository Resources view in the lower-left corner of the application, clicking the drop-down arrow next to the green plus sign, and choosing Insert Session.
- Enter the host and port of the your BOE Server repository in the System field, "Administrator" in the User Name field, the password you created for the Administrator created during BOE Server installation in the Password field, and click OK. The repository session will be listed in the Repository Resources view.
- Open the session by right-clicking it and choosing Open Session from the pop-up menu. The Open Session login dialog is similar to the Insert Session dialog except that includes an additional Authentication field in which Enterprise was filled in and grayed out. The Connections and Universes folders in the repository will become available when the repository session is open. These are the folders to which you will save the connections and universes you create in the IDT. More information about this will follow in the Feature Example section.
- Exit the IDT application.
Installing and configuring the Sybase database client software
The BOE Client applications require that the database client software be installed on the same machine.
For connectivity to ASE, you install the Sybase PC-Client software. It includes the Sybase Open Client libraries. The PC-Client installation program sets the environment variables the BOE Client applications need for Sybase Open Client connectivity.
The Sybase database client installation programs on Windows set the environment variables applications need to access the Sybase database client libraries for Open Client.
Once the Sybase database clients are installed, you need to configure them. This involves creating a Sybase Open Client server definition in the sql.ini file for the target Sybase ASE server. For details on configuring Open Client server refer to Sybase White Paper: Basic Connectivity for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 and Sybase Databases (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1093263).
Configuring BOE Client for access to Sybase data sources
With the BOE Client and Sybase database client software installed, you are ready to configure the BOE Client software for access to Sybase data sources. This involves modifying the Sybase Open Client sybase.sbo file. Specifically, modify the file in ...SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\dataAccess\connectionServer\sybase\sybase.sbo to set the "Quoted Identifier" parameter "true."
If you have any BOE Client applications open when you make these changes, you will need to close and reopen them for the sybase.sbo file changes to take effect. With these changes, the BOE Client environment should be ready to use. Continue to the Feature Example section to see an example of how to create a CR4E report BOE4.
Back to Contents
Feature Example
This section provides an example of how to create and publish a report using the Crystal Reports application and how to view a CR4E report with a Web browser.
- Create a universe of Sybase data with the Information Design Tool
- Create a report with the Crystal Reports application
- View a published report with a Web browser
Create a universe of Sybase data with the IDT
BOE Client provides the Information Design Tool (IDT) for the creation of universes, which are data objects defined with connection and meta data information. You use the IDT to create universes with Sybase data. Detailed information about creating a universe with Sybase data is provided in the Sybase White Paper: Basic Connectivity for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 and Sybase Databases (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1093263). Create a universe of Sybase data and publish it to the BOE repository. Then proceed to the next section to create a CR4E report with it.
Create a report with the Crystal Reports application
The following steps describe how to use the Crystal Reports application to create a CR4E report and save it to the BOE repository, making it Web-accessible.
- Launch the CR4E application by choosing Start | All Programs | Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 | Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0. The SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise home page opens.
- Connect to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Server. Log on to the Business Objects Enterprise. From the tool bar select File | Log On to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. The Log On window displays.
- Click the ellipse button to view the available server connections. Select a server connection, enter your user name and password. Click OK to continue. Note the status icon, located in the lower left-hand corner of the home page, now displays your status as logged on.
- Create a new CR4E report by selecting File | New Report. The New Data Source Connection window displays.
- Expand the Universes folder and select the Universe that contains the data you wish to use in the report. Click Next to continue. The Query Panel displays.
- To start the query building process, drag and drop data objects into the Result Objects pane. These data objects are used to generate a SQL statement that is then submitted to the database.
- Add Query Filters to your report by dragging and dropping data objects on to the Query Filters pane.
- To select an operator for the query, click the down arrow and select the operator. Specify a value and click Finish to close window.
- The query is processed and the Result Objects pane opens displaying the data in the report view.
- From within the Result Objects panel, interactive filters can be used to determine how values are displayed within the report. These filters hide values at the report level and do not modify the actual data retrieved from the data source.
- Save your work, making note of which folder you save the report to.
View a published report with a Web browser
- Using a browser, connect to the BusinessObjects Business Intelligence web application using a URL similar to http://aeboesp2:8080/BOE/BI. The Log on to BI Launch Pad page displays.
- Enter your user information and click Log On. The BI Launch Pad Home page is displayed.
- Select the Documents tab. From within the left-hand pane, click Folders.
- Navigate to the folder in which you saved the CR4E report. Expand the Public Folders and expand the folder where the CR4E reports have been saved. Double-click the CR4E report you wish to display.
- The report successfully displays.
- To refresh the report data click the refresh icon located in tool bar.
Back to Contents
Test Notes
This section contains information gained during testing, which may be helpful. The notes are divided into the following sections:
Test Note 1: Formatting a result object element to modify how a numeric value displays
Test Note 2: Formatting a result object element to modify how a date or timestamp values display
Test Note 3: Data Types tested and related notes
Test Notes 1: Formatting a result object element to modify how a numeric value displays
To format a numeric object element within the report, right-click the object element you wish to format. From the menu displayed select Format Result Object Element... The format dialog box appears.