cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Perfomance Crystal 2011 -> SAP BW

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

I just wanted to get an understanding what the best practices are with connecting SAP BW to Crystal 2011. Obviosuly the preferred route is using BOE Crystal. This tool will not meet our needs from a functionality perspective.

I read that Crystal 2011 when connecting to BEx query brings back all records based on the restriction in the BEx query regardless of the restrictions in Crystal (via select expert). Is this true? This was from a presentation in 2010. If this is the case I will need to load as many restrictions into the BEx query, but this could mean a lot of BEx queries!

If anyone has any links information on any other best practices let me know.

Thanks,

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hi,

Crystal Reports 2011 will leverage filters and variables from the BEx query.

the one restriction that is not being leveraged is a Condition defined in the BEx query.

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I appreciate that Crystal will leverage the restrictions in BEx. However, will the restrictions made Crystal be leveraged by BEx.

e.g. i restrict the report in Crystal to examine Products 1, 2, 3. Will BEx only bring back data for those products OR will all data be passed to Crystal and then it is filtered.

Obviously I can create a BEx variable for the products, however, I am creating several reports which contain different products and the user will not want to enter products everytime they examine a report.

Thanks,

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hello Leo,

that depends on how you filter in Crystal Reports, but chances are high that the filtering is done in the report and not on the backend.

Are those fixed selections or will the user each time the report is refreshed change the selection ?

regards

Ingo Hilgefort

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

thanks for your response.

There are filters which will change e.g. Year and these have been fixed in BEx Query Designer as prompts.

there are filters which are specific to a report e.g. products to be displayed. the users wont want to select this for each different report as they are specifc to that report but if i place a prompt in the report that is what they will need to do. So I have a couple of options I was thinking about:

1. Filter it in Crystal report but this will impact performance.

2. Place a prompt in BEx Query designer, however, set default values in Crystal Reports. As part of training we state that these should not be changed. The advantage of this is the report is filtered via BEx and the user does not have to set anything as the default values are in the report.

3. Explore looking into connecting the Crystal report to a universe connected to a BEx query. Would this be better from a performance perspective??

What are your views on this?

thanks

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hello Leo,

  • so those filters that need to be flexible would become variables in the BEx query, resulting in prompts in Crystal Reports.
  • you also mentioned that for some reports there are specific products but you don't want the users to select those with variables ?
  • You could use default values, but I would set those default values in the BEx query already.
  • and there is no Universe on top of a BEx query

it sounds you have some report that have a fixed set of products ? are these products different per user / user group or fixed per report ?

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

The products are per report. So for example

Report 1: Products A, B, C, D

Report 2: Products E, F, G, H

Report 3: Products A, H, L, N

There are about 60 reports and teh products are variable per report but fixed to that report. The reason why I want to set a default value for BEx prompt in Crystal rather than in BEx is so that I dont have to create 60 different Bex queries. This will improve performance.

I havent tried setting default values in Crystal for a BEx Prompt. Will this be possible?

Cheers,

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hi Leo,

so basically you have 60 reports with a fixed set of products and instead of creating 60 queries with the filter you want to have the filter defined in the report.

Assuming the filter configuration is fixed for the report and is the same for all users viewing the report, yes then the easiest option is to create this as a filter in the report itself.

make sure that you are using the key values and not the description values as filters.

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

Thanks.

What I will be planning to do is setup the prompt in BEx Query Designer and then change the default values for that prompt in each crystal report. Therefore, the prompts will be automatically prompted for and there is no performance impact.

Let me know your views on this approach.

Thanks

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hello Leo,

in case you want to define the default values in the report itself, just make sure not to define default values in the BEx Variable as that would overwrite it.

regards

Ingo

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

TammyPowlas
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Leo,

There are quite a few documents on this already on SCN, especially by - for instance I did a search and found this:

Take a look at this document too see how Crystal works with BEx - dated 12/30/12

That should answer some of your questions.

Regards,

Tammy

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

thanks for your response. However, the documents you posted are related in the main to BOE Crystal rather than Crystal 2011 which is what I am using.

thanks

IngoH
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

correct, because for a BW environment Crystal Reports for Enterprise is the recommended report client. the connectivity used by Crystal Reports 2011 is old and Crystal Reports for Enterprise is offering a far richer support for BW meta-data.

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP

Former Member
0 Kudos

Thanks for your response.

i am using Crystal 2011 as BOE CR is missing the functionality I require.

My specific question has not been answered:

I read that Crystal 2011 when connecting to BEx query brings back all records based on the restriction in the BEx query regardless of the restrictions in Crystal (via select expert). Is this true? This was from a presentation in 2010. If this is the case I will need to load as many restrictions into the BEx query, but this could mean a lot of BEx queries

Any response to this?

TammyPowlas
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Leo - I don't think there's been any change to the way Crystal Reports 2008/2011 interacts with BW since 2010.  What you read from 2010 is true today.

SAP is making enhancements / improvements with SAP integration with Crystal for Enterprise.