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Former Member
Apr 07, 2009 at 05:23 PM

OLAP universes and Crystal Reports

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Hi everybody,

as we know Crystal Reports can not use OLAP universes as data source. The details about that have been discussed several times in this forum, for example in the threads:

Logon failed with Universe data source

Logon failed when trying to connect to a SAP BW related universe

The possible data sources are perfectly explained in the Blog from Ingo Hilgefort.

/people/ingo.hilgefort/blog

But... why these connection type is not possible???

From my point of view these missing functionality comes with a lot of drawbacks. The universe has a lot of advantages, and first of all it is isolating the business users form technical complexities. But if the business users can not access to the OLAP universe they have to face to technical complexities.

Another point: Consider a perfect integrated SAP BW environment with Business Objects Enterprise and Crystal and Xcelsius. The administrator can now define a perfect universe structure, tailored on the particular business needs of the end users. This universe structure can be used for Web Intelligence and Xcelsius (QaaWS). But for the Crystal Reports I have to define another interface to the BW data sources, which can not be done by the Administrator.

So, some open questions:

- Why is the connect to OLAP universes not possible - does that make sense?

- Will the connectivity be available in future - is that part of the actual roadmap?

- What is the recommanded approach for a business case as shown above, meaning how can I isolate my business users from technical complexities by using SAP BW as data source for Crystal Report.

Thank you for any comments and advises,

Sebastian