Standalone Crystal Reports with SAP Integration without BO Enterprise/Edge

[Former Member]

Hi everybody,

we are actually discussing the usage of Crystal Reports as standalone tool without installing a BO server environment like BO Enterprise or BO Edge Series.

In addition we want to use a SAP BI system as data source, as presented in Ingo Hilgeforts blog [BusinessObjects and SAP Part 2|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8686] [original link is broken] [original link is broken] [original link is broken];.

For the data access the SAP Integration Kit must be installed.

Is the installation of the Integration Kit possible without the usage of a BO server environment?

In [part 4 of Ingo installation documentation|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/11079] [original link is broken] [original link is broken] [original link is broken]; he shows the example for the normal case of a SAP Integration Kit installation.

How have I to define the options during the installation of the SAP Integration Kit, if I'm using just Crystal as Standalone without a BO Enterprise Server?

Must I also perform a complete installation?

Whats with the sreen where I have to authenticate towards the CMC system? Will that screen be omitted?

Thanks for helping,

Sebastian

[former_member142702 · Accepted solution]

Hi Sebastian,

regarding the BOBJ integration Kit for SAP there exists two options

a) You install the kit on a computer, on which a BOBJ server instance is already installed and running

b) You install the kit on a machine on which one or more of the following BOBJ products are installed:

1) CR Designer

2) BOBJ client tools

3) XCelsius

4) LiveOffice

For A you have to choose the "Server" installation option, during the installation of the integration Kit. For B you must choose the "Desktop/Client" installation option. During this installation you will not be prompted to authenticate against a running CMS.

In your case you can use the CR Designer as stand-alone tool. But keep in mind that in this case you need a CR Designer licence for each user, who would like to view a CR report. Various other fuctionalities like scheduling and report bursting are also not available. And there may be a licence issue regarding the viewing of exported reports (eg in PDF format) for other users in your organization.

Regards,

Stratos

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Stratos,

thank you for your quick reply.

Can you explain something more about the licence issue regarding the viewing of exported reports (eg in PDF format) for other users in your organization?

Can I use Crystal Reports Viewer for the other employees, watching the Crystal Reports?

Best regards,

Sebastian

[former_member142702 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

as far as I know if you use the Crystal Report Viewer with CR reports, that are stored on a local/network drive, you can only view the data that were stored in the report. You cannot use the viewer to get the latest data from your data source in such reports though. If this is ok for you then you can indeed use the CR viewer in your organisation. Please keep in mind that you still need a licence for each user that is using the viewer.

Regarding the licencing issues regarding reports exported in PDF form, I would suggest to contact your local SAP sales representative and ask about this. This is not a technical rather a sales issue.

Regards,

Stratos

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

Hi Sebastian,

the SAP Integration Kit requires the deployment of a BusinessObjects Edge or a BusinessObjects Enterprise server. The CR Viewer does not allow you to refresh the data

Ingo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ingo,

thats contradictory to what Stratos explained before.

Just to make it clear... from my point of view... this would mean, that...

...it is impossible to access to a SAP BI data source directly from Crystal Reports without a BO Enterprise or Edge Series server?

Best regards,

Sebastian

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

Hi,

technically it is possible - sure - but we do not offer any distribution mechanisms to share the reports. if you want to have a proper deployment you need the BusinessObjects Edge or BusinessObjects Enterprise environment

Ingo

[former_member142702 · Accepted solution]

Hi Sebastian,

let me say that what I stated is the same with what Ingo tells you. With the CR Viewer you can view only the data you stored in the reports. You cannot refresh any reports against any kind of data source. If this is acceptable in your scenario then you can use such a setup. For sure you can use the CR designer instead but this is not a tool that is meant to be used by simple report consumers.

As Ingo and I said, you will also be missing additional functionality like scheduling, report bursting, row level security etc. if you do not use a BOBJ server (BO Enterprise or BO Edge)

Regards,

Stratos