Migration of Crystal Reports to Business Objects Webi

building reports crystal reports
1

Hi All,

We are planning to migrate from Crystal Reports to Business Objects. We have about 80 Crystal reports.

These reports are connected through Store Procedures and Views and want to migrate them to Webi.

Can anyone suggest how to go about this or any document where i can refer.

Thanks
Vasi

Vasireddyy (BOB member since 2010-06-09)

2

Are you moving to Web-I or Desk-I? I am assuming it as Web-I because if I were you I wouldn’t suggest the users to go for Desk-I from Crystal. What is your BOBJ version?

It sounds like you are using Crystal Reports against some reporting tables/views and SQL Procs.

-Build the Universe
-Setup up the Universe in such a way it works for both Web-I and Crystal
-You might have to consider redesigning the datamart if you don’t have proper star schema. Building Universe on top of reporting views is not a good idea

  • Do not try to replicate Crystal reports in Web-I. Try to explain how Web-Intelligence works to the users (You might come across issues like hiding , suppressing data, complex conditional formatting etc… with Web-I)
    -Identify the right candidates for adhoc reports
    -Leave the canned reports as is in Crystal

Thanks,
SG.

shamanth (BOB member since 2007-03-01)

3

Thanks Shamanth…

Deski was my option as we have lot of reports with store procedures but the users login through the protal for viewing & Adhoc reporting.

Can you guide me on this point-Universe in such a way it works for both Web-I and Crystal

We are using Webi XI3.1 and want to know can i use the Store procedures and the Views in Universe design.

Webi XI 3.1 and SQl Server DB.

if so can anyone guide me how to use it.

Thanks
Vasi

Vasireddyy (BOB member since 2010-06-09)

4

I would suggest not going to Deski, SAP Business Objects have all but confirmed that Deski will not be part of XI R4 due out at the end of this year.

Yes you can use views in a universe. You can also build a universe over a stored procedure, there is a check box that you select when creating a new universe. I’ve never used so can’t give any advice on this.

I would however ask, why not simply publish your Crystal Report to the Infoview environment and leave them running on the views and stored procs the way they are now.

Remember the differences between Webi and Crystal, Webi is a query and analysis tool, Crystal is a report and design tool. Yes Webi does that as well, but Crystal is a better tool when building complex reports.

plessiusa :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-22)

5

You can use stored procedure in the Universe. I have not tried that. Check the Universe documentation for more info.
I advice you not to go with Desk-I. Desk-I will be going away soon.
I suggest you to leave the reports with stored procedures / complex SQL in Crystal as is and identify the right candidates for ad-hoc reporting and build Universes for those set of reports.

Thanks,
SG.

shamanth (BOB member since 2007-03-01)

6

Thanks all…

We have 20+ different store procedures for reports and 10+ different views for Adhoc reports.

As we are facing the performance issue,so want to shift to webi.

So when creating universe in need to check how to use all the SP and i read in the forum that is can’t use Tables and SP is same Universe.

Thanks
vasi

Vasireddyy (BOB member since 2010-06-09)

7

I don’t believe that is quite true.

If you specify the universe type to begin with as being able to use Stored Procedures, then you can still add tables as well.

I just did a test on this and I was able to add tables.

However if you are having issues with your procedures and views, have you considered rewriting them to be more efficient.

For example, you may have an indexing issue, and if you don’t resolve that, converting the procedures to universes won’t fix that issue.

I have procedures here that run faster than the same query in BO purely because the SQL in the procedures has been tuned and tweeked over time to become very efficient.

plessiusa :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-22)

8

Well I have to admit defeat on this one, I’ve just tested this a little further and even though I am able to add table to a universe design on Procedures, I am not able to join two tables together.

So where to from here, you can either create one universe with all your stored procs in them, create a universe per stored proc, or create a proper universe based on tables and derived tables, putting all your Stored Proc logic into the universe.
The for the reports, you have another two options. Change your Crystal report to extract the data from the universe rather than the procs and views. This will save you a lot of time having to rewrite the report, or as you so originally asked, create Webi reports to replace the Crystal.

Good luck

plessiusa :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-22)