just a question. it seems that SAP hates .Net when is comes to the API/SDK. They still have not provided updated SDK docs for 4.2 release. In the past they have left objects not accessible from .Net version of SDK ( But have made those objects available form Java SDK) example the Security2 objects to allow applying Custom access levels to groups ( worked around it by using one of the web services) .
You would think SAP would want people developing solutions for their Enterprise tools to get more penetration in the market.
I just a bit frustrated that they make us .Net developers jump through hoops to get things done.
In the past, SDK development was focused on Java. There was little, if anything, that was in the .NET SDK but not in the Java SDK. The documentation for the Java SDK was pretty decent, while documentation for the .NET/COM SDKs were either non-existent or required a secret decoder key to read.
Now the focus is on REST, and Java has been left to the side. It’s still (kind of) supported, but less than before.
I was very frustrated with the way REST was rolled out and used to replace REBean. In XI3, REBean was the only method available for interfacing with WebI documents. In BI4.1, REBean was officially de-supported and replaced with REST, although the REST API doesn’t fully replace REBean. And converting from REBean to REST requires a near-complete rewrite. What makes it worse is that it’s all Java under the hood – REBean is just the public-facing SDK.
Unfortunately, SAP Sales does not appear to be very interested in BOBJ customers who do not already have other SAP software. I think this feeds into the whole SDK availability thing. They also tend to come up with “Great Ideas” that, when they are implemented, turn out to be not so great at the start (Rebean vs. REST, Adaptive Processing Server with everything, etc.) but that might have been if they had discussed them with users in the real world first.
Having said that, I have found very little that I’m not able to do for data in the CMS database or specifics in Crystal Reports in either the Java or .NET SDKs if I’m willing to dig down into the properties. Security is one item, but I can’t think of anything else right now.
(BOB member since 2008-08-01)
(BOB member since 2002-08-29)