Understanding the Core Functions of BusinessObjects Enterprise

In the previous chapters, some of the BusinessObjects Enterprise functionality has been exposed; however, it is the three core functions of content creation, content management, and content distribution.

Creating Content

Content creation is developed by

• Report developers typically using Crystal Reports and OLAP Intelligence clients and then publishing this content to the Enterprise system for the users to run. The Crystal Reports client can either be a standalone client or one embedded into an IDE.

• End users using Enterprise's self-service web capabilities to build or modify their own reports using Web Intelligence, OLAP Intelligence, or the Crystal Reports Explorer.

• With the introduction of Live Office, the end user can embed content, such as a chart, inside a Microsoft Office document. These office documents fall under the definition of content because they can be saved back to and hence managed by the Enterprise system.

• Application developers can use the application program interface (API) to programmatically create content. For example, an XML schema could be programmatically interrogated to determine its definition and a corresponding report programmatically created.

Content Management

The capability to take reports, Excel spreadsheets, and other business intelligence content and centrally control and manage these pieces of information is one of the key functions of the BusinessObjects Enterprise infrastructure. Consider all the reports, Adobe PDF files, or Microsoft Office documents that are saved locally on an employee's workstations. Now consider what the organization stands to lose should a virus destroy this, or what happens when an employee leaves and his hard disk is reformatted to make way for a new employee.

The process of getting content into BusinessObjects Enterprise is commonly referred to as publishing content. The publishing of a report results in the report being copied to the BusinessObjects Enterprise infrastructure. An object ID and description, among other fields, are populated and the content is then referenced either using the object ID or the description.

Content management can occur in one of three places: the Central Management Console, InfoView, or the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK.

Content Management Using the Central Management Console

The Central Management Console, or CMC, is a web-based application that gives administrators further control over published content. It also provides the interface to manage the infrastructure, the users, and their related security. Like InfoView, this application is based on the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK and can be extended within this object model.

The CMC is described in Chapter 27, "Administering and Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise."

Content Management Using InfoView

Chapter 24, "Using InfoView," references a web-based application that enables the end user to manage and view her content stored in BusinessObjects Enterprise. Users can copy, move, and create folders and content within the Enterprise framework.

This application provides personalization features permitting users and administrators to change the look and functionality of InfoView. If further personalization is required, it is based on the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK and can be programmatically extended to add new features.

Content Management Using the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK

The BusinessObjects Enterprise infrastructure provides a Java, COM, or .NET SDK for managing content within the infrastructure. For example, the types of functionality that are exposed are tasks such as scheduling, exporting, and viewing of reports. Additional tasks could include the management of users, folders, objects, and their related security. For example, a common request is to schedule Crystal Reports via a third-party scheduler and this could be accomplished using this SDK.

This topic is discussed in further detail in Chapter 30, "Using the BusinessObjects Enterprise APIs."

Content Delivery

The third component of the Business Objects Enterprise infrastructure is that of content delivery. This is the process of delivering the content in the requested format to the requested destination.

This process consists of running the reports, checking associated security to determine what data the requestor is allowed to see, transforming the data to the requested format, and lastly, sending the information to the requested destination.

Content delivery can take two forms: the data pull method and the data push method.

The Data Pull Method

The data pull method consists of viewing reports on demand. In this case the user requests that the report be run against a data source and the data is "pulled" from the data source. A data source or data provider could consist of a traditional database or, alternatively, the report might have already been run, creating a report instance, and the user is viewing the data from within that report instance. After the data is pulled into the report, the user can then interact with the data.

The Data Push Method

BusinessObjects Enterprise gives administrators and users the capability to push information to specific users and locations, in specific formats and, if required, as a result of specific data changing.

For example, an administrator could set up a Crystal Report to run on the last day of the month and email the user the link to his information. As another example of exception type reporting, a user could create an alert within a Crystal Report whereby if sales fall below $200,000 for a particular product, she wants the report in PDF format in her email inbox. In this case, the information is pushed to her only if an exception exists.

In both of these cases, BusinessObjects Enterprise is pushing the information to the information consumer, based on some event, scheduled to some destination, and in a required format.

As you will learn in the following chapter, users can push information to other users by easily sending reports to users' inbox or email addresses.