Choosing the Right Integration Approach


The most flexible approach to integrating BusinessObjects Enterprise XI (or its sister product, Crystal Reports Server) is to use a software development kit (SDK) for COM, .NET, or Java. The InfoView portal and portions of the Central Management Console (CMC) are built using these SDKs. By implication, the SDKs are full-featured, and this chapter is devoted to understanding them. The Unified Web Services, described in Chapter 32, "Using the Web Service's SDK," is also very useful especially where CORBA network connectivity is not possible. However, the Web Services SDK is not full-featured.

Before continuing down the code-from-scratch/samples road, you might want to skip ahead to Chapter 31, "Using the Web Components," and see if any of the approaches described there are sufficient for your project. They include the ability to view, create, and edit reports simply by calling URLs; integrating components visually using Java Server Faces (JSF); or simply deploying prebuilt catalog browsing and viewing portlets into Microsoft SharePoint, WebSphere Portal, or any other JSR-168compliant Java portal.

Before diving into the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK, Table 30.1 enumerates each of the integration approaches and which platforms they support.

Table 30.1. SDK Platform Support

SDK

Java

.NET

COM

BusinessObjects Enterprise (BOE) SDK

Crystal Page Server/RAS Viewer SDK

Crystal Java Runtime Control (JRC) SDK

Crystal RAS/EROM SDK

Web Intelligence REBean SDK

Unified Web Services (UWS) Client SDK

Universe Designer SDK

Application Foundation SDK

Dashboard Manager SDK

Not applicable/supported


Table 30.2 shows the component integration approaches and the platforms they support.

Table 30.2. Component Integration Platform support

URL/Component/PIK

Java

.NET

COM

URL Reporting

.NET Components

Portal Integration Kits (PIKs)

SharePoint

WebSphere Portal

JSR-168 Portlets

Not applicable/supported


In addition, you will want to determine the quickest and easiest way to provide the customized functionality you desire. The CMC is the 100% zero client web-based administration console that is provided out of the box with BusinessObjects Enterprise and Crystal Reports Server. This application is used in conjunction with each of the other products. Table 30.3 is a comparison matrix to help you determine what administrative functionality you may access with no custom coding.

Table 30.3. Out-of-the-Box Capabilities Matrix

Function

URL

PIKs

.NET Components

UWS

SDKs

CMC

Logging in/creating a session

Directory services/SSO support

Logging out

Catalog browsing

Searching for reports or other managed objects

View Crystal Report and thumbnails

Create/edit Crystal Report

View/drill WebI documents

Create/edit WebI Documents

View OLAP Intelligence documents

View MS Office/PDF documents

Manage Crystal Report notifications

Trigger and manage events

Schedule reports, optionally with events, to various destinations, including e-mail and inbox

Manage and monitor schedules

Access and manage inbox items

Create new objects, folders and categories

Manage security

Set user preferences

Manage and restrict user preferences

System metrics monitoring

Setting server properties

Auditing licenses and security rights

Universe Designer

Business View Manager

Dashboard and Performance Manager

Not applicable/supported





Crystal Reports XI(c) Official Guide
Crystal Reports XI Official Guide
ISBN: 0672329174
EAN: 2147483647
Year: N/A
Pages: 365

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