Chapter 24: Introduction to Crystal Enterprise

Crystal version 10 marks the first time that new versions of all flagship Crystal products (Crystal Reports, Crystal Analysis, and Crystal Enterprise) have been released simultaneously . If you are familiar with Crystal Reports 9, you may have come to the conclusion (by either working with Crystal Reports 10 or after looking through Part I of this book) that the Crystal Reports product has changed very little since version 9. However, Crystal Enterprise 10 has no such distinction ”without a doubt, the majority of version 10 enhancements have appeared in Crystal Enterprise (also known as CE for short).

Crystal Enterprise Defined

As the World Wide Web has become not only a more integral part of consumer computing, but an important consideration for business computing platforms as well, Crystal Reports has continued to offer more and more web-based reporting solutions as each new version is released. Version 7 featured the Web Access Server (WAS) for running reports in web pages. Version 8 introduced a more robust version of the same feature called the Web Component Server (WCS). And, while Crystal Reports 8.5 eliminated the WCS as a Crystal Reports “only web solution, Active Server Pages and the Report Designer Component (discussed in Chapter 22), as well as basic HTML exports (discussed in more detail in Chapter 15) remained as Crystal Reports “only web options. Crystal Reports 10 also includes another web-based reporting feature (Crystal Enterprise Embedded Edition) to provide further web-based reporting options. All of these options allow end users who wish to view reports to do so from within their web browsers. A stand-alone copy of Crystal Reports or a custom Windows application integrating Crystal Reports is not required on each of the workstations. And, the workstations don t all have to have connectivity to the corporate database.

However, as these early web reporting options began to unfold, there was an increasing demand for more enterprise-oriented, high-capacity web reporting capabilities. As larger organizations looked more and more toward web-based solutions, solutions needed to be made available that moved beyond the limited- user , web-server-centric tools that were offered in the past for real-time web reporting. Companies needed a reporting solution that would scale to potentially support hundreds, or even thousands, of web-based report viewers .

While the earlier Crystal Info/Seagate Info multitier reporting tool eventually offered a web-based interface that could be used in place of its typical Windows front end, the direction in enterprise solutions was clearly web based. Crystal Enterprise 8, introduced alongside Crystal Reports 8.5, was the first entry in the next generation of unified, enterprise-oriented reporting and analysis tools.

The Two- Tier Web Reporting Method

Crystal Reports 7.0 and 8.0 included a limited web server “based reporting system that could be described as two-tier architecture (and the version 10 ASP/RDC solution described in Chapter 22 still adheres to this architecture). The basic premise of this architecture is to route the report viewing audience through a web browser and web server, rather than placing an individual copy of Crystal Reports or a Crystal Reports “based custom application on each user PC. Only the web server requires connectivity to the corporate database for ad hoc reporting. This architecture is illustrated in Figure 24-1.

Figure 24-1: The existing two-tier processing architecture

Note  

Yes, the argument could be made that the architecture being described here is in fact a three- tier architecture ”web browser to web server to database. However, by basically moving all of the previous client-based processing to the web server and transforming clients to simple viewer status, the previous two-tier client/server architecture is just being moved around. It can still be argued that in the typical database/query client/server model, the web server has become the client and the database remains the server.

By centralizing this approach via the web, much reduced software maintenance on client-side computers is required. Not only do new versions of reports or reporting systems not require any new software to be installed on individual client computers (only the web pages that compose the application need to be updated on the web server), but the application can now support multiple computing platforms, such as Windows-based PCs, Apple Macintosh, and Unix and Linux workstations. As long as a compatible web browser can be used, Crystal Reports can be viewed on a computer or workstation.

Crystal Enterprise Multitier Reporting Method

While the existing architecture just described is an overall improvement beyond the classic client/server computing model of an application on a client with a network connection to a server, there are still bottlenecks and disadvantages that limit this architecture s capacity for large reporting environments. In particular:

• The web server suddenly becomes a concentrated reporting and query client instead of the web page distribution server it s designed to be. Every request for an ad hoc report requires the web server to send a query to the database, wait for a result set, and format the result set before sending the report back to a web browser.

• The network connection between the web server and the database can become overloaded, depending on the types of queries and reports that the web server submits to the database and the size of the return result sets.

• There is limited sharing or caching of report requests (particularly for ad hoc real- time reports). If 25 users request the same report (particularly if there are parameter fields or different database user IDs involved), the web server oftentimes will have to submit the report s query to the database 25 times.

• Earlier Crystal Reports web systems do not allow reports to be automatically scheduled to run at regular intervals, such as once per day, once per month, and so on.

The answer to these inherent limitations of existing Crystal web reporting alternatives lies in the Crystal Enterprise multitier report processing architecture, as illustrated in Figure 24-2. Built largely on the existing multitier structure of the Crystal Info/Seagate Info reporting product, this multitier structure allows report distribution scalability far greater than the classic two-tier architecture used previously. By creating multiple software functions and creating the ability for them to be rolled out or scaled to multiple processors, Crystal Enterprise immediately offers a dramatic improvement in reliability, load capability, and fault tolerance. The web server can return to its core requirement to serve up web pages. Additional components now work together to run ad hoc report and query requests, schedule automatically recurring reports, convert completed reports pages to page-on-demand viewing files, handle security, and cache recently reviewed report pages for delivery to the next report viewer. The result is a completely scalable multitier structure that dramatically improves the capabilities and capacity of web-based reporting.

Figure 24-2: Crystal Enterprise multitier processing architecture

Note  

Complete discussions of the different server components shown in Figure 24-2 are found in the Crystal Enterprise Architecture section later in this chapter.

Different Crystal Enterprise Editions

Comparing editions of Crystal Enterprise can be a challenge, especially with the renaming of the previous Report Application Server to Crystal Enterprise Embedded Edition and the previous Crystal Enterprise Standard to Crystal Enterprise Express. With the release of Crystal Enterprise 10, there are now four editions of Crystal Enterprise: Embedded Edition (formerly Report Application Server Edition), Express Edition (formerly Standard Edition), Professional Edition, and Premium Edition.

The starkest difference lies between CE Embedded Edition and the others. In fact, when you purchase Crystal Reports 10 Developer or Advanced Developer editions, you ll find two Crystal Enterprise CDs bundled in with your Crystal Reports CD. One CE CD is labeled Embedded Edition, and the other is simply labeled Crystal Enterprise. The Crystal Reports 10 Professional Edition includes one CD, simply labeled Crystal Enterprise (it s the exact same Crystal Enterprise CD bundled with Developer or Advanced Developer). As CE Embedded is a very different piece of software than the other editions, it s contained on a separate CD. However, the other common Crystal Enterprise CD actually contains all three remaining editions ”a card in the Crystal Reports package contains a particular keycode that determines which edition of Crystal Enterprise (Express, Professional, Premium) actually runs when you install the common CD.

As CE Embedded is more of an object model that can be used for generating your own custom web applications, as opposed to a stand-alone tool that works out-of-the-box, this chapter will not concentrate on it (however, it is discussed in detail in the programming- oriented Chapter 22). Instead, Crystal Enterprise Express, Professional, and Premium Editions will be discussed in this chapter. While a high-level overview of the differences follows , most of the remainder of this chapter, as well as remaining Crystal Enterprise chapters in Part II of this book, will assume that you are using Crystal Enterprise Professional Edition. Some of the items discussed in the chapters won t be applicable to Express Edition, and some Premium Edition features won t be discussed at all, or will be given a cursory overview.

There are several significant differences between the features offered in Express, Professional, and Premium Editions. These differences revolve around several core feature areas:

• User capacity

• Security capabilities

• Fault tolerance

• Server scaling

• Cross-platform server support

• Customization abilities

• Online Report Design capabilities

In general, you ll find that CE Express offers an entry level set of features that are expanded upon by CE Professional. And, CE Premium includes all the features of CE Professional, plus additional capabilities.

User Capacity

Crystal Enterprise Express allows only named user licensing (five named users are included with the version bundled with Crystal Reports Professional Edition). This basically means that you can create five unique user IDs in the CE Express system. Each user ID will belong to a dedicated user. All five users can be logged on at any time. However, if you attempt to create a sixth user ID, you ll receive an error that you have insufficient licenses. You can purchase additional named users for CE Express, but Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium feature a wider array of licensing options that you may choose. These editions allow combinations of concurrent access licenses, named user licenses, or processor licenses.

CE Professional and Premium concurrent access licenses allow any user to log in to the system, provided that the total number of users logged in at any one time doesn t exceed the concurrent user limit. Named user licenses allow users with specific user IDs that belong to them to log in at any time, regardless of how many other users are currently logged in. And, processor-based licenses are dependent upon the number of computers or processors that are required to implement a Crystal Enterprise system. The proper type and number of licenses will depend entirely on how many users you need to support, what capabilities they need to have, and how often and how long they ll need to use Enterprise. Study and consider these varying options carefully to have the proper number of licenses for all potential user combinations, without undertaking extra expense that may be incurred for an overkill license structure.

Security Capabilities

One of the main benefits of using Crystal Enterprise editions other than CE Embedded is built-in security features. Users are assigned their own user ID and password and can be assigned to one or more user groups. This user/ group security model is the basis for the entire CE folder, report, and rights structure ”rights to perform various system functions can be assigned to groups of users or individual users. One of the key features missing from CE Express, when compared to CE Professional and Premium, is LDAP security. LDAP (short for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an open standard that many organizations (particularly those that include a mix of Unix computers) use to authenticate network users. By being able to integrate CE security with an existing LDAP database, minimal maintenance of CE security in an LDAP environment is required. You must use CE Professional or Premium to enjoy LDAP integration.

The other major security difference between CE Express and CE Professional or Premium is that provided by Business Views. By creating a Business View and basing a Crystal Report on it, you can grant or deny CE user IDs or user groups access to individual report fields. And, Business Views also supports row security, which will filter report records at view time to, for example, limit records to a report viewer s own department. All this Business View functionality is only available with CE Professional and Premium Editions ”Business Views are not available for use with CE Express.

Note  

Complete details on creating and using Business Views can be found in Chapter 17.

Fault Tolerance

Crystal Enterprise Express does not allow the creation of fault-tolerant server platforms. Only a single set of components can reside on a single computer. Should the Enterprise computer fail, the entire Crystal Enterprise system will be inaccessible. However, this eliminates one of the major benefits of the Crystal Enterprise architecture ”its multitier, multiserver technology.

Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium provide complete scalability and separation of server roles onto separate computers. They also provide the ability to set up multiple Crystal Management Server (CMS) machines that back each other up and provide processing scalability (the CMS is described in more detail in the section Crystal Enterprise Architecture of this chapter). Should one CMS machine fail, the remaining machines will pick up the extra load and continue to process Crystal Enterprise requests. And, when a large processor load is required, multiple CMS machines will share that load as necessary, enabling a very large user base to be supported. The clustering of CMS computers is provided only by Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium Editions.

Server Scaling

As described previously, one of the main benefits of Crystal Enterprise over the previous single-server approach of the Crystal Reports web component server is the ability to spread the processing load across multiple tiers. Instead of one computer having to process all report and query processes, report formatting, and HTML page generation, Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium allow these functions to be spread over several computers. Crystal Enterprise Express, while adhering to this multitier software structure, still requires that all these software components reside on a single physical computer. The only exception is that the web connector (described in more detail in the later section Crystal Enterprise Architecture ) can reside on a web server separately from the remaining Crystal Enterprise components.

Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium Editions, however, allow each software component, or tier, or any combination of components, to reside on separate personal computers on the network. In a very large CE environment, it might be desirable to have each individual software component ”the CMS, the input file repository server, the output file repository server, the cache server, the page server, and so forth ”reside on separate computers on the network. In a high-volume implementation, you might even need to set up multiple computers that share the same responsibility (multiple physical CMS machines in a cluster, for example), to satisfy the load requirements of your particular Crystal Enterprise system.

Cross-Platform Server Support

While Crystal Enterprise s end-user interface is entirely web-based, not being married to any particular hardware platform, the CE server software is more particular. Having originally been a Windows-only product, Unix support has continued to grow as additional versions of CE have been released.

CE 10 Professional and Premium editions support Unix-based servers for virtually all back-end components. You may run CE server components on a mixture of Sun Solaris and IBM AIX Unix platforms, as well as Windows NT/2000/2003 server platforms. Unix support, however, is not available with Crystal Enterprise Express Edition ”it runs under Windows only.

Customization Capabilities

Being a web-based application, CE is largely made up of web pages that expose standard HTML and JavaScript code to a client web browser. As with many web-based systems, much of the source code that makes up the user interface is open and available for modification and customization.

However, the full Software Development Kit that allows complete customization of a CE interface is limited to Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium Editions (and to the CE Embedded Edition, which is generally not useful without customization via a Software Development Kit). If you plan on customizing your CE implementation (perhaps to more closely integrate with an existing web portal, intranet system, or Internet presence), you ll want to seriously consider CE Professional or Premium Edition.

Online Report Design Capabilities

So far, I have mostly contrasted CE Express and CE Professional/Premium Editions. However, CE Premium and CE Professional do differ in their online report design capabilities. CE Premium, for instance, provides online report design right in the web browser, a feature not included with CE Professional. This feature allows an end user to design simple reports, using a web-based wizard, which prompts them to specify the basic portions of a report (tables, fields, record selection, grouping, and so forth). Crystal Reports isn t required to be on the user s machine, and all the report design and processing is handled by the Report Application Server component in Crystal Enterprise Premium.

Although web-based report design may sound like an exciting concept, the wizard interface CE Premium provides limits the flexibility in creating reports. An additional product, called Crystal Enterprise Ad Hoc, allows more flexible report design in a separate Java-based environment that still requires only a small footprint on the client computer. This application can be used with both Crystal Enterprise Professional and Premium Editions (provided you ve purchased an extra license for your CE Professional installation).

Caution  

Not only is evaluating Crystal Enterprise editions a challenge, but licensing scenarios present their own myriad alternatives. Some features may or may not initially be available in a particular CE edition. However, in some cases, you can add a feature to CE by buying a separate license. In other cases, you must upgrade to a higher edition to get the feature. Typically, all these features are made available simply by adding additional keycodes to the initial keycode used when installing CE.

Crystal Enterprise 10 New Features

As discussed earlier in the chapter, the majority of new features in version 10 of the Crystal product suite appear in Crystal Enterprise 10. Although Business Objects had attempted to position earlier versions of Crystal Enterprise as a replacement product for their first foray into enterprise reporting, Crystal/Seagate Info, users of the original product were often reluctant to upgrade, as CE didn t contain all the rich features that Crystal/Seagate Info did. While not completely closing the Info/Enterprise gap, CE 10 adds many new features that should bring smiles to Info users.

General enhancements fall into several general areas: tighter Crystal Reports integration, improved scheduling and management features, and new meta-layer /data security options. Some of these new features will be touched on here, while others receive more in-depth coverage elsewhere in the book.

Tighter Crystal Reports Integration

One of the first things Crystal Reports 10 users will notice as they navigate through various portions of the new product is tighter integration with Crystal Enterprise. For example, the repository (which was stored in a stand-alone database system in version 9), now resides in the Crystal Enterprise CMS database. While this adds a new layer of security and granularity that the previous repository didn t provide, it does require organizations to install and maintain CE (and to purchase any additional licenses required to support their numbers of report designers) if they want to make use of this powerful feature. Information on the repository is covered in Chapter 7.

The initial release of Crystal Reports 10 also includes full CE folder integration (which was added to a Crystal Reports 9 upgrade after the initial release). Whenever you display an Open or Save As dialog box to open or save a report, an additional Enterprise Folders icon appears in the dialog box. By clicking it and logging on to the Crystal Management Server, you may edit existing CE reports or add new reports directly from Crystal Reports 10.

You may also more tightly integrate Crystal Enterprise “hosted reports together in CE 10 using Guided Navigation. Not only can you set an object hyperlink to point to other stand- alone Crystal Reports in version 10, but you can actually choose an existing CE-hosted report to be a hyperlink target. Navigation is discussed in Chapter 21.

Improved Scheduling and Management Features

This is the area where existing Crystal/Seagate Info users will find major improvements. Several features (or derivations thereof) from Info have been added to CE 10. Other administration- oriented features will help those in charge of CE 10 maintain and audit its usage.

Two of the most familiar features to Info users that have arrived in CE 10 are Calendars and Notification. By defining calendars that indicate processing days or periods that are unique to your organization (such as pay days, accounting cycles, and so forth), you can now schedule reports to run on a cycle that s particular to your organization. And, you can now notify administrators or key users of successful or failed report or program scheduling events. These features are covered in Chapters 25 and 26.

Another Info feature that has been added to CE 10 is support for executable programs or scripts. Previously, CE would only schedule reports. Now, you can add a custom piece of script code (such as JavaScript) or a Windows executable program to Crystal Enterprise to be scheduled on a regular basis.

And yet another feature that comes straight to CE 10 from Crystal/Seagate Info is Object Packages. An object package is a series of related reports or programs that can be scheduled and maintained as a single group. One of the benefits of object packages is to allow a group of related reports that contain hyperlinks among themselves to be scheduled as a unit. Whenever a report viewer navigates a hyperlink in one report instance, the other instances in the package will have been run at the same time as part of the package.

Third-Party Object Support allows items other than Crystal Reports or Crystal Analysis CAR files to be added to Crystal Enterprise. While they can t be scheduled like reports or program objects, additional file types, such as web hyperlinks; Adobe PDF files; Microsoft Word documents; Microsoft Excel spreadsheets; and so forth can be added to the web desktop to be viewed from within the integrated CE environment. Viewing these third-party objects is discussed in Chapter 25, and adding them to the CE environment is covered in Chapter 26.

Previously available via third party add-ons, Usage Auditing is now an integral part of Crystal Enterprise 10. By setting up a separate auditing database, administrators can track CE usage by server, report, and so forth. Then, Crystal Reports can be designed and scheduled to present the auditing information in formats that are useful to your particular organization. This new feature is covered in Chapter 26.

New Meta-Layer/Data Security Options

One of the most exciting new features of Crystal version 10 is Business Views. This feature, maintained by the repository in the Crystal Enterprise CMS server, allows report designers to report against simplified, pre-defined views of complex corporate data.

The complexity of the core company database can now be hidden from report designers so that confusion and inaccuracy can be reduced. Additionally, the CE security model is integrated into Business Views to allow row and column security to limit field availability or limit records to just those that are appropriate for a particular report viewer.

Complete coverage of how to both create and use Business Views is covered in Chapter 17.