Use the BusinessObjects repository as a datasource for a Crystal Report

Question

I would like to use the information contained in BusinessObjects repository as a datasource for a Crystal Reports. Unfortunately, this information isn't persisted in a simple table structure--most of the properties are stored in encrypted, binary fields.

The are a number of ways to access BO's repository:

1. 'traditional' SDK (Java, COM, .Net)
2. SOAP SDK (http://[server:port]/dswsbobje/services/listServices)
3. query tool (http://[server:port]/businessobjects/enterprise[11|115|12]/adminlaunch/query/)

Option 1 won't work in my situation, as I would like to deploy the reports with BO Enterprise, rather than a customized web application.

Option 2 may work, but I'm not certain how well Crystal Reports interfaces with SOAP, especially since it would need to connect to a second SOAP service for authentication.

Option 3 doesn't work because it returns HTML (not XHTML)

My most-viable option at this point is to re-write #3 to return an XML document and create the supporting XSD. If I do so, I'll probably post the solution on github.

Another option would be to (somehow) add a REST wrapper around the SOAP services. This sounds like a pretty daunting task.

Has anyone had any success doing what I need to do?

Answer 1

The SOAP option would be the most straight-forward, as enabling Web Services is a very simple option toggle in one the XML config files followed by a restart of Tomcat.

REST options may be available already, but would depend on your specific BO version. I'm pretty sure that Explorer had some type of REST option during the XI R2 era, and as of BO 4.0, SP4, you should be able to do this: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_bip_rest_ws_en.pdf

Finally, you have the option of direct ODBC access to the repository database. As of 4.0, MS SQL Server 2008 is the default for Windows, IBM DB2 for unix or linux, but MySQL (the prior default option) can still be used as well. ANy of these should be straight forward to access, and provide more detail than the standard repo interface.

If you go that direct-access route, for security reasons I would recommend a proxy setup, or replication into a database that already handled your reporting needs.