.NET SDK - 4.1 Platform & CR4E RPT (View-on-Demand)

[former_member183781]

We have a SAP BI-BI 4.1 (SP3) platform.

Had no major issues moving our legacy CR-2013 content over and accessing it (View-On-Demand) in native format from our .NET SDK application via Crystal Processing Server.

Also, our .NET SDK application can (View-on-Demand as PDF) via the Crystal Reports 2013 Report Application Server (RAS).

However, we are about to start using Crystal Reports for Enterprise (CR4E) formatted content on our Platform - and wonder if there are any obvious "Gotchas" that we need to plan for...?

I assume the .NET SDK calls for View-On-Demand via the Crystal Processing Server will be unchanged, right..? It doesn't care if the content was authored in CR-2013 or CR4E, because they use the same server.

...but also assuming that we are "pooched" on  View-on-Demand as PDF via the Crystal Reports 2013 Report Application Server (RAS), because that Server does not support the new CR4E format of report.

Anyone else started doing this with CR4E content via the .NET 4.1 Platform SDKs..? Any work-around for View-On-Demand as PDF..?

Any other "Gotchas" that we need to plan for...?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[former_member188030 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the cool explaination.

Now, there is a good news and bad news.

Bad news is,  the CR 2013 processing server .NET APIs would not work with CR4E report. In Fact there is no .NET SDK to work with CR4E reports.

See the KBA 1954330 - Error: Load report failed. Unsupported Operation.

Good news is with BI 4.1 there is one SDK which provides the APIs to work with CR4E reports, RESTful Web Services SDK. See the developer guide for SDK API capabilities.

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4sp6_cr_restful_ws_en.pdf

It is pretty limited though.

- Bhushan

Senior Engineer

SAP Active Global Support

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[DellSC · Accepted solution]

Also, the Crystal part of the RESTful web services work with CR4E only!  They don't work with "classic" Crystal reports.

Another option you have for viewing a PDF would be to use OpenDocument.  There is a parameter you can pass to the URL that tells it to open as a PDF or as Excel.

-Dell

[former_member183781 · Accepted solution]

Ugggh...! (---Shudder---) Thanks to you both for the (disappointing) information.

We might hold-off on our CR2013 to CR4E conversions until the functionality in the RESTful web services SDK is more robust, since the "as is" .NET SDK and CR2013 content is supported in SAP BO-BI 4.1 platform.

Has SAP provided any timeline/roadmap on when the RESTful web services SDK for CR4E content will offer some of the RAS like features for runtime RPT changes...?

Also, FYI - our SECURITY folks hate the OpenDocument model for opening the RPTs from an Application because too much database and parameter information is passed as part of the URL.

[former_member188030 · Accepted solution]

There is no road map defined which I know of but yes, it will evolve but may take some time.

You could post your REST SDK queries at http://scn.sap.com/community/restful-sdk. The space is monitored by our development team and may give you some definite answeres.

Thanks,

Bhushan

[former_member183781 · Accepted solution]

This Thread in the RESTful Web Services forum raised most of my issues, and I have added my comments...

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3549558