Business objects BUSINESS VIEWS User Manual

Business Views™ Administrator’s Guide

Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Patents

Business Objects owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and sold by Business Objects: 5,555,403, 6,247,008 B1, 6,578,027 B2, 6,490,593 and 6,289,352.

Trademarks

Business Objects, the Business Objects logo, Crystal Reports, and Crystal Enterprise are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects SA or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Business Views 11 11

About this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

What is Business Views? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Who should read this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Business Objects information resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 2 Business Views Architecture 15

Business Views overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Architecture overview and diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Client tier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Business tier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Business Views objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Data tier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Information flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Usage scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Data Connection layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Data Foundation layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Business Element layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Business View layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Architectural workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

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Chapter 3 Quick Start: Creating a Business View 31

Quick Start overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Sample data - Xtreme.mdb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Tutorial scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

What is a Business View? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Logging on to the Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Creating and configuring a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Creating a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Setting a Data Connection password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Saving and naming a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Modifying the properties of a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Exercise: Creating two more Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Creating a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Adding a Data Connection to a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . 44

Sorting Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Saving and naming a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Creating a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Linking tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Inserting a formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Inserting an SQL expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Inserting a parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Inserting a Business Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Creating and configuring Business Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Creating a Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Exercise: Creating additional Business Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Creating and configuring a Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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Chapter 4 Using the Business View Manager 63

Business View Manager overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Working with the Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Logging on to the Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Navigating the Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box . . . . . 66

Navigating within the Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Saving an object within the Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Exporting and importing Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Using the Repository Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Accessing the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Adding folders to the repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Renaming folders in the repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Deleting items from the repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Installing sample repository objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository security model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Applying security settings to folders in the BusinessObjects Enterprise

Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Viewing folder rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Creating a list of values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Chapter 5 Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository 85

BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Copying data from one repository database to another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Copying data from a BusinessObjects Enterprise 11 CMS . . . . . . . . . 86

Copying data from a Crystal Enterprise 9 repository database . . . . . . 90

Copying data from a Crystal Reports 9 repository database . . . . . . . . 92

Refreshing repository objects in published reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Chapter 6 Creating Data Connections 95

Data Connections overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Working with Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Creating a new Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

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Setting the Data Connection password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Testing and verifying data connectivity and object dependency . . . . . 100

Showing dependent and referenced objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Modifying a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Saving a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Editing rights for a Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 7 Creating Dynamic Data Connections 107

Dynamic Data Connections overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Why use a Dynamic Data Connection? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Working with Dynamic Data Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Creating a new Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Verifying object dependency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Showing dependent and referenced objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Modifying a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Saving a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Editing rights for a Dynamic Data Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Chapter 8 Managing Data Foundations 117

Data Foundations overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Working with Data Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Creating a new Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Verifying object dependency and verifying databases . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Showing dependent and referenced objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Modifying a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Linking tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Inserting data tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Setting the Database Explorer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Inserting a formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Inserting an SQL expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Inserting a parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Inserting a filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Importing a custom function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Using the Referenced Data Connections window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

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Using the Property Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Using the Object Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Saving a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Editing rights for a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 9 Managing Business Elements 161

Business Elements overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Working with Business Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Creating a new Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Verifying object dependency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Showing dependent and referenced objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Modifying a Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Setting and resetting the field structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Inserting a Business Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Inserting a filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Inserting a parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Using the Referenced Data Foundation window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Using the Property Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Using the Object Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Saving a Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Editing rights for a Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Using the Business Element Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Creating a new Business Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Chapter 10 Dynamic Prompts and Cascading Lists of Values 179

Parameters and prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Dynamic prompts overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Supported components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Understanding lists of values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Lists of values and prompt groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

List-of-values types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Determining which list-of-values type to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Using Separate Value and Description Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Null Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

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Using dynamic prompts and cascading lists of values in Business Elements

and Data Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Using Business View Manager to manage prompting repository objects . 186

Managing lists of values in Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Managing security for lists of values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Scheduling lists of values in Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Managing prompt groups in Business View Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Best practices for prompting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Converting unmanaged reports to managed reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Deploying managed reports with dynamic prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Chapter 11 Managing Business Views 197

Business Views overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Working with Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Creating a new Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Importing and exporting Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Showing dependent and referenced objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Modifying a Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Overriding the linking in a Data Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Saving a Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Editing rights for a Business View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Chapter 12 Business Views Security Concepts 211

Security overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Business Views object rights overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Using the Edit Rights dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Applying security settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Adding a group or user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Object and folder rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Viewing Business Views object rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Using inheritance to your advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Security deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Root folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

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Reports based on Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Importing and exporting Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Chapter 13 User Scenarios 223

User scenarios overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Data integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Simplifying existing infrastructure through data abstraction . . . . . . . . 225

Multiple data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Reporting off multiple data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Specifying locale: a global, multi-lingual deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Migrating repository objects to Business Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Security applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Applying row security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Applying column security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Setting object security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Appendix A Business Objects Information Resources 231

Documentation and information services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

What’s in the documentation set? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Where is the documentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Send us your feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Customer support, consulting and training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

How can we support you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Looking for the best deployment solution for your company? . . . . . . 234

Looking for training options? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Useful addresses at a glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Index 235

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Introduction to Business Views 11

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Introduction to Business Views 11

About this guide

This guide provides you with information and procedures that cover a wide range of administrative tasks. Procedures are provided for common tasks, including the use of the Business View Manager. Conceptual information and technical details are provided for all advanced topics such as the Business Views architecture, and security and deployment recommendations.

What is Business Views?

Business Views is a flexible and reliable multi-tier system that enables companies to build detailed and specific Business Views objects that help report designers and end users access the information they require.

Using Business Views, you can integrate data from disparate sources. You can also bring together data from multiple data collection platforms and application boundaries so that the differences in data resolution, coverage, and structure between collection methods are eliminated.

Business Views includes the Business View Manager, a thick-client application. This designer enables administrators to create and modify Business Views objects:

• Data Connections

• Dynamic Data Connections

• Data Foundations

• Business Elements

• Business Views

Who should read this guide

This guide is intended for system administrators who are responsible for configuring, managing, and maintaining a Business Views installation. Familiarity with your operating system and your network environment is certainly beneficial, as is a general understanding of web server management, scripting technologies, and general security concepts. However, in catering to all levels of administrative experience, this guide aims to provide sufficient background and conceptual information to clarify all administrative tasks and features.

Business Views administrators should also be familiar with BusinessObjects Enterprise, as Business Views is integrated with and is a part of BusinessObjects Enterprise. For more information about BusinessObjects

12 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Enterprise, consult the BusinessObjects Enterprise Getting Started Guide, the

BusinessObjects Enterprise Installation Guide, the BusinessObjects Enterprise User’s Guide, and the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide. Online versions of these guides are included in the

your product distribution.

Working and conceptual knowledge of Crystal Reports and general reporting concepts will also be beneficial; for more information on Crystal Reports, see the Crystal Reports User’s Guide.

Business Objects information resources

For more information and assistance, see Appendix A: Business Objects

Information Resources. This appendix describes the Business Objects

documentation, customer support, training, and consulting services, with links to online resources.

Introduction to Business Views 11

About this guide

doc directory of

Business Views Administrator’s Guide 13

Introduction to Business Views 11

About this guide

14 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Business Views Architecture

chapter

Business Views Architecture

Business Views overview

Business Views is a multi-tier system that enables companies to build comprehensive and specific Business Views objects that help report designers and end users access the information they require.

Business Views are useful as companies engage in data management to collect and organize operational data into databases. Companies often use data integration technology to build data warehouses or data marts to cleanse, aggregate, and store data for analytic use. However, data warehouses must serve the lowest common denominator and can—but often do not—provide the various views and granularity that different business units require in order to understand and analyze their businesses. In addition, these warehouses may not provide the level of detail necessary for some analytic operations.

Using Business Views, you can integrate data from disparate sources. You can bring together data from multiple data collection platforms across application boundaries so that the differences in data resolution, coverage, and structure between collection methods are eliminated.

In addition, Business Views enables you to add the necessary business context to these data islands as you link them into a single organized Business View for your organization. This view is more than just an integrated network of data. It can include consistent definitions of corporate hierarchy or customer information, and provide a variety of detailed or summarized viewpoints for the various information consumers in your business.

Administrators use the Business View Manager—a thick-client designer, which runs as a Microsoft Windows application. This designer provides a wide range of capabilities for creating Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views. The Business View Manager enables you to design relational views of information. This designer also enables you to set detailed column and rowlevel security for various objects in your report.

Note: Business Views objects consist of the following:

• Data Connections

• Dynamic Data Connections

• Data Foundations

• Business Elements

• Business Views

Business Views supports the transition from one view to another at runtime, thereby enabling powerful analytics and rich information presentation through a broad range of BusinessObjects Enterprise client tools. The Business View Manager is designed to help organizations consolidate data by dynamically

16 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Architecture overview and diagram

mapping back-end data into Business Views. These Business Views can then be secured at a granular level by administrators and used as the basis for reporting, analysis, and information delivery processes. This flexible approach enables organizations to use the data repository of their choice— including multiple repositories—for their views and to leverage all of these Business Views objects within their BusinessObjects Enterprise environment.

Note:

• Business Views is intended for administrators who are familiar with

BusinessObjects Enterprise. For more information on BusinessObjects Enterprise, see the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

• Business Views is similar in concept to Crystal Dictionary files and Info

Views, but provides numerous additional features and is designed to integrate seamlessly with BusinessObjects Enterprise.

Architecture overview and diagram

Business Views is a multi-tier system. The following diagram illustrates how each of the various components fits within this system.

Business Views Architecture

Business Views Administrator’s Guide 17

Business Views Architecture

Client tier

Business Views is comprised of three tiers: the client tier, the business tier, and the data tier.

• Client tier

The client tier consists of any Business Objects client application that accesses the Business Views that are stored and organized in the business tier.

• Business tier

Business Views objects—a collection that includes Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views—are a part of this tier. Using the Business View Manager, you specify the settings and conditions for the various objects so that the client tier has access only to specific information from the data tier.

• Data tier

The data tier consists of data sources, such as multiple databases on different machines that provide the data for the business tier.

The client tier includes Business Objects applications (such as Crystal Reports and the Report Application Server) that access the Business Views that are stored and organized in the business tier. Business Views administrators control and define security and access to specific objects within the various Business Views.

Report designers using Crystal Reports see only the tables and fields that they have access to, as defined within the specific Business View. For example, a report designer in the company’s sales department can access only regional sales data, and thus, design a report with sales-specific information, even though the data store also contains employee-specific information. Thus, depending on how the report is created and designed, a manager running the same report (or another report) has access to the additional information on employees within the company. All of the security and access information is handled by the Business View Manager.

18 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Business tier

The business tier is the primary tier of the Business Views system. Administrators access this tier through the Business View Manager; they use this designer to create and modify Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views.

Business Views Architecture

Business tier

Business View Manager

The Business View Manager enables you to create and modify Business Views and the various objects that make up these Business Views. The administrator uses this designer to specify different Data Connections, to set security, and to control access to the data found within the different data sources in the data tier. This thick-client designer is the only part of Business Views that administrators interact with directly. End users access the data specified within the Business View Manager through their Business Objects client application, such as Crystal Reports (via the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository) or through the Report Application Server.

Business Views objects

Business Views objects include the following: Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views.

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Business Views Architecture

Business tier

Data Connection

Data Connections specify and define the data sources for a Business View; they define how these data sources are made available to users. Thus, a Data Connection is a connection object, and an administrator can apply security to this object. Each Data Connection contains information that describes the physical data source, such as the server and data being accessed, the logon credentials, and the type of server being accessed.

Dynamic Data Connection

A Dynamic Data Connection is a collection of pointers to various Data Connections. An administrator or user is able to select which Data Connection to use through a parameter.

A typical scenario involves the migration of data from a development system to a test system, and finally, to a production system. In this scenario, a report is run against a development system, and then, when the data is migrated to a test system, the same report is run against the test system’s data. The only change required is that the Dynamic Data Connection’s settings must be updated so that it points to the test system’s Data Connection. Finally, when the test system’s data is migrated to the production system, the same report can again be run against the production system.

Note: When users refresh reports that are based on a Dynamic Data

Connection, they are prompted to specify which of the available Data Connections to use.

Data Foundation

A Data Foundation consists of collections of tables and fields. Default table joins are defined at this level. Administrators can secure Data Foundations using the standard BusinessObjects Enterprise security model, which includes View and Edit rights. The primary use of Data Foundations is for data abstraction: administrators control which tables and fields users can or cannot access when these users are designing or viewing a report.

20 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Business Element

A Business Element is roughly equivalent to an OLAP dimension or logical view; that is, this object is a logically related collection of data fields that are based on a Data Foundation. These fields can be organized into a hierarchical structure within the Business Element. The most common example is a hierarchical structure that contains the following fields: Country, State or Province, and City. Business Fields in Business Elements can be aliased to support data abstraction and to facilitate report design. Administrators can secure Business Elements through the standard View and Edit rights.

Business View

A Business View is a logical collection of Business Elements. Users see Business Views as abstract database connections, and the contained Business Elements as virtual tables that, in turn, contain Business Fields. Administrators can secure Business Views through the standard View and Edit rights.

A Business View consists of the following objects:

• One or more Data Connections

• One optional Dynamic Data Connection

• One Data Foundation

• One or more Business Elements

Note:

• End users can access Business Views through applications such as

Crystal Reports and the Report Application Server.

Business Views Architecture

Data tier

The data tier consists of multiple databases that contain the data used in the different views and objects, which are used in reports. Business Views supports a wide range of corporate databases. See the included with your product distribution for a complete list of tested database software and version requirements.

Business Views Administrator’s Guide 21

release.html file

Business Views Architecture

Information flow

This section describes a typical Business Views usage scenario. It demonstrates how report-processing is performed and how security access is defined and applied for the data in a report.

When creating Business Views, it is important to understand how each of the component objects relates to one another. The objects that make up a Business View are:

• Data Connections

• Dynamic Data Connections

• Data Foundations

• Business Elements

A Business View requires at least one of each type of object, except for Dynamic Data Connections, which are optional.

The objects that make up a Business View build on each other in a hierarchical fashion. You must first create a Data Connection or Dynamic Data Connection before you can create a Data Foundation. Then, after you have a Data Foundation, you can create a Business Element. After you finish creating a Business Element, you can then create a Business View—a view that report designers have access to.

Ultimately, the Business View Manager allows administrators to integrate complex and disparate data sources seamlessly, effectively removing data silos in an organization. That is, using the Business View Manager, administrators can take data from several different sources and abstract it so that report designers see a single, unified, and logically organized data source.

Usage scenario

This section employs a hypothetical usage scenario to illustrate how the Business View Manager can be used to create Business Views from which to base a report.

In this scenario, a company has its data stored in three different databases. Its personnel data is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server. Its product information is stored in a DB2. Its sales data is stored in three different ORACLE databases: one for development, one for testing, and one for production.

The report designers want to create reports that show the performance of Sales representatives, including personnel information and product data. Users must be able to run reports based on any of the three ORACLE sales databases. Additionally, the company wants to specialize the reports for different regions. The East, Central, and West sales managers each want to receive the same reports, but want to see data from only their regions. All of the managers also have unique terminology preferences, and want their

22 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Business Views Architecture

Information flow

reports to reflect these preferences. To incorporate the different data sources and the three different sales region preferences, three different Business Views must be created.

Data Connection layer

The Data Connection layer is composed of one or more Data Connections. Dynamic Data Connections can also be part of the Data Connection layer, but are not integral to the creation of a Business View.

Data Connections

The first step in the process of building a Business View is to specify data sources for the Business View by creating Data Connections. Each Data Connection object connects to a single data source, such as a database, a data mart, a spreadsheet, and so on. In this scenario you will create five different data connections, one for each data storage system.

Because all objects in a Business View are located inside the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, BusinessObjects Enterprise security applies to the objects. Consequently, as a connection property, you can set which

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Business Views Architecture

Information flow

BusinessObjects Enterprise groups have access to a data source through a specific Data Connection. (Users in the groups you specify are considered authenticated users.) For example, you may want only report designers and managers at a certain level to have Data Access rights to the Data Connection for the SQL Server database. Report designers must have access to the Data Connection in order to be able to create reports based on it. In this case, you can create two groups in BusinessObjects Enterprise, one for report designers and one for managers, and grant only those two groups Data Access rights for the Data Connection in the Business View Manager. Note that by default the BusinessObjects Enterprise “Administrators” and “Everyone” groups have full rights to each object you create in the Business View Manager.

Dynamic Data Connections

Once you have created two or more Data Connections, you can choose to create Dynamic Data Connections. These are pointers that allow administrators and/or users to choose between different data sources in the form of Data Connections. Note that each of the data sources that a Dynamic Data Connection points to must have similar schemas. Any tables, fields, stored procedures, stored procedure parameters, and other objects that are in the data sources must have identical structures, names, and content types.

When a Business View designer creates a Data Foundation that is based on a Dynamic Data Connection, this user is prompted to specify which Data Connection to use. Similarly, when a user refreshes a report based on a Dynamic Data Connection, that user is prompted to specify which Data Connection to use.

In the usage scenario, you would create one Dynamic Data Connection composed of the three ORACLE sales databases: Sales Development, Sales Testing, and Sales Production. A typical name for such a Dynamic Data Connection would be Dynamic Sales.

Data Foundation layer

Business Views Architecture

Information flow

After you have created the Data Connection layer (using Data Connections and possibly using Dynamic Data Connections), the next step is to create a Data Foundation. A Data Foundation is a component used for data access management, where you collect a list of data fields to be made available for use as Business Fields in Business Elements. A Data Foundation is an abstraction layer into which you can insert and join several types of objects (from different Data Connections):

• Table objects

• Data tables

• Views

• Stored procedures

• SQL command objects

• Formulas

• SQL expressions

• Filters

• Parameters

• Custom Functions

Note that views, stored procedures, and SQL command objects all appear as tables once you add them to the Data Foundation.

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Business Views Architecture

Information flow

When you create a Data Foundation, you need to specify your data source, whether it be one or more Data Connections, or one or more Dynamic Data Connections. You can have any number or combination of Data Connections and Dynamic Data Connections for your Data Foundation. In the case of the usage scenario, the Data Foundation would be composed of two Data Connections—Personnel and Product Info—and one Dynamic Data Connection—Dynamic Sales.

The items you choose to include in the Data Foundation determine what fields will later be available for report designers to use when creating reports. That is, you, the administrator, can control which tables and columns users can or cannot access.

Using formulas and SQL expressions

At the Data Foundation level, you can use formulas to create data fields that will then be available to users working at the Business Element level (a Business Element is a collection of fields that are based on a Data Foundation). For example, the existing Data from the Sales Data Connection may list an employee’s sales quota and actual sales, but not the percentage of the sales quota that employee reached. In this case, you could write a formula that calculates this percentage. Later, at the Business Element layer, you could make this field available to report designers, but choose to keep the sales quota and actual sales fields hidden. This is a simple example of how you can use the Business View Manager to abstract and control user access to data.

Using filters

Filters provide row-level security for Business Views. You create your own filters to apply to your Data Foundation. These filters allow you to reference fields, formulas, SQL expressions, parameters, and other filters. You can use Boolean operators to create Business Filters that restrict access to certain information for specific users or groups. After you create a Business Filter, you can also assign to which user or group you want to apply this filter.

Using parameters

Parameters prompt the user of a report to enter information. Think of a parameter as a question that the user needs to answer before the report is generated from the Business View information. The information users enter— or the way they respond—determines what appears in the report. For example, in a report used by salespeople, there might be a parameter that asks the user

26 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

to choose a region. The report would return the results for the specific region chosen by the user, instead of returning the results for all of the regions.

Using custom functions

Custom functions are procedures you create in Crystal Reports to evaluate, to make calculations on, or to transform data. When you use a custom function in a formula, all of the operations in its definition are performed without the need to specify them individually in the formula itself. Thus, a custom function provides a way for you to share and reuse formula logic and makes it easier and less time-consuming for you and your users to create different Business Views objects and reports.

You create custom functions using Crystal Reports and then save them in the repository. In the Business View Manager, you reference custom functions, and then include them in your formulas.

Note: A custom function cannot be placed directly into a Business Element; it

must be used as a part of a formula at the Data Foundation level.

Business Element layer

A Business Element is an object that allows you to shape your data fields from a Data Foundation into components that make sense from a business perspective. It is important to understand that the organization of Business Fields in Business Elements does not need to reflect the shape of the underlying tables in the Data Foundation.

Whereas the Data Foundation layer is focused on the physical layout of the data sources, the Business Element layer allows you to create a hierarchical information landscape. You can reorganize the tables, fields, formulas, and SQL expressions from the Data Foundation into a logical view with multiple levels. A common example of a Business Element is a hierarchical structure that contains the following fields: Country, State or Province, and City.

When you insert data fields from the tables, formulas, and SQL expressions that you created in a Data Foundation into a Business Element, each of the items that you add appears as a Business Field. Using the Field Structure tab, you can restructure these Business Fields into a hierarchy.

In a Business Element, you can also create an alias for, and add a description to each of the Business Fields. As in the example, if the three sales managers for the East, Central, and West regions wanted to see similar reports but with different terminology for some of the fields, you could create three different Business Elements, each with the same structure and fields, but with different aliases for the field names.

Business Views Architecture

Information flow

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Business Views Architecture

Architectural workflow

You can set rights for each Business Element so that certain groups and users do or do not have View rights for the object. Users who do not have View rights for that Business Element will not be able to create reports based on it. Column-level security can also be applied to Business Fields. If columnlevel security is applied, specified column contents are converted to null values during execution.

Business View layer

Once you have created one or more Business Elements, you can create a Business View.

A Business View is a logical collection of Business Elements. Users see Business Views as an abstract database connection, and the contained Business Elements as virtual tables that contain Business Fields. End users access Business Views through the Ad Hoc application (or other applications designed using the Report Application Server SDK) and client applications such as Crystal Reports. Administrators can secure Business Views through the standard View and Edit rights.

Architectural workflow

While the necessary, ordered structure of the Business Views objects allows for flexibility in the access, integration, and organization of data from different sources, there are limitations set by the relationships among these various components.

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Business Views Architecture

Architectural workflow

A Data Connection, once made, accesses and carries information specific to the data source to which it is linked. To access information from another data source, you must create another Data Connection or modify the existing one.

As an alternative, however, you can also make use of a Dynamic Data Connection, a collection of pointers to any number of individual Data Connections.

Depending on the user’s needs, a Dynamic Data Connection may be preferable to using a single Data Connection.

Companies run the same reports based on data from different sources. Rather than recreating separate reports for each source, a Dynamic Data Connection allows you to point to a different Data Connection, obtain the information, and generate the same report based on the data from that source.

Once a connection is made, you then manage the information in a Data Foundation, an abstraction layer where the different objects (tables, fields, and so on) obtained from a data source can be added or joined. The items that you choose to include in a Data Foundation and the relationships you specify between these items determine what fields will later be available for report designers to use when creating reports.

You construct Business Elements from the various objects (tables, parameters, filters, and so on) situated in a Data Foundation. Because the information in a Business Element is defined by the information contained within a Data Foundation, it is important to remember that Business Elements are Foundation-specific. That is, you cannot create a Business Element with information derived from more than one Data Foundation. This constraint stems from the nature of the relationship between the Business Element and the Data Foundation. At the Data Foundation level, users acquire and set specifications to the information from a data source. At the Business Element level, users take this information and arrange it into a structure that makes sense from a business perspective (often involving hierarchical levels and landscapes of data). In effect, the information in a Business Element is dependent on the information controlled by its parent Data Foundation.

Once you have created one or more Business Elements, you create a Business View. A Business View is a collection of Business Elements; it provides the highest level of data abstraction for end users. Users see Business Views as an abstract database connection, and the Business Elements contained within as virtual tables.

You can have a number of Business Elements that can be included in a single Business View. Similarly, you can have numerous Business Views that are based on a single Business Element. The only restriction between the components is from the relationship between the Business Element and the Data Foundation. Since Business Elements contain information provided by the parent Data Foundation, Business Views can include only Business

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Business Views Architecture

Architectural workflow

Elements which stem from one Data Foundation. That is, a Business View cannot be composed of Business Elements that come from different Data Foundations.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

chapter

Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Quick Start overview

Using Business Views, you can integrate data from disparate sources. You can bring together data from multiple data collection platforms across applications, to eliminate differences in data resolution, coverage, and structure between collection methods.

Administrators use the Business View Manager, a thick-client designer. This designer is a Microsoft Windows application that provides features, which enable you to design relational views of information. This designer also enables you to set detailed column and row-level security for various objects in your report.

This chapter contains a number of tutorials designed to teach new users how to create a Business View. Employing data from the Xtreme Sample Database (shipped with the product), the tutorials guide you through several basic steps to create a Business View using the Business View Manager:

• “Before you begin” on page 32

• “Creating and configuring a Data Connection” on page 37

• “Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections” on page 43

• “Creating and configuring a Data Foundation” on page 46

• “Creating and configuring Business Elements” on page 58

• “Creating and configuring a Business View” on page 61

Before you begin

This section describes the sample data and conventions used in the tutorials and the tutorial scenario. It explains what a Business View is and how to log on to the Business View Manager.

Sample data - Xtreme.mdb

Business Views comes with Xtreme.mdb, a sample Microsoft Access database that you can use when learning how to operate the Business View Manager. All of the necessary drivers are included in the installation of Business Views.

Xtreme.mdb is a database that contains data for Xtreme Mountain Bikes, a fictitious manufacturer of mountain bikes and accessories.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Before you begin

The database includes these tables:

• Credit

Information from customer credit memos, such as credit authorization IDs and amounts.

• Customer

Data for the customers served by the company.

• Employee

Company-oriented data for the employees of Xtreme Mountain Bikes.

• Employee Addresses

Personal data for Xtreme Mountain Bikes employees.

• Financials

Financial data for Xtreme Mountain Bikes.

• Orders

Identity and tracking data for orders.

• Orders Detail

Line item data for orders.

• Product

Descriptive data for Xtreme Mountain Bikes products.

• Product Type

Category data for Xtreme Mountain Bikes products, including product pictures.

• Purchases

Identity and tracking data for product purchases.

• Supplier

Data for suppliers who serve Xtreme Mountain Bikes.

• Xtreme Info

Company data for the Xtreme Mountain Bikes company, including the company logo.

Xtreme.mdb also includes:

• List Totals (a Select query)

• Top Customers (a Select query)

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Before you begin

Conventions

This chapter is organized into a number of tutorials and exercises. To create the sample Business View described in this chapter, you must complete each of the tutorials and exercises in succession.

Note: This tutorial was designed using Microsoft Windows 2000. If you are

using a different platform, the screen shots may vary slightly.

Tutorial scenario

Your corporation uses a development, test, and production system model for housing its data. The data is initially stored on a development system, and then later migrated to a test system. After extensive testing, the data in the test system is ready to be used in the production system.

In this tutorial you will create these objects:

• Three Data Connections:

• Xtreme Development

• Xtreme QA

• Xtreme Production

• One Dynamic Data Connection:

• Xtreme Dynamic Connection

• One Data Foundation:

• Xtreme Foundation

• Six Business Elements:

• Customer

• Employee

• Orders

• Orders Detail

• Product

• Supplier

• One Business View:

• Xtreme Business View

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

What is a Business View?

A Business View is a hierarchical collection of several objects:

• Data Connections

• Dynamic Data Connections

• Data Foundations

• Business Elements

When you create Business Views, it is important to understand how the component objects relate to one another. Each object must be created in a specific order. For example, you must first create a Data Connection or Dynamic Data Connection before you can create a Data Foundation. Then, after you have a Data Foundation, you can create a Business Element. After you finish creating a Business Element, you can then create a Business View.

Logging on to the Business View Manager

Every time you use the Business View Manager, you need to log on with the proper credentials. To log on to the Business View Manager, you must provide a Central Management Server (CMS) name, a User name, and Password for the appropriate CMS.

In this tutorial you will log on to the Business View Manager.

Before you begin

To log on to the Business View Manager



1. In Windows, click Start > Programs > BusinessObjects 11 >

BusinessObjects Enterprise > Business View Manager.

The “Log On to BusinessObjects Enterprise” dialog box appears.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Before you begin

2. Select the type of authentication in the Authentication list.

3. In the System list, select or type the appropriate CMS name.

Note:

• If BusinessObjects Enterprise is installed on your local machine, the

• If BusinessObjects Enterprise is not installed locally, provide the

4. Type your User name and Password.

Note: If BusinessObjects Enterprise is installed on your local machine,

the default User name is

5. Click OK.

The “Welcome to Business View Manager” dialog box appears.

name of your CMS is the same as your machine name.

name of the machine where the CMS is installed.

administrator, without a password.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

In the tutorials and exercise in this section, you will complete these tasks:

• Create three different Data Connections to the Xtreme Sample Database.

• Set passwords for each Data Connection.

• Save and name each Data Connection.

• Modify the properties of each Data Connection.

Creating a Data Connection

To connect to a data source, you must create a Data Connection.

To create a Data Connection



1. Open a new Data Connection through one of the following ways:

• If the “Welcome to Business View Manager” dialog box is open, click

Data Connection, and then click Create.

• On the File menu, select New, and then click Data Connection.

The “Choose a Data Source” dialog box appears.

2. Select ODBC (RDO) as the connection type, by double-clicking the

ODBC (RDO) folder.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

The “Data Source Selection” dialog box appears.

3. In the Data Source Name list, select Xtreme Sample Database 11.

4. Click Next.

The “Connection Information” dialog box appears.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

5. In the “Connection Information” dialog box, you can specify the

credentials that you want to use to log on to the data source.

In this case, the Xtreme Sample Database 11 does not require logon credentials, so leave the fields blank.

6. Click Finish.

You return to the “Choose a Data Source” dialog box.

7. Ensure that Xtreme Sample Database 11 is selected, and then click OK.

The “Set Data Connection Password” dialog box appears.

Setting a Data Connection password

When you add a Data Connection, you can choose to store a user name and password. The Data Connection uses this information to access the data source. These credentials are stored in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. They are used each time an authenticated user designs or views a report that is based off a Business View that uses that Data Connection. If you choose to store data source logon credentials in the repository, you should set the Runtime Prompt Mode to Never prompt, so that authenticated users will not be asked to specify credentials.

If you prefer to have users log on to data sources individually, do not store a user name and password in the repository. Also, set the Runtime Prompt Mode to Always prompt, so that users are asked to specify credentials each time they design or run a report off a Business View that uses that Data Connection.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

In this tutorial, you store a blank user name and password for the Data Connection object, and set the Runtime Prompt Mode to Never prompt, so that users are not asked to specify logon credentials.

To set the Data Connection password



1. In the “Set Data Connection Password” dialog box, leave each of the

User Name, Password, and Confirm password fields blank.

2. In the Runtime Prompt Mode list, select Never prompt.

Note: When you store logon credentials for the Data Connection object,

always select Never prompt as your Runtime Prompt Mode.

Tip: Select the “Use Single Sign On when viewing” check box to enable

Single Sign On for the Data Connection. For information about the Single Sign On feature, see “Single Sign On” on page 99.

3. Click OK.

Saving and naming a Data Connection

You must save a Data Connection object before you can use it to create other objects, such as Dynamic Data Connections and Data Foundations. It is important to choose a descriptive name for your Data Connection because this name is visible to users who design and view reports based on any Business View that uses the Data Connection.

In this tutorial, you will create a new folder called Tutorial, into which you will save the Data Connection object as Xtreme Development.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection



To save and name a Data Connection

1. On the File menu, click Save.

Tip: You can also click the Save button on the toolbar or press CTRL+S.

The “Save As” dialog box appears.

2. In the Object Name field, type

3. Click the Insert a new folder button, and then name the new folder

Tutorial.

4. Click the Tuto rial folder to select it, and then click Save.

Xtreme Development.

Modifying the properties of a Data Connection

The Property Browser in the Business View Manager can be used to modify several properties of a Data Connection:

• Name

• Description

• Author

• User Name

• Password

• Use Single Sign On when viewing

• Connection

• Runtime Prompt Mode

• Use Owner

• Use Catalog

• Rights

Note: For complete descriptions of each of these properties, see “Modifying

a Data Connection” on page 101.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

In this tutorial, you will use the Property Browser to provide a description for the Data Connection.

To add a description using the Property Browser



1. If the Property Browser is not visible, on the View menu, click Property

Browser.

2. In the Property Browser, click the cell next to the Description field and

Development Environment.

type

The description of the Data Connection is now Development Environment.

3. On the File menu, click Save.

Exercise: Creating two more Data Connections

You now have one Data Connection object that has been named and saved. Using the same procedures (as described in “Creating and configuring a Data

Connection” on page 37), create and save two additional Data Connections in

the Tutorial folder with these configurations:

Data Connection2

Name Xtreme QA

Description QA Test Environment

User Name

Password

Runtime Prompt Mode Never prompt

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections

Data Connection3

Name Xtreme Production

Description Production Environment

User Name

Password

Runtime Prompt Mode Never prompt

Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections

After creating multiple Data Connections, you can create a Dynamic Data Connection. A Dynamic Data Connection is a collection of pointers to different Data Connections.

When users refresh a report that is based on a Dynamic Data Connection, they are prompted to specify which Data Connection to use, whether it be the connection information for the development data, the test data, or the production data. As long as the database schema is the same for all three databases, administrators can easily ensure that reports point to and use the proper data source as required.

In the tutorials and exercise in this section, you will complete these tasks:

• Create a Dynamic Data Connection.

• Add a Data Connection to an existing Dynamic Data Connection.

• Sort Data Connections in the Dynamic Data Connections window.

Creating a Dynamic Data Connection

In this tutorial, you will create one Dynamic Data Connection based on two of the Data Connections that you created in “Creating and configuring a Data

Connection” on page 37.

To create a Dynamic Data Connection



1. On the File menu, select New, and then select Dynamic Data

Connection.

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Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections

The “Choose a Data Connection” dialog box appears.

2. Expand the Tut orial folder to show the available Data Connections.

3. Select the Xtreme Development Data Connection.

4. Click Add.

Note: Only Data Connections that do not always prompt for a user to log

on to a data source can be used for a Dynamic Data Connection. You will receive an error message if you attempt to add a Data Connection that always prompts a user to log on.

5. Select and add the Xtreme Production Data Connection.

6. Click Close.

Adding a Data Connection to a Dynamic Data Connection

In the main window of a Dynamic Data Connection, you can add new Data Connections or delete existing ones. In this tutorial you will add the Xtreme QA Data Connection to the Dynamic Data Connection that you created in “To

create a Dynamic Data Connection” on page 43.

To add a Data Connection



1. In the main window of the Dynamic Data Connection, click the Add

button located at the bottom-left corner of the window.

Tip: You can also click the Add Data Connection button on the toolbar;

alternatively, you can click Add Data Connection on the Edit menu.

44 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

The “Choose a Data Connection” dialog box appears.

2. Expand the Tut oria l folder, and select Xtreme QA.

3. Click Add, and then click Close.

Sorting Data Connections

If you have a Dynamic Data Connection with numerous Data Connections, you can sort the listing of your Data Connections. To sort your Data Connections, you can choose from three options in the sort list located in the top right-hand corner of the Dynamic Data Connection window:

• Alphabetical ascending

• Alphabetical descending

• No Sort

You can also move a Data Connection object up or down the list by first selecting the object, and then clicking the up or down arrows next to the sorting list.

Use the arrows to sort the Data Connections so that they appear in this order:

• Xtreme Development

• Xtreme QA

• Xtreme Production

Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections

Saving and naming a Dynamic Data Connection

1. On the File menu, click Save.

Tip: You can also click the Save button on the toolbar or press CTRL+S.

The “Save As” dialog box appears.

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Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

2. In the Object Name field, type Xtreme Dynamic.

3. Click the Tuto rial folder to select it, and then click Save.

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

After you have created the Data Connection layer (using Data Connections and a Dynamic Data Connection), the next step is to create a Data Foundation. A Data Foundation is a component used for data access management, where you collect a list of data fields that are available for use as Business Fields in Business Elements. A Data Foundation is an abstraction layer into which you can insert and join several types of objects (from different Data Connections):

• Table objects

• Data tables

• Views

• Stored procedures

• SQL command objects

• Formulas

• SQL expressions

• Parameters

• Filters

• Custom Functions

Note: Views, stored procedures, and SQL command objects, all appear as

tables once you add them to the Data Foundation.

The items you choose to include in the Data Foundation determine what fields are later available for report designers to use when creating reports.

In the tutorials in this section, you will complete these tasks:

• Create a Data Foundation.

• Link tables.

• Insert a formula.

• Insert an SQL expression.

• Insert two parameters.

• Insert a filter.

46 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Creating a Data Foundation

In this tutorial, you will create a Data Foundation called Xtreme Data Foundation, and you will add several tables to the Data Foundation.

To create a Data Foundation



1. On the File menu, select New, and then click Data Foundation.

The “Choose a Data Connection” dialog box appears.

2. Expand the Tut oria l folder, and select Xtreme Dynamic.

3. Click OK.

The “Enter Parameter Value” window appears.

Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

4. In the Available Values list, select Xtreme Development.

5. Click OK.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

The “Insert Data Tables” dialog box appears.

6. Expand the Tab les node.

7. Select these tables:

• Customer

• Employee

• Orders

• Orders Detail

• Product

• Product Type

• Supplier

Tip: You can select multiple tables concurrently by holding down the

CTRL key and clicking the tables that you want to select.

8. Click Add.

9. Click Close.

10. Save the Data Foundation in the Tut orial folder as

Xtreme Foundation.

Linking tables

In your Data Foundation, you link tables so that records from one table will match related records from another. For example, if you add an Orders table and a Customers table, you link the two tables, so that each order (from the Orders table) can be matched up with the customer (from the Customer table) who made the order.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

When you link tables, you use a field that is common to both tables. Business Views uses the link to match up records from one table with those from the other. Note that in your Data Foundation, you can use different tables from different data sources.

In this tutorial, you will use the Smart Linking feature of the Business View Manager to link the tables in the Data Foundation that you created in “To

create a Data Foundation” on page 47. You will also manually delete one link

and add another.

To link tables in the Data Foundation



1. Right-click in the main Data Foundation window.

The shortcut menu appears.

2. Select Smart Linking By Name.

The tables are automatically linked by field name.

3. Right-click the link between the Customer table and the Supplier table,

and on the shortcut menu, select Delete Link.

4. From the Orders_Detail table, click and drag the Product ID field over to

the Product ID field in the Product table.

A link appears.

For more information on linking tables, see “Linking tables” on page 121.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

Inserting a formula

In many cases, the data needed for a Data Foundation object already exists in database fields. Sometimes, however, you need to put data in a Business Element (a Business Element is a collection of fields that are based on a Data Foundation) that does not exist in any of the data fields. In this situation, you need to create a formula. You must create and define your formulas at the Data Foundation level before you can add these formulas to your Business Elements.

To create a formula, use the Formula Editor. The Formula Editor contains four windows—three of which are situated under the Formula Editor toolbar—and the text window directly below.

Window Description of contents

Report Fields Report fields contains all the database fields that are

Functions Functions are prebuilt procedures that return values.

Operators Operators are the “action verbs” you use in

Formula text window This is the area where you create a formula. You can

accessible for your Business Element. They also contain any formulas or groups already created for the Business Element.

They perform calculations such as average, sum, count, sin, trim, and uppercase.

Custom functions are also listed in this window.

formulas. They describe an operation or an action to take place between two or more values.

Examples of operators include: add, subtract, less than, and greater than.

also view your formula in the Property Browser window.

In this tutorial, you will use the Formula Editor to create a formula that calculates an employee’s number of years of service.

To create a formula



1. On the Insert menu, click Insert Formula.

Tip: In the Object Explorer, you can right-click Formulas, and click Insert

Formula.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

The Formula Editor appears.3

2. From the first drop-down list on the Formula Editor toolbar, choose

Crystal Syntax.

For more information on which syntax to use, see “Choosing the syntax” on page 137.

3. In the second drop-down list, specify one of the following values:

• Choose Exception for Nulls to configure the formula to ignore null

values.

• Choose Zeroes for Nulls to configure the formula to treat null values

as zero values.

4. In the Functions window, expand Functions > Date and Time >

DateDiff, and double-click DateDiff (intervalType, startDateTime, endDateTime).

DateDiff (, , ) appears in the Formula text window.

5. In the Formula text window, type the necessary strings to fill in the

formula so that it appears as

Date}, CurrentDate)

Note: You can also select Employee.Hire Date and CurrentDate by

expanding the Report Fields and Functions trees respectively and double-clicking the desired fields.

6. On the Formula Editor toolbar, click Check to test if there are any errors

in the formula.

7. Fix any syntax errors the Formula Checker identifies.

Note: For more information on formulas, see the Crystal Reports Online

Help.

DateDiff (“yyyy”, {Employee.Hire

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Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

8. Click Apply to save the formula.

9. In the Object Explorer, expand the Formulas node, and click New

Formula 1. This is the new formula that you created.

10. In the Property Browser, rename the formula to

Tip: You change the name of the formula by clicking the cell next to the

Name field, and then typing the desired name.

Inserting an SQL expression

SQL expressions are similar to formulas, but they are written in Structured Query Language (SQL). They are useful in optimizing report performance because the tasks they execute are always performed on the database server (as opposed to a regular formula, which is typically executed on the local machine). Like formulas, you must create and define your SQL expressions at the Data Foundation level before you can add these expressions to your Business Elements.

Much like the Formula Editor, the SQL expression Editor contains four windows.

Window Description of contents

Report Fields Report fields contains all the database fields that are

Functions Functions are prebuilt procedures that return

Operators Operators are the “action verbs” you use in SQL

SQL expression text window

Years of Service.

accessible to your Business Element.

values. They perform calculations, including conversion calculations, numeric calculations, and so on.

expressions. They describe an operation or an action to take place between two or more values.

Examples of operators include: add, subtract, less than, and greater than.

This is the area where you create an SQL expression. You can also view your SQL expression in the Property Browser window.

In this tutorial, you will use the SQL expression Editor to create an SQL expression that returns an employee’s full name.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation



To create an SQL expression

1. On the Insert menu, click Insert SQL Expression.

Tip: In the Object Explorer, you can right-click SQL Expressions, and

click Insert SQL Expression.

The SQL expression Editor appears.

2. In the Report Fields window, expand Data Foundation, and then

Employee.

3. Double-click the Last Name field.

4. In the SQL expression text window, next to

+ ’, ’ +

type

Note: That is, [space]+[space]’,[space]’[space]+

5. In the Report Fields window, double-click the First Name field.

The SQL expression should now read:

’Employee’.’Last Name’ + ’, ’ +’ Employee’.’First Name’

’Employee’.’Last Name’,

6. On the SQL expression Editor toolbar, click Check to test if there are any

errors in the SQL expression.

7. Fix any syntax errors the SQL expression Checker identifies.

Note: For more information on SQL expressions, see the Crystal

Reports Online Help.

8. Click Apply to save the SQL expression.

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Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

9. In the Object Explorer, expand the SQL Expressions node, and click New

SQL Expression 1. This is the new SQL expression that you created.

10. In the Property Browser, rename the SQL expression to

Name.

Tip: You can change the name of the SQL expression by clicking the cell

next to the Name field, and then typing the desired name.

Inserting a parameter

Parameters prompt the user of a report to enter information. Think of a parameter as a question that the user needs to answer before the report is generated from the Business View information. The information that users enter—or the way they respond—determines what appears in the report. For example, in a report used by salespeople, there might be a parameter that asks the user to choose a region. The report would return the results for the specific region chosen by the user, instead of returning the results for all of the regions.

For detailed information on parameter fields and on advanced parameter features, see the “Parameter Fields” section of the Crystal Reports Online Help.

Employee Full

Creating a new parameter field

You must create and define your parameter field in your Data Foundation before you can use it in formulas of fields. In this tutorial, you will create two new parameters—Order Start Date and Order End Date—that will prompt users to enter a date range for the order(s) that they want to view in a report. You will use these parameters to create a filter in the next exercise, “Inserting

a Business Filter” on page 56.

To create a parameter field



1. On the Insert menu, click Insert Parameter.

Note: In the Object Explorer, you can right-click Parameters, and click

Insert Parameter.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

The “Create Parameter” dialog box appears.

2. In the Name field, type

Note: By default, the name that you provide is automatically used in the

parameter’s Text field. (The text in this field appears when users are prompted to provide a value for the parameter.) You can use the given text or provide your own text for the prompt.

3. From the Type list, select Date.

4. In the Options area, select Discrete value(s).

5. Click the Default Values button.

The “Set Default Values” dialog box appears.

6. Ensure that the Browse table and the Browse field lists are blank.

7. Click the down arrow next to the “Select or enter value” list.

A calendar appears.

Order Start Date.

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Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

8. Navigate to January 2002 and click January 1.

9. Click the > arrow to move the date value to the Default Values list.

10. Click OK.

The default value for the Order Start Date parameter is now January 1, 2002.

11. Click OK again.

Now that you have created one parameter, use the same steps to create another parameter with these properties:

New Parameter 2

Name Order End Date

Prompt text Enter end date of order history.

Parameter type Date

Options Discrete value(s)

Default End Date December 31, 2002

Inserting a Business Filter

By default, a Full Data Access filter and a No Data Access filter are available for your Data Foundation. You can also create your own filters to apply to your Data Foundation. These filters allow you to reference fields, formulas, SQL expressions, parameters, and other filters. You can use Boolean operators to create Business Filters that restrict access to certain information for specific users or groups.

In this tutorial, you will create a Business Filter that uses the two order date parameters that you created in “Inserting a parameter” on page 54. The filter ensures that the records returned are those that fall within specific order start and end dates.

To create a Business Filter



1. In the Object Explorer, right-click Filters, and click Insert Filter.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

The Filter Editor appears.

2. In the “Add fields, filters and operators below to create a Business Filter”

area, navigate to Tables > Orders and double-click Order Date.

Order Date is any value appears in the filters field.

3. Click Order Date is any value.

The Order Date area appears with a drop-down list.

4. From the drop-down list, select is between.

Two more drop-down lists appear.

5. From the two lists, select {?Order Start Date} AND {?Order End Date}.

Note: {?Order Start Date} and {?Order End Date} are the order date

parameters you created in “Inserting a parameter” on page 54.

6. In the Filter Editor toolbar, click Check Filter Validity to verify that there

are no errors in the filter.

7. Click Apply to save your filter.

8. Use the Property Browser to change the name of the filter to

Date Filter.

9. On the File menu, click Save.

Tip: You can also click the Save button on the toolbar or press CTRL+S.

Order

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring Business Elements

A Business Element is an abstraction object that allows you to shape your data fields from a Data Foundation into components that make sense from a business perspective. It is important to understand that the organization of Business Fields in Elements does not need to reflect the shape of the underlying tables in the Data Foundation.

In the tutorial and exercise in this section, you will complete these tasks:

• Create and configure six different Business Elements.

• Create an alias for a Business Field within a Business Element.

Creating a Business Element

You can create Business Elements in two ways. You can create each Business Element individually by choosing File > New > Business Element. However, using the Business Element Wizard is more efficient because it allows you to create several Business Elements at once.

In this tutorial, you will use the Business Element Wizard to create a Business Element called Customer.

To create a Business Element using the Business Element Wizard



1. On the File menu, click New, and then click Business Element Wizard.

2. Select Xtreme Foundation (located in the Tutorial folder) as your Data

Foundation, and then click Next.

3. In the “Create Business Elements” dialog box, expand Tab les, and select

Customer.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring Business Elements

4. Click the > arrow to move the entire Customer table to the Business

Elements area.

5. In the Business Elements area, expand the Customer table, and select

Customer Credit ID.

6. Click the < arrow to remove Customer Credit ID from the Business

Elements area, and then click Next.

Note: This field will not be visible to report designers who create reports

based on Business Views that use this Business Element.

The “Save to Repository” dialog box appears.

7. Select the Tuto rial folder, and click Next.

The “What to do next” dialog box appears.

8. Select Create more Business Elements, and then click Finish.

The Business Element Wizard returns you to the first dialog box (“Choose a Data Foundation”), so that you can create another Business Element.

Exercise: Creating additional Business Elements

Now that you have created one Business Element, called Customer, use the Business Element Wizard to create five additional Business Elements as outlined in the tables below:

Business Element 2

Table to add Employee

Fields to remove

• Home Phone

• Extension

• Photo

• Notes

• Emergency Contact First Name

• Emergency Contact Last Name

• Emergency Contact Relationship

• Emergency Contact Phone

Fields to add

• Years of Service

• Employee Full Name

Note: These two fields are located under

Formulas and SQL Expressions respectively.

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Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring Business Elements

Business Element 3

Table to add Orders

Fields to remove

Business Element 4

Table to add Orders Detail

Business Element 5

Table to add Product

Fields to add

Business Element 6

Table to add Supplier

• Courier Website

• Product Type Name

Note: This field is located in the Product

Type table.

Exit the Wizard once you have finished.

Creating an alias for a Business Field

As a part of the abstraction that Business Elements facilitate, you can create an alias for a Business Field. This can make report design much easier because it allows you to make field names more accurate and descriptive.

In this tutorial, you will create an alias for a Business Field that is part of one of the Business Elements that you created in “Creating a Business Element” on page 58.

To create an alias for a Business Field



1. On the File menu, click Open, and then navigate to the Employee

Business Element. Select it and click Open.

2. In the Object Explorer, expand the Fields node, and select Salary.

3. In the Property Browser, change the name to

4. Click Save.

60 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Annual Salary.

Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Creating and configuring a Business View

Once you have created one or more Business Elements, you can create a Business View. A Business View is a logical collection of Business Elements. Users see Business Views as an abstract database connection, and the contained Business Elements as virtual tables that, in turn, contain Business Fields.

In this tutorial, you will create a Business View based on the Business Elements that you created in “Creating and configuring Business Elements” on page 58.

To create a Business View



1. On the File menu, click New, and then click Business View.

2. In the Object Explorer, right-click the Business Elements node, and click

Insert Business Elements.

The “Insert Business Elements” dialog box appears.

3. Expand the Tut oria l folder and select the Customer Business Element.

4. Click Add.

5. Individually select and add each of the remaining Business Elements in the

Tutorial folder: Employee, Orders, Orders Detail, Product, and Supplier.

6. Click Close.

7. Click Save.

8. In the Object Name field, type

9. Select the Tuto rial folder, and then click Save.

You have now created a Business View from which users can create reports. For information on setting security for each of the objects, see “Business

Views Security Concepts” on page 211.

Xtreme Business View.

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Creating and configuring a Business View

62 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Using the Business View Manager

chapter

Using the Business View Manager

Business View Manager overview

The Business View Manager is a designer for Business Views administrators that provides a wide range of capabilities for creating and modifying Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views. The Business View Manager enables you to design relational views of information. This designer also enables you to set detailed column and row-level security for various objects in your report. You can also use this designer to specify different Data Connections, to set security, and to control access to the data found within various data sources.

In addition, you can use the Business View Manager to apply detailed security settings to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. You can set security rights for users and groups for folders and objects found within the repository. As long as a user has the Business View Manager installed on his or her machine, he or she can use this designer; however, the user must have access rights to folders in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository before he or she can save objects to these specific folders. All Business Views objects are saved to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. For more information on the security settings for the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, see

“BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository security model” on page 77.

This chapter briefly introduces to new Business Views administrators some of the features found within the Business View Manager. It also provides information on using the Repository Explorer, which allows you to navigate the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Working with the Business View Manager

You will use the Business View Manager (BVM) extensively to manage your Business Views system. This designer enables you to create and modify Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views. The BVM allows you to set in detail all of the properties and settings for these various objects, including the necessary security settings for each object.

Any user with valid credentials to BusinessObjects Enterprise can log on to the BVM and create and modify objects to which he or she has access. Because all of the objects found in Business Views are saved to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, the Business Views user must have access to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository before he or she can open, modify, and save different objects.

64 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Working with the Business View Manager

Logging on to the Business View Manager

Every time you use the Business View Manager, you need to log on with the proper credentials. When you log on, you are logging on to the Central Management Server (CMS), which is a part of BusinessObjects Enterprise.

To log on to the BVM



1. In Windows, click Start > Programs > BusinessObjects 11 >

BusinessObjects Enterprise 11 > Business View Manager.

2. When the Log On to BusinessObjects Enterprise dialog box appears,

select the type of authentication in the Authentication list.

3. In the System list, select the appropriate CMS.

4. Type your User name and Password.

5. Click OK.

The Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box appears.

Using the Business View Manager

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Using the Business View Manager

Working with the Business View Manager

Navigating the Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box

The Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box is your starting point for creating a new Business Views object or opening a saved or recently saved object. This dialog box allows you to navigate to any object and also to create and delete new folders and objects within the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Tip:

• While in this dialog box, you can clear the “Show this dialog after

BusinessObjects Enterprise logon” check box if you do not want this dialog box to appear after you log on to the Business View Manager.

• This Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box also appears when

you select the Open command on the File menu—you can select the “Show this dialog after BusinessObjects Enterprise logon” check box if you want to have the dialog box appear again every time you start the BVM.

This dialog box consists of three tabs:

• New

On the New tab, you can select any new object you want you create, including the following:

• Data Connection

A Data Connection enables you to specify and define a data source. For more information on Data Connections, see “Data Connections

overview” on page 96.

• Dynamic Data Connection

A Dynamic Data Connection is a collection of pointers to different Data Connections. For more information on this object, see

“Dynamic Data Connections overview” on page 108.

• Data Foundation

This object is a collection of tables and fields—a Data Foundation enables tables from different data sources to be used together. For more information on Data Foundations, see “Data Foundations

overview” on page 118.

• Business Element

A Business Element consists of a logically related collection of data fields that are based on a Data Foundation. For more information on Business Elements, see “Business Elements overview” on page 162.

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Using the Business View Manager

Working with the Business View Manager

• Business View

A Business View is a logical collection of Business Elements. Users see Business Views as abstract database connections, and the contained Business Elements as virtual tables that, in turn, contain Business Fields. Thus, end users can access Business Views through a client application such as Crystal Reports. For more information on this object, see “Business Views overview” on page 198.

• Business Element Wizard

The Business Element Wizard guides you step-by-step through the process of creating multiple Business Elements directly from a Data Foundation. For more information on using this wizard, see “Using

the Business Element Wizard” on page 176.

• Open

The Open tab displays the Repository Explorer. Use the Repository Explorer to find and open a previously saved object, to filter or change repository view settings, to delete an object or folder, and to create a new folder. For more information on using the Repository Explorer, see “Using

the Repository Explorer” on page 72.

• Recent

In the Object Name column, select from one of the recently modified objects, and click Open to view and update this object.

Navigating within the Business View Manager

Each window within the Business View Manager can be set to be docked or to be in floating mode. You can manually dock each window anywhere in the designer. Logically related windows are typically grouped together: for example, the Property Browser is often grouped with the Object Explorer. You can switch between the different grouped windows by clicking the windows’ appropriate tabs. Double-click the tab to remove the window from its associated group. You can also resize each window by dragging any of its edges with the Resizing cursor.

Within certain windows, you can click Auto Hide (the pin-shaped button located on the top-right corner of a window) to hide the window. The Business View Manager displays hidden windows as tabs. When you click a tab, the window reappears. You can dock windows on top of each other, which results in grouped windows that can be selected by their exposed tabs. You can also close a window by clicking the small “X” button, typically located in the top-right corner of the window. You can select which windows to open through the View menu.

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Using the Business View Manager

Working with the Business View Manager

The Business View Manager maintains all of your settings for each dockable window; thus, depending on how these windows appeared when you last used the Business View Manager, each window may be in docked or in floating mode. In the screen shots that follow in this administrator’s guide, some of your windows may be placed in different locations.

When you have multiple Business Views objects open, you can navigate between the different objects by clicking their respective tabs. These tabs are located on the top portion of the main window. You can also click the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons, located at the top-right corner of the main window to scroll between the various tabs.

Saving an object within the Business View Manager

All of the objects found within Business Views are saved to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository is contained in the Central Management Server (CMS) of BusinessObjects Enterprise. For more information on the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, see “Using the Repository Explorer” on page 72.

When you first save a Business Views object, you need to specify a name for the object and the location you want to save the object to.

To save an object



1. On the File menu, select Save.

Tip: You can also click the Save (Ctrl+S) button or press CTRL+S.

The Save As dialog box appears.

2. In the Object Name field, specify the name of your object.

3. Select the folder you want to save your object to.

Tip: You can create new folders in the repository by clicking the “Insert a

new folder” button.

4. Click Save.

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Using the Business View Manager

Exporting and importing Business Views

The import and export tools enable you to export and import Business Views and their associated objects (that is, the Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundation, Business Elements, and any other objects that the Business Views reference).

When you export Business Views and their associated objects, all of this information is exported as an XML file. Depending on whether you choose to include security information or not, user and group rights are or aren’t included in the XML file. Regardless, for security reasons, passwords for Data Connections are not exported.

The ability to export a complete set of Business Views objects allows you to develop different migration strategies. For example, you can migrate Business Views between CMS cluster installations. That is, you might have reporting systems with separate clusters for development, test, and production systems.

In addition, you are able to extract your Business Views data from within the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. Because the information is saved as an XML file, this format is suitable for storage in a Code Asset Management tool (for example, Microsoft SourceSafe).

Note: When you import an XML file to a repository, even if the file contains

security settings, the security settings for the destination folder may override whatever settings you have in the XML file. Because Business Views uses a denial-based inheritance model, if rights are denied at the folder level, these rights will also be denied at the imported object level.

To export Business Views



1. On the Tools menu, select Export.

The Export dialog box appears.

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Exporting and importing Business Views

2. In the XML Filename field, type the location and the name of the XML file

you are exporting to, or click Choose XML to specify a location.

3. In the “Select Business Views to export” area, choose a Business View to

export.

Note:

• Click the Change view settings button to bring up the View Settings

• Click the Advanced filtering button to filter items by text or by author.

4. Click the > button to move the Business View to the “Selected Business

Views” area.

Tip:

• You can export more than one Business View by selecting different

• Click to < button to remove a Business View from the list of Business

5. Select the Export security information check box to export the security

rights that are associated with the Business View.

Note: Passwords for Data Connections are not exported to the XML file.

6. Select the Preserve folder structure check box to include the folder

hierarchy information of the Business View when it is exported.

7. Click OK to export the selected Business Views.

dialog box. In this dialog box, you can select the item types you’d like to see, and also sort items by Name or by Type.

Click the button again to disable advanced filtering.

Business Views using the CTRL key and clicking the > button to create a list of Business Views to export.

Views you want to export.

To import Business Views



1. On the Tool s menu, select Import.

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Exporting and importing Business Views

The Import dialog box appears.

2. In the XML Filename field, type the name of the XML file you are

importing, or click Choose XML to find the XML file.

3. In the “Select the import folder” area, choose a folder to import the XML

to.

Note:

• Click the Change view settings button to bring up the View Settings

dialog box. In this dialog box, you can select the item types you’d like to see, and also sort items by Name or by Type.

• Click the Advanced filtering button to filter items by text or by author.

Click the button again to disable advanced filtering.

• Click the Delete button to delete items or folders in the list.

• Click the Insert a new folder button to insert a new folder.

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Using the Repository Explorer

4. Select the Preserve CUID when importing objects check box to ensure

5. Select the Merge folder security check box to combine the security

6. Click the Choose Repository button if you want to import the XML file to

7. Click OK to import the selected XML file.

that each object’s unique identifier is preserved during import.

Note:

• If this option is not selected, new CUIDs (an object’s unique

identifier) will be assigned to the imported objects.

• Reports that are based on Business Views reference the specific

Business View’s unique identifier; thus, if the unique identifier is not preserved, upon refresh, the report will fail.

Tip: You can select the Overwrite if CUID exists check box to replace

any object in the folder that has same CUID as the object being imported.

settings of object’s origin folder with the security settings of its destination folder. If there is a conflict, the security settings of the destination folder is used.

a different BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Specify the BusinessObjects Enterprise name, the User name, Password, and Authentication type and click OK.

Using the Repository Explorer

The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository is the central location for you to store and manage your objects. Business Views users store objects such as Data Connections, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views. All of the objects that are found within Business Views are stored in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository that ships with Business Views is contained in the Central Management Server (CMS) of BusinessObjects Enterprise. The CMS is installed when you install BusinessObjects Enterprise and Business Views.

While using the Repository Explorer, you can double-click a Business Views object to open and edit the object. You can also right-click the object to change its settings or view its properties. In addition, the Repository Explorer also displays the name of the current user and which Central Management Server (CMS) the user is connected to.

Note: The repository is also used by Crystal Reports to store supported

Crystal Reports object types, including text objects, bitmaps, custom functions, and commands (queries). For more information on the repository

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as it pertains to Crystal Reports, see the “BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository” section found in the Crystal Reports Online Help. For more information on migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, see

“Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository” on page 85.

Accessing the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository is set up when you install Business Views. You do not have to do anything additional before you use the repository.

To open the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository



1. In Business Views, under the View menu, select the Repository

Explorer.

The Repository Explorer appears.

2. Expand the top node to access the various folders and objects in the

repository.

Note: The Repository Explorer might appear in a docked position in the

Business View Manager depending on where it was when you last used Business Views. You can drag it where you like, or dock it elsewhere.

Toolbar

The Repository Explorer’s toolbar consists of various buttons that allow you to add new folders, search for items, and so on:

• Change view settings

Use this option to open the View Setting dialog box. Use this dialog box to limit the type of repository items displayed in the Repository Explorer. You can also select options to sort multiple items by name or by type.

• Advanced filtering

Use this option to display filtering options at the bottom of the Repository Explorer. Use these filters to find specific items by words from the “Show items with this text in the name:” or the “Show items by this author:” fields.

• Delete the item/folder

Use this option to remove the selected item or folder from the repository. When you delete a folder, you delete all the items it contains. For more information about deleting items from the repository, see “Deleting items

from the repository” on page 75.

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• Insert a new folder

Use this option to add a new folder to the repository. For information on adding a new folder, see “Adding folders to the repository” on page 74.

• Check Dependent Integrity

Use this option to test the Business Views objects that are dependent on the object that you have selected in the Repository Explorer.

• Show Dependent Objects

Use this option to view a list of Business Views objects that depend on the object that you have selected in the Repository Explorer.

• Show Referenced Objects

Use this option to view a list of Business Views objects that are referenced by the object that you have selected in the Repository Explorer.

Adding folders to the repository

You can organize the contents of the repository by creating folders and subfolders in the tree view.

Folders provide you with the ability to organize and facilitate content administration. They are useful when there are a number of Business Views objects that a department or area requires frequent access to, because you can set object rights and limits once, at the folder level, rather than setting them for each object within the folder.

By default, new objects that you add to a folder inherit the object rights that are specified for the folder. For more information, see “Applying security settings

to folders in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository” on page 78.

To add folders to the repository



1. In the Repository Explorer, right-click a node and click New Folder on the

shortcut menu.

Tip: Alternatively, click the “Insert a new folder” button on the Repository

Explorer’s toolbar.

A new folder is added to the bottom of the repository tree. (If your repository items are sorted by type, the new folder is added alphabetically with the default name New Folder.)

2. Name your new folder and press the Enter key.

3. To add a subfolder, right-click your new folder and click New Folder on

the shortcut menu.

4. Name your new subfolder and press the Enter key.

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Renaming folders in the repository

You can rename any folder in the repository, as long as you have View and Edit rights for the folder.

To rename a folder



1. In the Repository Explorer, right-click a folder and select Rename.

2. Rename the selected folder and press the Enter key.

Deleting items from the repository

Any object you store in the repository can be deleted from that repository. Once you remove an object from the repository, it is removed for all users.

Note: The ability to delete repository objects is controlled by the permissions

that are set in BusinessObjects Enterprise. Once you confirm in Business Views that you want to delete the selected object and its dependent objects, you will receive an error message if you do not have adequate permission to delete the object from the repository.

To delete an object from the repository



1. In the Repository Explorer, navigate to the appropriate folder, select the

object you want to remove, and press the Delete key.

Tip: You can also delete a repository object by right-clicking it and

selecting Delete from the shortcut menu. You can also click the “Delete the item/folder” button on the Repository Explorer’s toolbar.

The “Delete Repository Objects?” dialog box appears.

Using the Business View Manager

Using the Repository Explorer

2. Click Yes to confirm deletion of the selected object and its dependent

objects.

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The “Delete Repository Objects?” dialog box displays a Dependency Graph, which displays all of the dependent objects (child objects) that also need to be deleted as well. This dialog box also notes that once the selected object and its dependent objects are deleted, these objects are deleted permanently.

Installing sample repository objects

By default, the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository does not include any sample repository objects. You need to install the sample repository objects to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository on your Central Management Server (CMS).

When you install the sample repository objects, the following folders and objects are added to the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository:

• Commands

This folder includes sample custom commands.

• Custom Functions

This folder includes a number of custom functions.

• Images

This folder contains sample logos.

• Samples > Business Views > Xtreme

This folder contains one Data Connection, one Data Foundation, five Business Elements, and one Business View.

• Text Objects

This folder contains sample text objects.

Note:

• Regardless of whether or not your product licensing includes the use of

Business Views, you can install the sample repository objects through the Business View Manager.

• When you install the sample repository objects, you choose the language

you want for the samples. For example, you can install Korean samples on an English BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

• Using the Business View Manager, you can install samples to any

BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, regardless of whether the Central Management Server is located on a Windows or a UNIX machine.

• For more information on custom functions, commands, images, and text

objects, see the Crystal Reports User’s Guide.

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BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository security model



To install the sample repository objects

1. On the Tools menu, select Install Repository Samples.

The “Install Repository Samples” dialog box appears.

2. Select the language for your sample repository objects from the Choose

Language list.

3. Click OK.

Note: Any existing sample repository objects will be deleted before the

new objects are installed.

BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository security model

The security model for Business Views is based directly on the BusinessObjects Enterprise security model; as such, this flexible security model allows you to be as general or as specific as you want in setting rights for users and groups. You can set these rights through the Repository Explorer, which determines whether users and groups can access and edit specific Business Views objects through the Business View Manager.

Note: This section of the documentation details the BusinessObjects

Enterprise security as it applies to the folders stored in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository; it does not include detailed information on specific security information for the various Business Views objects—for this information on object security, refer to the specific chapter for each object, and also refer to “Security overview” on page 212.

Object rights are the base units for controlling users' access to folders and other objects within the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. When granted, each right provides a user or group with permission to perform a particular action on an object. For any object, you can set security levels that affect individual users or entire groups.

To set object rights within the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, you first locate the object in the Repository Explorer, and then you specify the rights for different users and groups. Each object right can be explicitly granted or denied. The BusinessObjects Enterprise object security model is designed such that, if a right is left “not specified,” the right is denied by default. Additionally, if contradictory settings result in a right being both granted and denied to a user or group, the right is denied by default. This “denial based” design assists in ensuring that users and groups do not automatically acquire rights that are not explicitly granted.

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By setting rights through group membership, you can deny or grant users of a certain group specific object rights. You can take advantage of the inheritance patterns recognized by BusinessObjects Enterprise: users can inherit rights as the result of group membership; subgroups can inherit rights from parent groups; and both users and groups can inherit rights from parent folders. When you need to disable inheritance or to customize security levels for particular objects, users, or groups, you can disable these rights through the Business View Manager.

Note:

• For more information on security as it applies to Business Views objects,

see “Security overview” on page 212.

• For more information on the inheritance model of security as it applies to

folders and Business Views objects, see “Using inheritance to your

advantage” on page 218.

• For more information on security as it applies to BusinessObjects

Enterprise, see the “BusinessObjects Enterprise Security Concepts” section and the “Controlling Users’ Access to Objects” section of the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

Applying security settings to folders in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

Using the Repository Explorer, you can specify which user and/or group has access to specific folders in the repository. Folders provide you with the ability to organize and facilitate content administration. They are useful when there are a number of Business Views objects that a department or area requires frequent access to, because you can set object rights and limits once, at the folder level, rather than setting them for each object within the folder.

Note that folder rights follow the same inheritance model as object rights. Thus, if you set a right on a parent folder, all of its children folders inherit the same security rights. For more information on the inheritance model as it pertains to security, see “Using inheritance to your advantage” on page 218.

Before you can apply security rights to a folder, you must have Set Security rights to the folder. By default, members of the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrators group have full access to all of the folders in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Note: For detailed information on the Edit Rights dialog box, see “Using the

Edit Rights dialog box” on page 213.

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

To apply security settings to a folder

1. In the Repository Explorer, right-click a folder and select Edit Rights.

The Edit Rights dialog box appears.

2. Set the following rights for either a user or a group by clicking the

appropriate check box under each rights column.

• View

This right specifies whether a user or group can or cannot view a folder.

• Edit

This right specifies whether a user or group can or cannot edit the properties of a folder.

• Set Security

This right specifies whether a user or group can or cannot modify the rights that are associated with a folder.

Note:

• A cleared check box indicates that the user or group is denied the

right; a check mark in the check box indicates that the user or group is granted the right; a shaded check box indicates that the right is inherited.

• Click the Preview button to view the final security settings for the

object with inheritance in effect. The Business View Manager resolves the net result of the current security settings and displays the net rights.

3. To add another user or group, click the Add Users button or click the

Add Groups button.

4. Assign rights to the new user or group as needed.

5. Click OK.

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Viewing folder rights

If a user or group does not have View rights to a folder, the user or users in that group will not be able to view the folder in the Business View Manager, nor will they be able to view the folder’s security settings.

To view a folder’s rights settings, in the Repository Explorer, right-click the folder and select Edit Rights.

Creating a list of values

A list of values is a BusinessObjects Enterprise object that contains the values of specific fields in a Business View. Using the Business View Manager, you can create a list of values and use the values of the fields as values for dynamic and/or dynamic cascading parameters. (For more information about parameters, see “Inserting a parameter” on page 145 for parameters in Data Foundations and “Inserting a parameter” on page 169 for parameters in Business Elements.)

List of values are stored inside the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. Like a Crystal report, you can use BusinessObjects Enterprise to schedule a list of values to obtain/update the values of the fields that it references from a Business View.

To create a list of values



1. From the Too ls menu, select Create List of Values Info.

The Select Business View dialog box appears.

2. Expand the folders and select the Business View that contains the fields

that you want for your list of values.

3. Click OK.

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The Create List of Values dialog box appears.

4. In the Name field, specify a name for the list of values.

5. In the Available Fields area, expand the tables and select a field that you

want to include in the list.

6. Click the right arrow to add the field to the list.

7. Continue to select and add all of the fields that you want to include in the

list of values.

8. In the List of Value Fields area, select a field.

• To change the order of the fields in your list, click the Up or

Down arrow.

The order of the fields in the list establishes the order in which information is prompted for the fields in a parameter. For example, suppose that the fields are listed in the following order:

• Country

• Region

• City

A parameter that is based on the list of values will first prompt users for a country, then for a region within the country, and finally, for a city within the region.

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9. Click OK.

The Business View Manager creates the list of values and saves it in the toplevel folder of the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. To modify the list of values, right-click the object in the Repository Explorer and select Edit list of values.

For instructions on how to use the list of values for your parameters, see

“Inserting a parameter” on page 145 for parameters in Data Foundations and “Inserting a parameter” on page 169 for parameters in Business Elements.

Note: The order of the fields in a list of values is especially important

if you plan to use the list of values for dynamic cascading parameters. If the parameter is not cascading, then it will always prompt for the first field in the list of values (which, in this case, is “Country”).

• To specify a description for the field, click the … button beside

the Description Field.

When you click the button, a list that contains the tables and fields in the Business View appears. From the list, you can select a field. The values of the field that you choose become the descriptions for the values of the field that is selected in the List of Value Fields area.

For example, suppose that, in the List of Value Fields area, you select the field “Customer ID.” When you click the … button, you choose the field “Customer Name.” When you create a parameter that uses the list of values (and configure the prompt to use Value and Description), the values that are entered for the parameter are the values of the “Customer ID” field; however, you specify these values by selecting a customer name. The description allows you to provide a value for that parameter without having to remember specific customer IDs. You only have to provide a name.

• To sort the order of the values of the field, select Ascending by

Value or Descending by Value in the Sort Order area.

You can specify the order in which the values of the selected field appear in the list of values. When you create a parameter that uses the list of values, the order that you specified for the field is the order in which the field’s values appear in the prompt.

To schedule a list of values



1. In the Repository Explorer, right-click a list of values, and click Schedule

LOV.

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The Schedule dialog box appears.

2. From the drop-down list, select a field.

Note: The field that you specify is the level up to which data is obtained/

saved for dynamic cascading parameters. For example, if the list of values consists of “Country”, “Region”, and “City” levels, and you choose “Region”, BusinessObjects Enterprise obtains data only for the “Country” and “Region” fields; data is not obtained for the “City” field.

3. Click OK.

The second Schedule dialog box appears.

sIn the Run report list, choose the schedule in which the list of values will be

run. (For more information about the different ways that you can schedule an object, see the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.)

Note:

• If your list of values is based on a Business View that contains

parameters, click the Parameter Values button (at the bottom-left corner of the dialog box) to specify values for the parameters. The button is disabled if the Business View does not contain parameters.

• If your list of values is based on a Business View that requires

database logon, you must also click on the Database Logon button to connect to the Business View’s data source. The button is disabled if the Business View does not require database logon.

5. Click OK.

The list of values is scheduled in BusinessObjects Enterprise.

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Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

chapter

Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository overview

The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository is a database in which you manage shared report elements such as text objects, bitmaps, custom functions, and custom SQL commands. When you save any Business Views object, it is also saved to the repository.

The BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository is now hosted by the Central Management Server (CMS) system database in BusinessObjects Enterprise. Before publishing reports that reference repository objects, move your existing BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository to the Central Management Server database. See the rest of this chapter for details.

For more information on using the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository in the Business View Manager, see “Using the Repository Explorer” on page 72.

Copying data from one repository database to another

BusinessObjects Enterprise enables you to copy the contents of one BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository database into another database. This procedure is also referred to as migrating a BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository database. You can migrate repository data from a different repository database (from version 9 of Crystal Reports, or version 9 of BusinessObjects Enterprise) into your current CMS database. Or, you can migrate the repository data from your current CMS database into a different data source.

Throughout this section, the source CMS database refers to the database that holds the data you are copying; this data is copied into the destination database.

Copying data from a BusinessObjects Enterprise 11 CMS

You may want to copy repository objects from one BusinessObjects Enterprise 11 installation to another. For example, you may have repository data on a test system that you want to move onto a production server.

Use the Import Wizard to copy repository data from the source Central Management Server (CMS). You can choose to merge the contents of the source repository into the destination repository, or you can update the destination with the contents of the source CMS.

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Merging repositories

When you merge the contents of the source repository with the destination repository, you add all repository objects from the source CMS into the destination CMS without overwriting objects in the destination.

This is the safest import option. All of the objects in the destination repository are preserved. Also, at a minimum, all repository objects from the source system with a unique title are copied to the destination repository.

If an object from the source has the same title as an object in the destination, the object is imported to the destination repository if:

• The object is not a Business Views object.

• You have selected “Automatically rename top-level folders that match

top-level folders on the destination system.”

The end result is a destination repository that contains all objects from the source repository that have unique titles, copies of all non-Business Views objects from the source repository that have titles that match titles of objects in the destination, and all objects originally in the destination repository.

When an object is copied from the source CMS to the destination CMS, the folder or folders that contain the object are also copied, replicating the folder hierarchy of the source system on the destination. However, the names of top-level folders must be unique. Selecting “Automatically rename top-level folders that match top-level folders on the destination system” allows these folders to be renamed on the destination repository, and the objects in such folders to be copied to these renamed folders.

Note: Top-level folders containing Business Views objects are not renamed,

regardless of the options set. Renaming these folders would change the unique identifier associated with the Business Views object, causing Business Views functionality to fail.

Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

Copying data from one repository database to another

Updating the destination repository

When you update the contents of the destination repository using the source repository as a reference, you add all objects in the source CMS to the destination CMS. If an object in the source repository has the same unique identifier as an object in the destination, the object in the destination is overwritten.

All object titles in a folder must be unique. By default, if copying an object from the source CMS to the destination CMS would result in more than one object in a folder with the same title, the copy fails.

If you want these objects to be copied, select the check box “Automatically rename objects if an object with that title already exists in the destination system.”

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Note: System Objects (users, user groups, servers, server groups, events,

and calendars), are not renamed when you import them from one CMS to another, regardless of the options set. Changing the names of these objects would cause user management, server management, and event management for these objects to fail.

See the “Importing with the Import Wizard” section in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide for full instructions on using the Import Wizard to copy objects from one BusinessObjects Enterprise 11 repository to another.

Specifying the source and destination environments

This procedure shows how to specify a source environment and a destination environment using the initial screens of the Import Wizard.

1. From the BusinessObjects Enterprise program group, click Import

Wizard.

2. Click Next.

The “Specify source environment” dialog box appears.

3. In the Source list, select BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.0.

4. In the CMS Name field, type the name of the source environment’s

Central Management Server.

5. Type the User Name and Password that provide you with administrative

rights to the source environment.

6. Click Next.

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The “Specify destination environment” dialog box appears.

7. In the CMS Name field, type the name of the destination environment’s

Central Management Server.

8. Type the User Name and Password of an Enterprise account that

provides you with administrative rights to the BusinessObjects Enterprise system; then click Next.

The “Choose objects to import” dialog box appears. Proceed to

“Selecting information to import” on page 89.

Selecting information to import

This procedure shows how to select the users, groups, folders, and reports that you want to import. If you have not already started the Import Wizard, see

“Specifying the source and destination environments” on page 88.

1. In the “Choose objects to import” dialog box, select the check box (or

boxes) corresponding to the information you want to import:

• Import users and user groups

• Import folders and objects

• Import events

• Import server groups

• Import repository objects

• Import calendars

2. Click Next.

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3. In the “Please choose an import scenario” dialog box, click one of the two

options:

• “I want to merge the source system into the destination system.”

Select this option if you want to add objects from the source system to the destination system without overwriting objects in the destination. For more information on this option, see “Merging

repositories” on page 87.

• “I want to update the destination system by using the source system

as a reference.”

Select this option if you want to add objects from the source system to the destination system, overwriting objects in the destination when they have the same unique identifier as those in the source. For more information on this option, see “Updating the destination

repository” on page 87.

Click Next.

4. If you chose “Import repository objects,” the Import Progress dialog box

now displays status information and creates an Import Summary while the Import Wizard completes its tasks.

5. If the Import Summary shows that some information was not imported

successfully, click View Detail Log for a description of the problem. Otherwise, click Done.

Note: The information that appears in the Detail Log is also written to a

text file called which the Import Wizard was run. By default, this directory is:

C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects

11\win32_x86\

The log file included a system-generated ID number, a title that describes the imported information, and a field that describes the action taken and the reason why.

ImportWiz.log, which you will find in the directory from

Copying data from a Crystal Enterprise 9 repository database

In Crystal Enterprise 9, the Crystal Repository database was hosted on a separate database server that you could connect to through ODBC.

In Crystal Enterprise, begin by making a backup copy of the source repository database. Then, replace the repository by importing its contents into the BusinessObjects Enterprise CMS database using the Repository Migration Wizard.

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When you use the Repository Migration Wizard, neither the source nor the destination database is overwritten. Objects from the source repository will be added to the destination repository database. If the Wizard finds identical objects in the source and destination repositories, the source objects will not be copied.

When you copy repository objects into BusinessObjects Enterprise 11, only the most recent version of each object is copied.

Note: Reports configured to use the source repository will now refer to the

destination data source.

To copy repository data from Crystal Enterprise 9



1. From the BusinessObjects Enterprise program group, click Repository

Migration Wizard.You must run the wizard on the machine containing

your source repository.

2. From the Source list in the Select Source Repository dialog, click the

name of the repository that you want to import.

3. Type the UserID and Password of a user with administrative rights to the

repository database. Click Next.

4. The Select Destination Data Source dialog appears. In the CMS field, type

the name of the destination data source’s Central Management Server.

5. Type the User Name and Password of a BusinessObjects Enterprise

account that provides you with administrative rights to the CMS; then click Next.

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6. From the “Source Repository Objects” list, select the items that you want

to copy to your BusinessObjects Enterprise repository database. Click Next.

BusinessObjects Enterprise exports the selected repository objects from your Crystal Enterprise 9 repository, reporting success or failure for each object.

7. Click Next, and then Finish to complete the transfer and close the

Repository Migration Wizard.

Copying data from a Crystal Reports 9 repository database

The Crystal Repository shipped with Crystal Reports 9 was an Access database ( directory of your Crystal Reports installation:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\2.0\bin\

Begin by making a backup copy of this default database. Then, replace your Crystal Reports 9 repository by importing its contents into the CMS database using the Repository Migration Wizard.

When you use the Repository Migration Wizard, neither the source nor the destination database is overwritten. Objects from the source repository will be added to the destination repository database. If the Wizard finds identical objects (that is, objects with the same unique identifier) in the source and destination repositories, the source objects will not be copied.

The folder hierarchy of your existing Crystal Repository is preserved, and reports that were created using your Crystal Reports 9 source repository will work with your new BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

When you copy repository objects into BusinessObjects Enterprise 11, only the most recent version of each object is copied.

Repository.mdb). By default, it was located in the following

To copy repository data from Crystal Reports 9



1. From the BusinessObjects Enterprise program group, click Repository

Migration Wizard. You must run the wizard on the machine containing

your source repository.

2. From the Source list in the Select Source Repository dialog, click the

name of the repository that you want to import.

If you created security for your repository database, type a User id and Password valid for the repository database. Otherwise, leave these fields blank.

3. Click Next.

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Migrating the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

Refreshing repository objects in published reports

4. Log on to the CMS using a user name with administrative rights to

BusinessObjects Enterprise.

5. From the “Source Repository Objects” list, select the items that you want to

copy to your BusinessObjects Enterprise repository database. Click Next.

BusinessObjects Enterprise exports the selected repository objects from your Crystal Reports repository, reporting success or failure for each object.

6. Click Next, and then Finish to complete the transfer and close the

Repository Migration Wizard.

Refreshing repository objects in published reports

As you update objects stored in your BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository, you will want to update the published Crystal reports that reference those repository objects. When you refresh a report in this way, the old repository objects stored in the report are replaced with the latest versions from the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Tip: If you use Crystal Reports to open reports directly from your

BusinessObjects Enterprise folders, you can update repository objects at that time. You can also refresh repository objects when you publish reports. For details, see the “Publishing Objects to BusinessObjects Enterprise” section in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

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Refreshing repository objects in published reports



To refresh a published report’s repository objects

1. Go to the Objects management area of the CMC.

2. Click the link to the report you want to refresh.

3. On the Properties tab, verify that the Enable repository refresh check

box is selected.

Note: If the check box is cleared, select it now and click Update.

4. Click Refresh.

Tip: Once you have enabled repository refresh for each report, you can

refresh multiple reports simultaneously using the Report Repository Helper. The Report Repository Helper is available from Administrative Tools area in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administration Launchpad.

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Creating Data Connections

chapter

Creating Data Connections

Data Connections overview

Data Connections specify and define the data sources for Business Views. They specify which physical data sources are made available to the system and how these data sources are made available. Each Data Connection contains information that specifies the physical data source and its relevant settings, which include the data being accessed, the logon credentials, the type of server being accessed, and so on.

Administrators can apply security settings to Data Connections. Data Connections also pass on a user’s credentials to the underlying data source. These user credentials are set when you create or modify a Data Connection.

Working with Data Connections

When you create a Data Connection, you need to specify and define a data source, along with the necessary connection information. This section details the different data sources that are available. It also details how to create a new Data Connection, how to set the Data Connection password, and how to modify a Data Connection. For more general information on databases, see the “Understanding Databases” section in the Crystal Reports Online Help.

Data sources

Data sources can be chosen through the “Choose a Data Source” dialog box. This dialog box appears when you create a Data Connection from scratch, or when you choose Edit Connection from the Edit menu while you are working with a Data Connection.

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The tree view in the “Choose a Data Source” dialog box lists all of the possible connections for your data source.

Note: The data source options available in the Create New Connection folder

depend on the data access components selected during installation.

Creating a new Data Connection

When you create a new Data Connection, you specify the data source information for the Data Connection.

Note: You can update this information in the Data Connection’s Property

Browser window. Alternatively, you can select Edit Connection on the Edit menu to update the data source information, or you can also click the Edit Connection button on the toolbar.

To create a Data Connection



1. On the File menu, select New, and then select Data Connection.

The “Choose a Data Source” dialog box appears.

Creating Data Connections

Working with Data Connections

2. Expand the folders as necessary and select a data source.

Note: Depending on which data source you select, different dialog boxes

that are related to the data source type appear. Navigate through these dialog boxes and provide the appropriate data source information as needed.

3. Click OK to continue.

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Working with Data Connections

The “Set Data Connection Password” dialog box appears.

Setting the Data Connection password

When you set the Data Connection user name and password, this information is stored in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository.

Note: You can update this information in the Data Connection’s Property

Browser window. Alternatively, you can select Edit Password on the Edit menu.

To set the Data Connection password



1. In the “Set Data Connection Password” dialog box, type the appropriate

User Name and Password. Type the password again in the Confirm password field.

2. In the Runtime Prompt Mode list, select one of the two Runtime Prompt

Mode options:

• Always prompt

Select Always Prompt if you want the user to be prompted for log on information at runtime.

• Never prompt

Select Never Prompt if you have stored logon credentials in the repository (as in step 1). The user will not be prompted for the credentials at runtime. (The stored logon credentials will be used at runtime.)

3. If you want to enable Single Sign On for the Data Connection, select the

“Use Single Sign On when viewing” checkbox. (For information about the Single Sign On feature, see “Single Sign On” on page 99.)

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Creating Data Connections

Working with Data Connections

4. Click OK.

Single Sign On enables users to access the data source of a Business View with the credentials that they use to log on to BusinessObjects Enterprise.

By default, when users click to view a report that is based on a Business View, a logon prompt for the Business View’s data source appears. The users must then provide a valid User Name and Password for the data source before the information in the report is displayed.

As the Business Views administrator, you can disable this prompt by configuring the Business View’s Data Connection in one of the following ways:

• You can specify a User Name and a Password for the Data Connection,

and set the Runtime Prompt Mode to “Never prompt.”

• You can enable Single Sign On.

If you provide logon credentials for the Data Connection and choose “Never prompt” as the Runtime Prompt Mode (as instructed in “To set the Data

Connection password” on page 98), the User Name and Password that you

specify are stored with the Data Connection in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository. When users attempt to view a report that is based on a Business View that uses this Data Connection, the credentials that you provided are used to log on to the data source; users are never prompted for logon information.

Note: In this configuration, the rights that users have for the data source

depend on the rights of the User Name and Password that you specified.

If, instead, you choose to enable Single Sign On, you configure the Data Connection to log on to the data source with the BusinessObjects Enterprise logon credentials of the users who try to view the report. If the users are successfully logged on to BusinessObjects Enterprise, they will not be prompted to log on to the data source when they click to view the report.

To enable Single Sign On, select the “Use Single Sign On when viewing” check box when you create the Data Connection. (To enable Single Sign On for a Data Connection that already exists, open the Data Connection in the Business View Manager and, in the Property Browser, set the “Use Single Sign On when viewing” property to “True”.)

Note:

• In this configuration, the rights that users have for the data source depend on

their rights in BusinessObjects Enterprise. The BusinessObjects Enterprise administrator can customize the data source access rights for each user.

• If you enable Single Sign On, you can leave the User Name and

Password fields in the Data Connection empty.

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Working with Data Connections

In addition to configuring the Data Connections, you must provide connection information for the data sources in BusinessObjects Enterprise to enable Single Sign On.

Single Sign On works only when you view reports that are based on Business Views from within the BusinessObjects Enterprise environment (that is, when you are logged on to BusinessObjects Enterprise and you click to view the reports in InfoView). If you view the reports outside of BusinessObjects Enterprise (for example, from within Crystal Reports), you are prompted to log on to the data source, whether Single Sign On is enabled or not.

Note: Single Sign On also works for Data Connections that are referenced

by Dynamic Data Connections. (For more information about Dynamic Data Connections, see “Dynamic Data Connections overview” on page 108.)

Testing and verifying data connectivity and object dependency

To verify your database connection, select Test Connectivity on the Tools menu. Business Views connects to the data source specified in your Data Connection and tests whether it can connect successfully to your data source or not. Alternatively, you can click the Test Connectivity button located on the toolbar.

To test any objects that are dependent on the Data Connection, select Check Dependent Integrity on the Tools menu. Alternatively, you can click the Check Dependent Integrity button located on the toolbar. For example, if you change the data source for your Data Connection, this change can affect a Data Foundation that uses the information found in the Data Connection—certain tables and fields that the Data Foundation is based on may not exist in the different data source.

Showing dependent and referenced objects

You can view the Business Views objects that depend on your Data Connection. Similarly, you can view the Business Views objects that are referenced by your Data Connection.

To view dependent or referenced objects, in the Tools menu, select either Show Dependent Objects or Show Referenced Objects. A dialog box appears; in this dialog box, click the Save To File button to save the list of dependent or referenced objects to a text file for future reference.

The list of dependent objects displays objects that are affected by the Data Connection (for example, Dynamic Data Connections, Data Foundations, Business Elements, and Business Views). The list of referenced objects displays objects that the Data Connection references. (Since a Data

100 Business Views Administrator’s Guide

Business objects BUSINESS VIEWS User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Introduction to Business Views 11

About this guide

What is Business Views?

Who should read this guide

Business Objects information resources

Business Views Architecture

Business Views overview

Architecture overview and diagram

Client tier

Business tier

Business View Manager

Business Views objects

Data Connection

Dynamic Data Connection

Data Foundation

Business Element

Business View

Data tier

Information flow

Usage scenario

Data Connection layer

Data Connections

Dynamic Data Connections

Data Foundation layer

Using formulas and SQL expressions

Using filters

Using parameters

Using custom functions

Business Element layer

Architectural workflow

Business View layer

Quick Start: Creating a Business View

Quick Start overview

Before you begin

Sample data - Xtreme.mdb

Conventions

Tutorial scenario

What is a Business View?

Logging on to the Business View Manager

Creating and configuring a Data Connection

Creating a Data Connection

Setting a Data Connection password

Saving and naming a Data Connection

Modifying the properties of a Data Connection

Exercise: Creating two more Data Connections

Creating and configuring Dynamic Data Connections

Creating a Dynamic Data Connection

Adding a Data Connection to a Dynamic Data Connection

Sorting Data Connections

Saving and naming a Dynamic Data Connection

Creating and configuring a Data Foundation

Creating a Data Foundation

Linking tables

Inserting a formula

Inserting an SQL expression

Inserting a parameter

Creating a new parameter field

Inserting a Business Filter

Creating and configuring Business Elements

Creating a Business Element

Exercise: Creating additional Business Elements

Creating an alias for a Business Field

Creating and configuring a Business View

Using the Business View Manager

Business View Manager overview

Working with the Business View Manager

Logging on to the Business View Manager

Navigating the Welcome to Business View Manager dialog box

Navigating within the Business View Manager

Saving an object within the Business View Manager

Exporting and importing Business Views

Using the Repository Explorer

Accessing the BusinessObjects Enterprise Repository

Toolbar

Adding folders to the repository