SAP Crystal Reports - What's New in BI 4.1

Coy W. Yonce, III – September, 2011

SAP Crystal Reports Roadmap Overview & What’s New in BI 4.1

Template Revision 20110725 v2.2

©  2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2 This presentation and SAP‘s strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement

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Product Overview �  What is Crystal Reports? �  Where does it fit in with other Business Analytics solutions?


SAP Crystal Reports Proven world standard for pixel-perfect reports

For Internal Operational Reports and Customer Facing Information

n  Easy to consume, highly formatted documents with guided interactivity

n  Personalized, information rich documents communicate value quickly


Transform Data to Stunning Pixel-Perfect Documents

Report Author build reports quickly

Build Professional Quality Documents Easily

n  Connect to data directly or via semantic layer

n  Intuitive free-form reporting with simple workflows

n  Transform, format and layout data with precision and powerful methods

n  Securely distribute relevant reports globally to millions in batch or on-demand

n  Embed reports within business applications

Large Scale

Business Applications Multiple delivery options


Crystal Reports in the BI Platform

Business Analytics

•  Business Intelligence

•  Enterprise Information Management

•  Data Warehousing

•  Governance, Risk, and Compliance

•  Enterprise Performance Management

•  Analytic Applications

Roadmap Overview �  Where are we now? �  Where are we headed?


Crystal Reports in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0

�  Major update & re-design of the Crystal Reports Designer and associated processing servers

�  Focus on the needs of the Large Enterprise & customers with SAP deployments

�  Provides the foundation for all future releases of Crystal Reports

�  Incremental update to CR 2008 with two new features �  Focused on serving the needs of standalone customers �  Continue to deliver existing functionality with no regressions

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

SAP Crystal Reports

2011


SAP Crystal Reports 2011

No major changes and two minor new features

Delivered as a means for allowing customers to adopt the new designer at their own pace


Easy-to-use, new design environment for novice and professional designers

Create simple reports to represent complex data within a few minutes

Streamlined experience across the suite

Tabbed Tool Bar

WYSIWYG

Point and Click

Easy-to-use Navigation Panel

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise


Planned Innovations Future Direction TODAY

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise Product Roadmap

Streamlined Report Design �  Tabbed UI Navigation, New UI for

Managing Sorts and Groups �  New Charting UI �  Smart Guidelines �  Smart Formatting

Data Sources �  Native Client on Common Semantic

Layer �  Start from Analysis Views �  BICS for SAP BW and BEx Queries

New BI Platform Features �  Localization �  Platform Driven Alerting

New APIs �  RESTful Web Service, oData �  AJAX API

Visualizations and Viewers �  New Charts �  Enhanced Viewer Workflows

Online Report Templates �  Online Library of Report Templates �  New Set Data Source UI

Data Sources �  Limited Direct to Data �  Essbase and SAP ECC �  SAP BW and BEx Improvements

New BI Platform Features �  Insight to Action �  Live Office & Search �  HANA

Broader Delivery �  Rebrand for non-Enterprise �  Close major gaps

Data Sources �  Complete Direct to Data �  “Push” Data �  “Cloud” Data �  SAP BW and BEx Query

Improvements

New Runtime for Report and Dashboard Content �  Scalable, Embeddable Reporting

Service �  SaaS Enabled

Report Look and Feel �  Net New Visualizations �  Styling �  Smart Defaults

This is the current state of planning and may be changed by SAP at any time.


Planned Innovations Future Direction TODAY

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 Product Roadmap

Viewer Interactivity �  Interactive Parameters �  On-Report Sort and Drill

Breadth of Data Access �  Direct Connectivity, Web

Technologies, Semantic Layer

Data Visualization �  Over 40 Charts, Dashboard

Integration, Crosstabs

Report Delivery �  Scheduling & Publishing �  Multiple Export Formats &

Languages �  Embedded Into Applications

New Platform Support �  Visual Studio 2010, Office 2007

New Platform Support �  Continued support of new data

sources, applications, and operating systems

Continued Improvement �  Minor updates to existing

features

New Platform Support �  Continued support of new data

sources, applications, and operating systems

Continued Improvement �  Minor updates to existing

features


Crystal Reports in BI 4.0 �  What did we deliver in the new designer? �  What about the feature gaps compared to CR 2008 / CR 2011?


SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.0

Streamlined Report Design •  Completely redesigned user experience •  Tabbed UI navigation, redesigned sort and group

management UI, new chart UI

•  Smart Guidelines & Smart Formatting

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Features •  Platform driven localization of report data and

metadata •  User driven subscriptions to report alerts

Data Sources •  Native client on the new Common Semantic Layer (UNX) •  Create a report from a saved “Analysis View” •  New connectivity for data coming from SAP BW and BEx Queries


Feature Gaps in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise More information

�  Major feature gaps between SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise have been documented in a public facing wiki. In addition, the wiki contains information about when the feature gaps are planned to be resolved.

�  The Feature Evolution Guide also provides some differences in features and will be updated as releases progress.


Crystal Reports in BI 4.1 �  What’s coming in the first minor release of the new platform? �  …and what about those feature gaps?


Planned innovations New APIs

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 will deliver new application programming interfaces for embedding both SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise and SAP Crystal Reports 2011 content into web-based applications. These new APIs will be more efficient and easier to leverage than existing APIs.

RESTful Web Service �  Navigate reports via REST service �  Expose metadata behind reports �  Supports CR 2011 and CR for Enterprise content �  Export to multiple formats �  Embed reports into any programming language �  Push data into the report �  Only available via BI Platform with the BI 4.1 release

JavaScript API �  No client-side installation or deployment �  Supports CSS styling �  Custom Javascript and event listener support �  Integration with other APIs �  openDocument URL’s are compatible �  Only available via BI Platform with the BI 4.1 release



Planned innovations Visualizations and Viewers

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.0 saw the introduction of a new data visualization engine behind the scenes. This was not a visible modification for report creators or consumers. In SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1, SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise will introduce new charts and improved interactions.

New Charts �  Foundational use of suite-wide visualization engine �  Tag Cloud, Treemap, Box Plot �  Side by Side with existing charts

Enhanced Viewer Workflows �  Continuous scrolling �  Breadcrumb navigation of drilling rather than tabs �  New search panel



Planned innovations Web Repository

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

As one of the major goals of the new SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise designer is to reduce the amount of time taken to build reports, a new feature is being introduced to “remove the blank slate” of report design. The new online library of templates can be leveraged to find a report that already exists and adapt it.

Online Library of Report Templates �  Online catalog of report templates �  Accessible via the start menu or open menu command �  Continually updated catalog available in the designer

New Set Data Source UI �  Associated new data connection to template �  Reuse across identical data models �  Manual mapping of report fields to database fields �  Data type conversions �  Placeholder fields represented by formulas



Planned innovations Data Sources

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 introduced new data connectivity options in the form of the common semantic layer, analysis views, and BICS. With SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1, the designer will again provide direct access to unmodeled data and will deliver improvements in our platform connectivity.

Direct to Data �  Generic ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB �  Oracle, MySQL, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft

Access, Microsoft Excel, Sybase, Teradata �  Displays previously created connections �  Leverage data mapping UI from web repository �  Open and refresh reports with no migration effort for

supported data sources

Common Semantic Layer Improvements �  Access to Essbase and SAP ERP �  SAP BW and BEx improvements related to variable

management and the exposure of scaling factor �  Support for Hana tables, views, calculated views, and

analytic views



Planned innovations New BI Platform Features

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 will consume new platform level features as well. These features are meant to extend the value of the BI platform to report creators and consumers.

Insight to Action �  Bind SAP Report-to-Report Interface (RRI) actions to

report objects �  Invoke actions from the report thereby passing data from

the report �  Supported for reports based on BEx Queries

Live Office and Search Support �  Support the inclusion of Crystal Reports for Enterprise

content into LiveOffice query �  Display Crystal Reports for Enterprise content in search

results from a search executed in the BI LaunchPad



Feature Gaps in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise More information

�  Major feature gaps between SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise have been documented in a public facing wiki. In addition, the wiki contains information about when the feature gaps are planned to be resolved.

�  The Feature Evolution Guide also provides some differences in features and will be updated as releases progress.


Appendix SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise BI 4.1 Feature Details - APIs


REST APIs - Formatted XML - Report Fields Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API exposes the available fields in a report and can expose the available fields in a report in an XML formatted representation.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Row Level Details Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API exposes row level details for the reports in an XML format.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Single Row Details Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API can expose row level details for a single row from a report. The results will be presented in an XML format.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Single Field Value Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API can expose a value for a single field from a report.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Report Metadata Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API can expose the metadata behind a report so that a developer can traverse a report structure.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Export Formats Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  Using the RESTful API, an application developer can use a single URI call to export a report to available formats.


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REST APIs - Formatted XML – Inside an IDE Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The RESTful API can be used within any IDE that allows for connecting to RESTful web services.


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AJAX APIs – Embeddable Viewer Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  It takes fewer lines of code to embed the new viewer. The viewer is also loaded from the server via a JavaScript seed rather than loaded client-side.


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AJAX APIs – Embeddable Viewer Styling Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The AJAX API allows for custom styling via CSS.


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AJAX APIs – Default Embeddable Viewer Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  Default embedded viewer from the AJAX API.


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AJAX APIs – Custom JavaScript Events Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The embeddable viewer allows for customization via added or removed buttons. The AJAX API allows for the trapping and execution of JavaScript events.


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AJAX APIs – Integration with Third Party APIs Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The AJAX API allows for integration with other APIs. In this example, a “Set Country” button has been added that integrates with the Google Map API for filtering the data in the report to a chosen Country.


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Appendix SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise BI 4.1 Feature Details – Visualizations and Viewers


Visualizations – Tag Cloud Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  One of the new charts being added for SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 is a tag cloud visualization.


Lab Preview


Visualizations – Box Plot Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  One of the new charts being added for SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 is a box plot visualization.


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Visualizations – Tree Map Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  One of the new charts being added for SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 is a tree map visualization.


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Viewer – Continuous Scrolling Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The viewer has an enhancement in that you can now continuously scroll through a report to load subsequent pages rather than paging via the page navigation buttons.


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Viewer – Breadcrumb Navigation Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The viewer has an enhancement that provides navigation through drillable report sections via a breadcrumb at the top of the viewer rather than exposing those detail sections via a new tab.


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Viewer – New Find Panel Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The viewer has an enhanced search panel that lazy loads search results and allows for navigation to the specific instance of the keyword directly from the search panel.


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Appendix SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise BI 4.1 Feature Details – Report Web Repository


Report Templates – Online Repository Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 will provide access to an online library of report templates that are available from directly inside the desktop designer.


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Report Templates – Edit Template Data Source Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  When viewing a report template inside the desktop designer, it is possible to edit the current data source in order to connect it to another one.


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Report Templates – Set Data Source Wizard Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The “Set Datasource” wizard has been enhanced to support new workflows required by report templates. You can connect the report to multiple data sources and map fields from the report to the new data sources.


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Appendix SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise BI 4.1 Feature Details – Direct to Data


Direct to Data – New Data Source UI Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise in BI 4.1 adds in the ability to connect to datasources directly rather than via the Common Semantic Layer. With this new comes a new data connection UI.


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Direct to Data – Connection Parameters Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  The new data source UI provides the ability to set connection parameters as report designers have been able to do in the past.


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Direct to Data – Table Joins Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  As with previous versions of Crystal Reports, the new direct to data capabilities in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise allow report designers to join tables directly within the Designer.


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Direct to Data – Report Migration Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  If a legacy report’s data source is supported by SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, then there is no prompt to the end user. The direct connection is rebuilt in the new format required by SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise when the user attempts a refresh.

�  If the data source is not supported, then the user will be informed and a migration wizard will help the user move the report to a new data source.


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Common Semantic Layer – Bex Query Scaling Factor Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  In the initial release of SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, it was not possible to tell if a value coming from a BEx Query was scaled. This will be possible in BI 4.1. In addition, the scaling factor is available for a local calculation.


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Common Semantic Layer – Variable Management Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  In the initial release of SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise, there was no easy way to manage all BEx Query variable values. This will be possible in BI 4.1.


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Appendix SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise BI 4.1 Feature Details – Platform Features


Embedded Analytics – Report to Report Interface Planned innovations

PLANNED INNOVATIONS

�  In SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise as part of BI 4.1, it is possible to execute actions from an SAP system directly within a report.


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Thank You!