Monday, January 16, 2012
Publishing Configuration Part 3
BusinessObjects and SAP - Publishing of Crystal Reports Part 3 of 3 |
In the first two parts of the publishing configuration we did configure the publishing service, the RFC destination, the BusinessObjects server definition in the transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN and the source parameters.
This time we finish the configuration and as last step we will configure the necessary security rights on the BusinessObjects server.
BusinessObjects security configuration for publishing
To be able to publish a report from SAP BI to BusinessObjects Edge the users need to have the necessary rights in the BusinessObjects system.
The following is a suggested differentiation:
- BusinessObjects Enterprise administrators
Enterprise administrators configure the BusinessObjects Enterprise system for publishing content from SAP. They import the appropriate roles, create necessary folders, and assign rights to those roles and folders in BusinessObjects Enterprise.
- Content publishers
Content publishers are those users who have rights to publish content into roles. The purpose of this category of user is to separate regular role members from those users with rights to publish reports.
- Role members
Role members are users who belong to content roles. They have rights to view and schedule content that has been published to the roles they are members of.
However, regular role members cannot publish new content, nor can they publish updated versions of content.
The following are recommendations for the previously described BusinessObjects user groups:
Role Members
BusinessObjects Edge imports a group for each role that is added to the entitlement system as defined in the CMC. To ensure that suitable default rights are granted to all members of a content bearing role, grant the following rights in the Content Administration Workbench for each entitlement system that is defined in BusinessObjects Enterprise:
- Default Security policy for reports = View
- Default security policy for role folders = View on Demand
Content Publisher
Assign the following rights to a publisher role in the Central Management Console:
- Add objects to the folder.
- View objects.
- Edit objects.
- Modify the rights users have to objects.
- Delete objects.
- Delete instances.
- Copy objects to another folder.
To set those recommended rights I logon to the SAP Server and start the transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN.
I double-click on my system entry and navigate to the tab "Layout".
Now I can set the default security based on the recommendations.
After I configured the rights on the SAP side I now log onto the Central Management Console.
And select the item Folders.
I navigate down to the folder for my SAP System ID.
I select the folder and go to the menu Manage > Security > User Security.
I can now Click Add Principals....
...and by clicking Groups I can select the roles from the SAP system.
I can click Add and Assign Security ...
... and navigate to the Advanced tab. And click Add/Remove rights.
Now I can configure the rights for this role.
At this point you :
- Did configure the SAP Authentication and imported roles (previous blog)
- Did configure the publishing service
- Did create a RFC Destination in transaction SM59
- Did create a BusinessObjects Server definition in transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN
- Did assign the necessary rights to the SAP roles in BusinessObjects Edge
And as a result you should be able to publish a report from Crystal Reports Designer.
You can create a new report in the Crystal Reports Design using the SAP specific menus and when saving the report to BW you will be asked if you also want to publish the report from the BW system to the BusinessObjects system - which based on te configuration we did should result in a successfully published report and a report on the BusinessObjects Edge server.
In the next blogs I will explain the SAP specific features in InfoView and the Content Administration Workbench
For those that missed the installation parts, here are the links to the blogs:
Installation and Configuration Part 1
Installation and Configuration Part 2
Installation and Configuration Part 3
Installation and Configuration Part 4
Configuration of the SAP Authentication
Publishing Configuration Part 2
BusinessObjects and SAP - Publishing of Crystal Reports Part 2 of 3 |
This is the second part of three where I explain how you can configure the BusinessObjects system and the SAP BI system to leverage the publishing workflow with Crystal Reports.
In case you followed the first part you should now have the publishing service running, a RFC Destination in transaction SM59 configured and a configured BusinessObjects server definition in transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN.
Now we continue with the configuration steps.
Configure the SAP source parameters
In addition to the definition of the BusinessObjects server you also need to configure the SAP Server settings that should get used for the reports in the BusinessObjects server. You could - as an example - design a report against an application server but then when publishing it switching to a message server with a logon group.
I start the transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN (Content Administration Workbench)....
And navigate to the SAP System settings in the Publish reports area.
I select the item Set BW source parameter.
... and click on the button New Entries.
I can now enter either a combination of application server and system number or a combination of application / message server and logon group. These settings will then be used and configured in the actual Crystal Report object when the report is being pushed from the BI system to the BusinessObjects server.
Configuring the SAP HTTP request handler
To enable viewing of reports in BW via the role menu (for example, opening a Crystal Report from the SAP GUI), you need to configure BW to use the HTTP request handler that is included as part of the Crystal Content Administration Workbench transport. Then, when a BW user opens a Crystal report from within the SAP GUI, BW is able to route the viewing request over the web appropriately to BusinessObjects Enterprise.
I start transaction SICF (Maintain services)...
...and navigate to the the folder default_host / SAP / BW
I double-click on the service ce_url.
... and select the tab "Handler List" .
I then change the list to ensure the entry /CRYSTAL/CL_BW_HTTP_HANDLER is the top entry.
This specific handler is part of the ABAP Transports (see the Installation and Configuration for details).
This configuration allows the user to also start a report from inside the SAP GUI (for example: from the role menu) and thenecessary server details are then resolved dynamically based on the configuration we made earlier in the transaction /CRYSTAL/RPTADMIN.
In Part 3 I will explain the necessary steps in regards to security on the BusinessObjects server.
For those that missed the installation parts, here are the links to the blogs:
Installation and Configuration Part 1
Installation and Configuration Part 2
Installation and Configuration Part 3
Installation and Configuration Part 4