I've just started working with Tivoli Common Reporting 2.1.1 using cognos.
Already installed the TCR and configured a datasource to a db2 database by going to: Reporting-Work with reports-Connection-Configuration-Ds connections.
I want to make a small test report connecting to that data base but since I am new to this technology I don't know how to.
Read somewhere that I need to have Framework Manager to create a model and then use Report or Query studio to create a report using that model.
Can anyone help me by guiding me on how to start making this first test report?
From these I am assuming I need this framework, then I have to configure something in that software to point to my db2 then create something of a model.
Then use report or query to handle this model and create a report. I've been reading manuals for a few days but can't seem to get it working otherwise.
Is there anyway to get already made reports and configure them to use my db without using framework manager? since I think framework only works in windows and I installed it in a SUSE.
Tivoli Common Reporting is not an independent product that could be bought separately. It is always shipped with other IBM Tivoli products that have some reporting capabilities. That means you should have some out of the box reports that were shipped with the Tivoli product you bought. You could open these reports in Report Studio and try to modify them. That way you will use the model of these reports, so you won't need Framework Manager.
However when you want to report on data that are not included in the model then you need to use Framework Manager. You are correct that FM is only for Windows, but that shouldn't be a problem. It connect to a TCR/Cognos server on another machine.
Also be aware that there is a license limitation: TCR is provided for free with other Tivoli products, but only for use with Tivoli data. If you want to report on your sells data then you need to purchase Cognos separately.
Related
Morning all,
I have recently deployed Crystal Reports 2013 and Crystal Server 2013 in a test environment, as we are currently using the 2008 version of both products.
As this deployment is in a test environment; I am keen to implement and try out as much as possible to implement the best solution as possible.
One of the things I have enabled is Auditing. Once set-up I went looking for the best way to utilise this but everything seems to allude to needing a Universe creation tool (Information Design Tool) which I don't have and can't obtain, as our SAP products are provided via a third party and we don't have access to the BI Client Tools.
So I'm back to trying to figure this all out via custom Crystal Reports.... I've read plenty of articles, one which provided me with the links needed between the Database Tables, but there don't seem to be any articles on what tables etc to use.
Has anybody done this?
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm tearing my hair out at the minute!
Direct RBMS access
Have a look at the official SAP documentation (I'm using the BusinessObjects manuals, but information in them should apply to Crystal Server as well), more specifically the Business Intelligence platform Administrator Guide (SP doesn't really matter, auditing doesn't tend to change much within a major release).
There are two sections that are important for you:
The Auditing chapter, more specifically the section regarding Audit events.
The Auditing Data Store Schema Appendix, which contains all the detail regarding the audit schema you could need.
Using a universe
Have a look at the SCN blog post Unlock the Auditing database with a new Universe and Web Intelligence Documents for BI4.1. It contains a download link to an LCMBIAR file which you can import into your BI4 environment, without the need for a universe client tool. There's also a webinar and documentation available. The prebuilt WebI documents should save you a lot of time.
Requirements:
BI Platform BI 4.1 Support Pack 5 or greater for the Web Intelligence Documents
BI Platform BI 4.1.x for the Audit database to be queried
Instructions:
Download the content (take the highest build numbered zip file)
Import one of the five 'Universe' LCMBIAR files into your system using Promotion Management (it will go into BI Platform Auditing folder)
Import the Web Intelligence LCMBIAR file (it will go into BI Platform Auditing folder)
Edit the connection that is imported (in BI Platform Auditing folder) with the correct login credentials.
Open the Web Intelligence document STA1 - Start here - Events over time.wid as your starting point!
The only issue might be with step 4, where you need to edit your connection. I don't know if you'd be able to edit the imported connection through the Crystal Reports application?
I want to create a reporting website and if coding is required, I am familiar with C#. I saw people talking about Crystal Reports but wasn't clear whether it can work well in .NET web application. Besides Crystal, what are the other options? Is there simply a "database browser" web app that only requires a DB connection and all other customization is optional? Sorry for the stupid questions, I have zero experience in reporting.
Thanks
No problem,
It is depend on the report type that do you want to display and data quality that you want to achieve.
You can use traditional spreadsheet like utilizing for MS Excel or other spreadsheet software for half baken report. This report style can be further use or data feed for another report.
This techniques is easy since most of report generated is csv files or xml files that can be imported in spreadsheet.
You can use like Crystal report or report viewer from Microsoft (SQL Server or report viewer). This is an easy way to create report since it intend as presentation or end user support. You can drill down to its detail using report viewer but I suggest you use spreadsheet to do some report operation like pivoting or something.
In this case you concern about data quality too. is it half baken solution;to be processed later; or need cleansing using ETL?
You can use various tools or software like business intelligent tool from Microsoft SQL Server, or IBM tools or oracle tools to do that. There are many of them taht suite to your needs and can be integrate to your software.
If you want a database browser, you can download VS 2010 with SP1 and EF 4.1. I forget the web project template that can use as insert update delete and it is already created for you.
You might want to check Report Viewer for SQL Server Reporting Services or ReportViewer.
I would like to use the information contained in BusinessObjects repository as a datasource for a Crystal Reports. Unfortunately, this information isn't persisted in a simple table structure--most of the properties are stored in encrypted, binary fields.
The are a number of ways to access BO's repository:
'traditional' SDK (Java, COM, .Net)
SOAP SDK (http://[server:port]/dswsbobje/services/listServices)
query tool (http://[server:port]/businessobjects/enterprise[11|115|12]/adminlaunch/query/)
Option 1 won't work in my situation, as I would like to deploy the reports with BO Enterprise, rather than a customized web application.
Option 2 may work, but I'm not certain how well Crystal Reports interfaces with SOAP, especially since it would need to connect to a second SOAP service for authentication.
Option 3 doesn't work because it returns HTML (not XHTML)
My most-viable option at this point is to re-write #3 to return an XML document and create the supporting XSD. If I do so, I'll probably post the solution on github.
Another option would be to (somehow) add a REST wrapper around the SOAP services. This sounds like a pretty daunting task.
Has anyone had any success doing what I need to do?
The SOAP option would be the most straight-forward, as enabling Web Services is a very simple option toggle in one the XML config files followed by a restart of Tomcat.
REST options may be available already, but would depend on your specific BO version. I'm pretty sure that Explorer had some type of REST option during the XI R2 era, and as of BO 4.0, SP4, you should be able to do this: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_bip_rest_ws_en.pdf
Finally, you have the option of direct ODBC access to the repository database. As of 4.0, MS SQL Server 2008 is the default for Windows, IBM DB2 for unix or linux, but MySQL (the prior default option) can still be used as well. ANy of these should be straight forward to access, and provide more detail than the standard repo interface.
If you go that direct-access route, for security reasons I would recommend a proxy setup, or replication into a database that already handled your reporting needs.
Im new to Microsoft entity framework and wonders if it's possible to use this framework with a DB2 iSeries AS/400? Are there any problems at all when working with this kind of "legacy systems"? and the EF framework?
You can use Entity Framework to connect to an ISeries DB2 database one of three ways:
1. If you purchase the license to IBM's DB2 Connect product. The license is around $12,000 which is outrageous. Also, there is not enough good documentation for how the DB2 Connect product actually works, how it installs, or its possible benefits. I've contacted one of their resellers to get a test install and it was not an intuitive process so we never purchased the product. Likewise, there doesn't appear to be any demos. I don't understand how IBM can have one of the best servers available but don't bend over backwards to leverage their product to Microsoft developers.
That said, if you research this topic you will find much information saying that you can use Entity Framework using their ADO.Net data server provider. I went down this path but I will warn you that their data server provider only works when DB2 connect is installed. This is confusing because IBM advertises this ability but doesn't often show the direct correlation between the two products so you're often left thinking that it will work without db2 connect which it will not at this time.
2. Purchase a third party data provider designed for Entity Framework. Progress software's Data Direct is super easy to use. I don't like how their server licensing works though because their server license is per core processor for your app server. This is flawed because this assumes you only have one app server when in reality, people regularly need to have different app servers for load balancing. I would prefer they just license per one ISeries server. However, you can purchase the licenses for each individual user if you decide to do that.
3. Write your own data provider. This is possible but there are obvious drawbacks.
It sort of looks like it is - see here:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v9r5/topic/com.ibm.swg.im.dbclient.adonet.doc/doc/c0054118.html?resultof=%22%65%6e%74%69%74%79%22%20%22%65%6e%74%69%74%69%22%20%22%66%72%61%6d%65%77%6f%72%6b%22%20
but quite honestly, I'm not 100% sure - especially not if it supports EF 4.0 (yet).
Or check out the IBM DB2Connect site and search from there...
Does anyone know good ways/tools/approaches for using Crystal Reports with Salesforce.com?
I know that Crystal Reports for Salesforce exists but I'm wondering what other possibilities there are...
It looks like your data is tied up with salesforce.com if you can export data you could use crystal reports independent of salesforce.com.
Other links on exporting data:
http://sfdc.arrowpointe.com/2008/04/28/do-you-backup-your-salesforce-data/
http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/97976/Export_All_via_Data_Loader
http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/23579/Scheduled_Data_Export_to_backup_database
Our solution may not work for you, but we've decided to host our reports on an external reportserver which is written in c# and exposes a SOAP based web service because the Crystal Reports for Salesforce solution you mentioned didn't offer us the flexibility we needed.
The process is essentially:
Salesforce makes a soap based call to the report server
Report server collates data from Salesforce via the Salesforce Soap API
Report server renders the report and returns it to salesforce
To answer my own question, we eventually decided to set up a local read-only copy of the Salesforce database in MS Sql Server, and develop reports based on that. This allowed the report-writing people to use all the familiar SQL tools they know, without the restrictions on what-can-be-joined-to-what that the native Salesforce database has.
We're using a piece of software called DBAmp to do this - It makes Salesforce appear in SQL Server as a 'linked server', and provides stored procedures you can use to download entire Salesforce tables, or just download changes to a Salesforce table since the last time. This makes it very easy to set up a local copy of the data that gets updated every night.