Building your own Embedded Analytics application - part 2.

[RafkeMagic]

In my previous blogpost I basically talked about the necessary settings to make your ERP system "embedded analytics" ready. Now it's time to start "playing". We'll start easy by simply enabling Crystal as a way of "display" (instead of ALV lists).

This is mainly done in customizing. So let's start transaction SPRO and browse to SAP NetWeaver > Application Server > SAP List Viewer (ALV). The accompanying documentation refers to OSS note 1350344. This note describes the compatibility of the CR Viewer (separate software which allows end users to merely "display" Crystal Reports without the need for a full blown Crystal Reports on their pc). It also describes the prerequisites and supported platforms, so I suggest you read it carefully.

The first step with regards to customizing can be found here:

in the next screen, enter the following:

Next customizing step is:

in the screen that follows you basically "allow" Crystal to show a report instead of ALV:

So, how do we now make use of this?

To illustrate I have created a simple InfoSet Query (but you could do this as well on standard reports, your own reports, queries, etc...). Let's run my InfoSet Query "as normal":

This is a "basic" list, right? Ok, now let's show it as a Crystal Report (using the "standard template" - you can change this template or create your own later on). Click the Change Layout button (see screenshot below), go to the View tab and select Crystal Reports via the drop down menu:

The result is as follows (remember we just took the "standard template", so we just clicked continue in the next popup):

That wasn't so hard now, was it?

I have to thank tammy.powlas for her explanation in Embedding Crystal Reports inside ECC ALV Reports which was a great help with my first steps in the Embedded Analytics "world".

In my next blog I'll talk about "available content".