This is part 4 of the Installation and Configuration blog series for the integration of BusinessObjects with SAP. I will describe the following parts:
- BusinessObjects Edge Series XI Release 3.0 (Part 1)
- Crystal Reports 2008 (Part 2)
- Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 (Part 2)
- Live Office XI Release 3.0 (Part 3)
- SAP GUI (Part 3)
- Integration Kit for SAP Solutions XI Release 3.0 (Part 4)
- SAP Transports (Part 4)
SAP Java Connector
The SAP Java Connector is being leveraged from BusinessObjects Edge and the SAP Integration Kit as part of the SAP Authentication plug-in in the Central Management Console.
You can download the SAP Java Connector from the service marketplace (http://service.sap.com/connectors).
I am downloading the version 2.1.8
After unzipping the Java Connector download, I copy the file sapjco.jar to the shared library folder of the application server (in my example : \Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat55\shared\lib) and the file sapjcorfc.dll to %windir%\system32.
(see page 51 in the installation guide for the Integration Kit for SAP Solutions for details)
SAP Integration Kit
Now we can start the installation process for the SAP Integration Kit.
I select English as language and click OK to go to the next step.
In the Welcome screen I click Next ...
... and accept the license agreement.
In the next screen I enter the license key...
And move to the next screen to select the Language Packs.
In the next screen I select "Custom" to select all components from the SAP Integration Kit.
In the next screen I can select the components and the screen below shows the complete list of all available elements (details see further down in the blog).
In the next screen I need to authenticate to the BusinessObjects Edge system so that the necessary changes can be applied to the system database.
I authenticate towards the system and move on to the next step.
In the next step I need to enter the details for the publishing service that is being used to publish the Crystal Report objects from the BI System to the BusinessObjects Edge server.
The elements on the screen are
| Program ID | Type a descriptive string to identify the BW Publisher service. The Program ID can take any value, but must be 64 characters or fewer, and may not contain spaces. The Program ID is case-sensitive |
| Gateway Host | Type the name of your BW server. If you have a BW cluster, enter the name of the central instance of BW. |
| Gateway Service | Type the port number that the Gateway Host is listening on. For example, type 33##, where ## represents the instance number of your SAP Gateway. Usually, the instance number is 00, and the value for this field is 3300. |
The details for the Publishing Service and those settings will be explained in the next part where we will configure the publishing for Crystal Reports.
In the next screen I can select to deploy the web applications (customizations to InfoView, SAP Authentication plug-in) automatically.
In the next step the installation routine is asking if the SAP Java Connector has been deployed. the installation can continue without the files but then the files need to be deployed afterwards.
After this the installation starts and the final screen you will see looks like this.
As soon as the installation is finished and when you call the Central Management Console from the BusinessObjects Edge server you should be able to select "SAP" as authentication method and your screen should look similar to this.
Now we need to install the transports from the Integration Kit for SAP Solutions on the SAP server.
Installaton of SAP transports on the SAP server
The BusinessObjects Integration Kit for SAP includes transports as part of the product. These transports include functionality especially designed for the integration with SAP. The following is a list of functionalities that require SAP transports:
- Open SQL connectivity.
- InfoSet connectivity.
- BW MDX Driver connectivity.
- BW ODS connectivity.
- SAP authentication.
- Content Administration Workbench.
- BW Query parameter personalization.
The transports are available as part of the SAP Integration Kit in a separate folder "\transports" with a detailed documentation about the import and the objects that will be created in the appendix of the Installation Guide for the SAP Integration Kit.
Components of the Integration Kit for SAP Solutions
The following is a short description of the components that are part of the installation of the Integration Kit for SAP Solutions
SAP Connectivity
This component provides database drivers that are designed specifically for reporting off SAP data. The following drivers are included:
- Open SQL.
- InfoSet.
- BW Query (BW Query only).
- BW MDX (BW cubes and queries).
- ODS / DSO
- OLAP BAPI.
Except the OLAP BAPI connectivity the drivers are only available for Crystal Reports.
SAP Authentication
This component allows you to map your existing SAP roles and users to BusinessObjects Enterprise users and user groups. It also enables BusinessObjects Enterprise to authenticate users against the SAP system, thereby providing Single-Sign-On to your SAP system.
BW Publisher
This component allows you to publish reports individually or in batches from SAP BW to BusinessObjects Enterprise.
Web Content
This component includes the SAP specific customizations to BusinessObjects Enterprise InfoView. These customizations include functionalities like multilingual scheduling for Crystal Reports and the ability to retrieve personalization values for SAP Variable from SAP BW queries.
BW Content Administration Workbench
The Content Administration Workbench allows you to administer report publishing functionality from within SAP BW. You can identify roles from the SAP BW system with particular BusinessObjects Enterprise systems, publish reports, and synchronize reports between SAP BW and a BusinessObjects Enterprise system.
SAP Enterprise Portal - iView template & sample iView
The BusinessObjects Integration Kit offers a specific iView template which allows quick creation of new content for the Enterprise portal and surface content from the BusinessObjects Enterprise system. The template offers BusinessObjects Enterprise specific functionalities like choosing a content viewer or choosing between a last instance and on-demand reporting.
Some useful links:
Platform Matrix for BusinessObjects products
Installation Guides for BusinessObjects products
In the next parts of this blog series we will continue to configure topics like SSO and publishing for the Integration between BusinessObjects and SAP.
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