Report Engine

In the enterprise reporting scenario, the Crystal Enterprise report servers (Cache Server and Page Server, or Report Application Server) work as the report engine. They provide a report source for the viewers and expose a report object model that allows developers to interact with a report through code. The Crystal Enterprise system also has several additional services that provide a framework for report scheduling, security, and management. Using these services allows developers to quickly integrate this functionality into their applications.

The ReportClientDocument Object Model

To interact with the report through code, the Crystal Enterprise Report Application Server (RAS) provides a ReportClientDocument object model. This object model encapsulates the Crystal Reports report (.rpt) file and provides a runtime instance of the report including its data.

RAS can modify the ReportClientDocument instance at runtime and persist these modifications back to the Crystal Reports report (.rpt) file.

RAS can also create a ReportClientDocument instance at runtime, and save this instance to a Crystal Reports report (.rpt) file on the fly.

The ReportClientDocument object model exposed by the JRC is a subset of the ReportClientDocument object model exposed by RAS. This simplifies application migration from embedded to enterprise reporting.

You can interactively explore the ReportClientDocument Object Model in the Crystal Enterprise Report Application Server at the following Business Objects website: http://www.businessobjects.com/ipl/default.asp?destination=objectmodel&language=EN

The Report Source

The viewers use a report source instead of an object model to interact with a report. This allows the viewers and the engine to communicate more efficiently during high demands for report processing.

When you query the Crystal Enterprise system for a report, the enterprise system will fetch the report and return it as an InfoObject with a report source property. If you do not need to interact with the report through code, you can pass this report source directly to a viewer for display.

If you need to interact with the report through code before passing it to a viewer, you can convert the InfoObject to a ReportClientDocument object. You then retrieve the report source directly from the ReportClientDocument report source property and pass it to a viewer for display.

Scheduling and Report Management

The ability to schedule reports has several advantages, such as scheduling complex reports for processing overnight, scheduling report processing to archive historical data, and scheduling a broadcast of common reports to large groups via email.

Report Management provides desktop features for users, such as an inbox and favorites.



Business Objects
http://www.businessobjects.com/
Support services
http://www.businessobjects.com/services/support/