|
Return to Newsletter Contents...
Creating Business Views
by: Kristen St. Jean, Sr. BI Consultant, CRCP
A Business View is the semantic layer (a translation layer
that sits between the database and an application that “translates” the fields
into names and structures that the user of the application can understand)
specifically designed to be used with Crystal Reports.
Business Views consist of one or more Data Connections, a Data
Foundation, and one or more Business Elements.
These are created using the Business View Manager (one of the Business
Objects Enterprise Client Applications).
Data Connections are created by simply connecting to a
database. Each connection connects
to one database. A Data Foundation
is created by using one or more Data Connections to connect to the database, and
then the Business View designer chooses the tables from the database(s) that
contain the fields necessary for the final Business View and the joins are
defined for these tables. Once the
Data Foundation has been defined, Business Elements are created.
Business Elements will appear as tables to a report designer in Crystal
Reports. Formulas can also be
created in the Data Foundation that will appear as fields to the report
designers. This is very helpful
because many times we don’t have access to add fields in a database, but we can
in the Business View Manager. This
allows a formula to be created once and reused in multiple reports rather than
having to be recreated in each report in which it is necessary.
This is where the fields and tables can be organized into a less
complicated manner and given names that are meaningful to the designers who will
be creating the reports. Once
Business Elements have been created, Business Views are the final step.
A Business View is made up of one or more Business Elements, so, for
example, as the Business View designer, you can choose to create ten Business
Views with one Business Element each or one Business View that contains ten
Business Elements. Which route you
take in designing your Business Views depends on the reporting needs.
An important thing to remember is that only a Business View can be used
in a Crystal Report, so you’ll need any elements necessary for the report in the
Business View.
These are the basics of creating a Business View.
Another important aspect of Business Views is their ability to provide
view time security in Business Objects Enterprise.
Filters can be set up in the Business View Manager that allow us to
restrict certain Business Objects Groups or Users from certain data.
For example, I could set up a filter that says, “market = East” and apply
this to my “East Sales” group in Business Objects.
As the administrator, when I schedule the report, it will run for all of
the markets, but when a user in the “East Sales” group logs into view the report
they will only see data for the East market because we applied the filter to
their group. This can reduce report
processing on the server since the report only has to be run once and then data
is restricted depending on the user who logs in to InfoView to view it.
This may seem more complicated than simply choosing tables
and linking directly in Crystal Reports, but the advantage to Business Views is
that once they are created, you can use them in as many reports as you want, and
the naming conventions are meaningful to the report designers and all of the
table linking is predefined for them.
These are huge advantages to using Business Views, but when you add in
the ability to incorporate view time security in Business Objects Enterprise,
Business Views become a very powerful and time saving way to create Crystal
Reports.
Go to Top |
Return to Newsletter Contents
|
