Integrate with SAP BusinessObjects BI Data in JReport Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for SAP BusinessObjects BI data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports as if SAP BusinessObjects BI were a relational database, allowing you to query SAP BusinessObjects BI data using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to SAP BusinessObjects BI data as a JDBC data source and create reports based on SAP BusinessObjects BI data in JReport Designer.

Connect to SAP BusinessObjects BI Data

1. Edit C:\JReport\Designer\bin\setenv.bat to add the location of the JAR file to the ADDCLASSPATH variable:

   ...
   set ADDCLASSPATH=%JAVAHOME%\lib\tools.jar;C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for SAP BusinessObjects BI 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.sapbusinessobjectsbi.jar;
   ...
   

2. Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
3. In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for SAP BusinessObjects BI), select JDBC, and click OK.
4. In the Get JDBC Connection Information dialog you will configure your connection to the JDBC driver:
   • Driver: Be sure that the Driver box is checked and fill in the name of the class for the driver: cdata.jdbc.sapbusinessobjectsbi.SAPBusinessObjectsBIDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:sapbusinessobjectsbi: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     To connect to your SAP Business Objects BI instance, you must set the following connection properties:

     • Url: set this to the rest API URL. After logging into the Central Management Console, choose 'Applications' from the combo box. Double-click on 'RESTful Web Service' and you'll see the access URL. By default it is, http://{Server-Name}:6405/biprws.
     • User: set this to the username of your instance.
     • Password: set this to the password of your instance.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP BusinessObjects BI JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapbusinessobjectsbi.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:sapbusinessobjectsbi:User=username;Password=password;Url=http://myinstance:6405/biprws
   • User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.

5. In the Add Table dialog, select the tables you wish to include in your report (or in future reports using this data source) and click Add.

   Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.

6. In the Catalog Browser, you can create the queries that you will use to populate your reports. You can do this now, or after you create your report. In either case, expand () the data source (CData JDBC Driver for SAP BusinessObjects BI), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query.
7. In the Add Table/View/Query dialog, expand () the JDBC URL and Tables and select the table(s) you wish to use in the query and click OK.
8. In the Query Editor dialog, you can select the columns you wish to include or simply click the SQL button and manually input your own query. For example:

   SELECT StoreName, TotalRevenue FROM MyCustomReport WHERE State = 'CA'
   

   With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add SAP BusinessObjects BI data to a new or existing report.

   NOTE: Now that the query is built, you can create a Business View based on the query. With a Business View, you can create Web reports or library components based on the query. For more information on this, refer to the JReport tutorials.

Add SAP BusinessObjects BI Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with SAP BusinessObjects BI data.

1. Create a new report (File New Page Report) or open the Chart Wizard for an existing report.
2. Select the Query (or create a new one; see above).
3. Assign a Category and Value for the chart from the columns in your Query and click Finish.
4. Click the View tab for your report to see the chart.