Business Views vv Universes (multiple data sources)????

[Former Member]

Our customer has a number of databases but they would like to have a single point of reference for reporting. They currently have BOE XI R2 with Business Intelligence, Crystal Reports, Business Views and Universes.

I gather that the latest recommended products are Universes and Business Intelligence. However the customer is used to Crystal Reports and all the literature and advice we have received is that Universes cannot support multiple databases even though they are supposed to be a replacement for Business Views!

So what are the problems with going for Business Views instead of Universes?

Will Universes support multiple database connections in the near future?

Will Crystal Reports be updated to fully support Universes? Will there be a simple migration path from Business Views to Universes once Universes gain multiple database support?

How long will Business Views continue to be supported for?

I can't find any information to answer any of these questions.

--- Alistair.

[former_member793810 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can use Data Federator to combine mutiple Datasources and then create Universe on the top of it.

What DF does is to create target table on the base of multiple DSs and then a universe is created.

You need a sperate license for DF.

Regards,

Bashir Awan

[Former Member]

Crystal can support multiple queries against different data sources, so you could create more than one data source in the same report. This works fine as long as the row counts are small.

Multi-source universes are coming (finally!) in XI 4 which is entering (or has entered) BETA testing now. General availability should be next year.