Is it possible to read data by connecting to Universes from .NET?

[Former Member]

Hello all,

i am completely a newbie to SAP BI. I am using SAP BI platform 4.0 and trying to connect to a universe for data extraction using .NET SDK.

while i have read that Universes are just semantic layers I want to know for sure that there exists no option to read data from it.

Again I want to emphasize that i am trying to do this using Visual Studio .NET 2010 and SAP BI Platform 4.0.

please let me know.

Thanks in advance

[Adam_Stone · Accepted solution]

Universes are available to be reported off of using one of the reporting tools with the product, not for direct consumption.  You could use the SDK to read data from the report you built off the Universe. 

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Adam,

in that case, which way of reporting would you suggest?

Crystal Reports or Web Intelligence?

please point me to developer articles if you have any on any of these.

Thanks again

[Adam_Stone · Accepted solution]

I have gotten data from a Crystal Report when connecting directly to a database, have never tried it when using a universe connection.  The functionality is using the RowSetController in the Report Application Server (RAS) SDK.  I can't seem to find any sample code that does this.  If you have troubles doing this, I would suggest posting in the .NET SDK Application Development Space

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks again Adam,

i'll try with Crystal Reports way to displaying the results. i also need to get my head around on Web Services with Business Objects a bit.