Crystal Report migration from 2008

[former_member340306]

Hello Everyone.

We have a client who wants to migrate from crystal 2008 to Business Objects 4.1 latest version. Based on my understanding, crystal 2008 content has to be migrated to crystal 2013 before it could be migrated to BO 4.1 environment. I have the following question, please advise:

1- Is migration of Crystal 2008 to Crystal 2011 seemless ?

2- Is crystal 2013 a standalone installation ? if yes, then does it share the repository with business 4.0 Objects?

3- I have been reading that crystal 2013 has limited functionalities with .unv universes, what are the limitations?

4- what features from crystal 2013 are not yet supported in crystal for enterprise 4.1 sp6 e.g.

5- Can we just install crtsyal 2013 and open reports from crystal 2008 or there needs to be migration tool involved?

6- brief idea of crystal 2013 platform installation?

7- considerations for migration from crystal 2013 to crystal for enterprise 4.1 SP6 considering all data sources are relational?

Thanks,

Sheikh Hassan Ayub

[former_member340306 · Accepted solution]

Hi Abhilash,

Do you have any good documentation that shows installation of Business Objects 4.1 environment with Crystal 2013.

I understand that Crystal 2013 is supposed to be used with BO 4.1 but what I am confsed about it e.g. if I install BO 4.1 SP6 , does it get installed with all 32 bit (CR 2014) and 64 bit(CR enterprise) components and only additional thing is to install the client tool for CR 2013 designer or is there any else during the installation that needs to be done for integrating CR 2013 with BO 4.1 repository.

Sheikh

[abhilash_kumar · Accepted solution]

Installation of BI 4.1 has nothing to do with the CR 2013 designer.

BI 4.1 installs everything it needs - 32-bit services, 64-services etc.

CR 2013 designer is a separate installer, usually installed on client machines. You connect to the BI 4.1 repository via the 'Repository Explorer' using the Enterprise credentials.

-Abhilash 

[former_member340306]

Great - now it all makes sense !! thanks Abhilash !

[abhilash_kumar]

Hi Hassan,

1) Yes, using the 'Upgrade Management Tool' in BI 4.1

2) Yes, CR 2013 is a standalone designer tool and connects to the repository just like the older versions did.

3) One of the major drawbacks of reporting against a .unv using CR is that it doesn't multiple SQL statements. This could be an issue with Universes that have multiple contexts defined.

It doesn't let you create a dynamic prompt - the prompts are sourced from the universe and then there are a few others..

4) Have a look at this wiki:

From Crystal Reports 2008 to SAP Crystal Reports 2013 or SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise - Busine...

5) Reports created in any older version of CR are fully supported in CR 2013. So you could open a report created in CR 2008 using CR 2013 and save it so that the version number changes to 2013.

6) Same as BI 4.1 installation

7) I would still use CR 2013 against relational sources as CR for Enterprise works best with .unx and SAP Sources. Not all features exist in the new flavour and I find designing a report in CR 2013 is much much quicker than doing the same using the CR4E version.

Hope this helps.

-Abhilash

[former_member340306]

Hi Abhilash,

Thanks for your response, If I understand It correctly, crystal 2013 shares the same BO 4.1 enterprise repository, that means I can export a report from crystal 2013 designer to BO 4.1 platform once 4.1 platform is in place?

If that's the case then the only addition thing I need is the client for crystal 2013 , is that correct or there is a server installation for crystal 2013?

Sheikh

[abhilash_kumar]

CR 2013 is supposed to be used with BI 4.1!

There also exists something called the CR Server 2013 which is used only by Crystal Reports specific farms. Think of this like a stripped down version of the BI 4.1 Server that only runs CR reports - costs less too.

-Abhilash