hi suraj,
You first invested in SAP R/3®, and then you implemented SAP BW®, but are you still challenged with creating information which is easily interpreted and acceptable for presentations to your organization's management? Usually the answer is " yes." This is why clients in similar situations choose to utilize a formatted reporting tool, which often turns out to be Crystal Reports®. They choose a third-party reporting tool because of its ease of development, native connections to SAP products and overall tight integration.
Traditionally, in order to access SAP BW data, a BW query is used as a data source for the Crystal Report. Most, if not all of my clients at some point have posed such questions to me as, "Should I build my complexity and rules into my query, and have a simplified Crystal Report, or should I build a generic query and a complex Crystal Report?"
Usually, clients build the complexity in the area they have a stronger skill set. If they employ strong Query Developers, then most of the complexity, rules and formatting get done in the query. If they have stronger report writers, the query ends up returning everything; later to be filtered within the Crystal Report.
A good rule of thumb to always remember: the minimum processing time for any Crystal Report will be the processing time of the BW Query. It is theoretically not feasible for the report to ever process quicker then the query is able to generate the data set. So the first goal is to have the BEx Query return the smallest set possible in the most efficient manner. If your query is already taking five minutes to return a small data set, you probably wouldn't want to build more complexity into it.
note :
Is your data available from an InfoProvider versus using a MultiProvider? MultiProviders have additional joins which usually affect performance.
Is your query based InfoProvider where it can be written against an ODS? Similar to the previous argument, the ODS has less joining so the data is able to be read more efficiently.
Is you query written against Remote Cube, or virtual Info Cubes? By definition, these cubes can be stored just about anywhere, such as other SAP BW systems, an SAP R/3 system, or even a third party system. All require additional processing to access data.
Do you really need all the data being returned by the BW query? Best Practice is to create one query per one Crystal Report. It is not efficient to create one large query satisfying the needs of multiple reports. The one large query should be broken down into multiple smaller queries. This is not always necessary for all organizations. Some organizations work just fine using one large query for 20 reports. It really depends on the environment and the amount of data being queried.
Are many BEx Query formulas being used? Formulas are evaluated at run time versus calculated key figures which are pre-calculated and reused.
Have filters been applied when possible? Applying filters reduces the data set returned and processing time.
Have efficient BW aggregates been created? Aggregates optimize the performance of the BW query, as well as any Crystal Reports written upon it. Several smaller aggregates are more efficient than one large aggregate.
Turn off BEx totaling rows. This causes data to be returned slower, and usually not used with in Crystal Reports.
Formatting
Crystal Reports has been one of the premiere report writing tools for about the last 15 years with millions of users, imbedded in countless enterprise applications, and used by 500 software vendors. Needless to say, they do formatting well. So, why try and complicate a BW query with formatting when Crystal is known for its formatting, and it can be done far more efficiently? So, in terms of efficiency and processing; a formula within BW BEx Query and a formula within a Crystal Report are the same. There is little-to-no benefit of placing format type items on the query side.
Another benefit of formatting within Crystal involves date fields. BW stores dates as strings; making it difficult to do calculations against them, such as "start (less end) date." By just querying the date fields, the necessary formulas can be easily calculated in Crystal Reports.
Design Considerations
BW Variables vs. Crystal Parameters
There is no right or wrong answer when discussing whether to use variables versus parameters; but you need to have an understanding of how your data will be used. One consideration is where you prefer to have the filtering of records to take place.
With the BW variable, all filtering will be conducted on the SAP side versus with the Crystal parameters; where all records are returned from the database and filtered within Crystal.
From a straight efficiency standpoint; the BW variable seems like the right choice -- but you need to take into account how the data is being used within the report.
For example, if you need to use the data which does not meet the filtering criteria within other formulas of your report, then the variable would return a sufficient dataset. Some of the other limitations of using variables revolve around the lack of flexibility when referencing the variable in report design, and the inability to modify selection values. Both of these are not an issue with Crystal parameters since they are easily used within the report design -- and can utilize dynamic and cascading parameters.
Multiple Data Sources in these :
With BEx Queries, you are limited to only one datasource. With Crystal, you have several options of how to incorporate multiple data sources into one report. You can base your report on a third-party metalayer (such as the BusinessObjects Universe and/or Crystal Business View), which can be built to incorporate multiple sources of data. Utilizing Crystal Reports alone, you can simply use one BW query for the "main" report and create separate "subreports" – you would incorporate these subreports into your main report – using additional BEx Queries.
By taking into account some of the above points, you can be assured you are fully utilizing your SAP investment by providing avenues for individuals to disseminate information which is easily interpreted and acceptable for presentation to anyone in your organization giving the decision making the tools to act.
thanks
karthik
rewatd me if usefull
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