BEST PRACTICES : Managing Dynamic Parameter BVs in BOE-XI (R2) 1

[MJRBIM]

BOE-XI (R2) patched with SP-1, MHF-1 and CHF-15.

We have some RPT developers who are now starting to do some testing of the "Dynamic Parameter" functions in Crystal Reports XI.

When these reports are posted to our BOE-XI (R2) infrastructure they create Business Views components which need to be configured by an Admin for database connection, etc through the desktop "Business View Manager" tool.

This process is a little "clunky" in comparison to managing RPTs or WebI documents, and has left us with the following questions...

1.) Is there any way to manage these Business Views for RPT Dynamic Parameters via the CMC rather than the desktop BV Manager tool...?

2.) If we update / publish RPTs with Business Views to the BOE-XI (R2) infrastructure are existing BVs updated, or new BVs created...?

3.) How can we determine which specific Business Views are tied to which specific RPTs on our BOE-XI (R2) infrastructure...?

4.) Can Business View lists be SCHEDULED to update at a certain time each day (like List-Of-Values) rather than execute the SQL each time the drop-down is clicked in InfoView...?

5.) Are there any "BEST PRACTICE" documents for managing Dynamic Parameter Business Views in BOE-XI (R2)

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[bdreed35]

1) No, the only way to manage the BV's is to use the Business View Manager.

2) Once you publish the report the first time, a new BV is created in Enterprise. If you republish the report that was already published in Enterprise, it will use the existing BV.

3) You have to open the the report file, and look at the name of the LOV it is using. You may be abe to get the folder name from here to determine what folder the BV is stored in.

4) The LOV object that is created off of the BV for the parameter can be scheduled. Right click on the LOV object in the BV manager's Repository Explorer and you will see an option to schedule it.

5) I don't know of any best practice docs, but I can provide a few things that I follow:

>Always create the BV objects you need for parameters in the BV Manager and then point the report to the appropriate LOV object. This will make it easier to organize and manintain the objects, rather than letting duplicate objects get created when users publish reports.

>Remove the rights to the folder that Crystal will publish and create the BV's in when a report is published. This will prevent a user from being able to create new BV's without the administrator knowing about it.

~Brian

 

[MJRBIM]

Brian - Thanks for the quick and detailed repsonses!

 

[MJRBIM]

Add another question to the thread....

6.) What is the Best Practice for "promoting" Business Views from one BOE-XI (R2) environment to another (ie. DEV to TEST to PROD)...?