Publishing BusinessObjects reports to SharePoint

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/02/12/publishing-businessobjects-reports-
to-sharepoint

One of the most common requirements for BusinessObjects End-users is to utilize the
capabilities of the Microsoft SharePoint by publishing the BusinessObjects reports to
SharePoint document library. People tend to ask for Export the Business Objects report to
SharePoint Document library so that it will be searchable in SharePoint.

Below are quick steps to configure the reports to publish them in SharePoint. Please note
this not the Integration of BusinessObjects with SharePoint.
1. Identify the SharePoint document library where your BusinessObjects reports
to be published. Go to document library and open it in the windows explorer
view. Copy the UNC path for the explorer view which will be something
like //<sharepoint_server>/<site>/<Document_library>/
2. Make sure you can browse to the SharePoint location using UNC path. If your
URL is http://Servername/SiteDirectory/Title then the equivalent UNC path
would be like the below \\Servername\SiteDirectory\Title. We need the
Webclient Service running on the box to access this UNC path (step 4).
3. If the URL is accessible you should be able to schedule the report to
\\Servername\SiteDirectory\Title\SharedDocuments provided if you use
Document Workspace as a template. The folder structure will wary as per
the template you select.
4. Go to your BusinessObjects server and start the web client service.This service
is needed to access and modify internet based files (SharePoint doc library).
Enable and start the service
Webclient.

If you are using Windows Server 2008, Please note Webclient Service is not
enabled by default. You need to follow the below steps.
a. Open Server Manager and click the Features node.
b. If "Desktop Experience" in not already listed under Features,
click "Add Features".
c. Select the "Desktop Experience" item and then click next followed by
Install.
d. Reboot the PC as instructed.

5. In the BusinessObjects, schedule the report to be exported to a file location.
Provide the UNC location which you copied earlier.


6. You should be able to see your report in SharePoint now.


Advantages from publication of reports in SharePoint

SharePoint search facility will be an added advantage as you are allowed to search the reports in
SharePoint itself.
Utilize SharePoint versioning - SharePoint actually stores a new file with same name as a new
version of the document provided versioning is turned on in SharePoint setting for the document
library.
Utilize SharePoint Security - You can utilize the security applied at SharePoint document library
along with your BusinessObjects Security.


Points to consider
If you create a schedule with default name it will contain '~' in the file name which is not allowed
on the SharePoint by default. So make sure you configure the instance to you any valid name by
adding the place holder in the schedule e.g. %SI_NAME%
We need to schedule the report only in Agonistic file formats such as .xls,.pdf and .txt etc. If you
try to schedule the report with its default format (WebI) the above steps are not applicable as it
needs actual SharePoint integration.
If you try publishing most of your reports to SharePoint, It may reduce the BusinessObjects
usability as most of the report viewers tend to use the SharePoint document library instead of
Infoview or BI Launchpad. This is what happened when we implemented BusinessObjects report s
SharePoint publication:).
Hope you find this Interesting. Looking forward all your valuable feedbacks. Keep reading!


SharePoint Integration and Configuration with
BusinessObjects
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-43111
This is the continuation of my blog on Sharepoint publication of BusinessObjects reports
here Publishing BusinessObjects reports to SharePoint and this gives an overview about
Sharepoint integration considerations (Prerequisites, Features), Installation and
Sharepoint site creation.

1. Prerequisites for Sharepoint Integration
Administrative rights in the installation server
Microsoft .NET 3.5 or higher is installed on the system
BI 4.0 supports only Java version of BILaunchpad
Before installing, we need to ensure that one of the following software is installed on the system:
o Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
o Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
o Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
o Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Hardware & Software requirements
Requirement SharePoint server 2007 SharePoint server 2010
Operating System (Windows) 64 bit operating systems 64 bit operating systems
Processor Two dual core 2.8 GHz Two dual core 2.8 GHz
RAM 4 GB 8 GB
Minimum disk space 1.3 GB 1.3 GB
Free Space for Language packs
installation 1.4 GB 1.4 GB
Web browser support
Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and 4.0
Internet Explorer 7, 8 and 9
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and 4.0

2. Installation
Compared to earlier version of IOMS integration kit (XI 3.x) the MOSS integration
for BI 4.0 will be much easy and will not ask you for a .Net SDK installation as a
prerequisite. Instead the entire required prerequisites are added in to the Installer to
make the installation simple. The step by step process of Installation is detailed in the
interactive tutorial here http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-20437
Videos
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/a072cc1d-a480-2e10-2d90-
f4d2afbf5cf7&overridelayout=true
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/e0fcfa1c-a375-2e10-98a4-
86d6b3a4c61e&overridelayout=true

3. SharePoint Site creation
Once IOMS is installed, we need to create a site in SharePoint based on the pre-
defined template. Then the newly created SharePoint site will be utilized by the users for
their day to day activities instead of accessing BusinessObjects using it's proprietary tools.
following interactive tutorial will guide you to create a new SharePoint site based on the
SAP Business Objects template http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-20425

4. Reference : BusinessObjects Sharepoint user experience
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/251162/Features-from-SharePoint-2010-
Integration-with-SAP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbOv9cmLbUo



Publishing webi to sharepoint without BO-Sharepoint
integration

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/04/01/publishing-webi-to-sharepoint-
without-bo-sharepoint-integration

We have just finished publishing webi reports to our non-enterprise end users at a sharepoint location without
using BO-Sharepoint integration kit. So I just wanted to share the workflow with the forum users.

In order to publish webi reports to sharepoint the followings routes can be followed







Please look at the following SCN blog for the Path III http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-
platform/blog/2013/02/12/publishing-businessobjects-reports-to-sharepoint


Let us have a look at the Path I in detail

Steps to be done

1) First set up your sharepoint to accept emails from BO publication. Go to library settings


2) Then go to incoming email address option o set up the email, to which the BO publication will send emails


3) Provide a username for the email address and check the associated settings


4) Now go to the publication and use this email address as the recipient email address and run the publication.
The files created in this way are now saved in the root folder as given in the email settings of the sharepoint
email address.


Features from SharePoint 2010 Integration
with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/251164/Features-from-SharePoint-2010-Integration-with-
SAP
Introduction
The client I'm consulting with asked me about what features the SharePoint 2010
Integration with BI 4.0 (IOMS 4.0) can bring on the table in terms of enriching their
Corporate portals, since they have recently successfully migrated their existing BOXI R3
platform onto newly released BI4.0 enterprise server. (Note: after confirming with the
client, it's a "Ramp-up" instead of "GA" version of the BOE server installation.)
After a bit research and reading, I quickly put together a feature list based upon the
following major aspects:
Search Ability Improvement
Collaboration
Integration (one-stop-shop)
Simple, Rapid Installation and Deployment
Accessibility
Integrated Security Model with Single Sign-On (SSO) feature
Search Ability Improvement
Unified Search Experience
IOMS provides flexible site searching options allowing users to search just the IOMS site
or the IOMS site plus all other SharePoint sites. When all SharePoint sites are searched, the
best match results appear on a single SharePoint search page.
Index and Search BI4.0 Meta Data
Users are now able to conduct free text search across all of this metadata at the same time.
In addition, the search index has expanded to include other meta information about files as
well as the actual content of the file.
For example, the dimensions, measures and values inside a WebI report are now indexed
and made searchable by users. This is very powerful as now users can get results when
searching for customers or products, locations or people or anything else that may exist in
the content of files.

Diagram 1, the Webi/Crystal reports can be fully searchable through the SharePoint 2010 portal
Collaboration
The authorized users can leverage discussion feature within the SharePoint 2010 portal to
collaborate with colleagues by adding comments to documents (such as Web Intelligence
document) in the report repository.

Diagram 2, to create a Webi report discussion within the report
The post message can be easily deleted or adjust their importance. The user can also reply
back to the sender of the message or respond to the group as a whole.

Diagram 3, to create a message on the Webi Report level
As part of the meta data associate with the Webi Report, the discussion content for the
report can also be indexed and searchable through the SharePoint portal.
Integration (One-stop-shop)
Authorized users can manage their content directly from SharePoint. This includes the
ability for users to:
Set report schedules
Edit report properties
Set parameters
View report history
Delete files
Send files to inbox
Email or FTP
And many more

Diagram 4, there are lot functionality available to manage the report through the SharePoint portal
User Interface
In addition, users can add or upload new content from Local machine to BusinessObjects
without having to leave IOMS.
Users can open, view and interact with the content directly from SharePoint. Depending on
the type of file, the file may be opened directly in a web browser (such as in the case of a
crystal report, WebI document or Xcelsius dashboard) or in the appropriate thick client
application (such as in the case of opening a Word document, PDF file).

Diagram 5, the Webi report schedule can be set up through the SharePoint portal
The URE or content explorer webpart or Document explorer is flexible now to choose
columns you would want to see, number of items you would want, choosing the start
folder, etc.
IOMS includes SharePoint webparts that allow administrators to enhance existing
SharePoint sites with business objects content. Out of the box IOMS 4 ships with a number
of SharePoint WebParts that allow you to enhance other SharePoint sites with BI reports,
dashboards and content stored in BusinessObjects.

Diagram 6, the Webi Report can be viewed/updated/embedded within the SharePoint Portal
For example, an Xcelsius dashboard containing sales metrics could be embedded into the
landing page of a SharePoint sales site. When users open the sales site, the dashboard is
refreshed to show the latest information on sales for that region or team.
Introduced helpful Units like Recently viewed and Recent Searches on the Out-of-box
template Home Page to enable quick navigation.

Diagram 7, stunning quick navigation from Out-of-box integration templates
Simple, Rapid Installation and Deployment
No Pre-requisites Before Installation
In the previous version of IOMS XI3.1 installation, it required extra .NET SDK and the
corresponding fiddling as a pre-requisite. As for the latest version, all the pre-requisites
have been already bundled within the installation package without any extra software
download required. All you need to do is to double-click on the installation executable
file.

Diagram 8, one click for the installation, no more Hush Hush
Easy Configuration with BI4.0 CMS Integration (Minimum Information Required from
CMS Server)
It doesnt require the tedious configuration procedure as the previous version and can be
quickly set up by supplying the following information to the installation wizard:
CMS Name with Port number
CMS Administrator Logon details
URL to the server that hosts BI Launch Pad

Diagram 9, minimum set-up required from BusinessObject Enterprise
Wizard-driven Installation
IOMS wizard driven installer and SharePoint site definition template allow it to be quickly
deployed with minimal configuration as a dedicated SharePoint site.
Once deployed SharePoint administrators can further tweak and enhance the IOMS site as
required.

Diagram 10, the deployment and configuration option are fully wizard-driven
Accessibility
Users can browse to access content stored in their BusinessObjects inbox, personal folders,
public folders or categories. The users permissions and rights as set in BusinessObjects are
still enforced by IOMS ensuring that users are only able to access stuff they are authorized
to access.

Diagram 11, authorized user can quickly access the information through the SharePoint portal
IOMS is built on the 4.0 Business Intelligence platform and leverages the new Platform
features for Auditing, Search and other areas. Being built on the BI Platform means that
IOMS can be remotely administered using the web based Central Management Console.

Diagram 12, almost all the BI4.0 new features available on the SharePoint portal after IOMS installation
Integrated Security Model with Single Sign-
On (SSO) feature
From an Authentication and SSO standpoint, users can login directly to BOE from
SharePoint using their Active Directory, LDAP or BusinessObjects Enterprise Credentials.
In addition, Single Sign-on workflows can be supported using Kerberos or CA SiteMinder.

Diagram 13, the user can log on the SharePoint BI4.0 portal just with their AD login credentials
Well, I'm pretty sure that there are some features I missed out here, but I will definitely
keep everyone updated as I go with the integration and implementation phases.