Managing Reports › Reporting Components

Reporting Components

BusinessObjects Enterprise and its associated tools, coupled with BusinessObjects Crystal Reports XI are the backbone of the CA BI architecture.

Although Crystal reports are delivered as the primary component of CA Business Intelligence, the report creation and maintenance tool, Crystal Reports XI, is not delivered as part of CA Business Intelligence. Crystal Reports XI is a separately licensed product that can be purchased from BusinessObjects Enterprise, and used in conjunction with CA Business Intelligence.

Note: Microsoft Access predefined reports are no longer developed or provided with CA SDM.

You can use the following components to administer, monitor, and configure the CA Business Intelligence reporting environment:

• CA SDM Database/ Domsrvr / ODBC Driver—Report data is stored in a SQL Server or Oracle CA SDM database. BusinessObjects reporting applications (Crystal Reports and Web Intelligence) access the database using an ODBC driver that connects directly with the CA SDM object engine (domsrvr). All CA SDM security, including data partition and tenancy restrictions, is automatically applied to reports, but not to your reporting environment. You can set up your reporting environment so it works with existing data partitions in CA SDM.

  Note: For information on how to establish data partitions security for your reporting environment, see How to Set Up Data Partitions Security for Reporting.

• Central Management Server (CMS)—The central repository that stores all objects used in every reporting process.
• Central Management Console—An administrative component that provides access to all BusinessObjects administration functions. Using the CMC, you can deploy reports and assign user access and folder permissions for InfoView. User permissions, roles, and authentication options must be established for your reporting environment using the CMC.

  Note: User permissions, roles, and authentication options must be established for your reporting environment before you use CA Business Intelligence. For more information on defining security, see Security and Authentication.

• BusinessObjects Universe—Describes the classes (tables) and objects (columns) which are used in reports. The CA SDM universe is installed and configured during the installation. At the completion of the installation, the universe connection is assigned to various groups and users in CA SDM.
• Designer—A BusinessObjects component that lets you modify the CA SDM Universe, which is a metalayer between CA SDM schema, and BusinessObjects reporting tools. The Import/Export Wizard facilitates object population or extraction within the CMS.
• Default Predefined Reports—Predefined reports are web-based CA SDM and Knowledge Management reports developed with either Web Intelligence or Crystal Reports. The reports can be used as models for defining site-specific reports.
• InfoView—BusinessObjects InfoView is a web interface that allows authorized CA SDM users to interact with web-based predefined reports by viewing, running, and scheduling report types including, but not limited to, Web Intelligence and Crystal Reports. Reports are contained in folders in the public section in InfoView.
• Ad Hoc Reports—Ad hoc reports let you create and administer reports using a Web Intelligence plugin-based interface. This tool is intended for users who want to create basic reports easily without writing queries.

  Note: For ad hoc reporting usage examples, see Ad Hoc Reports.

• Dashboard Reports—Dashboard reports let you monitor daily operations for all CA SDM ticket types (request/incident/problem, change order, or issue) in BusinessObjects InfoView. Each report contains analytics about the top performers working on active tickets, so you can monitor their progress.
• CA SDM Reports Tab—Authorized users can view their role-based reports on the CA SDM Reports tab, then click the InfoView button on this tab to manage their personal reports in InfoView.

  Note: For information on how to manage role-based reports and display new reports on the Reports tab, see Web-Based Reports.