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Get the Report →Publish Reports with Azure Data Lake Storage Data in SAP Crystal Reports
Use the Report Wizard to design a report based on up-to-date Azure Data Lake Storage data.
Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. With the support for JDBC in Crystal Reports, the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on Azure Data Lake Storage data that refreshes when you run the report.
Refer to the given table for the tools and their versions used in this article:
Application Name | Version |
---|---|
SAP Crystal Reports 2020 | SP3 |
JDBC Driver | 23.0.8565 |
Deploy the JDBC Driver
Install the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage by including the driver JAR in the Crystal Reports classpath: Add the full file path, including the .jar, to the paths in the ClassPath element under the DataDriverCommonElement.
The default location for the CRConfig.xml file is C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java — the path might be slightly different based on your installation. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
After you have added the JAR to the ClassPath, restart Crystal Reports.
Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage Data
After deploying the JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage, you can use the Report Wizard to add Azure Data Lake Storage data to a new report.
- Click File -> New -> Standard Report.
- Expand the JDBC (JNDI) under Create New Connection and double-click Make a New Connection.
- Create a connection string using CData JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage.
- Schema: Set this to ADLSGen1.
- Account: Set this to the name of the account.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the application Id of the app you created.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the key generated for the app you created.
- TenantId: Set this to the tenant Id. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
- Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.
- Schema: Set this to ADLSGen2.
- Account: Set this to the name of the account.
- FileSystem: Set this to the file system which will be used for this account.
- AccessKey: Set this to the access key which will be used to authenticate the calls to the API. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
- Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.
In the wizard, enter the JDBC connection URL:
jdbc:adls:Schema=ADLSGen2;Account=myAccount;FileSystem=myFileSystem;AccessKey=myAccessKey;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
Set the driver class name:
cdata.jdbc.adls.ADLSDriver
- Select the tables needed in the report.
- You can also link tables from the Azure Data Lake Storage data in SAP Crystal Reports. Click on NEXT after adding the links between tables.
- After the tables are selected, select the fields you want displayed in the report from the selected table, followed by NEXT.
- Select the "Group By" field to group the information on the report.
- Sort the groups based on summarised totals and click on NEXT.
For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Azure Data Lake Storage JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.adls.jar
Authenticating to a Gen 1 DataLakeStore Account
Gen 1 uses OAuth 2.0 in Azure AD for authentication.
For this, an Active Directory web application is required. You can create one as follows:
To authenticate against a Gen 1 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:
Authenticating to a Gen 2 DataLakeStore Account
To authenticate against a Gen 2 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
When configuring the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
You can then configure grouping, sorting, and summaries. See the following section to use the aggregate and summary to create a chart.
Create a Chart
After selecting a column to group by, the Standard Report Creation Wizard presents the option to create a chart. Follow the steps below to create a chart aggregating the FullPath column's values.
- In the Standard Report Creation Wizard, select the Bar Chart option and select the column you grouped by in the "On change of" menu.
- In the Show Summary menu, select the summary you created.
- Select filters and a template, as needed, to finish the wizard.
Select a template for the report to preview the finished report and view the chart populated with your data.
The Final Report
You can now see that the report contains all the fields initially specified.
Working with Remote Data
To ensure that you see updates to the data, click File and clear the "Save Data with Report" option. As you interact with the report, for example, drilling down to hidden details, Crystal Reports executes SQL queries to retrieve the data needed to display the report. To reload data you have already retrieved, refresh or rerun the report.
You can offload processing onto the driver by hiding details elements and enabling server-side grouping. To do this, you need to select a column to group by in the report creation wizard.
- Click File -> Report Options and select the "Perform Grouping On Server" option.
- Click Report -> Section Expert and select the Details section of your report. Select the "Hide (Drill-Down OK)" option.
When you preview your report with the hidden details, Crystal Reports executes a GROUP BY query. When you double-click a column in the chart to drill down to details, Crystal Reports executes a SELECT WHERE query that decreases load times by retrieving only the data needed.
At this point, you have created a SAP Crystal report built on top of live Azure Data Lake Storage data using SAP Crystal Reports and a CData JDBC Driver. Learn more about the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage and download a free trial from the Azure Data Lake Storage JDBC Driver page. Let our Support Team know if you have any questions.