Create Reports with Azure Table Data in SAP Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. The CData ODBC Driver for Azure brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on Azure Table data that refreshes when you run the report.

Refer to the given table for the tools and versions used for this article:

Connect to Azure Table Data

If you have not already, specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Specify your AccessKey and your Account to connect. Set the Account property to the Storage Account Name and set AccessKey to one of the Access Keys. Either the Primary or Secondary Access Keys can be used. To obtain these values, navigate to the Storage Accounts blade in the Azure portal. You can obtain the access key by selecting your account and clicking Access Keys in the Settings section.

When configuring the DSN, 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.

Design a Report in SAP Crystal Reports

Follow the procedure below to use the SAP Crystal Reports tool to create the Azure Table connection and Design a Report.

1. File -> New -> Standard Report.
2. Expand the ODBC (RDO) node under Create New Connection and double-click on "Make a New Connection". Select CData Azure Table Sys or any other source to prepare the report. Click on NEXT and FINISH.
3. Configure the data source by selecting the tables needed in the report and clicking NEXT.
4. You can also link tables from the Azure Table data in SAP Crystal Reports. Click on NEXT after adding the links between tables.
5. After the tables are selected, select the fields you want displayed in the report from the selected table, followed by NEXT.
6. Select the "Group By" field to group the information on the report.
7. Sort the groups based on summarised totals and click on NEXT.

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 Name column's values.

1. In the Standard Report Creation Wizard, select the Bar Chart option and select the column you grouped by in the "On change of" menu.
2. In the Show Summary menu, select the summary you created.
3. 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 specified.

Working with Remote Data

To ensure that you see updates to 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.

At this point, you have created a SAP Crystal report built on top of live Azure Table data using SAP Crystal Reports and CData ODBC Driver. Learn more about the CData ODBC Driver for Azure and download a free trial from the CData ODBC Driver for Azure page. Let our Support Team know if you have any questions.