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Get the Report →Create Reports with SharePoint Data in SAP Crystal Reports
Use the Report Wizard to design a report based on up-to-date SharePoint data.
Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. The CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on SharePoint data that refreshes when you run the report.
About SharePoint Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from SharePoint has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access data from a wide range of SharePoint versions, including Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and above, and SharePoint Online.
- Access all of SharePoint thanks to support for Hidden and Lookup columns.
- Recursively scan folders to create a relational model of all SharePoint data.
- Use SQL stored procedures to upload and download documents and attachments.
Most customers rely on CData solutions to integrate SharePoint data into their database or data warehouse, while others integrate their SharePoint data with preferred data tools, like Power BI, Tableau, or Excel.
For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's SharePoint solutions, refer to our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.
Getting Started
Refer to the given table for the tools and versions used for this article:
Application Name | Version |
---|---|
SAP Crystal Reports 2020 | SP3 |
ODBC Driver | 23.0.8565 |
Connect to SharePoint 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.
Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.
If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation
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 SharePoint connection and Design a Report.
- File -> New -> Standard Report.
- Expand the ODBC (RDO) node under Create New Connection and double-click on "Make a New Connection". Select CData SharePoint Sys or any other source to prepare the report. Click on NEXT and FINISH.
- Configure the data source by selecting the tables needed in the report and clicking NEXT.
- You can also link tables from the SharePoint 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.
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.
- 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 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.
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 SharePoint data using SAP Crystal Reports and CData ODBC driver. Learn more about the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint and download a free trial from the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint page. Let our Support Team know if you have any questions.