Crystal Objects - SAP/BO Merger
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I'm not even sure where to post this. I'd previously thought that Crystal couldn't get any worse and that Business Objects was the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of product support. Unfortunately I was mistaken, the purchase by SAP seems to have taken a nearly worthless service and taken it to a whole new plane of worthlessness. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of needing to deal with crystal support knows that the first four times that you call them you will simply end up with some clueless asshat reading a "knowlege"-base article at you. Lest you think that you wasted all that money on a support contract, it's an internal knowlegebase, the external one seems to have nothing but marketing materials in it. It's also probably hoplessly out of date as they seem to enjoy radically modifying their API on a weekly basis. Seriously, I've encountered major changes to the API after applying hotfixes. :wtf: Generally it required a threatening call to the sales rep to get someone with an IQ higher than 40 on the phone to hammer out a solution. That was then, this is now. With the addition of SAP to the mix they seem to have decided that rather than offering apocryphal "support" they just won't offer any. There doesn't appear to be any way to login anymore. Don't get me wrong, they go through the motions; first demanding a certificate that they haven't assigned, then failing that a login that they haven't supplied credentials for. A call to the sales rep resulted in our DBA getting a login to the SAP site, but there doesn't appear to be anything crystal related on it. :wtf: I need a code sample (or failing that a roadmap of the objects itnvolved) that addresses the process of extracting a list of reports from the enterpise server in a specified folder and opening a selected report in the viewer control. I don't care if it's through the API or through the webservices, it just needs to work. Where the hell can I find that sort of information?
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I'm not even sure where to post this. I'd previously thought that Crystal couldn't get any worse and that Business Objects was the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of product support. Unfortunately I was mistaken, the purchase by SAP seems to have taken a nearly worthless service and taken it to a whole new plane of worthlessness. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of needing to deal with crystal support knows that the first four times that you call them you will simply end up with some clueless asshat reading a "knowlege"-base article at you. Lest you think that you wasted all that money on a support contract, it's an internal knowlegebase, the external one seems to have nothing but marketing materials in it. It's also probably hoplessly out of date as they seem to enjoy radically modifying their API on a weekly basis. Seriously, I've encountered major changes to the API after applying hotfixes. :wtf: Generally it required a threatening call to the sales rep to get someone with an IQ higher than 40 on the phone to hammer out a solution. That was then, this is now. With the addition of SAP to the mix they seem to have decided that rather than offering apocryphal "support" they just won't offer any. There doesn't appear to be any way to login anymore. Don't get me wrong, they go through the motions; first demanding a certificate that they haven't assigned, then failing that a login that they haven't supplied credentials for. A call to the sales rep resulted in our DBA getting a login to the SAP site, but there doesn't appear to be anything crystal related on it. :wtf: I need a code sample (or failing that a roadmap of the objects itnvolved) that addresses the process of extracting a list of reports from the enterpise server in a specified folder and opening a selected report in the viewer control. I don't care if it's through the API or through the webservices, it just needs to work. Where the hell can I find that sort of information?
i have always worked with crystal reports under the idea that i and i alone must stand and battle business objects.
----------------------------------------------------------- "When I first saw it, I just thought that you really, really enjoyed programming in java." - Leslie Sanford
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i have always worked with crystal reports under the idea that i and i alone must stand and battle business objects.
----------------------------------------------------------- "When I first saw it, I just thought that you really, really enjoyed programming in java." - Leslie Sanford
With just about anyoneone else's API I'd just dig in and figure it out. The enterprise API is not the sort of beast you take on without any documentation. I had initially thought that they had purposely obfuscated the API as a security measure or maybe simple meanspiritedness, but then I remembered an old maxim; Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence, apathy or both. My money's on incompetence at this point. :mad:
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I'm not even sure where to post this. I'd previously thought that Crystal couldn't get any worse and that Business Objects was the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of product support. Unfortunately I was mistaken, the purchase by SAP seems to have taken a nearly worthless service and taken it to a whole new plane of worthlessness. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of needing to deal with crystal support knows that the first four times that you call them you will simply end up with some clueless asshat reading a "knowlege"-base article at you. Lest you think that you wasted all that money on a support contract, it's an internal knowlegebase, the external one seems to have nothing but marketing materials in it. It's also probably hoplessly out of date as they seem to enjoy radically modifying their API on a weekly basis. Seriously, I've encountered major changes to the API after applying hotfixes. :wtf: Generally it required a threatening call to the sales rep to get someone with an IQ higher than 40 on the phone to hammer out a solution. That was then, this is now. With the addition of SAP to the mix they seem to have decided that rather than offering apocryphal "support" they just won't offer any. There doesn't appear to be any way to login anymore. Don't get me wrong, they go through the motions; first demanding a certificate that they haven't assigned, then failing that a login that they haven't supplied credentials for. A call to the sales rep resulted in our DBA getting a login to the SAP site, but there doesn't appear to be anything crystal related on it. :wtf: I need a code sample (or failing that a roadmap of the objects itnvolved) that addresses the process of extracting a list of reports from the enterpise server in a specified folder and opening a selected report in the viewer control. I don't care if it's through the API or through the webservices, it just needs to work. Where the hell can I find that sort of information?
Hi Cruest Hopefully I can help you out. You can find all the Developer Documentation for BO Enterprise SDKs here: https://boc.sdn.sap.com/developer/library[^] You can find the samples your looking for here(C#) https://boc.sdn.sap.com/node/5794[^] You can find other samples here: https://boc.sdn.sap.com/codesamples[^] A number of Business Objects support employees watch the forums here: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/category?categoryID=46[^] In the last month they have seen very speedy replies. Checking out the samples and the documentation I listed should get you started. Sorry you have been having a hard time. Rob Horne, Evangelist Business Objects
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I'm not even sure where to post this. I'd previously thought that Crystal couldn't get any worse and that Business Objects was the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of product support. Unfortunately I was mistaken, the purchase by SAP seems to have taken a nearly worthless service and taken it to a whole new plane of worthlessness. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of needing to deal with crystal support knows that the first four times that you call them you will simply end up with some clueless asshat reading a "knowlege"-base article at you. Lest you think that you wasted all that money on a support contract, it's an internal knowlegebase, the external one seems to have nothing but marketing materials in it. It's also probably hoplessly out of date as they seem to enjoy radically modifying their API on a weekly basis. Seriously, I've encountered major changes to the API after applying hotfixes. :wtf: Generally it required a threatening call to the sales rep to get someone with an IQ higher than 40 on the phone to hammer out a solution. That was then, this is now. With the addition of SAP to the mix they seem to have decided that rather than offering apocryphal "support" they just won't offer any. There doesn't appear to be any way to login anymore. Don't get me wrong, they go through the motions; first demanding a certificate that they haven't assigned, then failing that a login that they haven't supplied credentials for. A call to the sales rep resulted in our DBA getting a login to the SAP site, but there doesn't appear to be anything crystal related on it. :wtf: I need a code sample (or failing that a roadmap of the objects itnvolved) that addresses the process of extracting a list of reports from the enterpise server in a specified folder and opening a selected report in the viewer control. I don't care if it's through the API or through the webservices, it just needs to work. Where the hell can I find that sort of information?
I'm sure you've seen all the numerous rants here over the years about Crystal Reports and I won't re-hash them but when it was *first* released by the original company in Vancouver Canada that initially developed it, it was a good, innovative product that was well supported, then it was sold and accountants took over in successive attempts to wring as much money from it for as little input as possible. Crystal Reports became like a teabag: fresh and tasty the first time, then each company tried to brew one more cup out of that teabag, now it's thin and watery and unpalatable.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson