Table of Contents

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Acknowledgments
11
Introduction
13
1 SAP BI for the Rest of Us
21
1.1 The Aging Information Age
21
1.2 The Good and Bad of the Relational Database
22
1.3 Set Your Data Free – the Data Warehouse
28
1.4 Finding Relief for Information Constipation
30
1.5 Just-in-Time Report Design
33
1.6 So Why Not … SAP BI for the Rest of Us
39
1.7 I Can Do It Myself
42
1.8 Summary
43
2 Understanding the New SAP BI Toolset
45
2.1 The Job of the Knowledge Worker
45
2.2 The Information Processing Continuum
47
2.3 Information and the Conservation of Complexity
49
2.4 Introducing the New SAP BI Tools
52
2.4.1 Xcelsius
54
2.4.2 Voyager
55
2.4.3 Web Intelligence
56
2.4.4 Crystal Reports
57
2.5 Comparing the New SAP BI Tools
58
2.5.1 End-User Content Creation Tool
59
2.5.2 Operational Ongoing Reports
61
2.5.3 Financial and External Reporting
62
2.5.4 Control Over Formatting
63
2.5.5 Good for Ad Hoc Reporting
64
2.5.6 Users Can “Play” with the Data
66
2.5.7 Good for Data Analysis
67
2.5.8 Good for Data Visualization
68
2.5.9 Good for “What If” Analysis
69
2.6 Making the Transition
70
2.6.1 The Question of Ownership
70
2.6.2 Close the “Knowledge of the Tool–Knowledge of the Business” Gap
74
2.6.3 Develop a Dogmatic Pragmatism
76
2.6.4 Build Your BI Baseline Using Crystal Reports
77
2.6.5 Power to the People
78
2.7 Summary
80
3 SAP BW as a Crystal Reports Data Source
83
3.1 SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse 101
83
3.2 A Short Course on SAP NetWeaver BW Terminology
84
3.3 Handle with Care: The Exploding Data Warehouse
87
3.4 The BW Query: Bedrock of SAP BEx
92
3.4.1 Designing BW Queries for Use with Crystal Reports
93
3.4.2 Going “Flat” – the DSO
96
3.4.3 Creating a Master Query
96
3.5 Summary
101
4 Creating the Crystal Reports Template
103
4.1 Creating a Template for Your Master Query
104
4.2 The Alias Formula
131
4.3 Summary
143
5 Getting Started with Crystal Reports and SAP NetWeaver BW
145
5.1 Getting Set Up
145
5.2 A Simplified Approach to Reporting
146
5.3 Starting with the Big Picture
149
5.4 Your First SAP BW Crystal Report
151
5.4.1 Creating a Crystal Report from Scratch
151
5.4.2 Creating a Crystal Report from a Report Template
158
5.4.3 Aliases: A Brief Review
159
5.4.4 Arranging Toolbar Buttons
159
5.4.5 Adding Objects to Your First Report
160
5.4.6 Data Explosion in Action
164
5.5 Making It All Look Pretty – Formatting 101
169
5.5.1 Keeping Things Lined Up
174
5.5.2 Resizing Objects
178
5.5.3 Moving Objects
183
5.5.4 The Finer Touches
186
5.6 Sharing with Others
193
5.7 Summary
195
6 Summing It All Up
197
6.1 Creating Groups
197
6.1.1 Creating a Standard Group
201
6.1.2 Grouping by Date Using a Text Field
210
6.1.3 Keeping Up with Business – Creating Custom Groups
225
6.1.4 Leveraging Built-In Summary Functions in Crystal Reports
249
6.2 Conditional Summaries Using Running Totals
252
6.3 Conditional Summaries Using a Formula
261
6.4 Summary
270
7 Picking and Choosing
273
7.1 Filtering Data with a BW Variable
273
7.2 Filtering Data with a Crystal Reports Parameter
289
7.3 Summary
305
8 Flexible Formatting
307
8.1 Using the Highlighting Expert
308
8.2 Applying Conditional Formatting Using a Formula
313
8.3 Stretching Your Reports with Conditional Suppression
324
8.3.1 The Classic Crystal Drill-Down
326
8.3.2 Drill-Down Report Using a Parameter and Conditional Suppression
338
8.3.3 Adding Versatility with Dynamic Groups
346
8.4 Summary
355
9 Handling Hierarchies
357
9.1 Building a Hierarchy Using Hierarchical Grouping
358
9.2 Custom Formatting for Hierarchies
365
9.3 Taking Hierarchies to the Next Level
376
9.4 Summary
379
10 Extending Reports Using Subreports
381
10.1 The Query to Query Subreport
383
10.2 The Query to SAP ERP Central Component (SAP R/3) Subreport
403
10.3 Summary
414
11 Getting Published
415
11.1 How Not to Get Noticed
415
11.2 Publishing Reports to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise
417
11.3 Fast-Track Publishing
420
11.4 Summary
425
12 Moving On
427
12.1 A Personal Report Development Game Plan
428
12.2 Putting it All Together – The ReportMart
429
The Author
433
Index
435