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SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports - where does the data source come from?

I am confused (in my opinion) with the seemingly simple theoretical question that SAP BusinessObjects / Crystal Reports stores its data sources to help me modify them to integrate with our new Maximo update.

Summary of one sentence: I cannot find where SAP BusinessObjects or Crystal Reports caches its data source information so that I can change it; all i see is the name of the data source and nothing about its server / port, etc.

Short description:

  • I am new to Crystal Reports and Maximo, but not corporate systems, development and reporting in general
  • I came to a company that uses crystal reports to integrate with IBM Maximo asset management (in the Oracle database).
  • The only guy who created it left with little or no documentation.
  • I essentially clean up the mess, but we're going through an upgrade, and I need to understand this system so that it works after the upgrade.
  • I can’t guarantee that anything about our installation is “standard” or anywhere near best practice.

Problem:

  • We are updating our Maximo system (5.2) to the new version (7.1).
  • We have ~ 150 Crystal reports requesting these (older) systems that I need to point to a new database for testing
  • When I look at the data source for a separate crystal report (opened from the file system), the data source seems to be cached (there is only the data source name "Maximo", username and PW).
  • I cannot find where this elusive “Maximo” data source is located. Nothing that can be found in the Crystal Report file, on the SAP BusinessObjects website, or on the server really tells me the actual location of the database, so I can change it.

Places I was looking for:

  • To connect ODBC on the server: This can be promising, so I lead with it, but I did not start here. The server has an ODBC connection for oracle called "MAXPROD", but it also does not indicate server information; he just says that the server is "MAXPROD" with a username and password field. No indication of anything else about the connection.
  • In the Crystal Reports file (.rpt):. On the data source selection screen, the initial parameter is the choice of the data source, but none of the listed data sources is connected to Oracle or Maximo (it does since my machine does not have local DSNs). However, if I click Next, I will see information about the cached server with the SID ("MAXPROD") and the field for the user ID and password. The server name, port, driver, DB type, etc. are not mentioned. It seems to cache ODBC information, but I cannot tell where it is stored.
  • In the source of the .rpt file: No luck, as this is not a text file. I was hoping this could be pure XML.
  • In the tnsnames file: I realized that this is Oracle DB, it can be saved in the tnsnames.ora file, where ODBC and Crystal can be viewed. But only those tnsnames files that I found were samples or were specifically for unrelated data sources (different servers, etc.).
  • In the configuration section of the BussinesObjects XI CMC website:. Here I can find a database connection, where it allows me to select an ODBC connection, but it seems to have one cached "MAXIMO" call, which I cannot edit.

I'm crazy. Can anyone think about wherever I look, or is the problem really the way I look at the situation? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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1 answer

Unfortunately, this answer is more related to our corporate architecture than Crystal Reports and BIRT.

Due to the lack of documentation and a general memory dependency, I have not yet been informed that all database servers are registered in org LDAP and look like this. Explains why I never saw tnsnames.ora and why no configuration information was displayed anywhere and yet does not seem to be cached.

The world makes sense again.

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