Introducing the BusinessObjects Adapter

The Tidal Automation Adapter for BusinessObjects is an SAP certified solution that uses the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK to provide a seamless integration that embeds BusinessObjects functionality in the standard Tidal Automation screens. This allows TA to connect to BusinessObjects servers and define BusinessObjects tasks as part of Tidal Automation job definitions. The adapter queries the BusinessObjects InfoStore to discover folders and objects such as reports, Desktop Intelligence, and Web Intelligence that can be scheduled with full parameter support. As a platform independent solution, the adapter can run on any platform where the TA master runs.

The BusinessObjects Adapter enforces BusinessObjects security by authenticating through associations between TA runtime users and BusinessObjects users. Creating a BusinessObjects job from TA is highly secure, but as simple as creating any other job.

A job definition refers to a Crystal Report, Web Intelligence or Desktop Intelligence object as defined to BusinessObjects. You can also refer to a Data Services (Data Integrator) job. BusinessObjects Data Services is a complex platform for the data integration process and has the ability to schedule Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) jobs, along with other data warehousing jobs. Based on defined scheduling criteria, the adapter submits a BusinessObjects task to run through the BusinessObjects Job Scheduling Service.

Once a job has been submitted, the adapter monitors it through completion. The Adapter returns the final completion status (used to control downstream jobs) as well as details associated with the run to the console. In addition, the Adapter lets users cancel, hold/resume, abort and rerun tasks from Tidal Automation , a feature that provides significantly more control over the environment than afforded by scripting or other non-integrated scheduling solutions.

The BusinessObjects Adapter also provides event triggers that allow users to be notified via email (or other alerting mechanism) when new content (report or Web Intelligence data) is available. Output can be attached, or for greater security, can include a hyperlink to the BusinessObjects document on the server requiring that users log on before opening the document. The Adapter also supports triggering Enterprise Scheduling tasks from BusinessObjects custom event monitoring.

The BusinessObjects Adapter is event-based. It launches processes based on defined calendars and schedules, uses asynchronous callbacks for monitoring-enabling users to see status changes in real time, and to control those processes as they execute. This capability reduces production processing time windows, because the Adapter does not need to wait for a polling interval to pass before reacting to the completion of a BusinessObjects task.

Prerequisites

BusinessObjects

For BusinessObjects , you need to configure your firewall to grant the adapter access to ports 6400 to 6405, 8080, 1948, and 4205. If you override any of these default ports, be sure to open the ports required to communicate with BusinessObjects .

Data Services

If you will be using the adapter to schedule BusinessObjects Data Services (formerly Data Integrator) jobs and the associated Web Services host is configured to use SSL for external communication (HTTPS), you must complete these steps as described in detail in Configuring the HTTPS Protocol.

  • Obtain security certificates for all target servers.

  • Export security certificates for all target servers to a local directory.

  • Import security certificates for all target servers into a Java keystore.

Also verify that:

  • Web Services are configured.

  • A Job Server is configured for each repository containing jobs you want to schedule. The adapter is configured to use a connection/runtime user that has Administrative privileges.

  • Jobs are Web Service enabled. For information on these configuration items, please refer to the appropriate BusinessObjects Data Services or Data Integrator documentation.

Software Requirements

The minimum requirement for the Tidal Automation master and client is 5.3.1.179.

TA supports these releases with the corresponding adapter package listed:

  • BusinessObjects 3.0 (12.0), 3.1 (12.1), 3.2 (12.2), 4.0 (14.0), and 4.1 (14.1)

    Note: 12.1.1.3 minimum fix pack level recommended.

  • boservice.pkg

Refer the TA Compatibility Matrix for the current software requirements.

Note: The BusinessObjects Adapter works with SAP BusinessObjects 3.x systems and for SAP BusinessObjects 4.x systems use BusinessObjects BI Platform Adapter.