Connecting Crystal to HANA Views

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To use Crystal Reports on top of SAP HANA views, you can use an OLAP connection, which directly points to the Business Layer in HANA Views. You can also connect to the Universe directly, which is created on top of SAP HANA views and tables. Crystal Reports can connect to multiple data sources that include −

• Universe
• SAP BEx Query
• HANA view
• Excel Spreadsheets

To connect to a data source, go to File → New → From Data Source.

Following are the three ways in which you can connect Crystal Reports to HANA system - Database layer or HANA views.

Crystal Report Version	Connection	Notes
Crystal Reports 2011 SP4	JDBC ODBC	Command objects and SQL Expressions are available
Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 SP4	JDBC ODBC	Direct-to-data connections are available with FP3 and higher
Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0 SP4	Universe (.unx)	Relational Universe

Following are the scenarios, which define the direct connectivity to HANA or the use of a Universe −

Using Universe Connectivity with Crystal Reports

• When you already have a Universe published with the Business Layer
• When a HANA view with a variable is required

Using Direct Connectivity to HANA Views

• When a Universe is not available

• When you are using Crystal Reports 2011 and not Crystal Reports for Enterprise for reporting

• When you are willing to use the custom SQL query using a Command Object or SQL Expression

• When you want to access stored procedures, tables and views directly