Publish Reports with Excel Data in SAP Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. With the support for JDBC in Crystal Reports, the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Excel brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on Excel data that refreshes when you run the report.

Refer to the given table for the tools and their versions used in this article:

Deploy the JDBC Driver

Install the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Excel by including the driver JAR in the Crystal Reports classpath: Add the full file path, including the .jar, to the paths in the ClassPath element under the DataDriverCommonElement.

The default location for the CRConfig.xml file is C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java — the path might be slightly different based on your installation. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

👁 Add JDBC File Path into CRConfig.xml file

After you have added the JAR to the ClassPath, restart Crystal Reports.

Connect to Excel Data

After deploying the JDBC driver for Excel, you can use the Report Wizard to add Excel data to a new report.

1. Click File -> New -> Standard Report. 👁 Create a standard report.
   
2. Expand the JDBC (JNDI) under Create New Connection and double-click Make a New Connection.
3. Create a connection string using CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Excel.

For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Excel JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.excel.jar

Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

Setting connection properties for local files

Set the URI property to local folder path.

Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

• AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
• AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

Dropbox

To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

SharePoint Online (SOAP)

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

SharePoint Online REST

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

Google Drive

To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)


When configuring the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

4. In the wizard, enter the JDBC connection URL:

   jdbc:excel:URI='C:/MyExcelWorkbooks/SampleWorkbook.xlsx';
   

5. Set the driver class name:

   cdata.jdbc.excel.ExcelDriver
   

   👁 Create a new JDBC (JNDI) Connection
   
6. Select the tables needed in the report. 👁 Add the table.
   
7. You can also link tables from the Excel data in SAP Crystal Reports. Click on NEXT after adding the links between tables. 👁 Add multiple tables.
   👁 Link the tables.
   
8. After the tables are selected, select the fields you want displayed in the report from the selected table, followed by NEXT. 👁 Add the fields to display.
   
9. Select the "Group By" field to group the information on the report. 👁 Add the Group By field.
   
10. Sort the groups based on summarised totals and click on NEXT. 👁 Group Sorting
    

You can then configure grouping, sorting, and summaries. See the following section to use the aggregate and summary to create a chart.

Create a Chart

After selecting a column to group by, the Standard Report Creation Wizard presents the option to create a chart. Follow the steps below to create a chart aggregating the Name column's values.

1. In the Standard Report Creation Wizard, select the Bar Chart option and select the column you grouped by in the "On change of" menu.
2. In the Show Summary menu, select the summary you created.
3. Select filters and a template, as needed, to finish the wizard. 👁 Select a chart type.
   

Select a template for the report to preview the finished report and view the chart populated with your data.

👁 Select a template type.

The Final Report

You can now see that the report contains all the fields initially specified.

👁 The final report.

Working with Remote Data

To ensure that you see updates to the data, click File and clear the "Save Data with Report" option. As you interact with the report, for example, drilling down to hidden details, Crystal Reports executes SQL queries to retrieve the data needed to display the report. To reload data you have already retrieved, refresh or rerun the report.

You can offload processing onto the driver by hiding details elements and enabling server-side grouping. To do this, you need to select a column to group by in the report creation wizard.

1. Click File -> Report Options and select the "Perform Grouping On Server" option. 👁 Perform Grouping On Server option.
   
2. Click Report -> Section Expert and select the Details section of your report. Select the "Hide (Drill-Down OK)" option. 👁 Hide (Drill-Down OK) option.
   

When you preview your report with the hidden details, Crystal Reports executes a GROUP BY query. When you double-click a column in the chart to drill down to details, Crystal Reports executes a SELECT WHERE query that decreases load times by retrieving only the data needed.

At this point, you have created a SAP Crystal report built on top of live Excel data using SAP Crystal Reports and a CData JDBC Driver. Learn more about the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Excel and download a free trial from the Excel JDBC Driver page. Let our Support Team know if you have any questions.