BusinessObjects automation

[RD]

Has anyone here used Access to automate BO? I'd like to open, refresh and
export a BO report through an Access module. I haven't been able to get much
info about the BO object model or code samples.

So, how about it? Anybody have any experience with with this?

TIA,
RD

 

[David C. Holley]

There was a post here a while back pertaining to that, however I don't
recall the poster or subject line. I would snoop around the internet for
a Business Objects User's forum and/or their website for tech support
directly from them.

 

[RD]

Yeah, the OP was Fabbe (Refresh a BusinessObjects report - 5/18/2005). I
grabbed the snippet of code (s)he had posted and found a bit more on the web.
I've referrenced the BO object library and found a lot of stuff through the
Object Browser but am unfamiliar with the syntax. I find the BO tech support
site near worthless but found a user forum that looks promising.

Kinda funny, one response I got on the forum is very similar to some of the
posts I see here. Someone is always trying to redesign your app instead of
helping out with the code you need.

Regards,
RD

 

[David C. Holley]

Sometimes though the app is wacked out. I would presume though that
you're trying to refresh a BO report that that part of it isn't wacked
out. I would surmise that the person who suggested that the app needed
some redesign wasn't too familar with BO. WBTW, I am somewhat from my
days back at Disney. (To the point that I was quite happy to see the VBA
add-in now obviously available)

 

[RD]

Oh, no doubt about it. I've seen some pretty whacked ideas in this froup. And,
in fact, what I'm trying to do is whacked. Unfortunately I have to work within
the contraints placed upon me.

We have three different db platforms: Oracle, Sybase and DB2. "The Powers That
Be" have decreed that BO is THE reporting tool of all time. The design of the
Sybase db was whacked from the start and it took me six weeks to convince my
supervisors that I could do a lot better with Access and the drivers. They
allowed me that but no connection to the other two. So, I have to use BO as a
query tool on the Oracle database and import that data into Access to produce
this report.

I'm just about to test the code I've put together. I was already pretty close
but I got some info to clean up my syntax from a BO forum on the Tek-Tips site.

Fingers crossed,
RD

 

[David C. Holley]

So they just don't want to spend the money to build an Operational Data
Store, or better yet migrate everything to the Super Business Computer
of all time - the AS/400. The Idiots. So BO will load up an Access table
now like the original BO add-in for Excel loaded up a Worksheet?

 

[RD]

Well, that's the gummint for you. Actually, they are *slowly* moving data to a
data warehouse but they're taking their sweet time with it. And, the DB2
database isn't even owned by them. It's owned and maintained by Big Blue. We
get only the access to it that IBM tells us we can have.

And, no, BO puts out an Excel spreadsheet which I must then import into Access.
I did get the code to work ... sort of. I'm able open and refresh the report (I
have to figure out how to fill in a prompt from code), save it and exort as
Excel. But, after importing it into Access I found that there wasn't any data
in the spreadsheet. Ooops. I'll get it worked out sometime today, barring
annoying interuptions like useless meetings and such.

If you or anyone else on mpam is interested I'll post the code when I have it
working.

Regards,
RD

 

[wese]

Has anyone here used Access to automate BO? I'd like to open, refresh and
export a BO report through an Access module. I haven't been able to get much
info about the BO object model or code samples.

So, how about it? Anybody have any experience with with this?

TIA,
RD

The essential code that I use to do this is:
Dim boapp As busobj.Application
Dim bodoc As busobj.Document
Dim dp As busobj.DataProvider

Set boapp = New busobj.Application
boapp.Logon user, pswd, "Your system name here", "secEnterprise", False, False
Set bodoc = boapp.Documents.Open("C:\RptName.rep")
'Run the report:
bodoc.Refresh
'Save it:
bodoc.Save
'Export it to Excel and Text file:
Set dp = bodoc.DataProviders(1)
Call dp.ConvertTo(boExpExcel, 1, strDataPath & strDataFile)
Call dp.ConvertTo(boExpAsciiTab, 1, strDataPath & strDataFile)

bodoc.Close