A common request in reporting is the ability to break apart a large report into parts and send each part to a recipient based on his/her area of responsibility. For example, a patient census report may be broken apart by care unit and each part sent to the supervisor of that unit. This process is called bursting.
 
Bursting in Business Objects Enterprise is accomplished by a combination of two technologies, Profiles and Publications, and in the current BOE version 3.1, has been improved with the introduction of single-pass bursting. Single-past bursting optimizes the report bursting process by retrieving the entire report’s data in one pass as opposed to executing a retrieve for each “burst.” 
 
Let’s talk about Profiles. Profiles define how data should be limited for a given BOE user or group. In the profile, you are able to specify each user or group (aka “principal”), and a filter for that group. A filter is report platform specific: You define a filter for Crystal reports, and a separate filter for Webi reports. The idea behind a Profile existing independently of a Publication, strictly used to define the bursting process, is that the same Profile can be used over and over again, thereby saving time in configuration. Combined, BOE Profiles and Publications provide a flexible and efficient way to deliver personalized report content to your users. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Business Objects Bursting or visit us online at McManus Software.

• Previous Entry: How to use Crystal Report ActiveX viewer in your Tomcat J2EE application
• Next Entry: Business Objects Bursting SDK – Part 2