SAP Dataset Plugin

Version

Function Description

After installing the SAP Dataset plugin, you can define SAP system connections and add SAP dataset types to the designer.

Installing the SAP Dataset Plugin

You can obtain the plugin at SAP Dataset. The following documents detail how to install the plugin.

For details about installing the plugin in the designer, see Designer Plugin Management.

For details about installing the plugin on the server, see Server Plugin Management.

Environment Preparation

Place the SAP API package and its native library into the corresponding directory and ensure they can be found by a running JVM before connecting FR to an SAP system.

1. The Server in a Windows System

The following configuration applies to the project deployed on a server (e.g., Tomcat) in a Windows system.

Note:

1. If the data connection fails, you can try placing sapjco3.dll in jre/bin of the system, for example %JAVA_HOME%\jre\bin. 

2. Before connecting FR to the SAP system on the Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP systems, you can download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1.

2. The Server in a Mac Operating System

1. Download the driver: libsapjco3.rar. Decompress the driver and place the extracted files in %FineReport%/lib.

2. Open the bin folder in the %FineReport% directory. Right-click designer, select Show Package Contents, and open the vmoptions.txt file, as shown in the following figure.  

3. Write the following path into the file: -Djava.library.path=/Applications/FineReport10.0/lib (the path where the driver file is located).

Note:

If you have installed both the SAP Dataset and New SAP BW Dataset plugins, there may be conflicts, leading to errors when previewing certain datasets.

3. The Server in a Linux System

The following configuration applies to the project deployed on a server (e.g., Tomcat) in a Linux system.

Note:

If the connection still cannot be established, check the error message. For example, if the messages are "verification of SAPJCO failed", "missing dependency libstdc++.so", and "required for SAPJCO2 but not for SAPJCO3", then you need to install the shared library.

4. The Local Designer

To use the SAP Dataset connection on a local designer, download the SAP package with JDK 1.6 (for Windows systems) according to the bitness of the installed designer and install the plugin.

5. Remote Design

To conduct a remote design, the respective SAP package files should be placed in both the local and remote environments. You can check the corresponding environment and follow the steps outlined in sections "The Server in a Windows System", "The Server in a Mac Operating System", "The Server in a Linux System", and "The Local Designer."

Establishing the Connection

1. Launch the designer and choose Server > Define Data Connection, as shown in the following figure.

2. Fill in the connection information on the Define Data Connection setting page.

Host Name: refers to the configured SAP hostname in the local area network, and you can also use the IP address of the machine. (The content entered here is not the hostname of the database server but the IP of the SAP application server.)

System Number: refers to the configured port number of the SAP system for communication. (In general, the system number is 00, but mostly the number depends on the specific SAP system.)

Client: refers to the maximum effective collection of business and data managed by the SAP system. It is an attribute of the SAP system. (The content entered here depends on the specific SAP system.)

User: refers to the username of the account used to connect to the SAP system. (The content entered here is not the username of the database but the SAP username for application connection.)

Password: refers to the password of the account used to connect to the SAP system. (The password entered here is not the database password but the SAP user password for application connection.)

Connection Pool Attr: refers to the capacity and the maximum number of connections of the SAP system.

3. Click Test Connection. Click OK after the prompt "Successfully Connected" pops up. Click OK to exit the Define Data Connection setting page.

Adding the SAP Dataset

Once the data connection is established, you can use the connection to retrieve data from the SAP system and add SAP datasets to FineReport. For details, see SAP Dataset.