Operation Manual

Designing Optimized Web Reports
Scale with BusinessObjects Enterprise
8
134 Crystal Reports User’s Guide
• Versioning
Versioning works closely with scheduling to store “instances” of a report.
Versioning not only reduces the number of database hits required to
serve users, but also allows you to keep an archive of report instances for
historical reference.
• Clustering
BusinessObjects Enterprise incorporates proven clustering and load-
balancing technology to help you deliver a highly available, reliable
information delivery system.
• Scalability
BusinessObjects Enterprise is built on a distributed, multi-server architecture,
allowing you to scale up on a single machine (by adding processors) or scale
out over multiple machines to handle heavier user loads.
• Management
BusinessObjects Enterprise incorporates extensive administration and
management controls that allow you to organize content, set up complex
schedules and security, and tune the system for optimal performance.
• External (third-party) authentication
BusinessObjects Enterprise allows you to leverage your existing security
system to manage users and groups. All authentication can be delegated
to a third-party NT or LDAP system.
Evaluation times for date functions in BusinessObjects
Enterprise
Different date and time functions available in Crystal Reports are evaluated at
different stages during report processing. Some are evaluated when a
scheduled report is processed, or when a report instance is refreshed: this
evaluation time is known as “WhileReadingRecords.” Others are evaluated
each time a report page is formatted for display in a report viewer or a
browser: this evaluation time is known as “WhilePrintingRecords.”
If you use BusinessObjects Enterprise to generate report instances and
notice that date or time functions are not evaluating to the values that you
expect, consider the following:
• The current date and time are always read from the clock that is locally
accessible to the Report Engine—that is, from the clock on the computer
that processes the report. In BusinessObjects Enterprise, the Job Server