What's new?
See CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor - Release Notes - 1.0 for more information.
What is the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor?
Background information
CAST AIP has provided support for analyzing SAP BusinessObjects source code via its BO Analyzer (provided out-of-the-box in CAST AIP ≤ 8.2.x) for some time now. This "legacy" analyzer requires the following:
- SAP BusinessObjects (the BO Designer module) must be installed on the workstation on which the CAST Management Studio is being run from.
- you must manually define a connection to the SAP BusinessObjects instance on which your Universe files are used - this instance must be available during the analysis process in the CAST Management Studio - this is known as an "online" analysis.
These requirements can sometimes present significant difficulties for the process of on-boarding a SAP BusinessObjects application into CAST AIP. As a direct result of this and wanting to simplify the approach, CAST has developed the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer as a standalone extension. The extension provides a means to analyze SAP BusinessObjects source code "offline", i.e. no connection to the SAP BusinessObjects instance is required. In addition there is no longer any requirement to have BusinessObjects (the BO Designer module) installed on the workstation on which the CAST Management Studio is being run from.
When do I use the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor?
If you want to use the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer to analyze your SAP BusinessObjects source code, you must use the standalone CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor first:
- The extractor takes the raw Universe (and Documents) files in a local or network folder as input, it then uses the SAP BusinessObjects instance to interpret these raw Universe (and Documents) files and finally transforms them into a format that can be understood by the analyzer provided in the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer.
- The output of the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor is then fed into the CAST Delivery Manager Tool, packaged and delivered for analysis.
CAST AIP compatibility
CAST AIP release | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8.3.x |  | When working with CAST AIP ≥ 8.3.x, the legacy BO Analyzer (provided out-of-the-box in CAST AIP) is no longer available, therefore to analyze SAP BusinessObjects, you must use the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer. |
| 8.2.x (where x ≥ 5) | | When working with CAST AIP ≤ 8.2.x it is not mandatory to use the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer to analyze SAP BusinessObejcts. CAST AIP continues to provide support for analyzing SAP BusinessObjects source code via its existing BO Analyzer (provided out-of-the-box in CAST AIP), and existing code delivery and analysis mechanism for SAP BusinessObjects still remains in CAST AIP. |
To analyze the output of the extractor, the SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer must be used (see the documentation for more information about CAST AIP compatibility). The extractor output is not compatible with the legacy BO Analyzer (provided out-of-the-box in CAST AIP ≤ 8.2.x).
How does the standalone extractor work?
The standalone CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor is a command line tool which does not require installation. You can specify:
- the host SAP BusinessObjects instance that will be accessed during the extraction (to interpret the Universe (and Documents - BusinessObjects XI, XI R2, XI 3.0 and XI 3.1 only))
- the credentials you want to use to access the instance
- the location where you want to save the results
- the location of the Universe (and Document) files
Where can I obtain the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor?
You can obtain the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor from CAST Extend.
Supported SAP BusinessObjects releases for extraction
The CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor can extract data from any of the following releases:
| Releae | Supported | Supported by reference | Deprecated |
|---|---|---|---|
| BusinessObjects XI | | ||
| BusinessObjects XI R2 | | ||
| BusinessObjects XI 3.0 | | ||
| BusinessObjects XI 3.1 | | ||
| SAP Business Intelligence BusinessObjects 4.0 | | ||
| SAP Business Intelligence BusinessObjects 4.1 | |
Supported Operating Systems
The CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor can be run on the following Operating Systems:
| Operating System | Supported | Supported by reference |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit | | |
| Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit | | |
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit | | |
| Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit | | |
| Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit | | |
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit (Standard edition) | | |
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 64-bit (Standard edition) | | |
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit (Standard edition) | | |
| Microsoft Windows Server 2019 | | |
| Microsoft Windows Server 2022 | |
Prerequisites
To use the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor, the following is required:
SAP BusinessObjects Client Tools
SAP BusinessObjects Client Tools must be installed on the workstation where the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor will be run from. This client layer must be pre-configured for access to the SAP BusinessObjects instance you wish to extract from.
| Client version | Supported |
|---|---|
| BusinessObjects XI | |
| BusinessObjects XI R2 | |
| BusinessObjects XI 3.0 | |
| BusinessObjects XI 3.1 | |
| SAP Business Intelligence BusinessObjects 4.0 | |
| SAP Business Intelligence BusinessObjects 4.1 | |
Universe and Document files located on disk
You must make available your Universe (*.unv) and Documents (*.rep - BusinessObjects XI, XI R2, XI 3.0 and XI 3.1 only) files in a local or network folder. This folder is used as the input for the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor.
Using the CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor
The CAST SAP BusinessObjects Extractor is provided as a ZIP file containing a BoExporter.EXE file and multiple DLL files. This ZIP must be extracted on the workstation which you will use to perform the extraction. This workstation must have access to the SAP BusinessObjects instance:
- Via the local network
- Or on the local workstation itself
How to run an extraction
CAST recommends using a batch file (.bat) to run the extraction CLI, however, it is also possible to enter the command line direct into the Windows Command Prompt (CMD). An example CLI is shown below:
BoExporter.exe -r "XIV | XI" --host "MyHost: <port>" --u "Administrator" -p "password" -a "Enterprise" --Lov "true | false" -d "true | false" -o "<path_to_output_folder>" -i "<path_to_input_folder>"
The path to the BoExporter.exe file must be surrounded with double quotes if the path contains a white space (for example a folder name containing a white space).
CLI parameters
| Parameter | Mandatory? | Description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -h |  | Print help and exit. | ||||
| -v | | Print extractor version information an exit | ||||
| -r "XI | XIV" | | Determines the SAP BusinessObjects runtime that will be used to complete the extraction. Choose one of the following:
| ||||
| --host "MyHost: <port>" | | Determines the host name and port number of your SAP BusinessObjects instance (by default SAP BusinessObjects runs on port 6400). | ||||
| --u "<user_name>" | | Allows you to specify the user you wish to connect to the SAP BusinessObjects instance with. This parameter is optional and if omitted, the user Administrator will be used. | ||||
-p "<password>" | | Allows you to specify the password for the user you are connecting to the SAP BusinessObjects instance with. | ||||
-a "<authentication>" | | Determines the authentication level you will use to connect to the SAP BusinessObjects instance with. This parameter is optional and if omitted, Enterprise authentication will be used. | ||||
--Lov "true | false" | | Allows you to specify if you would like the LOV (List Of Values) data to be extracted with the Universes. This parameter is optional and if omitted, the option is set to false. | ||||
| -d "true | false" | | When set to true, the user specified in the --u parameter must have sufficient rights to connect to the Desktop Intelligence module and view objects in the Business Objects Central Management Console (CMC) - this will then allow the extraction of both SAP BusinessObjects reports (*.rep) and Universes (*.unv). This option is only relevant for those extracting SAP BusinessObjects XI, XI R2, XI 3.0 and XI 3.1. When extracting SAP Business Intelligence BusinessObjects 4.0 or 4.1, the option has no effect because the Desktop Intelligence module no longer exists in these more recent versions of SAP BusinessObjects. This parameter is optional and if omitted, the option is set to false. | ||||
| -o "<path_to_output_folder>" | | Determines the location you would like to output the extraction data to. | ||||
-i "<path_to_input_folder>" | | Determines the location of the .unv and .rep (BusinessObjects XI, XI R2, XI 3.0 and XI 3.1 only) files that you would like to extract. | ||||
| -s "true | false" | | [--singleMode] This option forces the extractor to open a separate session of the SAP BusinessObjects runtime for each Universe in the input folder (defined by the -i option). By default, all universes are extracted in a single session. This option can be useful, when extraction of a very large Universe fails because of limits in the SAP BusinessObjects runtime. A small reduction in performance is to be expected when using this option. This parameter is optional and if omitted, the option is set to false. |
Output results
When the extraction is complete, the CAST SAP BusinessExtractor will output result data to the specified location on disk. The next step is to deliver this output with:
- AIP Console
- CAST Delivery Manager Tool (for legacy deployments)
See SAP BusinessObjects Analyzer for more information.
