Automate report download from SAP BusinessObjects Infoview

Question

I am new to SAP BusinessObjects Infoview and was asked if I can automate the report data generation for an existing report.

Here is what I would do manually through the Infoview web interface:

1. Click schedule for the report in question, which brings up the Schedule dialog
2. Change the recurrence to Now
3. Change the report prompts (start date and end date) so that start date=today and end date=today-14 days
4. Set the format to CSV and output the report to the Inbox
5. Schedule the report
6. Wait for the report to succeed
7. Download the generated report data

I can see how I could build a tool using Java and Selenium to automate this. However I am wondering if there is a more elegant way to doing this that still allows me to set the prompts dynamically. Are there existing 3rd party tools? Can I use JDBC?

What I have at my disposal is a user name/password to log on to Infoview. If a more elegant solution requires additional access or software please let me know.

Answer 1

It's possible with a simple addition to the universe (but this, of course, requires universe developer access). For your example, you could create a new universe-based Predefined Condition object with a definition of: (assuming Oracle)

start_date = trunc(sysdate) and end_date = trunc(sysdate-14)

Adding this object to a report will produce the desired timeframe whenever it's run, whether it's scheduled or interactive.

If you want the same report to run with this logic when scheduled, but still allow users to select dates via the prompts. You can use magic dates. See this blog post for info.

Lastly, you could write a custom program that would open the report, populate the prompts with the appropriate values, and run it. But I would consider that a less-preferable option than the ones above.

Answer 2

You can use UiPath in order to easily automate SAP GUI without writing code.

Here's a tutorial on how to automate data entry, menu navigation and screen scraping on SAP.

You can use it from code (SDK) or you can create workflows (visual automation) directly from UiPath Studio.

Note: I work at UiPath. You should also try other visual automation tools like Automation Anywhere, WinAutomation, Jacada, use them side by side and choose the one that suits better your needs.

Here's how automating SAP Business One menus, buttons and typing looks like: