Set the maximum number of records to read to zero (unlimited), for the Crystal Reports Processing Server, in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform.

 Case Study:

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When refreshing a report in SAP BI LaunchPad, there is no drop-downs for the parameter Region, after the report has been promoted to Staging.

The first cause was the Data Connection was set to prompt. The solution was to set the connection to: Never Prompt. and add the Oracle user name and password.

Despite the connection to the data source is now successful, the Region parameter still did not show a List of Values. But if we create a report of the Business View that the List of Values uses, it shows data in the report, and if we schedule the List of Values, it then shows a drop-down list. Finally, if we set the List of Values to be on-demand again, it then no longer show a drop-down for the Region parameter.

        

The above symptoms indicates there is something on the server side causing the List of Values to be empty. After our call, I reviewed what we had done, and consulted with another support engineers, and found those exact symptoms occurs when the Crystal Reports Processing Server the generated List of Values has more records than the default maximum number of records of 20,000, set on the server.

  

In your case, the List of Values is using 2 cascading fields, which can create large number of values pass the 20,000 and cause the List of Values to be empty. But when scheduling the List of Values, it does not have this limit, and this is why it works when it is scheduled, but does not work when the List of Values runs on-demand. This situation is documented in the SAP Knowledge Base Article:

  

     1651124 - Dynamic Parameter List of values empty when refreshing a report in Crystal Reports or in SAP BI LaunchPad

  

Therefore, the solution is to set the maximum number of records to read to zero (unlimited), for the Crystal Reports Processing Server, on each nodes in your SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform:

  

1. Logon the Central Management Console (CMC)

2. In the CMC, go to Servers.

3. In the Servers screen, under "Service Categories", select: "Crystal Reports Services"

4. In the List of Crystal Reports Services, right click on the "Crystal Reports Processing Server", and select "Properties"
   ( For example, the Crystal Reports Processing Server name will be like: CrystalReports2016ProcessingServer )
  
5. Set the Crystal Reports Processing Service option: "Database Records Read When Previewing or Refreshing" to: 0 ( 0 is for Unlimited )
  
6. Click "Save & Close" to accept the change.

7. Restart each of the "Crystal Reports Processing Server" for the change to take effect.

 

     The SAP Knowledge Base Articles 1651124 contains screenshots for the above solution.

  

8. Since we use the temporary solution of Scheduling the List of Values we need to remove the Schedule.
     To do so, open the Business View Manager, and edit the List of Values: OD_NME_EN > DF_ID_7, and click on the button "Clear Instances"
     located at the bottom left corner.

  

9. Finally, logon to the Central Management Console (CMC) and refresh the report, and confirm the parameter: Region now displays a List of Values.