We have been using Baan Data navigator for quite a while, we use it internally and externally (as an Extranet). We have developed links between Baan and other systmes (our payroll and UPS)
We were wondering if there is more people out there using BDN and how they are using it.

Regards

We have implemented BDN already and are currently in the process of building the content for our (internal) portal.
BDN is mainly used for some smaller daily queries and by people who don't have regular baan access. We also use the bdn report server as a data source for Crystal reports.

I am bit confused, I hope you can help me out.

By using BDN report server as a data source for Crystal reports, do you mean you are using BDN OLEDB provider for accessing available tables in BDN or this is something else? Also can you still Drag & Relate from reports to BDN components?

I imagine that the reports are run in a separte window then BDN and if it is possible to drag an item from report into BDN. If you have this I would be interested in knowing how did you make it possible.

Thanks

You're right in the way that we use BDN as the oledb provider for our crystal reports. This means that the table that we have defined in BDN are the only ones you can use in crystal.

However we don't have any reports linked to our BDN web navigator since we found it to complex to setup. We currently run our crystal reports from within Crystal Info Desktop. We loose the drag and relate functionality for the reports but we can schedule reports and email, print, ... them directly without further user interaction.

I heard that a lite version of BDN was free, is that true?

Any of u tried iBaan's Webtop? Its very easy to use and more efficient.

did not try it.
Is it free or is there an evaluation version available ?
Does it require a lot of setup (server / client) ?

Hi Trenchard,
Drag and Relate is possible between crystal reports and bdn only if crystal reports are imported into BDN repository. When crystal reports are fired, they launch in the sa,me web interface.
Whenevere a report is queried, the request goes to baan database through the HRNP server of BDN.
I have seen that it puts a heavy load on the BaaN's database server and the whole Baan server slows down.

I guess with news hipping of BaaN IVc4, BaaN ships a demo version of BDN. Maybe that won't let u do the development, but may have the vanilla sessions inbuilt.

Hope that helps