Hi Alfons,
As per the current situations Report Engines SDKs are still the same in BI 4.1 likewise in BI 4.0 all patches. You can perform the below functionalities with BI 4.x Report Engines SDK :
- Export Webi Report to some other format.
- View a Webi Report.
- Partial drilling.
- Save prompts in Webi reports etc.(Most of the functionalities are deprecated like schedule with prompts etc.)
On the other hand with Webi Raylight REST SDKs you can leverage the workflow of legacy functional parity of BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Report Engines SDKs.
By seeing as a future, it looks like most of the new development & enhancement are happens in the Webi REST world. So planning to rewrite the code in terms of REST SDKs is beneficial.
As you are talking about the compatability, Report Engines Java SDKs are same upto BI 4.1 Patch 4 release. But it might be possible that in future Report Engines Java SDKs are totally deprecated. You can also refer the Object Model Digram of Report Engines SDKs which gives you list of deprecated interfaces, classes & methods.
Hope it helps.
Thanks,
Shailendra