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Copyright 2006 SAP UCC TU München All Rights Reserved
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The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the functionalities of SAP Business Information Warehouse. The participants learn the basics of reporting and gain an overview of data modeling and data loading. Not only are the rules for using BW in a UCC environment discussed, but the course also provides suggestions for possible user scenarios of SAP Business Information Warehouse.
Duration: 5 days
Target group: Instructors interested in using SAP BW in their coursesUsers of SAP BW in their courses with little previous knowledge
Dates: June 2006
Prerequisite: Basic Knowledge of Data Warehousing
Release: SAP BW 3.50
Course contents: Rules for using BW in a UCC environmentBasics of data warehousingArchitecture and tools of BWReporting & Web ReportingData ModelingData flow & data extractionAdministrationSuggestions for using SAP BW in the course
This course does not replace participation in follow-up SAP BW courses from SAP.
Data Warehousing and SAP BW Basics• 2.1 Introduction to DW• 2.2 System Handling• 2.3 Crash Course Reporting• 2.7 Business ContentBasic Reporting and Data Analysis• 3.1 Query Definition• 3.2 Exception Reporting
Modeling of Data Structures• 4.2 Stars & Galaxies• 4.3 InfoObjects• 4.4 InfoCubesData Staging I: Flat Files• 5.1 Staging Scenarios• 5.2 Master Data Staging• 5.3 Transaction Data Staging• (5.6 Transformations)
Advanced Reporting• 6.1 Geo Maps• 6.2 Web Reporting• 6.3 Data miningData Staging II: mySAP ERP Connections• 7.1 Transaction Data Extraction• 7.2 Delta Extraction
1. A data warehouse is a central repositoryfor all or significant parts of the data that an enterprise's various business systems collect.
2. A data warehouse is a copy of transaction data specifically structured for querying and reporting.
3. A collection of data designed to support management decision making. Data warehouses contain a wide variety of data that present a coherent picture of business conditions at a single point in time.
subject-oriented Why be limited to customers, suppliers, products, etc.?
integrated Schema integration (metadata) and data integration are indispensable.
time-variant “Snapshot view” of historical data does not account for:- Current data (e.g. shares)- Constant data (master data)
Not necessary
Keep
Time dependency as one possibility of many
nonvolatile If consistency is guaranteed, the ban on updates can be lifted.
Not necessary
collection of data Of course… Keep
in support of management‘s decision
Data warehouses for managers only? Not necessary
A data warehouse is a physical dataset enabling an integrated view of the underlying DataSources.
Zeh, T. (2003). Data Warehousing als Organisationskonzept des Datenmanagements. Eine kritische Betrachtung der Data-Warehouse-Definition von Inmon. Informatik - Forschung und Entwicklung, 18(1), 32-38.
• To answer users' detailed questions, the multidimensional data model offers various types of operations for manipulating the data cube.
• Mainly, you can change the dimensions and summary levels and can navigate in the data space.
• These options for analysis can be accessed in BEx Analyzer through the shortcut menu in the result area, for example, and can be forwarded to the OLAP processor. The processor interprets the analyses and applies them to the dataset.
• Pivoting means turning the data cube• Slicing means filters are set to create a “slice” of data • Dicing means creating a “smaller” data cube by slicing
an interval• Drilldown generally means adding information to a
report• Roll up = opposite of drilldown• Drill across is when the x- and y-axes are switched• Some data warehouse systems provide the option of
reporting on data that is not in the warehouse but is stored only in the OLTP systems. One example of this might be individual accounting documents. This capability is called Drill Through.
Based on http://miss.wu-wien.ac.at/~info1/stud/dw/main.html
• Designing dimensional models• Semantic, logical and physical data models• Fact table grain• Special fact types (non/semi-additive)• Specialities in modeling
• Planning• Controlling• Checking Fans Front Office Coaches Regular Line-Up Special Teams
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND REQUIREMENTS
PROJECT DEFINITION
1 Assess Data Warehousing Readiness 2 Develop Preliminary Project Scope 3 Build Business Justification
PROJECT PLANNING & MANAGEMENT
1 Establish Project Identity 2 Identify Project Resources 3 Prepare Draft Project Plan 4 Conduct Project Team Kick-Off & Planning 5 Revise Project Plan 6 Develop Project Communication Plan 7 Develop Program to Measure Success 8 Develop Process to Manage Scope 9 Ongoing Project Management
USER REQUIREMENT DEFINITION
1 Identify and Prepare Interview Team 2 Select Interviewees 3 Schedule Interviews
• Modeling data models to specific requirements is a tedious and sometimes highly complex task.
• The time and effort needed are even greater the more individual the requirements are and the less the developers can access and refer to existing templates.
• In BW, there are three different object versions of Business Content:– D version: SAP delivery version– A version: active version– M version: modified version
• To work with Business Content objects, you first have to convert them into active versions (A versions).
• Technical Metadata contains information about the data warehouse required by DW administrators and designers to develop and operate the data warehouse. This includes data such as database fields, columns, tables, and the memory needs of the database, data models, and mappings.
• Specialist Metadata contains the information that gives a specialized user a business overview of the data warehouse. This includes data such as mappings, report details, specialist terms, and so on. Specialist metadata assigns data from the DW to the multidimensional business model and to the frontend tool of the end user and usually contains descriptions and hierarchies that are internal to the organization.
“The CWM™ is a specification that describes metadata interchange among data warehousing, business intelligence, knowledge management and portal technologies.”
From: www.omg.org/cwm
• Object Management Group (OMG)http://www.omg.org
• Common Warehouse Metamodelhttp://www.omg.org/cwm– Specification– Articles and links
1. Select an InfoProvider that the query is being defined for2. Select reusable structures that already contain combinations of characteristics or key figures (such as
a contribution margin scheme)3. Select characteristics from the InfoProvider4. Limit the selected characteristics to characteristic values, characteristic intervals, or hierarchy nodes5. Use variables for characteristic values, hierarchies, hierarchy nodes, formulas, and texts, and define
new variables if necessary6. Select key figures from the InfoProvider7. Formulate calculated key figures8. Limit the key figures by combining characteristics9. Define exception cells10. Arrange the characteristics and key figures in rows or columns to determine a starting view
for the query analysis
The steps not in bold print are optional.
You can save the query in your Favorites or in your role. You can then analyze the query data inBusiness Explorer. You can• Display the query with a click in the web in a standard view• Use the query as a data provider for web items and analyze the query data in a separately designed
web application OR• Place the query in a workbook and analyze it in BEx Analyzer (MS Excel-based)
Line Item:Very few characteristic values of the InfoObject e.g. order numberin an order (detail) cube No dimension table, InfoObject integrated directly into the InfoCube
High Cardinality:Many entries in this dimension (min. 20% of the number of data records of the fact table) Different indexing
• Source systems are all systems that stage data for SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW). These include:– SAP Systems (Release 3.0D and higher)– SAP Business Information Warehouse systems– Flatfiles, in which the metadata is maintained
manually and the data is transferred using a data interface to the SAP BW system
– A database system, in which data is loaded from an SAP-supported database without the assistance of an external extraction program
– External systems in which data and metadata is transferred using staging BAPIs
• Update rules specify how data (key figures, time characteristics, characteristics) are updated from an InfoSource communication structure to the data targets.
• They combine an InfoSource with an InfoCube, characteristic or ODS object.
• For InfoCubes, there are two ways of defining the update rule for a key figure: no update or addition, minimum or maximum. Characteristics can also be looked up in external tables such as a master data table.
• An InfoSource describes the amount of all available data for a business process or a type of business process. An InfoSource is a unit of logically associated information, that is of InfoObjects and, when transfer rules are applied, can refer to data from one or more DataSources. The structure of an InfoSource is called the commu-nication structure. In contrast to the DataSource transfer structure, it is independent of the source system.
• Logically associated data are found in the source system in the form of DataSources. DataSources are also source system-referenced. They comprise many fields, which are offered for the data transfer to BW in a flat structure (extract structure). Data is transferred from the source system to BW in the form of a selection of fields of the extract, transfer structure.
• Transfer rules determine how and which fields in the source system-dependent transfer structure are transferred to which fields in the source system-independent communication structure. Detailed transformation rules can be generated for this purpose.
• The Persistent Staging Area (PSA) is the initial storage area of SAP BW for requested data from different source systems. The requested data is stored unchanged in the form of the transfer structure in transparent, relational database tables, and so may have errors if it had errors on the source system. Logical data packages (requests) can now be checked for quality and meaningfulness, order and completeness.
• Update rules specify how data (key figures, time characteristics, characteristics) are updated from an InfoSource communication structure to the InfoCubes.
• They combine an InfoSource with an InfoCube, characteristic or ODS object.
• For InfoCubes, there are two ways of defining the update rule for a key figure: no update or addition, minimum or maximum. Characteristics can also be looked up in external tables such as a master data table.
Export DataSources are needed to transfer data from a source BW to a target BW.
The selected InfoProvider is available for you to use as an InfoSource for another system. The corresponding export DataSource is not displayed in the InfoSource tree of the source BW.
The metadata of an export DataSource is generated as it exists in the source BW. This also includes the procedure for non-SAP systems.
Open Hub Service makes it possible to distribute data from an SAP BW system to non-SAP data marts, analytical applications, and other applications. This guarantees a controlled distribution across several systems. The central object for exporting data is the InfoSpoke. The InfoSpoke is used to define what data should be taken from which object, and to which target that data should be forwarded.
• Static Geo-CharacteristicA static geo-characteristic is a characteristic that describes a surface (polygon) and whose geographic coordinates do not change often. Countries or regions are examples of static geo-characteristics.
• Dynamic Geo-CharacteristicA dynamic geo-characteristic is a characteristic that describes a place (point-like information) whose geographic coordinates could change frequently. Customers or plants are examples of dynamic geo-characteristics, since they are located at a geographic “point” that can be described by an address, and the address data of these characteristics may change frequently.
• This will load the maps available as shape files into the BW system and assign them to the respective characteristic.
• A shape file is a standard file that is commonly used to describe geographic data and which is used in many geographical information systems. Detailed shape files also may contain demographic information about social structure, age structure, and so on, but may be very expensive. However, simple shape files are available on the internet and can often be downloaded free of charge. A simple shape file containing the structure of the German states will be used in this course.
• The map on which you can display static geo-characteristics is provided as a shape file.
• The shape file consists of three files in different formats that belong together: *.shp contains the actual geo-data that forms the map *.shx contains an index, which improves access time to the map *.dbf contains the attributes for individual geographic items such as
countries or regions • You copy the SAPBWKEY from the geo-data file for your InfoObject into
• Finally, define a query with geo-characteristics and insert it into a workbook. After you attach a map, it displays query data of geographical relevance. You can navigate through the map to further evaluate geo-relevant data.
The range of functions of analysis in Web Applications is dependent on which Web Browser you use.
Requirements for Unrestricted Range of FunctionsYou can have the complete range of functions with shortcut menus, snippet operations, and an expanded function toolbar for maps only if the current web browser supports DOM Level 2(with dynamic generation of DOM objects), ECMA-262 Script, HTML 4.0, and CSS 1.0.The reference web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (MS IE) andNetscape Navigator (NS) in the current versions of Windows (MS IE 6.x and NS 6.x).Versions of these web browsers on other systems, such as Apple Macintosh or Linux may deviate in performance.
Minimum RequirementsYou can use Web Applications on web browsers that satisfy the HTML 3.2 standard and supportelementary functions of CSS 1.0.
Web Browser and Range of FunctionsIf you use Internet Explorer 6.x and 5.x as well as Netscape Navigator 6.x, you can utilize the complete range of functions of the shortcut menu and the ad-hoc query designer as well as navigate smoothly.For Internet Explorer 4.x and Netscape Navigator 4.x, the Hierarchical shortcut menu web item islimited: reloading hierarchy branches is not possible.Web browsers such as Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape 3 do not enable a shortcut menu in in BEx Web Applications. Instead, you can use symbols for limited navigating.For more information on Web Browser dependencies, go to SAP Service Marketplace, alias SAP BW,and look under Services & Implementation Frequently Asked Questions SAP BW & WebApplication Server.
Source: SAP BW Functions in Detail, Version 1.0 SAP BW 3.0B
You can change the layout of your web template - an HTML page with SAP BW content - the sameway you would in an HTML editor.
Arranging Web Items on the Page• You can change the size of the placeholders• You can arrange the web items horizontally• You can drag and drop the web items to the positions you want them and regroup them within the web
template
Arranging Web Items Using an HTML TableYou can use an HTML table to arrange web items.You can lay out this grid for your own needs and place various web items in each table cellvertically or horizontally, according to how you want to arrange them.
Enhancing Web Templates with TextAs well as adding and arranging Web items, you can enhance the Web template with text and formatthis text.
Enhancing Web Templates with ImagesYou can also insert images such as your organization logo into your web template. The images are storedIn the MIME repository of the SAP BW server. The system supports image formats GIF, JPG, and BMP.
Source: SAP BW Functions in Detail, Version 1.0 SAP BW 3.0B
You have the following options for editing the HTML source of a web template:
1. You can edit the web template directly in the HTML view of Web Application Designer. In the lower part of the Template window of Web Application Designer, select the HTML tab page.
2. You can also use an external HTML editor to edit the web template.
Source: SAP BW Functions in Detail, Version 1.0 SAP BW 3.0B
• Extracting data from SAP R/3 systems is done by extractors.
• Plug-ins provide the technical solution that makes extraction possible. They also provide prefabricated extraction scenarios for the various modules.
1. Cross-system activities 2 systems must be mastered
2. BW cannot handle clients:multiple customers on a BW system Rules and considerations
3. Large amounts of data may be transferred Transaction time
4. No singular procedure available because extraction is heavily dependent on the application in use large amount of time and effort required for initial use
5. Work with central objects of the Data Dictionary high requirements for designing case studies many activities must be performed by the instructor first
• Necessary plug-ins and patches installed• R/3 system set up as the source system in BW (performed by UCC
upon request)• Unique ID of the systems: logical name• Settings for RFC and ALE• ALE provides monitoring and error handling for data transfer• Requirements and acknowledgement sent through IDocs
Because the SAP R/3 system needs a certain amount of posting time to post line items and because it sets the time stamp at the beginning of the posting, there may be a deviation between the posting time and the time stamp. Line items located within this deviation have not yet been posted to the database. Therefore, they cannot be selected when creating a delta dataset and are not loaded into BW.By setting a safety time (a time period in which line items will certainly be posted) you ensure that line items are extracted and loaded into BW despite the deviation between the time stamp and the posting time.
Delta ProcessADD: Additive Extraction via Extractor• The extractor allows fields to be added only.• Updating possible in InfoCube and ODS.• Request Serialization.
Because of Posting of Line Items:• Deviation between time stamp and posting time• Set a safety time
Updating modes supported:• Delta-Init (determining the initial set)• Delta Update (determining and uploading the delta dataset)• Full Update (determining and uploading the entire dataset)
R/3
DataSource 0CO_OM_CCA_9 returns information on actual costs that have been posted to cost centers.
• Making the product known to users• Marketing: newsletter, webpage• Community• Technical setup at the workplace• User training• Creating a support structure
The users are the most sensitivefactor in a data warehouse project!