How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data …a248.g.akamai.net/n/248/420835/ecdb752840c14a4f665042ec6...How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects

How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool 4.1 Applies to: SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool 4.1 with SAP BW 7.31. Working title: “How to create universes using InfoCubes as data sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool” Summary: This paper provides a step by step description incl. screenshots to create universes on top of a InfoCube using Information Design Tool. Using this approach provides a unique new functionality to bring multiple sources, now also including InfoCubes, together in “one common semantic layer” using Information Design Tool 4.1. The new functionality can be an important supplement on how one can manage the BI Metadata in one place and for future growth. The result from the exercise can for instance be used to redesign and simplify the BI Metadata layer with the purpose of consuming data from multiple sources in Web Intelligence reports, Dashboard Designer and explorer or any other BI tool that is capable of consuming BusinessObjects Information Design Tool universes (UNX). Without evaluating a common BI metadata model there is a risk of having to increase maintenance, and reporting functionality might not be as quickly available for end users as it can be made with the approach described in this article.

How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool 4.1

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Author Bio

Kurt Holst ([email protected]) is an expert on SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise architecture, configuration and performance optimization. Kurt has worked with most major OLAP databases, SAP NetWeaver BW and relational databases together with different BI reporting tools. Before joining SAP Kurt has worked as a BI Architect & developer both internal and as an external consultant. Furthermore Kurt has been attached to the university as an external lecturer on Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse & Data Mining. Kurt works on the Business Analytics Services team in SAP Denmark.

Company: SAP Last update: June 21, 2013

mailto:[email protected]


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR BIO .................................................................................................................................................... 2

1. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR CREATING UNIVERSES ON INFOCUBES ..................... 6

2. HOW THE INFORMATION DESIGN TOOL CONSUMES THE INFOCUBE ................................... 8

3. LIMITATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES ........................................................................................ 19

4. REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION ................................................................................................. 20


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Version-log :

Date Name Alteration Reason Version

08.04.2013 Kurt Holst Initial Document 0.1

08.04.2013 Kurt Holst Background and overview 0.2

09.04.2013 Kurt Holst Setting up InfoCubes for consumption in Information Design Tool

0.3

10.04.2013 Kurt Holst Describing the Information Design tool and InfoCube consumption

0.4

29.04.2013 Kurt Holst Finalizing first draft to share internally 0.5

05.05.2013 Adding IDT & InfoCube analyser tool desciptions

0.6

10.05.2013 Adding best practices 0.7

21.05.2013

Finalizing to publish externally (SCN) 1.0

24.06.2013

Updating with expected roadmap BO4.1 1.1


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1. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR CREATING UNIVERSES ON INFOCUBES

The BusinessObjects Enterprise platform is a highly flexible solution that allows users with many different reporting needs a place to access this information. To make sure the users achieve the highest possible conveniences there is a need to proactively maintain and optimize the BusinessObjects Enterprise services and when an incident occurs such as if the Adaptive Processing Server runs out of memory and generates a java heap file the root cause should be determined to avoid this in the future. This article describes how to evaluate the java heap file and interprets the information to allow for the highest possible stability and performance in your BusinessObjects Enterprise environment. The cause of less than optimum stability users experience with ad hoc reporting in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence using BW as data sources with the BICS connectivity has, in some cases, been identified as related to the design of the InfoCube. The obvious question here is how stability and performance with Web Intelligence or other front end tools on BW InfoCubes can be improved by the use of the semantic layer? This will also be discussed.

Figure 1: Overview of involved areas of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture


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As shown on the overview of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture the APS is a part of the Processing tier. The BI4.1 platform is by default installed with one Adaptive Processing Server (APS) per host system. The Adaptive Processing Server is a generic server that hosts multiple services responsible for processing various requests. Services that can be hosted on this server include: Adaptive Connectivity Service, BEx Web Application Service, Client Auditing Proxy Service, Custom Data Access Service, Data Federation Service, Document Recovery Service, DSL Bridge Service, Excel Data Access Service, Lifecycle Management ClearCase Service, Lifecycle Management Console Service, Monitoring Service, Multi-Dimensional Analysis Service, Platform Search Service, Publishing Post Processing Service, Publishing Service, Rebean Service, Security Token Service, Translation Service, Visual Difference Service, Visualization Service, Web Intelligence Monitoring Service.

Definitions:

“BICS" is short for Business Intelligence Consumer Services which is the connectivity allowing SAP

BusinessObjects tools such as Web Intelligence or Dashboard Designer.

”DSL” or The Dimensional Semantic Layer Bridge is what actually connects to BW. It is hosted by

the Adaptive Processing Server. The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for

expected user load. The DSL is recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular

Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment.

“BEx” queries (Business Exchange queries) are queries created by SAP InfoCube Designer, based on SAP Info Cubes in a SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW). InfoCubes retrieve the metadata from the data source.

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2. HOW THE INFORMATION DESIGN TOOL CONSUMES THE INFOCUBE

From the Information Design Tool choose “create new connection” directly under the CMC. Logon to your BO 4.1 Enterprise portal from IDT and right click on the:

Click on a folder where you want to create your new connection to the InfoCube.

Right click and chose “Insert Relational Connection”:


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Choose “SAP Java Connector (SAP JCo)”:


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Fill in the BW parameters and test the connection:


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Select an InfoProvider:

Limit the number of visible data sources by filtering:

Select “Clear” and checkmark only Query Provider to see the InfoCubes that have been made available by the option “Query is used as InfoProvider” described earlier in this article. Select the InfoCube from the list and click finish:


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IDT will create the connection in the CMS database and then ask if you want to have a shortcut created in your local IDT project. Click Yes and select the project where you want the connection shortcut to be present.

You should now have your connection in a project of your choice. Right click on your Project and go to “New” -> “Data Foundation”:

Give your Data Foundation a name:


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Select Data Foundation type “Multisource-Enabled” for SAP NetWeaver BW:

Select the newly created connection as data source for your Data Foundation:


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Information Design Tool will create the Data Foundation for the chosen InfoCube:

From this point, all the functionality that IDT offers can be leveraged to provide end users with a business layer that enables them to have easy access to a BI semantic layer and create the reports, dashboards, predictive analysis, etc. Create a Business Layer by right clicking on the project:

Select the newly created data foundation:


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IDT can automatically detect the Data Foundation and create a Business Layer if wanted:

Business Layer: InfoCube (data source):

Test that the data is correct by creating a query in the Business Layer:


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Change the names, reorganize the dimensions, attributes, measures, etc. and then the final step is to publish

the universe to the BI Platform repository:

Choose a folder on the BI Platform repository and click Finish:

Test that your universe is working from the BusinessObjects frontend tools by creating a new Web Intelligence document and using the newly published universe as a data source: Web Intelligence – query panel:

Congratulation – you have now created a new Web Intelligence document using InfoCube as data source.


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Using the multi-sourced universe in BO frontend tools: SAP BO Explorer – before BO 4.1 it wasn’t possible to use a InfoCube together with Explorer. But it is now:

First create a new Information Space:

Validating that your selections are in order: The last step is to index the created Information Space & perhaps schedule it.


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Go to the “Home” page of Explorer to access the newly created Information Space:

Congratulations. You can now use SAP BO Explorer directly on a InfoCube (please note the limitations described earlier).


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3. LIMITATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES

In general, with Web Intelligence or other BO frontend tools, BICS is fetching all of the reports BI metadata in each connected InfoCube each time it is started up in modify mode. This implies that the frontend tools needs to be calculating the universe structure “on-the-fly” instead of caching the universe on the BI Platform. The reason for this is simply that the InfoCube might have changed and the frontend tools need to verify that the structure is as expected or it will be updated automatically. With the universe approach, the universe needs to be kept in synch with the InfoCube – so it is basically a tradeoff as described below. The following restrictions will apply with IDT 4.1 universes relational access on BW:

- BW Hierarchies are not supported - Input-ready variables are not supported (BW security) - And some other restrictions like the ability to do a SQL COUNT

Advantages with building universes using InfoCubes as data sources:

- Multi-sourced universes – use you InfoCubes together with other data sources. - Universes can be cached on the BI Platform allowing for higher performance when

retrieving large amounts of BI Metadata (InfoCubes with lots of attributes and key calculated figures).

- Rename and re-structure the business layer to make it easier for end users to understand and recognize their business terminology.

- The business layer build in the universe frees the business user from the complexity of the data structures and technical names.

The following functions are supported (limits might apply):

- Standard aggregations (SUM, MIN, MAX) - Formulas that are totaled before aggregation (+, —,constant factor) - Units and currency translations - Constant selection - Formula with quotients, like prices - Formula with exception aggregation

Limitations: In the following cases, it is not possible to activate a query as an InfoProvider:

- The query is input-ready (for BW-integrated planning). - The query has input-ready required variables. - Temporal hierarchy join is enabled. - The query has more than one structure - The technical name of the query is more than 20 characters in length. - The InfoProvider is a TransientProvider or an aggregation level.

The following settings are not taken over from the query:

- Set hierarchies - Local aggregations - Elimination of internal business volume - Conditions


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4. REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION

The following documents are referenced in this document:

DOCUMENT NAME LOCATION ISSUE DATE

InfoCube as InfoProvider http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4b/c347cd494650e9e10000000a15822b/frameset.htm

“How to APS” http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31711

Nov. 2012

“Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Based on your Business Requirements for SAP BW Customers”

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-32449

SAP BusinessObjects increasing stability by setting limits on max. retrievable cells from SAP BW into Web Intelligence using BICS.

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31900 20-09-2012

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/4b/c347cd494650e9e10000000a15822b/frameset.htm



http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31711



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How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data …a248.g.akamai.net/n/248/420835/ecdb752840c14a4f665042ec6...How to Create Universes Using InfoCubes as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects