Creating MultiProviders

Use

A MultiProvider is a type of InfoProvider that combines data from a number of InfoProviders and makes it available for analysis purposes. The MultiProvider itself does not contain any data. Its data comes entirely from the InfoProviders on which it is based. These InfoProviders are connected to one another by a union operation.

A MultiProvider can consist of different combinations of the following InfoProviders: InfoCube, DataStore object, semantically partitioned object, InfoObject, HybridProvider, InfoSet, VirtualProvider, and aggregation level.

A union operation is used to combine the data from these objects in a MultiProvider. Here, the system constructs the union set of the data sets involved. All the values of these data sets are combined. As a comparison: InfoSets are created using joins. These joins only combine values that appear in both tables. In contrast to a union, joins form the intersection of the tables

More information: Creating InfoSets

Procedure

Follow the general procedure for creating an InfoProvider. All MultiProvider-specific settings are described below.

More information: Creating InfoProviders
Select the InfoProviders that you want to form the MultiProvider.

Technically there are no restrictions with regard to the number of InfoProviders that can be included in a MultiProvider. However, we recommend that you include no more than 10 InfoProviders in a single MultiProvider, otherwise splitting the MultiProvider queries and reconstructing the results for the individual InfoProviders takes a substantial amount of time and is generally counterproductive. Modeling MultiProviders with more than 10 InfoProviders is also highly complex.
Choose . The MultiProvider screen appears.
Use Identify (Assign) in the context menu of a characteristic to assign an InfoObject between MultiProviders and InfoProviders.

In a MultiProvider, each InfoObject in the MultiProvider must correspond to exactly one InfoObject in each of the InfoProviders involved (as long as it is available in the MultiProvider). If this mapping is not clear, you have to specify the InfoObject to which you want to assign the InfoObject in the MultiProvider.

See also, Consistency Check for Compounding.

Example
The MultiProvider contains the characteristic 0COUNTRY and an InfoProvider contains both the characteristic 0COUNTRY and the navigation attribute 0CUSTOMER__0COUNTRY. In this case, select just one of these InfoObjects in the assignment table.
Use Select (Assign) in the context menu of a key figure to assign an InfoObject between MultiProviders and InfoProviders.

If a key figure is contained in a MultiProvider, you have to select it from (at least) one of the InfoProviders contained in the MultiProvider. In general, one InfoProvider provides the key figure. However, there are cases in which it is better to select the key figure from more than one InfoProvider:

Example
If the 0SALES key figure is stored redundantly in more than one InfoProvider (meaning that it is contained fully in all the value combinations for the characteristics), we recommend that you select the key figure from just one of the InfoProviders involved. Otherwise the value is totaled incorrectly in the MultiProvider, because it occurs several times.

However, if 0SALES is stored as an actual value in one InfoProvider and as a planned value in another InfoProvider and there is no overlap between the data records (in other words, sales are divided separately between several InfoProviders), it is useful to select the key figure from more than one InfoProvider.
Save or Activate the MultiProvider. Only active MultiProviders are available for analysis and reporting.

Example

Example: List of Slow-Moving Items

Example: Plan-Actual Data

Example: Sales Scenario