Activating BW Objects for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

The screen area above the tab pages provides information about the BW InfoProvider:

• Object Name: Technical name of the InfoProvider:

• Description

• Object Type: InfoCube, VirtualProvider, semantically partitioned object (InfoCube-based), MultiProvider, HybridProvider, Query

• Indication of whether saved: Saved/not saved. If the status is not saved, the object has been edited but not saved.

• Indication of whether the object is a snapshot (selected)

  Note

  The context menu also contains the following options:

  Information (Logs/Status): The Log Selection screen appears. You can determine whether the system should offer you the option to Save, Activate or Delete the log from the application log.

  Global Settings The Global Settings screen appears. On this screen, you can set the date format and the language. You have to make these system settings when calling transaction RSDDTPS for the first time.

  Last Change: The Last Change screen appears. The system shows who made the most recent changes, together with the date and time of the most recent change.

  Delete Hierarchy Indexes: If no hierarchy has been selected for a BW object (see the information below about the Hierarchy tab page), the hierarchy is not automatically deleted, as it can still be used by another BW object. Instead, there is a type of garbage collector for hierarchies. This can be called from the context menu. If you select this entry, the system lists all hierarchies that are not being used by any users. You can then select the ones that you want to delete.

The overview below shows which tab pages the system offers for which InfoProvider.

Tab Pages per BW InfoProvider

Tab pages for indexes of InfoCube, semantically partitioned object (InfoCube-based), VirtualProvider, HybridProvider and MultiProvider-PartProvider

1. Authorizations

   Users in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer have filter conditions assigned to them, which the system uses automatically when the user sends a query. This security concept is different to the lock concept in a BW system (Filter versus Lock, or Row level versus multidimensional). Both security concepts are optimized for the corresponding systems.

   In the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer authorization maintenance transaction, you can assign filter conditions to users. If the data comes from a BW system, you define these filter conditions in the BW system using a BW analysis authorization object. You can do this either with existing authorization objects, if suitable, or by creating new ones to use in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in the analysis authorization maintenance transaction (transaction RSECADMIN). This filter is then used automatically every time the data is edited or used in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Any number of filters can be described in a BW authorization object.

   Note

   Restrictions to hierarchy nodes that are defined in the authorizations cannot be displayed in BusinessObjects Explorer. These are therefore ignored when the filter is defined.

   You have to enter at least one user on the Authorizations tab page.

   Users that you enter in this step can use SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to access the BWA index. Users who are not entered in this step do not see any data and do not receive any error messages from the system in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

   Once you have entered a user, you can restrict their access to the data with exactly one BW analysis authorization, which you can select. A filter is created from the selected authorization. This filter is used in each Explorer query made by this user for the InfoProvider in question.

   Rows can be filled in various ways.

   • Enter the user name and assign the authorization object to it. If it does not have an authorization object assignment, the user automatically has full rights.

   • Enter the user name and choose Generate Proposal. If the user already has an authorization object assigned to it, this is used automatically.

   • Copy a list of users, from the notepad for example, and insert this list into the table. By choosing Import from File, you can also upload user/authorization pairs, from an Excel table for example.

   • Enter an SAP BusinessObjects Explorer user group using the following format: $$$_group ID, for example $$$_DE, and assign the authorization object. All users in this group automatically have the selected authorization.

     To create a special group like this, choose  Extras  Maintain Authorization Group . The screen opens for editing user groups for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (table view maintenance transaction SM30 for table RSDDTPS_AUTHGRP). Assign the group and user IDs to each other. Example: You create group DE and assign this to 100 user IDs that have the same authorizations in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. You can use this user group for as many BW objects as you like, as long as they have been activated for display in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, and combine them with various authorization objects, depending on the BW object in question.

   To create a row to enter another user and their authorization, choose .

2. Key Figures/Conversions

   On the Key Figures/Conversion tab page, you can select conversions for key figures that depend on units of measure or currencies. Since BusinessObjects Explorer is always aggregated, but there can be different units and currencies in the BW InfoProvider, you must specify your required target unit or target currency. You can only specify one target unit or target currency for each key figure.

   • Select the target unit for key figures that depend on units. Whether or not a conversion is possible depends on the units of the InfoProvider, since BusinessObjects Explorer only supports simple conversions.

     Possible conversions include centimeter to meter and gram to kilogram. Conversions from piece to pallet, however, are not supported. These key figures cannot be evaluated in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. If you still need to perform these complex conversions however, you can have a query snapshot indexed as a BW InfoProvider instead. The complex conversion is then performed by the OLAP engine during indexing.

   • With key figures that depend on currencies, you have to select a currency translation type in addition to the target currency. The conversion always uses the rate that was valid when the conversion index was created.

     Key figures, where no target unit or currency can be entered, are not convertible. The system displays a message informing you of this. These include:

     Key figures with exception aggregation. These cannot be used in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, as the dependencies there cannot be depicted for other characteristics and settings. The system therefore only supports key figures with aggregation type Total, Minimum or Maximum.

     Non-cumulative key figures The system ignores these in the enhancement for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

     If conversion is not possible, you need to restrict the corresponding units and currencies in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

     The Display setting (for a key figure) to define scaling is ignored in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. The system always displays the values posted. Values cannot be shifted (for example, a shift of 1,000, where 5300 is displayed as 5.3).

   • If a key figure is not needed in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, you have the option as a BW administrator of defining that this key figure is not displayed in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. To do this, set the Hide flag. The key figure will then be indexed but will not be visible in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. This simplifies the Information Space Design.

3. Restricted/calculated key figures

   On the Restricted/Calculated Key Figures tab page, the system displays all globally restricted and calculated key figures that meet the conditions for this BW InfoProvider. In the Use column, select the key figures that you want to be available in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

   Note

   For example, you could use a key figure like "Amount in 2008 MINUS Amount in 2009".

   If you select these key figures, the system does not index their values in the fact index. The BWA Engine analyzes the formula or restriction at query runtime instead. For users in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, these key figures look like key figures without restrictions or formulas, although some metadata can also be displayed in the Explorer.

   If the definition of the key figure contains variables, the system also has to make the variable values available at design time. You define these on the Variables for Restricted/Calculated Key Figures screen. The system opens this screen automatically before saving. You can also call it by choosing Process Variables. Use F4 help to choose the required values.

   For information about other calculated key figures that cannot be used in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, choose Display Messages.

4. Hierarchies

   On the Hierarchies tab page, the system displays all hierarchies that have been defined on InfoObjects belonging to this BW InfoProvider and that meet the condition of not being version or time-specific. In the Selection column, select the hierarchies that you want to be available in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

   Note

   Even if the settings made in the InfoObject properties stipulate that hierarchies on the InfoObject can be version and time-specific, but one or more hierarchies for the InfoObject do not use this property, the system allows you to index these hierarchies for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Other hierarchies for the same InfoObject that do not use these properties will not be available for selection however.

   Since the hierarchies in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator are used by various BWA indexes, the Index Exists column indicates whether the index already exists there or whether it needs to be created first.

   Note

   By selecting Delete Hierarchy Indexes from the context menu, you can delete hierarchies that you do not need any more (see above).

Other Functions for MultiProvider Snapshot Indexes

1. PartProvider

   On the PartProvider tab page, the system displays all BW InfoProviders contained in a MultiProvider.

   In the Exclude column, select the PartProviders that you do not want to be indexed. This allows you to exclude data that you do not intend to use right from the start.

2. Filter

   On the Filter tab page, you can create a filter characteristic for the data. This allows you to exclude data that you do not intend to use right from the start.

   You can also use this function to parallelize processing jobs and thus improve performance: For every filter condition, a job is processed in background processing. By defining independent filter conditions, you can parallelize and speed up data loading.

   Firstly, select the filter material. You can use input help for this.

   Choose Create/Display Filter. The Filter Condition for MultiProvider Index screen appears.

   On the Select Single Values or Select Intervals screen, define the filter conditions and choose .

3. Configuring

   By choosing Configure, experts can call a function to exclude individual InfoObjects from indexing.

   • If you exclude a key figure, the system does not read it from the MultiProvider. The key figure is not contained in either the fact index or the logical index. This reduces the amount of data.

   • If you exclude a characteristic, this corresponds to an aggregation using this characteristic while reading data during the upload process. The data in the MultiProvider index is then on a lower granularity level than in the MultiProvider. If you exclude a characteristic, note that its navigation attributes are also excluded.

   Configurations of this type modify the structure of the BW object, and settings made before can be lost. If an index has already been created, this will be deleted during conversion.

Functions for Query Snapshot Indexes

Define the authorizations (see the section above for information on the Authorizations tab page). The tab pages for key figures and hierarchies cannot be used for query snapshot indexes, as the key figures are contained in the query itself, and hierarchies for query snapshot indexes are not supported.

As with the MultiProvider snapshot indexes however, you can define filters (see the Filter section above) and can reconfigure them (see the Reconfiguring section above). When using query snapshot indexes, you should pay special attention to the following features:

• Filter

  On the Filter tab page, you can define additional conditions for data filters. As with MultiProvider snapshot indexes, you can also use filters to divide up the indexing job and have the various parts in parallel. This allows both faster indexing and indexing of mass data in query snapshots. The query result cannot be read by package like other InforProviders can. Instead, the data must be read and processed all in one go by the OLAP processor. This means that the amount of data that can be indexed is limited in relation to the capacity of the application server (normally 1-5 million records).. You can also divide the data up into blocks and define filter conditions for these blocks. Provided that these blocks do not exceed the limits of the application server, any amount of data can be read, processed and indexed.

  Example: You want to index data from 10 years, amounting to over 5 million data records. To do this, you create ten data filters, each of which contains the data for one year. The query snapshot can now be indexed.

  By pressing Configure, you can define which role the navigation attributes should have: They are either part of the fact index (and therefore part of the snapshot) or are available via a join with the master data index (and are thus subject to the change runs in the BW system).

Before saving, the system checks the settings automatically. If this check finds any errors, you cannot save. Once the settings are saved, they are stored for indexing in a database table (not in the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator)

At the chosen time, the settings activation job will be processed in the background (name: BW_TR_RSDDTPS_SETTINGS_ACTIVATE). This job indexes the following:

• Settings for the authorizations

• The logical index that contains information about restricted, calculated and other key figures,

• Hierarchies that have not been indexed yet

• If a BWA index already exists, texts and characteristic values are added to it in external format. If the BWA index does not exist, the system builds a new one.