Creating CompositeProviders that Consist of InfoProviders and Analytic Indexes

In a CompositeProvider, you can flexibly combine data from multiple InfoProviders and analytic indexes in a graphical environment.

1. You are in the Modeling area in the Data Warehousing Workbench. In the context menu of the InfoArea, choose Create CompositeProvider....
2. Enter a name for your CompositeProvider. The maximum length of the name is 10 characters. The system adds the prefix @3 to the InfoProvider name.
3. Press . The graphical modeling environment appears.
4. You can drag and drop the required InfoProviders (from the InfoProvider tree on the left of the screen) onto the modeling area.
   Note

   For MultiProviders, only the InfoProviders that are indexed are transferred. The links (Unions) of the MultiProvider are automatically transferred. Once the individual InfoProviders are contained in the CompositeProvider, it is no longer relevant that they are part of a MultiProvider.

   Note DataStore objects are only available if SID generation is activated for the DataStore object and if you are using an SAP HANA database.
5. In a dialog box, you can decide whether to link by Union or Join. Press OK. The selected InfoProvider is displayed in the modeling area. You can now select more InfoProviders.
6. Now drag the fields from the InfoProviders to your empty CompositeProvider. Using lines, the system now shows which InfoProviders the fields come from. If a line is a join, it has the label Join and is displayed in bold.
7. You have various options for checking the join connections. More information: Extended Checks
8. You can change the name of a field and enter a description. To do this, choose  Properties  Change  from the context menu on the field.
   Note

   The maximum length of the field names is 10 characters. If they are longer, the system assigns the name F001, F002 and so on. If a field name already exists, a Fnnn name is assigned. The descriptions are always taken over from the original field.

9. For Key Figures: You can assign a currency or unit from a characteristic. To do this, choose  Properties  Change  from the context menu on the key figure.
10. You can make the following settings by choosing  Goto  Global Settings :

    • Select MultiProviders for Pruning:

      If you select a MultiProvider for the CompositeProvider, when the CompositeProvider is accessed, the information from the MultiProvider hint is used to exclude individual InfoProviders during the access. This can help to improve performance.

    • Derive Authorizations from Analysis Authorizations Only:

      If you set this indicator, only the analysis authorizations created for the CompositeProvider are used for the authorization check. Otherwise, the authorizations in the CompositeProvider are derived from the InfoProviders involved. To do this, the system takes the intersection of the various InfoProviders. The analysis authorizations created for the CompositeProvider are then merged with the derived authorizations.

11. For information about other editing functions, see: Further Functions for Editing CompositeProviders
12. You can also fill a field from a constant. To make this possible, at least two analytic indexes must be used a a union.

    To do this, choose Constant from... from the context menu for a field that is not connected with all union indexes.

    Example

    An analytic index 1 contains the Country field, whereas an analytic index 2 only contains data for Germany, without the Country field. To be able to connect all fields correctly by union, the Country field must be linked from both analytic indexes.

    In the CompositeProvider, set the constant for Country to DE (Germany). This means that the field in the CompositeProvider from analytic index 2 is always filled with Germany.

13. You can view the CompositeProvider's XML structure.
14. Activate the CompositeProvider. When the CompositeProvider is activated, the data is stored in BW Accelerator or the SAP HANA database. You can now view the data by choosing Display Data. You can display documentation for the CompositeProvider in the initial transaction SLIMOBW by choosing  Goto  Description .