InfoSource 3.x 

Definition

An InfoSource 3.x describes the set of all available data for a business transaction or a type of business transaction (for example, cost center accounting).

An InfoSource 3.x is a set of logically-related information, summarized into a single unit. It serves to stage consolidated data for updating to additional InfoProviders. InfoSources can contain either transaction data or master data (attributes, texts and hierarchies).

An InfoSource is always a set of logically-related InfoObjects in the form of the communication structure.

A new type of InfoSource is available as of Release SAP NetWeaver 2004s. You can continue to create and use InfoSource 3.x, however we recommend that you use the new InfoSource concept with the new transformation concept.

Use

In the BI system a DataSource is assigned to an InfoSource. If fields that logically belong together exist in various source systems, they can be grouped together into a single InfoSource in the BI system. In this way, you can assign multiple DataSources to one InfoSource.

In transfer rule maintenance, individual DataSource fields are assigned to the corresponding InfoObject of the InfoSource. Here you can also determine how the data of a DataSource is transferred to the InfoSource. The uploaded data is transformed using transfer rules. An extensive library of transformation functions that contain business logic can be used here to perform data cleansing and to make the data analyzable. The rules can be applied simply, without coding, by using formulas.

The transfer structure is used to transfer data to the BI system. The data is transferred 1:1 from the transfer structure of the source system into the transfer structure of the BI system.

Integration

If logically-related fields exist in various source systems, they can be grouped together into a single InfoSource in the BI system. The source system release is not important here.

If you are dealing with an InfoSource with flexible update, the data is updated from the communication structure of the InfoSource into additional InfoProviders using update rules. InfoSources with direct update allow master data to be written to the master data tables directly (without update rules).

InfoSources are listed under an application component in the InfoSource tree of the Data Warehousing Workbench.