System Response Upon Changes to Data: Aggregate 

Use

If hierarchies and attributes of characteristics belonging to an InfoCube have been changed, it is necessary to make structural changes to the aggregates in order to modify the data accordingly.

Note that with a structural change, all of the aggregates that are affected by the changes to the hierarchies and InfoObjects of all InfoCubes are modified. This may take some time.

You can still report on the ‘old’ hierarchies and attributes during the change run.

Integration

With changes beyond a certain magnitude, modifying the aggregate becomes more time consuming than reconstructing it. You can change this threshold value. In the implementation guide, choose SAP NetWeaver ® Business Intelligence ® Performance Settings ® Parameters for Aggregates in the section Percentage Change in the Delta Process. In the Limit with Delta field, enter the required percentage (a number between 0 and 99). 0 means that the aggregate is always reconstructed. Change these parameters as many times as necessary until the system response is as quick as possible.

Features

If an aggregate is affected by changes to the data, it is either modified (in a delta process) or reconstructed. When you modify an aggregate, the obsolete data records are read negatively whereas the new data records are read positively.

You can modify aggregates manually or automatically using a program.

You can start multiple change runs simultaneously. The prerequisite for this is that the lists of master data and hierarchies to be activated are different and that the changes affect different InfoCubes. If a change run terminates, the same change run must be started again. You do this by starting the change run again with the same parameters (same list of characteristics and hierarchies).

Activities

Manual Modifications

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       1.      In the Data Warehousing Workbench menu, select Tools ® Hierarchy/Attribute Changes. The Execute Hierarchy/Attribute Changes for Reporting screen appears. On this screen, all the executed change runs are listed with detailed information. All the InfoObjects and hierarchies that are scheduled for the structural change are selected by default.

       2.      If you only want to carry out the structural changes for individual InfoObjects and hierarchies, select the InfoObject List or Hierarchy List pushbutton and remove from the list those InfoObjects and hierarchies you do not want to change.

       3.      Schedule a new structural change by choosing  Selection and determine the start date. The status of the structural change is displayed in the upper section of the screen.

Automatic Modifications

To schedule the same function when executing a report directly, enter the program name RSDDS_AGGREGATES_MAINTAIN.

You can also include the program in a process chain and schedule it regularly in background processing.

The attributes for the characteristic 0MATERIAL are uploaded weekly. You can schedule the program so that it starts after the upload. You can also use the InfoObject List 0MATERIAL as a variant, so that only the changes to the material attributes are taken into account and not others, which will be needed later.

Choose the Log pushbutton to display the messages for the hierarchies and attributes that have been changed manually, or automatically.