Interfaces of the Analytic Server
Purpose
SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence provides an open architecture in many areas: You can extract data from various systems into a BI system and can evaluate this data for your reporting using various front-end tools.
Multidimensional and relational interfaces of the Analytic Server are available for connecting front-end tools of third parties. The table below gives an overview of the functions that are allowed in BI queries and that are supported by the interfaces:
Decision Table for Using the Interfaces
Scenario |
Multidimensional Interfaces |
Relational Interface |
Read mass data |
Not possible |
Possible |
Calculated key figures, formulas |
Supported as part of a query definition |
Possible with computed measures in the BusinessObjects Universe |
Variables |
Supported as part of a query definition; SAP variables (especially exit variables) that can be replaced with calculations are also possible here |
Variables with input can be represented with @prompts in the BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Query Panel; Customer and SAP exit variables possible by combining functions in the BusinessObjects Data Federator (calculation functions, use of user-defined tables or CSV files as source in addition to SAP NetWeaver BI) and in the BusinessObjects Universe (create list of values, @prompt mechanism)
|
Currency and unit conversion |
Supported as part of a query definition |
Possible with manual modeling of tables with conversion rates in the BusinessObjects Universe |
Exceptions and conditions |
|
|
BI hierarchies |
Supported |
Not possible (however, hierarchies that are modeled as dimension characteristics, such as COUNTRY – REGION – CITY are possible) |
SAP non-cumulative cubes |
Supported |
Not possible |
Exception aggregation (COUNT DISTINCT, AVERAGE, STDDEV) |
Supported as part of a query definition |
Possible with derived tables in the BusinessObjects Universe |
Constant selection |
Supported as part of a query definition |
Possible by defining and combining multiple queries in a report |
Elimination of internal business volume |
Supported (modeled to key figure) |
Not possible |
EMPTY function, for example in slow moving item scenario |
Supported |
Possible by defining a query in the BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Query Panel or by manually modeling predefined objects in the BusinessObjects Universe |
Structures as reusable units in query |
Supported as part of a query definition |
|
Conversion exits (for example 10.2008 instead of 200810 for October 20008) |
External format is used |
Conversion possible with formatting routines in the BusinessObjects Data Federator or in the BusinessObjects Universe or by creating special formats in a report |
Display attributes |
Supported as part of a query definition |
Possible with joins from InfoProvider to the master data tables in BusinessObjects Universe |
Integration
The figure below shows the integration of the interfaces in the BI system:
Third-party front-end tools can send queries to the MDX processor of the BI system or the Data Federator interface using the available interfaces. They pass the query on to the OLAP processor. The OLAP processor accesses InfoProviders. The InfoProviders contain either the data objects themselves (InfoProviders of type Target such as InfoCube, DataStore object and InfoObject) or reporting-relevant views on data objects (MultiProvider, VirtualProvider, InfoSet).
The Data Federator interface supports DataStore objects, but not InfoSets.
Features
The following multidimensional interfaces of the Analytic Server are available:
● OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO)
● OLAP BAPI (Business Application Programming interface)
● XML for Analysis (XML/A)
All of these interfaces are based on MDX (MultiDimensonal Expressions). More information: MDX as Basis of the Interfaces.
The following relational interfaces of the Analytic Server are available: