InfoProvider 

Definition

Generic term for BI objects into which data is loaded or which display views of data. You can generally analyze this data in BI queries.

Use

InfoProviders are various meta objects in the data basis that can be seen as uniform data providers from the viewpoint of a query definition. Their data can therefore be analyzed in a uniform way. The type of data staging and the degree of detail or 'proximity' to the source system in the data flow diagram differs from InfoProvider to InfoProvider. However, in the query definition, they are seen as uniform objects.

The following graphic shows how InfoProviders are integrated into the dataflow:

Structure

The term InfoProvider encompasses objects that physically contain data:

●       InfoCubes

●       DataStore objects

●       InfoObjects as InfoProviders

Staging is used to load data into these InfoProviders.

InfoProviders can also be objects that do not physically store data but which display logical views of data, such as:

●       VirtualProviders

●       InfoSets

●       MultiProviders

●       Aggregation levels

●        TransientProviders

The following figure gives an overview of the BI objects that can be used in analysis and reporting. They are divided into InfoProviders that contain data and InfoProviders that only display logical views and do not contain any data. In the BI frontend, the system simply accesses an InfoProvider; and for now it is not important how the data is modeled.