InfoSource 

Definition

A non-persistent structure consisting of InfoObjects for joining two transformations.

Use

You use InfoSources if you want to run two (or more) sequential transformations in the data flow without storing the data again.

If you do not have transformations that run sequentially, you can model the data flow without InfoSources. The data is then written straight to the target from the source using a transformation.

However, it may be necessary to use one or more InfoSources for semantic or complexity reasons. For example, you need one transformation to ensure the format and the assignment to InfoObjects and an additional transformation to run the actual business rules. If this involves complex inter-dependent rules, it may be useful to have more than one InfoSource.

More information: Recommendations for Using InfoSources.

Structure

Unlike 3.x InfoSources, InfoSources in Release SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and higher behave like InfoSources with flexible updating. More information: 3.x InfoSource.

The data in an InfoSource is updated to an InfoProvider using a transformation.

You can define the InfoObjects of the InfoSource as keys. These keys are used to aggregate the data records during the transformation. The aggregation is performed before the InfoSource between the start routine and the end routine. This will cause all records in the data package that have the same key values in terms of InfoSource definition to be summarized (for key figures) or overwritten (for data fields, with the last record “winning”).

Integration

The following figure shows how InfoSources are integrated into the data flow:

You create the data transfer process from a DataSource to an InfoProvider. Since InfoSources are not persistent data stores, they cannot be used as targets of the data transfer process. You create transformations for an InfoProvider (as the target) with an InfoSource (as the source), and for an InfoSource (as the target) with a DataSource (as the source).