data modelling

SAP BW Data Modeling

SAP University AlliancesVersion 2.0Authors Klaus Freyburger g

Peter Lehmann

Abstract:This chapter covers the basic aspects and concepts of data modeling with SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW).

ProductSAP Netweaver BI 7.0

LevelUndergraduateBeginner

© 2010 All Rights Reserved. SAP UA

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

A dBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

• Overview

Agenda

Overview• InfoObjects

– Key Figures– Characteristics

• InfoProviders– DataStore Objectsj– InfoCubes

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

SAP BW A hit t O iBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

SAP BW Architecture Overview

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

SAP BW Data Modeling Architecture Objects andBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

SAP BW Data Modeling Architecture Objects and Data Structures

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Wh t i I f Obj t?BI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

What is an InfoObject?

• InfoObjects are used to focus on business requirements• InfoObjects are used to focus on business requirements.– Note:

• The original product name was “SAP Business InformationWarehouse.”

• The abbrevation “BIW” conflicted with another product name, so “BW” was chosen.

• InfoObjects are the “bricks” to build data structures inside SAP BWBW.– InfoObjects represent business objects from an end user’s

view.– The most important InfoObject types used for business analysis

are Characteristics and Key Figures.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f Obj t Ch t i tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoObject: Characteristics

• A Characteristic represents a business object (or concept• A Characteristic represents a business object (or concept, business term, business entity).– A Characteristic may have attributes which describes the

b i bj i d ilbusiness object in more detail.– Example: InfoObject “Customer” is a characteristic with

attributes such as “Customer Number”, “ZIP Code”, “Region”, , , g ,etc.

– The attributes “Customer Number”, “ZIP Code”, “Region”, etc. are also managed as Characteristics and may have their ownare also managed as Characteristics and may have their own attributes.

Note: What SAP calls a Characteristic is often referred to in the data warehouse community as a Dimension.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f Obj t K FiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoObject: Key Figures

• A Key Figure (or variable measure) is oftenly used to document• A Key Figure (or variable, measure) is oftenly used to document the performance of a business process over time.– It can be found in document records such as invoice, delivery

h d d inote, purchase order, or goods receipt.– Example: InfoObject “Revenue” or “Sales Amount”, etc.

• Note: InfoObjects are unique inside SAP BW, and they are used to build the data structures for analysis requirements.– Conceptually unique: the semantics (meaning) of an

InfoObject is uniquely defined system-wide inside SAP BW.– Logically unique: the data type value range or field length isLogically unique: the data type, value range or field length is

uniquely defined system-wide inside SAP BW.– From the technical point of view, an InfoObject can viewed as a

d t b fi ld© 2010 SAP AG

database field.

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Evolution from a SAP ERP Database Object to anBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Evolution from a SAP ERP Database Object to an SAP BW InfoObject

R/3 BW ExtraktorSAP ERPSAP BW InfoObjects

SAP BW DataSource

Table Costcenter

BW Extraktor

InfoObject"0COSTCENTER"

COAccounting

COAccounting COSTC ...

Table Costcenter

DataSourceCostCenter

D fi iti

HRHumanHR

Human

Table EmployeeEMPLO COST CENTER ...

Definition&

Mapping

SAP Business Information Warehouse!!

HumanRessources

HumanRessources

O COS _C

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f Obj t A “B i k ” f D t St tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoObjects Are “Bricks” for Data Structures

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f P id “P id ” A t D t R dBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoProviders “Provide” Access to Data Records

InfoProviders:InfoProviders:• Are data storage inside SAP BW• May store data records physically (persistent)• May also be used to access data stored outside SAP BW virtually

(transparent views)• May be accessed with front end tools such as SAP• May be accessed with front end tools such as SAP

BusinessExplorer

Note: A query is a “view” to data within an InfoProvider and does not contain physical dataand does not contain physical data.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f P idBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoProviders

• InfoProviders with physical data: p y– InfoCubes

• Contain data optimized for fast multi-dimensional analysis.DataStore Objects– DataStore Objects

• Contain detailed data.• Used for high data volumes stored in normal database tables.

Oft d “d t ” f I f C b• Often used as “data source” for InfoCubes.

• InfoProviders with virtual data:– MultiProviders

• Often used to create “views” above two or more InfoCubes with the same Characteristics but different Key Figures.

• Data resides in the InfoCubes involved and data redundancy is avoided.– VirtualProviders

• Data stored somewhere outside SAP BW. • Some ERP systems provide data storage which may be accessed directly

© 2010 SAP AG

y p g y yby SAP BW without changing the end user ‘s view to the data.

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f C bBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoCubes

• Provide data storage used for reporting and online• Provide data storage used for reporting and online analysis.

• Consist of Key Figures and Characteristics.• Contain data stored multi-dimensionally and often aggregated

(week, month).• Use star database schema consisting of a fact table surroundedUse star database schema, consisting of a fact table surrounded

by dimension tables.• Use a maximum of 3 + 13 dimension tables.

– 3 dimension tables are pre-defined by SAP.• Time, Unit and DataPackage (for technical information)

– 13 dimensions may be used by InfoCube developers– 13 dimensions may be used by InfoCube developers.

Note: In practice, good InfoCube design should not exceed 6 8 dimensions (+ the 3 above) so 13 dimensions are plenty

© 2010 SAP AG

6-8 dimensions (+ the 3 above) so 13 dimensions are plenty.

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

D t St Obj tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

DataStore Objects

• Contain single data records such as invoices, g ,purchase orders or customer order items.

• Consist of key fields (such as “order number”, “order position number”) and data fields (Key Figures andorder position number ) and data fields (Key Figures and Characteristics such as “sales amount”, “ net value”, “customer id”, “material number”).

• Store data records in relational database tables.• Often contain massive volumes of data.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f C b D t St Obj tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoCube versus DataStore Object

• Data Warehouse• Data Warehouse, Operational Data Store and Data Marts are general layers in a Datageneral layers in a Data Warehouse Architecture.

BI1-M2-01-Data Warehouse

• Data Warehouse and Operational Data Store may be implemented with DataStoreObjects.

• Data Marts will be implemented withimplemented with InfoCubes.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA


• Overview

Agenda




© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

I f Obj tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

InfoObjects

• InfoObjects• InfoObjects– Key Figures

• Revenue, Sales Amount, Net Value, ….– Characteristics

• Customer, Region, Zip Code, …Units– Units

• Unit of Measurement, Currency, …– Time

• Calender Year, Fiscal Year, Month, Day, Quarter, ….– Some Technical Stuff

DataPackageID RequestID• DataPackageID, RequestID, …

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

K Fi D fi iti RBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Key Figure Definition: Revenue

Amount, Quantity, .. …Amount, Quantity, .. …

Data Type: integer,Data Type: integer, float, char(10), …

EUR, USD, … (fix)

Pieces, inch, %, … (fix)

© 2010 SAP AG

Unit / Currency (fix) / Currency reference

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

K Fi D fi iti R ( t )BI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Key Figure Definition: Revenue (cont.)

Last valueNo Employee per Month

Last value

500520 515 520 520 521

Aggregation: Last Value,

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

gg g ,Maximum, Average…

Reference Characteristic e g Quarter

Aggregation: S ti

Reference Characteristic, e.g. QuarterThe reference characteristic allows the use of a function to aggregate data instead of

tiSummation, Minimum, Maximum

summation.Example: Number of Employees at the end of the quarter. Sum does not make

© 2010 SAP AG

sense!

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA



If the Key Figure is non-cumulative (e.g., warehouse stock), this field defines an InfoObject representing non-cumulative change. This InfoObject is either positive or negative. So, the stock amount can be calculated f itfrom it. Two fields are used to

calculate the non-cumulative amounts. Inflow is the InfoObject which represents the stock inflow amount. Outflow is

© 2010 SAP AG

vice versa.

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA



© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Ch t i ti D fi iti S l O i tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Characteristic Definition: Sales Organisation

Data Types: Num, Char DateChar, Date, …

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

C i R tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Conversion Routine

Database values• Are stored in internal format

appropriate to the database– Date as YYYYMMDD

• Are presented to a user in external format according to his local settings, e.g., in g ,– Europe

• Date: DD.MM.YYYYN mbers 1 234 56• Numbers: 1.234,56

– US• Date: MM/DD/YYYY• Numbers: 1,234.56

Transformation external internal format is

© 2010 SAP AG

performed by a conversion routine

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

ALPHA C i R tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

ALPHA Conversion Routine

Alphanumeric database fieldsAlphanumeric database fields• Datatype CHAR in SAP• Can store character and number values• Have conversion exit ALPHA as default

– Eliminates leading blanks after user input• User input of ‚RB0010‘ and ‚ RB0010‘ refers to same objectp j

– Stores numbers with leading 0s in database• Numeric values are stored in natural order in database, e.g. 0002

first then 0010first, then 0010

Material Group in SAP Business Content has numerical l ith t ili bl kvalues with trailing blanks

Conversion exit ALPHA must not be used

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

MATN1 C i R tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

MATN1 Conversion Routine

Database field Material often requires special treatmentDatabase field Material often requires special treatment.• Datatype CHAR in SAP• Conversion exit MATN1 is used• Edit format can be defined in transaction OMSL

– E.g. _ _-_ _ _ _ User Input RB-0010 is stored as RB0010

Since the OMSL format setting is system-wide, we do not use it in the Bike Company Curriculum.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Ch t i ti D fi iti S l O i ti ( t )BI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Characteristic Definition: Sales Organisation (cont.)An InfoObject may

have attributes!

Texts:Descriptive textsMulti-language textsg gTime dependent texts

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Ch t i ti D fi iti S l O i ti ( t )BI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Characteristic Definition: Sales Organisation (cont.)

Attributes

Usable for OLAP operations

© 2010 SAP AG

Usable for OLAP operations or display only

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Ti Ch t i tiBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Time Characteristics

• Time characteristics are always• Time characteristics are always necessary and define the time-related reference point for data analysis purposesanalysis purposes.

• Time characteristics are predefined by SAP and cannot be changed.

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

U it /C iBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Units/Currencies

• Units and Currencies are used to define Key Figures in more detail• Units and Currencies are used to define Key Figures in more detail.• A Unit may be an InfoObject which defines the Unit of a Key Figure.• A Currency may be an InfoObject which defines the Currency of a

Key Figure• Examples:

0CURRENCY– 0CURRENCY – 0BASE_UOM

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

5 St t D fi D t St Obj tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

5 Steps to Define a DataStore Object

5 steps to Define an DataStore Objectp j1) Define a name for a

DataStoreObject2) Choose the key fields2) Choose the key fields3) Choose the data fields4) Define attributes used for data

l ianalysis5) Activate the DataStoreObject

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Ch i I f Obj t t B ild D t St Obj tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Choosing InfoObjects to Build a DataStore Object

• Select the relevant InfoObjects• Select the relevant InfoObjects– Direct InfoObject name input (1) or– Choose InfoObjects by InfoObjectCatalog and drag & drop the

I f Obj t (2)InfoObjects (2)

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

7 St t D fi I f C bBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

7 Steps to Define an InfoCube

7 Steps to Define an InfoCube7 Steps to Define an InfoCube1) Choose a name for an InfoCube2) Create Dimensions as needed3) Assign Characteristics to Dimensions4) Choose Time Characteristics5) Choose Key Figures5) C oose ey gu es6) Define Navigational Attributes7) Activate InfoCube

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

C t N Di i If N d dBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Create New Dimensions If Needed

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Wh t i Di i I id SAP BW?BI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

What is a Dimension Inside SAP BW?

• A dimension is a group of characteristics which belong to the• A dimension is a group of characteristics which belong to the same business object (semantically).

• Each characteristic may contain additional attributes which are l f d l i !!!relevant for data analysis – or not!!!

Navigational attributes are InfoObjects which are used to perform data analysis.Display attributes are InfoObjects for which data analysis does

not make sense (e.g. a house number or a family name)This has an impact to cube design!This has an impact to cube design!

Note: In data warehouse community, the term Dimension isNote: In data warehouse community, the term Dimension is used for what SAP calls Characteristic .

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

E i SAP BW E h d St S hBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Excursion: SAP BW - Enhanced Star Schema

• Attributes are not part of a dimension!• Attributes are not part of a dimension!

DimensionCharacteristic as part

of a dimensionDimension of a dimension NAV

Characteristic as i i ib

NAV

NAV

© 2010 SAP AG

navigation attribute

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

Di l d i th F t d T lBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Displayed in the Frontend Tool

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

B i Ch t i ti d It N i ti Att ib tBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Basic Characteristic and Its Navigation Attributes

1 Dimension1. Dimension

3 N i ti Att ib t3. Navigation Attributes are ready to be used in analysis.

2. Characteristic

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

St t C t I f C bBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Steps to Create an InfoCube

• Define the InfoObjects needed• Define the InfoObjects needed.– Key Figures– Characteristices

• Define which Characteristics may be chosen to create a semantic cluster for semantic dimensions.– Examples are: Sales, Production, Material Management, Finance, etc.Examples are: Sales, Production, Material Management, Finance, etc.

• Define which attributes are appropriate to perform data analysis– OLAP attributes define them as “navigational” attributes – Non-OLAP attributes define them as “display” attributes

• Done! Deploy the InfoCube inside SAP BW!

© 2010 SAP AG

SAP BI Curriculum

SAP UA

SBI2-M2 SAP BW Data Modeling

Summary

• Key Figures and Characteristics are defined as InfoObjects• Key Figures and Characteristics are defined as InfoObjects.• InfoObjects are the smallest “bricks” to define InfoProviders

within SAP BW.• InfoProviders are used to store data within SAP BW or allow SAP

BW to access data stored somewhere else.• The most important InfoProviders are InfoCubesThe most important InfoProviders are InfoCubes

and DataStore Objects.• The definition of an SAP BW InfoCube is

Wit h !no Witchery!

© 2010 SAP AG

data modelling

Documents

outside sap bw

sap ag page

physical data data

sap businessexplorer

data structures

data storage

virtual data

virtualproviders data