SAP BW Glossary

Language in which BW is coded. ABAP is also used for writing transfer rules and update rules.

BW connects with SAP systems (R/3 or BW) and flat files via ALE.

Administrator Workbench maintains meta-data and all BW objects. It has two components:

• BW Scheduler for scheduling jobs to load data

• BW Monitor for monitoring the status of data loads

BW Scheduler specifies the scheduling of jobs to load data. It is based on the same techniques used for scheduling R/3 background jobs.

BW connects with non-SAP systems via BAPI.

A Basic InfoCube is a type of InfoCube that physically stores data.

BDS stores documents. The documents can appear in various formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and HTML. BEx Analyzer saves query results, or MS Excel files, as workbooks in the BDS.

BEx provides an interface where users may build reports of data that lies in the BW.BEx reporting tool allows different views of data in an array of combinations; hierarchies, calculations, restrictions, conditions, and exceptions.

BEx is divided up into the following areas:

* BEx Query Designer

* BEx Browser

* BEx Formatted Reporting

* BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)

Excel add-on. Thanks to its easy-to-use graphical interface, it allows users to create queries without coding SQL statements.

Queries are the core of the reporting and analysis functionality in SAP BW. They provide a flexible and intuitive platform for data analysis that can be developed using the SAP Business Explorer (BEx) Query Designer.

to create formatted reports.

BEx Analyzer, BEx Report Designer, BEx Query Designer, and so on.

The BEx Web Application Designer is a desktop application for creating Web applications with BI-specific content.

Using the BEx Web Application Designer, you can create an HTML page containing BI-specific content such as various tables, charts, or maps. This HTML page (Web application) forms the basis of Web applications with complex interaction, as well as Web cockpits and iViews.

Note: Within the next few years, BEx Web Application Designer capabilities will be merged into SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer.

allows to create ad hoc queries on SAP NetWeaver BI and non-SAP data.

get real-time access to non-SAP applications (including OLAP and relational data) and business intelligence environments.

Enables you to produce planning applications.

BW Monitor displays data loading status and provides assistance in troubleshooting if errors occur.

• Administrator Workbench, including BW Scheduler and BW Monitor

• Metadata Repository and Metadata Manager

• Staging Engine

• PSA (Persistent Staging Area)

• ODS (Operational Data Store) Objects

• InfoCubes

• Data Manager

• OLAP Processor

• BDS (Business Document Services)

• User Roles

Characteristic is a type of InfoObject represented by master data.

Characteristics are descriptions of key figures, such as Customer ID, Material Number, Sales Representative ID, Unit of Measure, and Transaction Date.

A characteristic has a technical name.

Next: See Display Attribute.

A Dashboard is a web page built in a web template by using web application designer.

Most web templates have one or more table grids with different charts available in Web Application designer to present the information in graphical format.

A data target is an object into which data is loaded.

A dimension is a simple grouping of characteristics that do not necessarily have hierarchical dependencies: a dimension can contain characteristics that have linear dependencies, although this is not mandatory.

Dimension tables contain references to the pointer tables that point to the master data tables which in turn contain Master data objects such as customer, material and destination country stored in BW as Info objects.

A display attribute provides supplemental information to a characteristic.

SAP’s BW is based on "Enhanced Star schema" or "Info Cubes" database design.

An extractor is a set of ABAP programs, database tables, and other objects that BW uses to extract data from the SAP systems. It is contained in a Plug-In which must be installed in the source systems.

ETL service comprises of two parts: Staging engine and Storage Service.

building a data warehouse involves a critical task that does not arise in building an OLTP system: to extract, transfer, transform, and load (ETTL) data from diverse data sources into the data warehouse

A free characteristic is a characteristic in a query used for drill-downs. It is not displayed in the initial result of a query run.

GuiXT is free SAP software for users starting with R/3 4.0. In R/3 Release 4.6 and up, GuiXT comes standard with SAPGUI. It is a flexible tool that applies to all SAP transactions and allows you to customize SAP screens using scripts without changing ABAP code.

GuiXT is compatible with SAP R/3 releases from 3.0 to 4.7 as well as SAP NetWeaver Portal. The GuiXT scripting language remains constant for all versions; however, you may need to adapt these scripts for new releases.

InfoAreas are used to organize InfoCubes and InfoObjects. Each InfoCube is assigned to an InfoArea. Through an InfoObject Catalog, each InfoObject is assigned to an InfoArea as well. The maximum number of characters allowed for the technical name is 30.

InfoCubes are the fact tables and their associated dimension tables in a star schema.

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An InfoObject can contain single field definitions such as transaction data or complex Master Data that hold attributes, hierarchy and texts that are stored in their own tables.

InfoObject is of different types: Characteristic, Key Figure, Unit, Time Characteristic and Technical Characteristic (such as Request Number).

Loading data into the BW is accomplished by using InfoPackages. InfoPackages are tools for organizing data requests that are extracted from the source system and are loaded into the BW system.

An Infoprovider represents a view of data that can be used to define queries. At runtime, the query instructs the InfoProvider to supply data. The query defines the data that is needed and the selection criteria that are used.

There are 2 types: data targets that contain physical data (InfoCubes, ODS objects and InfoObjects) and others that display no physical storage (InfoSets, RemoteCubes, SAP RemoteCubes and MultiProviders).

InfoProviders are used by BEx.

InfoObject Catalogs organize InfoObjects. Two types of InfoObject Catalogs exist: one for characteristics, and one for key figures.

The maximum number of characters allowed for the technical name is 30.

InfoSets are a type of infoProvider. InfoSets allow several data sources to be linked using a join. The linking of the data sources is defined during definition of the Infoset. Later queries executing the joins are run.

An InfoSource is a structure in which InfoObjects are logically grouped together. InfoCubes and characteristics interact with InfoSources to get source system data.

Type of InfoObject which is a numeric field like account debit amount. Key Figure can be calculated.

Key Figures are characterized by a multiplicity of characteristics that are arranged in different dimensions.

Master data is data that lasts (static data) from one transaction to another in a business. If you are a customer of an online bookseller, name, address, email, and any other data used each time you buy a book is customer's master data. The list of the specific books that you are buying is transactional data—data that is specific to that order or transaction.

In short Master data describes characteristics.

For example, a vendor master record contains not only general information such as the vendor's name, address and telephone number, but also purchase order-related information, such as payment terms and delivery instructions.

Meta-data comprise data about data. Metadata Repository contains two types of meta-data: business-related (for example, definitions and descriptions used for reporting) and technical (for example, structure and mapping rules used for data extraction and transformation).

A multi-cube is a union of basic cubes. To a user, the multi-cube is similar to a basic cube.

The multi-cube itself does not contain any data; rather, data reside in the basic cubes.

ODS Objects allow to build a multilayer structure for operational data reporting. They are not based on the star schema and are used primarily for detail reporting, rather than for dimensional analysis.

OLAP Processor is the analytical processing engine. It retrieves data from the database, and it analyzes and presents those data according to users' requests.

PSA (Persistent Staging Area) stores data in the original format while being imported from the source system. PSA allows for quality check before the data are loaded into their destinations, such as ODS Objects or InfoCubes.

get real-time access to SAP NetWeaver BI queries or query views.

The 'gui' in SAPgui stands for 'graphical user interface.' The SAPgui is software on your computer that you use to access and complete transactions in the SAP system.

With SAP GUI 6.20, SAP introduced a "scripting API": an object model that represents a screen with its controls at runtime. In Windows environment the API can be used from any tool that supports the COM object interface, especially from the VBScript and JavaScript languages. The object model allows one to automate all user actions.

Unlike GuiXT, the SAP GUI scripting approach is not intended to change the screen layout. It completes the GuiXT functionality, allowing us to manipulate special controls (like the grid control) that GuiXT cannot handle directly, but is restricted to actions that a user is able to do as well.

SAP BW is now part of a suite of SAP applications called SAP NetWeaver.

SAP NetWeaver BI is a web-based, open integration and application platform that serves as the foundation for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) and allows the integration and alignment of people, information, and business processes across business and technology boundaries. It utilizes open standards to enable integration with information and applications from almost any source or technology. SAP NetWeaver is the foundation of SAP xApps and mySAP Business Suite solutions, and also powers partner solutions and customer custom-built applications.

The SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator is a technology that speeds up the SAP NetWeaver BI query runtime through use of compression, indexing, and parallel processing that combine the use of search engine technology with a scalable hardware architecture based on blade servers. The BI Accelerator makes queries 10 to 100 times faster on average, which means that analysis becomes far more interactive even when huge volumes of data are being analyzed.

An SAP transaction is any logical process in the R/3, CRM, BW, or other SAP system.

A simpler way to define this is to say that a transaction is a self-contained unit, a set of steps with a beginning and an end, resulting in some kind of output and often an update to the underlying SAP database.

Creating a new customer, generating a list of existing customers, processing an order, and executing a program are all examples of SAP transactions.

SAP transactions therefore do the work of the application; everything else simply supports how this work gets done.

The bottom layer consists of source systems, which can be R/3 systems, BW systems, flat files, and other systems.

Staging Engine implements data mapping and transformation.

Triggered by AWB Scheduler, it sends requests to a source system for data loading.

The source system then selects and transfers data into BW.

Each SAP BW object has a technical name.

For example the maximum number of characters allowed for characteristic technical name is 9 and the maximum number of characters allowed for datasource technical name is 32.

Transaction codes are the technical names of menu items or ABAP programs.

For example, the transaction codes RSA1, RRC1, RRC2, RRC3, and RSKC correspond to the menu items Administrator Workbench, Create, Change, Display, and Permitted Characters, respectively.

Transfer rules specify how DataSource fields are mapped to InfoSource InfoObjects.

An update rule specifies how data will be updated into their targets. The data target can be an InfoCube or an ODS object.

User Roles are a concept used in SAP authorization management. BW organizes BDS documents according to User Roles. Only users assigned to a particular User Role can access the documents associated with that User Role.

A saved setting such as table settings or report selection criteria.

The Visual Composer is a model-driven architecture tool.

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer is shipped with BI integration functionality that can access SAP and non-SAP data using an SAP BI connector (for SAP NetWeaver BI) and BI Java connectors (for OLAP and relational data).