Let's now explore how SAP BW data can be exposed as data products in SAP Business Data Cloud.
Creating a custom data product on SAP BW data involves two steps:
- Use the data product generator tool for SAP Business Data Cloud to create a data subscription on SAP BW data to generate and fill a local table (file) in SAP Datasphere
- Create a custom data product on the local table (file) with SAP BW data in SAP Datasphere
As a first step, let's explain the use of the data product generator.
Key Features of the Data Product Generator
The data product generator is a tool designed to simplify the integration of data from SAP BW, private cloud edition in SAP Business Data Cloud. It provides a mechanism to replicate data from SAP BW InfoProviders to the object store (SAP HANA Data Lake Files) within an SAP Datasphere tenant as part of SAP Business Data Cloud.
The data product generator is used to create, activate, run and monitor data subscriptions on SAP BW data.
The process of replicating SAP BW data into a local table (file) involves the following steps:
- Create and activate a data subscription: Define which SAP BW InfoProvider to extract from, full or delta, including projection settings and filter conditions. Activation of the data subscription creates a local table (file) in an SAP BW space in SAP Datasphere.
- Run a data subscription: SAP BW pushes the data into the inbound buffer of the local table (file).
- Run merge task: The merge task in SAP Datasphere consolidates buffered files and updates the delta table of the local table (file).
The data product generator offers several key features that make data integration efficient and straightforward:
Easy replication: It simplifies the process of replicating data from SAP BW InfoProviders to SAP Business Data Cloud. You define subscriptions specifying which SAP BW InfoProviders and their fields should be replicated, along with any necessary projections and filtering.
Flexible replication modes: You can choose between one-time snapshots, regular reloads, or incremental delta updates (where supported by the underlying SAP BW InfoProvider). This flexibility allows you to tailor the replication frequency to your data update needs.
SAP BW integration: The data product generator integrates directly into the SAP BW environment, providing editors (SAP GUI, SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit, BW Modeling Tools) for data subscriptions. This makes the process familiar and intuitive for SAP BW users.
ODP-BW source system: The Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) extraction framework offers the use of SAP BW InfoProviders as a source for data product generator based data subscriptions.
Process chain integration: You can integrate data product generator based data subscriptions into SAP BW process chains, enabling automated data replication triggered by other SAP BW processes or scheduled at optimal times.
Note
For future developments of the data product generator, you can check the SAP Roadmap Explorer for SAP Business Data Cloud
Extraction of SAP BW Objects
Using the data product generator, extraction is based on source type ODP (SAP BW InfoProvider). The following SAP BW objects can be used as a source:
InfoObject
Note
Hierarchies are not supported yet.DataStore Object
DataStore Object (advanced)
InfoCube
CompositeProvider
MultiProvider
Query as InfoProvider
There are two types of extraction modes available for the data product generator:
- Full extraction (Full): Extracts all data from the SAP BW InfoProvider at once (also called snapshot) in a one-time operation.
- Delta extraction (Delta): Extracts after initial extraction only delta data from the SAP BW InfoProvider.
In both modes the extracted data arrives in the inbound buffer of the object store in SAP Datasphere and you need to schedule and run a merge task (either manually or via task chain) to merge the new snapshot data or delta data into the local table (file).
Delta extraction is only available for specific SAP BW InfoProviders based on the SAP BW system:
Delta Extraction for InfoProviders
| InfoProvider | SAP BW/4HANA | SAP Netweaver BW 7.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Standard DataStore object (advanced) (aDSO) | Yes | Yes |
| DataStore object (advanced) (aDSO) of type data mart | Yes | Yes |
| Staging DataStore object (advanced) (aDSOs) with properties Inbound Queue Only, Compress Data, or Reporting-Enabled | Yes | Yes |
| InfoObjects with Enhanced Master Data Update | Yes | not applicable |
| Standard and Write-Optimized DataStore object (classic) (ODSO) | not applicable | Yes |
| InfoCube | not applicable | Yes |
| CompositeProvider (HCPR) * | Yes | Yes |
| MultiProvider (MPRO) * | No | Yes |
Note
(*) The following restrictions apply to delta extraction capabilities of CompositeProviders and MultiProviders:
- Delta extraction from MultiProviders is only supported for MultiProviders that only contain InfoCubes. For MultiProviders containing other InfoProviders (such as DataStore objects) or a mix of InfoCubes and other InfoProviders only full extraction is possible.
- Delta extraction from CompositeProviders is only supported for CompositeProviders that only contain InfoCubes, Standard DataStore objects (advanced) (aDSOs) or Cube-Like DataStore objects (advanced) (aDSOs). In addition, all contained objects must be of the same type. It's not possible to use delta extraction for CompositeProviders containing a mix of different objects, such as an InfoCube and a DataStore object (advanced).
- Delta extraction from CompositeProviders is not supported if the CompositeProvider contains SAP HANA Views.
The data product generator can also extract data directly from NLS (Near-Line Storage) into a local table (file), which applies to both SAP Netweaver BW 7.5 and SAP BW/4HANA. This, however, is not possible for data archived with the ADK-based Data Archiving Process (DAP), which only applies to SAP Netweaver BW 7.5.