Scenario
Now that the master data-bearing Characteristic U##_COSTC has been defined, we want to load master data from the source systems into it. For this (and also later for loading transactional data), we will create data flows. Let's first have a short overview of the main components of a data flow in SAP BW/4HANA.
Objects in Data Flows
When defining a data flow In SAP BW/4HANA, the following objects are always required:
DataSource: an SAP BW/4HANA object that presents a flat structure of logically-related source fields that is used for source system data access and extraction.
Transformation: an SAP BW/4HANA object with the mapping between source and target fields, where a rule can be defined for each mapping, which can be used to change the content of the field for each data record that is transferred.
Data Transfer Process (DTP): an SAP BW/4HANA object that determines how and which data is transferred between a source and target object. At least one DTP is required, but it's possible to define multiple ones. For example, to load the data in multiple loads using filter criteria.
InfoProvider: an SAP BW/4HANA object used to create Queries, presenting physical storage of data in real database tables, or presenting a virtual collection of data. In case of a data flow, InfoProvider refers to SAP BW/4HANA objects with physical storage of data, which are master data-bearing Characteristics or DataStore Objects (advanced).
Data Flow: an SAP BW/4HANA object, consisting of objects like DataSources, Transformations, Data Transfer Processes and InfoProviders including the relationships between them.
In the next lessons we'll explain these objects of the data flow in further detail.
We'll first explain how to create a Data Flow using placeholders (non-persistent objects) with the Graphical Data Flow Tool.