Introducing DataStore Objects (advanced)

Now that we have loaded master data, we'll have a look at transactional data. In our scenario this means plan line items for cost centers and actual postings to cost centers. The DataStore Object (advanced) is the SAP BW/4HANA object for persistent storage of data. We will create two different types of DataStore Objects (advanced) to store cost center transactional data for our scenario.

SAP BW/4HANA provides different types of DataStore Objects (advanced). These variations can cover all necessary scenarios. There are DataStore Objects (advanced) that have been optimized for processing delta data as well as DataStore Objects (advanced) that have been optimized for pure data storage or reporting.

The DataStore Object (advanced) provides many different modeling scenarios, for various layers of the data warehouse, for both field-based and InfoObject-based modeling.

Thanks to optimized request management, the DataStore Object (advanced) is particularly well suited to deal with frequent loading and large amounts of data.

Depending on the type, you can define key fields, and dependent fields can be overwritten or aggregated.

The DataStore Object (advanced) consists of three core tables that are generated in the background when the DataStore Object (advanced) is created and activated. The system uses the tables depending on the selected modeling options. Regardless of the use case, these three tables are always generated to later support quick and flexible changes to the data model. The tables are as follows:

• Inbound table: /BIC/A<technical name>1

  Structure: Request ID (REQTSN), Data Package (DATAPAKID), Record number (RECORD), Record mode (RECORDMODE), Key Field 1, Key Field n, Field 1, Field n...

• Table of active data: /BIC/A<technical name>2

  Structure: Key Field 1, Key Field n, Record mode (RECORDMODE), Field 1, Field n...

• Change Log table: /BIC/A<technical name>3

  Structure: Request ID (REQTSN), Data Package (DATAPAKID), Record number (RECORD), Record mode (RECORDMODE), Key Field 1, Key Field n, Field 1, Field n...

Regardless of which instance of the DataStore Object (advanced) you model, the data is always loaded into the inbound table first. Then data is either read from this table directly, or it is processed further into the other one or two tables for reading or extraction. This depends on how the data is used and how the model is customized.

In addition to these three core tables, the following three table views are created as well. Which of the three core tables they refer to depends on the modeling scenario (that is, the setting of the Modeling properties):

• View for Extraction from the DataStore Object (advanced): /BIC/A<technical name>6

• View for Reporting for the DataStore Object (advanced): /BIC/A<technical name>7

• View for external SQL Access for the DataStore Object (advanced): /BIC/A<technical name>8

DataStore Objects (advanced) can also be defined without InfoObjects. A field-based DataStore Object is defined using fields and is often used as a staging layer, offering a copy of the source data in SAP BW/4HANA. You can load data into the SAP BW/4HANA system without assigning InfoObjects and all the functions are still available.

The DataStore Object (advanced) can also contain a mixture of InfoObjects and fields.

In SAP BW/4HANA, values of a Characteristic in transactional data are naturally connected to the master data of the value of a Characteristic. When you run a Query on a DataStore Object (advanced), the transactional data of the DataStore Object (advanced) is automatically enriched with master data.

In SAP BW/4HANA master data is stored separately. This means that the transactional data in DataStore Objects (advanced) covers Key Figures and values of Characteristics, but does not contain the master data of these values of Characteristics. An aspect of this separate master data storage is that it is shared (linked) with all DataStore Objects (advanced) that have the associated Characteristic. The result is that you use the master data for different DataStore Objects (advanced). The master data is DataStore Object (advanced) independent, and can be used by several Queries from several different DataStore Objects (advanced) at the same time.

The core Modeling Properties, located in the General tab of the BW Modeling Tools, represent the key settings that define the behavior of the DataStore Object (advanced) and the usage of its three back-end tables. There are also some additional enhancements called "special properties" regarding inventory key figures, planning functions, and a new write interface, which are available depending on the core modeling scenario you defined before.

In this course, in the next lessons, we will only focus on the 3 most important types of DataStore Objects (advanced) that can be defined using Modeling Properties:

• Data Mart DataStore Object
• Standard DataStore Object
• Staging DataStore Object