How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as

Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects

Information Design Tool 4.1

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Applies to:
SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool 4.1 with SAP BW 7.31.
Working title: How to create universes using BEx Queries as data sources with SAP
BusinessObjects Information Design Tool
Summary:
This paper provides a step by step description incl. screenshots to create universes on top of a BEx Query
using Information Design Tool.
Using this approach provides a unique new functionality to bring multiple sources, now also including BEx
Queries, together in one common semantic layer using Information Design Tool 4.1.
The new functionality can be an important supplement on how one can manage the BI Metadata in one
place and for future growth. The result from the exercise can for instance be used to redesign and simplify
the BI Metadata layer with the purpose of consuming data from multiple sources in Web Intelligence reports,
Dashboard Designer and explorer or any other BI tool that is capable of consuming BusinessObjects
Information Design Tool universes (UNX).
Without evaluating a common BI metadata model there is a risk of having to increase maintenance, and
reporting functionality might not be as quickly available for end users as it can be made with the approach
described in this article.

Author Bio
Kurt Holst (kurt.holst@sap.com) is an expert on SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise
architecture, configuration and performance optimization. Kurt has worked with most major
OLAP databases, SAP NetWeaver BW and relational databases together with different BI
reporting tools. Before joining SAP Kurt has worked as a BI Architect & developer both
internal and as an external consultant. Furthermore Kurt has been attached to the university
as an external lecturer on Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse & Data Mining. Kurt works
on the Business Analytics Services team in SAP Denmark.
Company:
Last update:

SAP
May 21, 2013

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR BIO .................................................................................................................................................... 2
1.

BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR CREATING UNIVERSES ON BEX QUERIES.................. 6

2.

HOW TO PREPARE THE BEX QUERY FOR CONSUMPTION IN IDT 4.1 ..................................... 8

3.

HOW THE INFORMATION DESIGN TOOL CONSUMES THE BEX QUERY ............................... 11

4.

LIMITATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES ........................................................................................ 22

5.

REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION ................................................................................................. 23

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Version-log :

Date

Name

Alteration Reason

Version

08.04.2013

Kurt Holst

Initial Document

0.1

08.04.2013

Kurt Holst

Background and overview

0.2

09.04.2013

Kurt Holst

Setting up BEx Queries for consumption in

Information Design Tool

0.3

10.04.2013

Kurt Holst

Describing the Information Design tool

and BEx Query consumption

0.4

29.04.2013

Kurt Holst

Finalizing first draft to share internally

0.5

05.05.2013

Adding IDT & BEx Query analyser tool

desciptions

0.6

10.05.2013

Adding best practices

0.7

21.05.2013

Finalizing to publish externally (SCN)

1.0

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

1. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR CREATING

UNIVERSES ON BEX QUERIES
The BusinessObjects Enterprise platform is a highly flexible solution that allows users with many
different reporting needs a place to access this information.
To make sure the users achieve the highest possible conveniences there is a need to proactively
maintain and optimize the BusinessObjects Enterprise services and when an incident occurs such
as if the Adaptive Processing Server runs out of memory and generates a java heap file the root
cause should be determined to avoid this in the future. This article describes how to evaluate the
java heap file and interprets the information to allow for the highest possible stability and
performance in your BusinessObjects Enterprise environment.
The cause of less than optimum stability users experience with ad hoc reporting in SAP
BusinessObjects Web Intelligence using BW as data sources with the BICS connectivity has, in
some cases, been identified as related to the design of the BEx Query.
The obvious question here is how stability and performance with Web Intelligence or other front
end tools on BW BEx Queries can be improved by the use of the semantic layer? This will also be
discussed.

Figure 1: Overview of involved areas of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

As shown on the overview of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Architecture the APS is a part of
the Processing tier. The BI4.1 platform is by default installed with one Adaptive Processing Server
(APS) per host system.
The Adaptive Processing Server is a generic server that hosts multiple services responsible for
processing various requests. Services that can be hosted on this server include: Adaptive
Connectivity Service, BEx Web Application Service, Client Auditing Proxy Service, Custom Data
Access Service, Data Federation Service, Document Recovery Service, DSL Bridge Service, Excel
Data Access Service, Lifecycle Management ClearCase Service, Lifecycle Management Console
Service, Monitoring Service, Multi-Dimensional Analysis Service, Platform Search Service,
Publishing Post Processing Service, Publishing Service, Rebean Service, Security Token Service,
Translation Service, Visual Difference Service, Visualization Service, Web Intelligence Monitoring
Service.

Definitions:
BICS" is short for Business Intelligence Consumer Services which is the connectivity allowing SAP
BusinessObjects tools such as Web Intelligence or Dashboard Designer.
DSL or The Dimensional Semantic Layer Bridge is what actually connects to BW. It is hosted by
the Adaptive Processing Server. The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for
expected user load. The DSL is recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular
Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment.
BEx queries (Business Exchange queries) are queries created by SAP BEx Query Designer, based
on SAP Info Cubes in a SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW). BEx queries
retrieve the metadata from the data source.

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

2. HOW TO PREPARE THE BEX QUERY FOR CONSUMPTION

IN IDT 4.1
This section guides you step-by-step through the basic procedures for preparing a simple but
complete SAP NetWeaver BEx Query to be used within the SAP BO Information Design Tool.
Complete means that you use a simple BEx Query, with the correct parameters set for allowing it
to be used in IDT.
Start the BEx Query Designer by choosing.
Start Programs Business Explorer Query Designer open a query.

Remember to allow External Access to the BEx Query if this parameter isnt set you
wont be able to see the query from IDT:

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Open your SAP GUI:

From the SAP GUI go to transaction code RSRT Query Monitor. This would normally be an area where
you should ask your SAP Basis / Administrator colleagues to assist performing these configuration changes.

Query as InfoProvider
On the Query Properties screen in Query Monitor, you can stipulate whether the selected
query should be used as an InfoProvider.
Enable Query is used as InfoProvider lets Information Design Tool use the BEx Query:

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

With the Query is used as InfoProvider check box selected, Information Design Tool 4.1
is able to retrieve this as a data source as shown in the following sections of this article.
This setting also makes it possible to perform high-performance analyses, especially on
queries that are simple but contain a very large amount of data, i.e. over a million cells.
You can still index data from all InfoProviders based on the query using query snapshots
in SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (see Creating and Managing BWA
Indexes in the BW System and Indexing BW Data in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator).
You can get an overview of the BWA Indexes in the system for the query snapshot by
pressing Query as InfoProvider in BWA Index Maintenance (transaction RSDDB). The
system uses a BWA index for a query snapshot when its timestamp is not older than the
InfoProvider that the query is based on (see BWA Index Settings Tab Page). If you want to
use the selected query as an InfoProvider, set the relevant flag. The system checks
whether this is possible. Press to call the Display Logs dialog box. The system indicates
whether the selected query can be used as an InfoProvider.

10

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

3. HOW THE INFORMATION DESIGN TOOL CONSUMES THE

BEX QUERY
From the Information Design Tool choose create new connection directly under the CMC.
Logon to your BO 4.1 Enterprise portal from IDT and right click on the:

Click on a folder where you want to create your new connection to the BEx Query.

Right click and chose Insert Relational Connection:

11

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Choose SAP Java Connector (SAP JCo):

12

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Fill in the BW parameters and test the connection:

13

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Select an InfoProvider:

Limit the number of visible data sources by filtering:

Select Clear and checkmark only Query Provider to see the BEx Queries that have been
made available by the option Query is used as InfoProvider described earlier in this
article. Select the BEx Query from the list and click finish:

14

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

IDT will create the connection in the CMS database and then ask if you want to have a
shortcut created in your local IDT project. Click Yes and select the project where you want
the connection shortcut to be present.

You should now have your connection in a project of your choice. In this example the
project name is Using_BEx_Queries_As_data_sources_in_IDT41:

Right click on your Project and go to New -> Data Foundation:

Give your Data Foundation a name:

15

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Select Data Foundation type Multisource-Enabled for SAP NetWeaver BW:

Select the newly created connection as data source for your Data Foundation:

16

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Information Design Tool will create the Data Foundation for the chosen BEx Query:

From this point, all the functionality that IDT offers can be leveraged to provide end users
with a business layer that enables them to have easy access to a BI semantic layer and
create the reports, dashboards, predictive analysis, etc.
Create a Business Layer by right clicking on the project:

Select the newly created data foundation:

17

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

IDT can automatically detect the Data Foundation and create a Business Layer if wanted:

Business Layer:

BEx Query (data source):

Test that the data is correct by creating a query in the Business Layer:

Change the names, reorganize the dimensions, attributes, measures, etc. and then the
final step is to publish the universe to the BI Platform repository:

18

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Choose a folder on the BI Platform repository and click Finish:

Test that your universe is working from the BusinessObjects frontend tools by creating a
new Web Intelligence document and using the newly published universe as a data source:
Web Intelligence query panel:

Congratulation you have now created a new Web Intelligence document using BEx
Query as data source.

19

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

Using the multi-sourced universe in BO frontend tools:

SAP BO Explorer before BO 4.1 it wasnt possible to use a BEx Query together with
Explorer. But it is now:

First create a new Information Space:

Validating that your selections are in order:

20

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

The last step is to index the created Information Space & perhaps schedule it.

Go to the Home page of Explorer to access the newly created Information Space:

Congratulations.
You can now use SAP BO Explorer directly on a BEx query (please note the limitations
described earlier).

21

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

4. LIMITATIONS AND BEST PRACTICES

In general, with Web Intelligence or other BO frontend tools, BICS is fetching all of the reports
BI metadata in each connected BEx Query each time it is started up in modify mode. This
implies that the frontend tools needs to be calculating the universe structure on-the-fly
instead of caching the universe on the BI Platform. The reason for this is simply that the BEx
query might have changed and the frontend tools need to verify that the structure is as
expected or it will be updated automatically. With the universe approach, the universe needs
to be kept in synch with the BEx Query so it is basically a tradeoff as described below.
The following restrictions will apply with IDT 4.1 universes relational access on BW:
- BW Hierarchies are not supported
- Input-ready variables are not supported (BW security)
- And some other restrictions like the ability to do a SQL COUNT
Advantages with building universes using BEx Queries as data sources:
- Multi-sourced universes use you BEx Queries together with other data sources.
- Universes can be cached on the BI Platform allowing for higher performance when
retrieving large amounts of BI Metadata (BEx queries with lots of attributes and key
calculated figures).
- Rename and re-structure the business layer to make it easier for end users to
understand and recognize their business terminology.
- The business layer build in the universe frees the business user from the complexity of
the data structures and technical names.
The following functions are supported (limits might apply):
- Standard aggregations (SUM, MIN, MAX)
- Formulas that are totaled before aggregation (+, ,constant factor)
- Units and currency translations
- Constant selection
- Formula with quotients, like prices
- Formula with exception aggregation
Limitations:
In the following cases, it is not possible to activate a query as an InfoProvider:
- The query is input-ready (for BW-integrated planning).
- The query has input-ready required variables.
- Temporal hierarchy join is enabled.
- The query has more than one structure
- The technical name of the query is more than 20 characters in length.
- The InfoProvider is a TransientProvider or an aggregation level.
The following settings are not taken over from the query:
- Set hierarchies
- Local aggregations
- Elimination of internal business volume
- Conditions

22

How to Create Universes Using BEx Queries as Data Sources with SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool 4.1

5. REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION
The following documents are referenced in this document:
DOCUMENT NAME
LOCATION
BEx Query as InfoProvider

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpd
ata/en/4b/c347cd494650e9e10000000a
15822b/frameset.htm

How to APS

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31711

Using Queries as InfoProviders

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73ehp1/
helpdata/en/4f/362d9a25524014930392
2aa1a637e1/frameset.htm

Selecting the Right SAP

BusinessObjects BI Client Product
Based on your Business
Requirements for SAP BW
Customers
SAP BusinessObjects increasing
stability by setting limits on max.
retrievable cells from SAP BW into
Web Intelligence using BICS.

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-32449

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31900

ISSUE DATE

Nov. 2012

20-09-2012

23

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