Lecture 3

Outline
OLAP/OLTP Review of Star Schema Dimension Tables and Fact Table Real world changes SAP BI Enhanced Star Schema Fact Table Dimension Tables Master Data Tables MetaData Objects
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OLTP vs. OLAP systems

Operational (OLTP)
Detailed Can be updated Accurate up to the second Used for clerical purposes Built based on requirements Supports small uniform transactions Data designed for optimal storage Very current data Data is application oriented Referential Integrity is useful High availability is normal

Informational (OLAP)
Summarised Snapshot records, no updates allowed Timestamp on each record Used by management Built without knowing requirements Supports mixed workload Data designed for optimal access Mainly historical data Data is integrated Referential integrity is not useful High availability is nice to have
Product Dimension Customer Dimension

Sales Dimension

Quantities
Revenues

Costs Taxes

Time Dimension

Competition Dimension

Review of Star Schema

Multidimensional data models are needed for the creation of data warehouses The classic star schema is a commonly used multidimensional model This database schema classifies two groups of data: facts (sales or quantity, for example) and dimension attributes (customer, material, time, for example). Facts are the focus of the analysis of a business' activities. The fact data (values for the facts) are stored in a highly normalized fact table.

Real World Changes

The Star schema reflects changes in the real world

normally by adding rows to the fact table. More precise real world changes like Customer 4711 purchase Material BBB at Day 19980802 for $100 creates a new record in the fact table, which is identified by the combination of key attributes in the dimension tables.

Adding Records

Star Schema Limitations

No support for multiple languages Reduced performance due to the use of Alphanumeric keys No support for time dependent changes Duplication of Dimensional data.

Fact Table
Date ID Year Fiscal Year Quarter Month

Customer ID Customer Name City Region Type

Material ID Customer ID Date ID

Sales Amount (K) Unit Price (K) Quantity (K)

Time Dimension

Customer Dimension

Material ID Material Name Material Type Material Group

Material Dimension

SAP BI Schema
The multi-dimensional model in SAP BI is based on the SAP BI schema, which was developed as an enhanced star schema as a response to problems experienced with the classic star schema. The enhancement comes from the fact that the dimension tables do not contain master data information! Master data is stored in separate tables, called master data tables (outside the dimension tables).

Snowflake model
SAP BI uses a snowflake model instead of the star schema Further normalization and expansion of the dimension

tables in a star schema result in the implementation of a snowflake design. A dimension is said to be snowflaked when the lowcardinality columns in the dimension have been removed to separate normalized tables that then link back into the original dimension table.

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Dimensional Models

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Snowflake

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When do you snowflake?

Snowflaking a dimension table can typically be performed under the following two conditions:
The dimension table consists of two or more sets of

attributes which define information at different grains (detail) The sets of attributes of the same dimension table are being populated by different source systems (very common in data warehouses)

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Details of the SAP BI Schema

1. The center of an InfoCube forms the fact table containing the key figures (e.g. sales amount).

2. The fact table is surrounded by several dimensions. 3. A dimension consist of different table types: Dimension Table
Attributes of the dimension tables are called

characteristics (e.g. material). The meta data object in BI that describes characteristics and also key figures (facts) is called InfoObject.

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SAP BI Extended Star Schema

Master Data
Represents Dimensional data Independent of any Fact table Reusable in multiple Fact tables Designed to support multi lingual systems Designed to support time dependent data. Designed to improve query performance.

Fact table
Consists of Dimensional Keys and Key Figures (facts).

Dimension table
Acts as a link between Master data and Fact table records

InfoCube
Consists of Fact and Dimensional tables.

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InfoCubes
InfoCubes are the central objects of the multi-

dimensional model in SAP BI Reports and analyses are based on these InfoCubes It is a self-enclosed dataset for a business area from a reporting viewpoint Queries can be defined and executed on the basis of an InfoCube

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InfoCubes
InfoCube consists of a number of relational tables arranged

together-

Fact Table One table in which key figures are stored. Max 233 key

figures! Dimension Tables Linked by SID tables to the master data tables. (Remember master data is not part of the InfoCube. Those are stored and maintained outside the InfoCube.) Dimension Grouping of logically related characteristics. SAP BI allows a total of 16 dimensions. Max 248 characteristics per dimension.

Technical name of SAP provided InfoCubes starts with 0. Your

own Cubes begin with A-Z, 3-9 characters long

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SAP BI Schema

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Types of InfoCubes
Standard Cube
Physically contains data in the database They are data targets ie. data can be loaded into it A type of InfoProvider BI objects are called InfoProviders when queries can be

executed based on them Standard InfoCubes are technically optimized for read access. Virtual Cubes (Virtual Provider) Only represent logical views of a dataset Data resides in data source

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Viewing InfoCube Schema

Go to the Data Warehousing Workbench Metadata

Repository Choose InfoCube Find the InfoCube you want to view Eg. SAP Demo Sales and Distribution overview 0D_SD_C03 Choose InfoCube - schematic display as star schema

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1.

Viewing/Downloading Data in an InfoCube

Start Data Warehousing Workbench: Modeling (RSA1)

Choose Modeling InfoProvider Navigate to the InfoCube using the hierarchy of InfoAreas (SAP Demo Sales and Distribution overview - 0D_SD_C03)

Right click and Display data 3. Click on Fld Selection for output. 4. Select the fields (characterisitcs and key figures that you want) 5. Execute 6. Choose value ranges (if desired) 7. Execute 8. Request export to a local spreadsheet file 9. View the data in the spreadsheet. Note that this is a flat file 21 derived from a relational database (star schema)
2.

Terms used

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InfoCube and Master Data

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 Additional information about characteristics is referred to as master data. Master data types:
Attributes Texts (External) Hierarchies

Master Data Tables

Eg. the attribute 'material group' is stored in the attribute table, the text description for 'material name' is stored in the text table and the material hierarchy is stored in the hierarchy table for the characteristic 'MATERIAL'.
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SAP BI MetaData Objects Master Data Tables

3 possible components Text
Textual description of Master Data element (AU =

Attributes

Australia). Can be language and time dependent. (Address, Telephone.) Can be language and time dependent.

Characteristics which describe another Characteristic.

Hierarchies

Tree like structures to group master data. Can be language and time dependent.
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Note: Master Tables = Attribute Tables in this slide

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BI Icons
Key Figure Characteristic InfoCube Dimension Hierarchies Maintain Master Data Text InfoObject InfoSource Source System InfoArea
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SAP BI MetaData Objects

InfoObjects Represent the structure that allows data to be stored in a BI systems. Used to describe business processes and information requirements (fields):
Customers Sales revenue

Contain technical and specialist information for master

data and transaction data in the Meta Data Repository. Used in BI to create structures and tables. Either Characteristics or Key Figures.

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Key Figures Any kind of numeric information used to measure a business process.
Date 1/1/08 1/1/08 Customer Jones Rosemann Material Racer 26 Mountain B Sales Quantity 2 5

SAP BI MetaData Objects Key Figures

Amount $2000 $4000

Six different types

* Requires Unit (currency, size) for further clarification

Amount * Quantity * Number Integer Date Time

Amount
1000 1500 30,000

Currency
EUR USD ZWD

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Aggregation Key Figures are stored in Fact Table Aggregation defines how they are stored
Sum Maximum Minimum

SAP BI MetaData Objects Key Figures

Fact Table
SalesRep NO S1 S1 S2 S2 S3 Year 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 Month 10 10 10 10 10 Product NO P1 P2 P1 P2 P1 Sales 500 500 200 650 300

Sum
OrdDate 23.10.2007 24.10.2007 25.10.2007 26.10.2007 26.10.2007 27.10.2007 27.10.2007 30.10.2007 30.10.2007 30.10.2007 SalesRep NO S1 S1 S1 S2 S2 S1 S3 S2 S3 S2 Product NO P1 P1 P2 P1 P2 P2 P1 P2 P1 P2 Sales 300 200 100 200 300 400 100 200 200 150

Transaction Table
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SAP BI MetaData Objects Key Figures

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SAP BI MetaData Objects Characteristics

Characteristics Designed to describe objects used with in the business process
customer, product, colour, postcode, date, unit etc.

They are the attributes of the dimension table

Date 1/1/08 1/1/08 Customer Jones Rosemann Material Racer 26 Mountain B Sales Quantity 2 5 Amount $2000 $4000

Could be made up of more than one field Used to analyze Key Figures
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SAP BI MetaData Objects Characteristics

Characteristic
(Single)

Characteristic
(Grouped)

Region City Customer Name Customer Phone

Customer
State City Customer Name Customer Phone
(Attributes of Customer)

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SAP BI MetaData Objects Characteristics

Characteristic

definition contains:

Unit Characteristic
Quantity data types year)

Technical field descriptions (data type, length, etc) Display properties Transfer routines (executed when data is uploaded) Master data descriptions (time dependency, navigational properties, text properties, language dependency, Hierarchies)

currencies and units of measure are required for Amount and

Time Characteristic

compulsory assignment to time dimension in InfoCube, (Calendar

Technical Characteristic

only technical use in BI (Request ID)

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SAP BI MetaData Objects Characteristics

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Types of Master Data Tables

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Characteristic - Compounding
Compounding refers to the when more than one characteristic is
required to uniquely identify a master data record.

The Characteristics

combine to form a concatenated primary key within a Dimension table.

Entity Relationship Model Department
DepartNO (PK)

Cost Center
CostCenterNO (PK)

Dimension
DepartNO (PK) CostCenterNO (PK)

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SAP BI MetaData Objects InfoCube

Contains two types of data
Key Figures (transactional data) Characteristics

1 Fact Table and 16 Dimension Tables

3 Dimensions are predefined by SAP

Time Unit Data Package

Dim2 Dim3 Dim4 Dim5 Dim6 KF1 KF2
Up to 13 User-defined
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Dim1

3 Pre-defined

Surrogate Keys

In order to improve query execution the system assigns a numeric (surrogate) key to represent the structured alpha numeric key assigned in Master data. A SID table is used to store the reference between the two keys.

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Dimension Table
A Dimension table does not store any master data records. It contains a series of surrogate keys that link the Fact table and Master data together.

Master Data SID Table

DIM ID 1 2 3 SID 1 2 3

Fact Table

DIM ID SalesRep

DIM ID DIM ID Product Time

KF Sales
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SAP BI Meta Data Objects InfoArea/InfoCatalog

An InfoArea is a directory that stores all related InfoObjects within the same business context. An InfoObject Catalog is a folder within an InfoArea that stores specific InfoObjects.
Separate InfoObject Catalogs are used for Key Figures

and Characteristics

Displayed via a tree structure or directory

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InfoObjects Summary
InfoObjects
Key Figures
Amount Unit Quantity Unit Number Integer Date Time Time Unit Package

Characteristics
Characteristic Attribute Text Hierarchy

Characteristic InfoObject Catalog Key Figure InfoObject Catalog

InfoArea

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Aggregation
The system has to aggregate using multiple

characteristics. The system can aggregate with another rule for each key figure (exception aggregation). The key figure Number of Employees would, for example, be totaled using the characteristic Cost Center, and not a time characteristic. Here you would determine a time characteristic as an exception characteristic with, for example, the aggregation Last Value.
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Hierarchies
Hierarchies allow data to be presented in alternative

ways. Hierarchies can be either Version, Time or Interval dependent. Version Dependent
Version 1
Region

Version 2
Region

North

South

North

South

S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S1

S5

S2

S3

S4

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Hierarchies

Time Dependent

Interval Dependent
Instead of each node representing a single value, node may now represent a range of values.

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InfoCube: Quick build

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Create InfoArea Create InfoObject Catalogues Create Characteristics and Key Figures Create InfoCube and Define Dimensions Assign Characteristics to Dimensions Choose Key Figures
Save and Activate InfoCube
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InfoCube: Detailed build

1. Start with the Data Warehousing Workbench 2. 3. 4. 5.

Modeling Since InfoCubes are InfoProviders, go to InfoProvider Create InfoArea if needed Create InfoCube in the context menu of your InfoArea Specify name and description (you can copy an
existing InfoCube too)

6. Choose a Standard Cube. Save

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7. Time dimension- Add the InfoObjects that you want to be part of the Time dimension 8. Then add and modify dimensions as modeled in your star schema 9. Add InfoObjects (characteristics) to the dimensions. These InfoObjects were created previously 10. Add Key figures InfoObjects 11. Save and Activate the InfoCube 12. You can view the Data Model in the context menu of the cube.
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Summary
SAP BI uses an extended (snowflake) star schema Dimension tables, fact table and master data tables are

used to create the snowflake Master data tables reside outside the InfoCube Characteristics and key figure InfoObjects are used to model attributes of dimension tables and fact tables respectively

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