This document provides an overview of key concepts in SAP Business Intelligence (BI), including info objects, info cubes, and star schemas. It discusses how info objects define characteristics and key figures, and how master data and transactional data relate to these. It also explains the differences between classical and extended star schemas used in SAP BI info cubes, noting extended star schemas allow for more dimensions and faster performance. Steps are provided for creating various BI objects like info objects, attributes, and info cubes based on the extended star schema model.

1. Chapter 1: Introduction to SAP BI from SDN
o BI - Business Intelligence (Reporting and Analysis)
o OLAP: Online Analytical Process (SAP BI)
o OLTP: Online Transaction Process (SAP SD, MM, FICO, ABAP, HR)
o Basics:
o BI is a data warehousing tool
o ETL: Extraction > Transformation > Loading
o BI is used by middle level and high level management
 PSA (Persistent Storage Area): Used to correct errors.

2. Chapter 2: Info Objects (SDN)
Info objects are the fields in BI system. These are divided into two types:
1. Characteristics: Used to refer key figure
Ex: Material, Customer
The characteristics are divided into three types. They are:
a. Time Characteristics
b. Unit Characteristics
c. Technical Characteristics
a. Time Characteristics include day, month, year, and half-yearly, quarterly. They are generated by
the system.
Note: Info objects are of two types,
i. System generated (0)
ii. Customer generated (Z)
b. Unit Characteristics include currency, unit. (0Currency, 0Unit)
Material Amount 0Currency Quantity 0Unit
E620 400 Rs 10
E621 500 $ 12
They are always assigned to key figures type amount and quantity (as shown in the above example).
c. Technical Characteristics include 0requestID, 0changeID, 0recordID.
2. Key Figures: Used for calculation purpose
Ex: Amount, Quantity
The key figures are divided into two types. They are:
a. Cumulative key figures
b. Non-cumulative key figures
a. Cumulative key figures are used when the data in the key figure field need to be added.
Material Amount

3. b. Non-cumulative
key
figures are used in
MM and HR related
E621 100
E622 200
E623 300
Total: 600
reports
Plant Material Stock Value Date
4002 Pencil 500 28/04/2012
4002 Pencil 600 29/04/2012
Records in the 'Stock Value' field are not added.
Steps to create info objects of type characteristics and key figures:
Part 1:
1. Go to RSA1
2. Go to 'Info Object' selection
3. Right click on the context menu > Select 'Create Info Area'
4. Give the technical name (Always unique)
5. Give description
6. Click on Continue
Part 2:
1. Right click on Info Area > Select create 'Info Object Catalog'
2. Give technical name
3. Give description
4. Select Info object type 'Character'
5. Click on Activate button
Part 3:
1. Right click on Info area > Select create 'Info Object Catalog'
2. Give technical name and description
3. Select info object type 'Key Figure'
4. Click on Activate button
Part 4:
1. Right click on Info Object Catalog for characteristics
2. Select create Info Object
3. Give technical name (length between 3 to 8)
4. Give description

4. 5. Click on Continue
6. Give mandatory options in the 'General' tab page (like Data type, length .. )
7. Click on Activate button
Part 5:
1. Right click on the Info Object Catalog for key figures
2. Select create Info Object
3. Give technical name (length between 3 to 8)
4. Give description
5. Click on Continue
6. For key figure of type 'Amount' and 'Quantity' we have to give 'Unit Characteristic' (0Currency/
0Unit)
7. Click on Activate button)
There are two types of data in SAP (ERP). They are:
1. Master Data
2. Transaction Data
1. Master Data: It is always assigned to characteristic. From SAP BI point of view, master data
doesn't change frequently
Note: Master Data is always assigned to a characteristic. A characteristic is called master data
characteristic if it has attributes, text and hierarchies.
i. Attributes: These are info objects which explain a characteristic in detail. These are divided into
two types:

5. a. Navigational attributes
b. Display attributes
Steps to create Attributes (type characteristic):
Part 1:
1. Go to Info object of type characteristic
2. Go to 'Display/Change'
3. In the 'Master data text' tab page, check the 'With Master Data' checkbox
4. Go to the Attribute tab page
5. Give technical name of attribute
6. Click Enter
7. Give description
8. Give data type, length
9. Click on continue
10. Activate the info object
Part 2:
1. If the info object is already in the system, copy the technical name of the info object
2. Go to attribute tab page of char
3. Paste the technical name of the info object
4. Click on Activate button
Note: Key Figure can be an attribute to a characteristic and it can only be a display attribute
Steps to enable Texts:
1. Right click on the info object, select change, go to Master Data Text tab page, select the check
box Text

6. Company Code Amount
India 2000
USA 2500
Company Code Sales Org Amount
India Hyderabad 2000
Bangalore 2000
USA New York 2500
Washington D.C 2500
Company Code Sales Org Division Amount
India Hyderabad Ameerpet 1000
Begumpet 1000
Bangalore Electronic City 1000
Silk Board 1000
USA New York 7th Street 1250
9th lane 1250
Washington D.C 8th street 1250
10th street 1250
Navigational Attribute: We can drill down using navigational attribute. It acts as
characteristic in the report.
Display Attribute: We cannot drill down using display attribute
Note:
1. Attribute Only: If you mark the characteristic as exclusive attribute, it can only be used as display
attribute but not as navigational attribute.
2. The characteristic cannot be transferred into info cube directly.
Steps to change attributes from navigational to display:

7. 1. Go to 'Attribute' tab page, in column 'Navigation On/Off', select the pencil like structure.
2. When changing display to navigation, give a description, click on activate button.
Steps to create attribute (type Key Figure):
1. Go to info object, go to 'Attribute' tab page
2. Give technical name
3. Click on Enter, Select radio button 'Create attribute as key figure'
4. Click on Continue
5. Give description and data type
6. Click on continue
7. Click on activate button
Tab Pages of Characteristic:
1. General tab page:
2. Data Element: Naming convention of data element (technical name of info object). It is like a
field on database level
3. Data Type: Here we have Char (1-60), string, Numeric (1-60), Date (8), Time (6)
4. Lower Case Letters: If the characteristic is having lower case letters, select lower case allowed
option
5. SID Tables: Surrogate ID or Master Data ID
6. Business Explorer: The selections which are in the Business Explorer tab page are by default
displayed at report level
7. Master Data/Text tab page: Info object has the following tables
P -> Time Independent display attributes
Q -> Time dependent display attributes
X -> Time Independent navigational attributes
Y -> Time dependent navigational attributes
Text: If we select this option, we can have text for the characteristic
Hierarchy: To enable hierarchies, we have to select the hierarchies
Attribute: In this, we give the attributes for a characteristic
ii. Text: The same report can be selected in different language in different country. This is because of
the 'Text' functionality
iii. Hierarchy

8. Chapter 3: Extended Star Schema (SCN)
o Fact table consists of DIM ID and key figures.
o Every Info cube has two types of tables
a. Fact table
b. Dimension tables
o Info cube consists of one fact table (E and F), surrounded by multiple dimension tables.
o Maximum number of dimension tables in an info cube is 16 and the minimum number is 4.
o There are 3 system generated tables
a. Data Package dimension table (Technical dimension)
b. Time dimension
c. Unit dimension
o Maximum number of key figures in an info cube are 233
o Maximum number of characteristics in an info cube are 248
Advantages of Extended Star Schema:

9. o Faster loading of data/ faster access to reports
o Sharing of master data
o Easy loading of time dependent objects
Classical Star Schema:
o In classical star schema, the characteristic record is directly stored in DIM tables.
o For every Dimension table, a DIM ID is generated and it is stored in the fact table.
Differences between Classical Star Schema and Extended Star Schema:
o In Classic star schema, dimension and master data table are same. But in Extend star schema,
dimension and master data table are different. (Master data resides outside the Info cube and
dimension table, inside Info cube).
o In Classic star schema we can analyze only 16 angles (perspectives) whereas in extended star
schema we can analyze in 16*248 angles. Plus the performance is faster to that extent.
Guide to SAP Beginners

10. Navigating in SAP

11. Toolbar

13. Screen Icons

14. SAP Log on

20. InfoCube
Info Cube is structured as Star Schema (extended) where a fact table is surrounded by different
dim table that are linked with DIM'ids. And the data wise, you will have aggregated data in the
cubes.
Infocube contains maximum 16(3 are sap defines and 13 are customer defined) dimensions and
minimum 4(3 Sap defined and 1 customer defined) dimensions with maximum 233 key figures
and 248 characteristic.
The following InfoCube types exist in BI:
. InfoCubes
. VirtualProviders
There are two subtypes of InfoCubes: Standard, and Real-Time. Although both have an
extended star schema design, Real-Time InfoCubes (previously called Transactional InfoCubes)
are optimized for direct update, and do not need to use the ETL process. Real-Time InfoCubes
are almost exclusively used in the BI Integrated Planning tool set. All BI InfoCubes consists of a
quantity of relational tables arranged together in a star schema.
Star Schema
In Star Schema model, Fact table is surrounded by dimensional tables. Fact table is usually very
large, that means it contains millions to billions of records. On the other hand dimensional tables
are very small. Hence they contain a few thousands to few million records. In practice, Fact table
holds transactional data and dimensional table holds master data.
The dimensional tables are specific to a fact table. This means that dimensional tables are not
shared to across other fact tables. When other fact table such as a product needs the same product
dimension data another dimension table that is specific to a new fact table is needed.
This situation creates data management problems such as master data redundancy because the
very same product is duplicated in several dimensional tables instead of sharing from one single
master data table. This problem can be solved in extended star schema.
Extended star schema

21. In Extended Star Schema, under the BW star schema model, the dimension table does not
contain master data. But it is stored externally in the master data tables (texts, attributes,
hierarchies).
The characteristic in the dimensional table points to the relevant master data by the use of SID
table. The SID table points to characteristics attribute texts and hierarchies.
This multistep navigational task adds extra overhead when executing a query. However the
benefit of this model is that all fact tables (info cubes) share common master data tables between
several info cubes.
Moreover the SID table concept allows users to implement multi languages and multi hierarchy
OLAP environments. And also it supports slowly changing dimension.

22. Routine Lesson 1
Scenario: the data source does not have division and we need to derive it from material
which exists in the datasource. Populate the cube with the division.
Solution:
Division needs to be derived from material as division is not retrieved from the datasource
and the division needs to be derived from material using the /BI0/PMATERIAL table.
wa_th_material is an internal table derived from a work area which is wa_material and
wa_material is a work area derived from the structure t_material
since t_material has material and division as the 2 fields and this is read into a work area
wa_material using a key which is the -material i.e. the material that is loaded into the end
routine of the transformation.
Start Routine: use a SELECT statement to load the internal table.
CODE SNIPPET:
if wa_th_material[] is initial.
*Load Division by material
Select material division
into table wa_th_material
from /BI0/PMATERIAL
where objvers = ‘A’.
End Routine: use a READ statement and read the internal table populated in the start
routine into a work area using a KEY. If data is found make the data found equal to the end
routine field.
CODE SNIPPET:
read table wa_th_material
into wa_material
with table key material = -material.
if sy-subrc = 0.
-division = wa_material-division.
DATA DEFINITION:
Data:
BEGIN OF t_material,
material TYPE /BI0/OImaterial,
division TYPE /BI0/OIdivision,
END OF t_material,
data: wa_th_material TYPE HASHED TABLE OF t_material WITH UNIQUE KEY material,
data: wa_material type t_material,
Routine Lesson 2

23. Scenario: cube needs a customer number and the datasource does not provide the customer
number. The datasource however contains the country code such as DE,FR etc. based on the
country code a particular customer number is assigned for eg: for DE it is DE01J45 and for
FR it is FR023J4. This customer number needs to be populated in the cube.
SOLUTION:
In this scenario the transformation from the DSO to the cube is worked on where the start
routine is coded to load a data element from a standard table with a field in the standard
table as a reference. This is then used in the END routine with a CASE statement and the
RESULT_FIELDS are loaded accordingly.
START ROUTINE:
Code snippet:
select single low from ZBW_CONSTANT_TAB
into g_de_billto
where vnam = ‘JV_DE_BILLTO’.
END ROUTINE:
Code snippet:
case -/bic/zjvsource.
when ‘DE’.
-Ship_to = g_de_billto.
-Sold_to = g_de_billto.
-billtoprty = g_de_billto.
-payer = g_de_billto
end case.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-/bic/zjvsource.
case <RESULT_FIELDS>-/bic/zjvsource.
when ‘DE’.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-Ship_to = g_de_billto.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-Sold_to = g_de_billto.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-billtoprty = g_de_billto.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-payer = g_de_billto

24. end case.
Routine lesson 3
Scenario: An info object in the cube has to be updated with a constant value and this info
object does not come from the datasource. Update the info object in the cube with a
constant value.
Solution: go to the DSO and add the info object where the data is not being sourced from the
datasource and in the transformation right click on the info object and click on RULE
DETAILS which will provide the below screen shot. Now choose constant and enter the
value.
Usefull tables for DSO (Data Store Object)

25. Listing of commonly used tables in SAP BI and to understand the way data is stored in the
backend of SAP BI
ODS Object
RSDODSO Directory of all ODS Objects
RSDODSOT Texts of all ODS Objects
RSDODSOIOBJ InfoObjects of ODS Objects
RSDODSOATRNAV Navigation Attributes for ODS Object
RSDODSOTABL Directory of all ODS Object Tables
Usefull Tables for Aggregates
Listing of commonly used tables in SAP BI and to understand the way data is stored in the
backend of SAP BI
Aggregates
RSDDAGGRDIR Directory of Aggregates
RSDDAGGRCOMP Description of Aggregates
RSDDAGGRT Text on Aggregates
RSDDAGGLT Directory of the aggregates, texts
Usefull Tables for InfoCube
Listing of commonly used tables in SAP BI and to understand the way data is stored in the
backend of SAP BI
InfoCube
RSDCUBE Directory of InfoCubes
RSDCUBET Texts on InfoCubes
RSDCUBEIOBJ Objects per InfoCube (where-used list)
RSDDIME Directory of Dimensions
RSDDIMET Texts on Dimensions
RSDDIMEIOBJ InfoObjects for each Dimension (Where-Used List)
RSDCUBEMULTI InfoCubes involved in a MultiCube
RSDICMULTIIOBJ MultiProvider: Selection/Identification of InfoObjects
RSDICHAPRO Characteristic Properties Specific to an InfoCube
RSDIKYFPRO Flag Properties Specific to an InfoCube
RSDICVALIOBJ InfoObjects of the Stock Validity Table for the InfoCube