Starting in BI4 Feature Pack 3, you can create a universe against the SAP ERP/ECC back end. Follow the steps below.
For more detailed information and background I recommend Ingo Hilgefort’s Integrating SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.x with SAP NetWeaver
Start > Programs > BusinessObjects > SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.0 > SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Client Tools > Information Design Tool
Create a new project for ERP Universes
Create a new project
Click Finish
Right click on project and select New > Relational Connection
Give the connection a name
Select SAP > SAP ERP 6 > SAP Java Connector (SAP JCo)
You will want to test the connection to make sure it is successful.
Click Next
In the function name wildcard field, enter BAPI_SFLIGHT* and click finish (this example will use the SFLIGHT ABAP examples)
Right click on new connection and click publish to repository
Create a new Data Foundation
Add the tables
Next
You may be prompted to log on to your connection
Insert your table
Create a new Business Layer – see part 2
Hi Tammy,
Today I tried this connection in IDT with BO version 4.0 SP5.
1. First I can get the Infoset and SAP Query in IDT connection and Data Foundation.
2. Then I created some new Infoset and SAP queries in ECC side
3. and I refresh the connection in IDT, but I can’t read those new created InfoSet or SAP queries,
I don’t know why or missing anything.
Could you help me on this or could you give me some tips that why I cant read the updated infoset in IDT?
Thanks,
Ricky
Post authorRicky – the biggest mistake I’ve seen is not assigning the user groups back in ECC
Perhaps you can post screen shots with your issue in the discussion forum?
Hi Tammy,
we have followed your steps
after part 2, we want to see the universe with in the webi
we we enter to the webi , we don’t see the universe
any ideas what we need to do in order to view in in webi?
Adir
Have you published the businesslayer from idt into the repository folders?
can you see the universe from the cmc > universes lookup?
If it’s there, and you are connecting your webi client to the right system, then the only way this content will be hidden from you is due to object or folder restrictions on your user or group.
Regards,
H
Post authorThanks Henry – I was also going to suggest trying the Universe Wizard New Universe Wizard in BI4.1 New Universe Wizard in BI4.1 Information Design Tool – Using it to create an ERP Universe since it cuts down on the number of steps
Hi Tammy,
I have situation, i need to Integrate BI 4.1 with SAP ECC 6 Underlying Database(i.e, SQL Server).
Is thi sPossible or Not?
Post authorHi Murali – I think this is possible but I am not using ECC with SQL Server (we use Oracle)
To be sure, I encourage you to post this question as a separate discussion thread in the Semantic Layer space.
Thank you,
Tammy
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for your suggestion
Murali Durairaj
Hi Tammy,
Are there any performance concerns when connecting directly to SAP? I have experienced some serious performance issues during data extractions from SAP into a BOBJ DW and am considering the above approach as an alternative. Specifically, is there any concern with connecting to a transactional database, or is that risk mitigated by accessing an InfoSet instead of the transactional tables (e.g. VBAP) directly? I am worried about the hit to the SAP system through this type of connection.
Regards,
Chris
Post authorYou should always consider performance – and if you are using an ECC InfoSet as your source then I recommend always running the InfoSet natively in ECC before running it through the universe.
On the whole I recommend using small amounts of data.
Thanks for your reply Tammy. I agree that using small(er) amounts of data is preferred but there are some instances where it cannot be helped. I suppose I was wondering if you could speak from experience whether or not there are performance issues that arise from connecting to a larger ECC InfoSet. Are there any special considerations that need to be made when taking this route? I suppose I am trying to better understand what scenario would necessitate this method of connectivity to your SAP data.
Chris
Post authorTo be honest we do not allow any performance issues to make it to production. If the InfoSet cannot be run in dialog mode in ECC in a test environment, it is not sent to production (therefore no universe)
You can use this scenario for real-time operational reporting and it is convenient to see the “business layer” of the universe which makes it easier for users to report on rather than native SAP ERP tables.
I love this statement “we don’t allow performance issues to make it to production” 🙂
this truth just makes so much sense, but to operate like this is seemingly to breathe a rare & elusive oxygen!
Thanks for the blog.
Hi Tammy
Could please explain how to use HANA VIEW and FM in IDT
Thanks,
Mohan
Post authorHi Mohan – I am not using HANA today so I can’t help with this. Perhaps try to ask this in the discussion forum.
Tammy
Hello everyone and happy new year,
Please, when connecting to an abap infoview, select-options are supposed to by inherited as parameters to filter the data shown in report, aren’t they?
This is my case, I need to filter records according to values entered in select options (as I do when executing the query built from the infoset) but I can’t find this parameters in my Data Foundation. What am I doing wrong? Or what have I to do to send values from the IDT to the infoset or the query to filter records?
I succesfully created a corresponding data foundation for each source but no luck with parameters.
Thanks in advance
llrull
Post authorHi – Happy New Year to you.
Would you please post this question as a new discussion in the space?
Thank you,
Tammy
Thank you Tammy, I’m doing it!
Hi friend,
Check out the discussion ‘IDT with an SAP ERP Infoset source. Select-options inherited as parameters?’ in SCN.
Do you think question is clear?
Many thanks.
— LLuis Rull
I Followed the steps for creating the universe. It was going fine till I create the Business Layer. For me the Business Layer is empty. It is not displaying any Table fields. Does this means that I am missing any authorizations.. Please let me know..
Many thanks,
Asha
Post authorYes, you will need access to ERP tables to do this. You can also do an SU53 on the ERP backend to check the missing authorizations.
Thank you Tammy for the Response.. Yes I have authorizations for the SAP tables..I am able to see the data for these tables in SE11 and BAPI function modules in SE37. I tried, many times.. The Business Layer is not having any contents.
It is all working now.. Tammy, Thank you for your help and this was really useful..
Hi Asha and Philip
I am facing the same problem where business layer is coming blank. I have executed the codes SU53, SE37, SE11 and all are giving accurate results in in function module. The Business layer is not displaying any table though I can see the data in data foundation layer.
Please suggest.
From what I can see it is currently not possible to create a Universe directly against base (transparent) ECC tables. Is that correct? Are the only options Infosets, Queries, and functions?
Post authorYes, Mike, you are right about that.
Are there plans to support ECC tables in a future release or feature pack?
Post authorI have not heard of any plans to do that; the work around is to create an InfoSet against the ERP table.
Currently we have few universe created with ECc system and we are planning to migrate ECC to on HANA do we need to worry anything here ?
do we need to redesign universe with ECC on HANA ?
Post authorSaleem – I am not an expert in these areas, so I recommend creating a new question at answers.sap.com
On the surface, if you have HANA, why not report against the HANA views? Is the universe still needed? Performance may be faster without it.
Tammy Powals – That is our road map. But we have some BO reports runs through universe from CRM and we planning migrate CRM on HANA. So we planning to move universe connection so that these report will not break on go-live.