Working with SAP BI Standard Business Content

[Former Member]

Introduction to Standard Business Content

When doing the implementation of SAP system, the first thing to be done is to configure the BI system, according to the needs of their customers. Standard business contents are designed for this purpose. Whenever going through an implementation we need to know about what to configure and how to do it and its better that we can figure it out at the earlier stages itself, So that we can deliver according to the user requirements.

  Features

BI Content SAP provides a metadata repository for different business processes and application, called as BI Content

Business Content provides a demo to the business user of the possible outcomes of the information provided by them and how to use  the toolset to the fullest.

Some of the benefits of BI Content are:

       It speeds up the implementation.

       Reduce the amount of customization.

     Produce a prototype to get started with the system.

The objects delivered as a part of business content are marked as 'D'.

Activation of the object is required in which it is compiled in a transport request, to transport the content into the target system where it gets converted from 'D' to 'A’

Steps to access the BI Content:

1.   1. Access the Data Warehousing Workbench using the t-code RSA1.

      

1.   2. Click on BI Content, where left pane shows the category of all the objects, right pane shows the object selected for activation.

      

1.   3. On selecting an object from left pane say, ‘Info Provider by Info Areas' will show the list of all the available info provider in the middle pane.

      For example, on installing any Roles, all the required objects for that role will be activated by the system.                              

In the same way an Info Area will contain all the required Info Area and Info Provider.

4.     In case of the presence of multiple source system, selection of Source system is required before object collection. Self-defined source system is also required for dataflow within BW system. Select self-def’d if one want to manually define the source and target source E.g.: DSO- Cube.

NOTE: Selection of source system need to be done with caution. BI Content installation are source dependent (e.g. Transfer Rules/ Update Rules/ Datasource Objects)

1.    5. Grouping option present in the right pane determines the number of objects to be installed in the system during Business Content installation.

1.1.        Only Necessary Object: Activate all the objects required for the activation of selected object e.g. objects p and q which are the attributes of object w, will be activated by the system.

1.2.        5.2.In Data Flow Before: activate objects which are supplying data to the selected object e.g. DSO A is selected for activation which is taking data from DSO B and DSO C, system will activate all the Info Object required to activate DSO and Data Source.

1.3.        5.3.In Data Flow Afterwards: Activate all the objects which are accessing data from the selected object e.g. selected Info Cube A is a source of Info Cube B and C, system will activate all the objects.

1.4.        In Dataflow Before and Afterwards: It is a combination of 5.2 and 5.3, activate the entire data flow for selected target.

1.    6. Collection Mode present in the right pane determine the way, the objects are being collected for activation

1.1.        Collect Automatically: Automatically collect all the necessary objects on dragging an object into the 'Collection Object' screen.

1.2.        Start Manual Collection: Will not collect required object for the selected object. In that case 'Gather Dependent Objects' needs to click to collect required object for successful activation.

Check setting for Collected Objects:

a.    Install

This column contains all those objects that are either being transferred for the first time and there is no active version of these object in the system or those objects that have been redelivered in a new version and Content timestamp is used to identify these objects in corresponding tables.

Two options are available for installation:

Install all Below: All the objects in hierarchy and the lower level objects in the same hierarchy are selected as to Install.

Do Not Install All Below: Install indicator are removed for the objects in the selected hierarchy.

b.    Match (X) or Copy

If an object has not been installed previously, then by default the collected object will be checked only in Install, not Match (X) or Copy, and if the object has been installed previously, collected object are checked with Match(X) not Install. By this setting installation will do nothing to the object, will keep it’s a version untouched.

If both Match (X) and Install are checked, then a screen will appear asking to merge the A version with D version.

For example: Consider a possibility where one has already activated a Info Object from BI content and made some changes in it. While trying to activate DSO in which this has been used, if Match (X) function is not present system will activate that object on his behalf and it will loose the changes the person made to it.

If Match(X) was selected it will merge the properties.

7. Display present in the right pane, display the selected objects in the given 2 formats-Hierarchy and List.

   

1.    8.  Example: if we want to activate Info Object '0SALES'-

      Click 'Object Type' => double click on 'Select objects'

      Search 0SALES => select Info Object =>click 'Transfer Selection'

   0SALES will be there in Collection object screen. Collection mode set as Automatic; select the entire required object to activate it.

   Green button in 'Active version' column shows that an active version for that object already exist in system.

  

1.     9. Installation can be done in 4 ways:

1.1.        Simulate Installation: Check for the error during installation.

1.2.        Install: Activate the selected object in foreground.

1.3.        Install in Background: Activate object creating background job used for monitoring the process.

1.4.        Install and Transport: Activates and transport to the next system.

Click on Simulate Installation, tick in the simulation result indicates absence of error. Now you can proceed with installation by selecting any of other three options.

Other then, BI Content SAP also provides SAP Demo Content, which contains example data and can be used as display material.

SAP DEMO CONTENT

SAP Demo contents are addition Contents that are delivered with SAP BI. These are serves as Templates and helps in presenting demos to your business users, so that they can get an idea of toolsets in BI. Their main functionality is to demonstrate the functionality of BI.

The technical name for demo content objects begins with “0D_”. The Demo Content can be accessed with the transaction code ‘RSFC ’.

SAP Demo content consists of info cubes, queries, and range of info objects in scenarios which are provided with the transactional data and master data. A document is provided with each scenario which describes the scenario and its features.

To activate a scenario, relevant query is activated along with the necessary info providers. The text data, hierarchy data and attribute data is provided to info provider from archive.

One of the sources, named PC_FILE or SAP_DEMO should be assigned as source system, of the type ‘File’.

Steps to be followed for selecting Demo Content:

1. 1. In the Data Warehouse Workbench select Bi Content.
2. 2. Select Info Provider by Info Areas, then SAP Demo info Area. All the Info Providers that you can activate will be listed
3. 3. Drag the Info Provider to the selection screen. ‘In Data Flow Before’ and ‘In Data Flow Afterwards’ are used for gathering
4. 4. Grouping of info objects can be done by selecting value ‘Start Manual Collection’ for Collection Mode.

Steps for Activation of SAP Demo Content:

1. 1. The green icon in the column ‘Active Version Available’ indicates that objects are already activated and we do not need to activate them again.
2. 2. There is a selection mark in Mark and Copy column where you can identify if there is difference in active and delivered version of info object. You can select object in match and Copy Column which you want to compare.
3. 3. Select Install and activation begins thereafter. As the activation completes, data will be loaded directly.

This document covers all the necessary details regarding Standard Business Content and steps to be followedfor accessing and activation of the same. More information will be added as per the knowledge gained.