cognos oledb interface for sap bw

SAP AG; TechEd Kralsruhe; Integration of OLAP Frontends

Integrating OLAP Frontendswith OLE DB for OLAP

Guido SchröderOLAP technology group

SAP America, Inc. SAP™TechEd ‘98 Aug. 31-Sept. 3, 1998 sessioncode.ppt / 1


Talk Contents

~ BW architecture

~ What is OLE DB for OLAP?

~ OLE DB for OLAP Foundations

� MD Schema

� Dataset Object

� MDX grammar

~ BW’s use of ODBO

� Mapping of BW Objects to ODBO

� Building QueryCubes

~ Demonstrations


Non R/3 Production DataExtractor

Non R/3 Production DataExtractor

Non R/3 OLTP ApplicationsNon R/3 OLTP Applications

Architecture Overview

Business InformationWarehouse Server

R/3 OLTP ApplicationsR/3 OLTP Applications

OLTPReporting

OLTPReporting

Production DataExtractor

Production DataExtractor

BAPIBAPI

Business Explorer3rd party OLAP client3rd party OLAP client3rd party OLAP client3rd party OLAP client3rd party OLAP clients3rd party OLAP clients

BrowserBrowser

AdministratorWorkbench

OperationalData Store

OperationalData Store

Staging EngineStaging Engine

OLAP ProcessorOLAP Processor

InfoCubesInfoCubes

Meta DataRepositoryMeta DataRepository Data ManagerData ManagerMeta Data ManagerMeta Data ManagerMeta Data ManagerMeta Data Manager

OLE-DB for OLAP ProviderOLE-DB for OLAP Provider

ODBOODBO Analyzer(hosted by MS Excel)

Analyzer(hosted by MS Excel)

InfoCatalogInfoCatalog

MonitorMonitor

SchedulingScheduling

AdministrationAdministration


BW ODBO driver architecture

RFC

Desktop with SAPODBO driver

( mdrmsap.dll; mdxpars.dll;scerrlkp.dll; saprfc.ini;librfc32.dll)

BusinessInformationWarehouseServer

OLE DB-Objects

ADO

ConsumerConsumerODBO-Objects

DatasetObject

3rd PartyClient Tool

OLAP ProcessorOLAP Processor

Staging EngineStaging Engine

Meta DataRepositoryMeta DataRepository

DataBaseDataBase

OLAP API OLAP API


OLE DB: Universal Data Access

E-mailE-mail SpreadsheetsSpreadsheets RDBMSRDBMS HTMLHTML Multidimensionaldata

Multidimensionaldata

OLE DB OLE DB OLE DB OLE DB OLE DBfor OLAP

ActiveX Data Objects (ADO)

Applications

ADO MD


OLE DB for OLAP

~ Set of COM objects and interfaces

~ ODBO extends OLE DB for multidimensional data

~ Reuse of OLE DB

� Common Connection Model

� Rowset plays as an abstraction of tabular data plays acentral role

� Command Interface for builing queries

~ ODBO adds

� 1 new object: Dataset

� 1 mandatory interface

� 5 mandatory methods


BW ODBO interface: CustomerBenefits

~ Protect previous investment in reporting tools

� connect BW server to a broad spectrum of Applications

~ ADO/MD simplifies the task of custom applicationdevelopment

~ Extensibility

� Provider can add specific interfaces


ODBO industry supportISVs developing consumers

~ Arcplan , Inc.

~ Andyne Computing Limited

~ AppSource Corporation

~ Arbor

~ AutoDesk

~ AVOCA Systems Limited

~ Brio Technology

~ Business Objects

~ Comshare

~ Cognos

~ Hyperion Software

~ International Software Group

~ IQ Software

~ Panorama Software Systems

~ Sagent Technologies

~ SAS

~ Seagate

~ Simba Technologies

~ X-Tension


Terminology: BW vs ODBO

BW terms

• Characteristics

• Key Figures

• Characteristic values

• InfoObject Attributes

• Query

ODBO terms

• Dimensions

• Measures

• Members

• Dimension Properties

• Dataset


ODBO Schema ObjectsMeta- and Masterdata

Catalogs

Schema

Cubes

Dimensions (Measures)

Hierarchies

Levels

Members

Properties

CUBES

Schema Rowsets

DIMENSIONS

MEASURES

HIERARCHIES

LEVELS

MEMBERS

PROPERTIES


Schema Rowset example:DIMENSIONS

Rowset column name Description/CommentCATALOG_NAMESCHEMA_NAMECUBE_NAME

Name of catalog, schema and cubeCATALOG and SCHEMA notsupported in BW

DIMENSION_NAMEDIMENSION_UNIQUE_NAMEDIMENSION_GUIDDIMENSION_CAPTION

UNIQUE_NAMEs are unambigous.BW provider follows two strategies :qualification and opaque tokensUse Unique Names for MDXQuery SCHEMA for UNAMs!!!

DIMENSION_ORDINAL

DIMENSION_TYPE Time, Measure, Unknown, Other

DEFAULT_HIERARCHY

DIMENSION_CARDINALITY Number of members

DESCRIPTION Human readable description


Sample Dataset

Value type Actual Actual data

Country DE Germany

Cost SoldPcs Revenue

Berlin Qtr1 17.793.920,00 DM 3.561.920,000 ST 35.583.920,00 DM

Qtr2 12.504.000,00 DM 2.504.000,000 ST 25.004.000,00 DM

Qtr3 12.503.000,00 DM 2.503.000,000 ST 25.003.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.083.940,00 DM 3.619.940,000 ST 36.163.940,00 DM

Stuttgart Qtr1 12.502.500,00 DM 2.502.500,000 ST 25.002.500,00 DM

Qtr2 12.503.500,00 DM 2.503.500,000 ST 25.003.500,00 DM

Qtr3 12.502.000,00 DM 2.502.000,000 ST 25.002.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.213.900,00 DM 3.645.900,000 ST 36.423.900,00 DM

Columns Axis1 dimension

Slicer Axis2 dimensions

Rows Axis2 dimensions

Cell data


Structure of a dataset

Cubes

~ have dimensions

� Dimensions have members

� At the intersection of members aredata cells

Datasets

~ have dimensions on axes

� Sets on Axes have members

� At the intersection of Axescoordinates are data cells

~ Datasets (in BW terminology Queries) have the samestructure as Cubes


MDX I

~ MDX stands for Multi Dimensional E Xpression

~ Expression syntax for querying Datasets

~ Parts of MDX statements

� FROM clause -> selects a cube

� SELECT clause -> defines the axes

� WHERE clause -> defines a slicer

SELECT <axis-specification>, <axis-specification>,…

FROM <cube-specification>

WHERE <slicer-specification>


MDX II: Example

SELECT

CROSSJOIN({City.Berlin,City.Stuttgart}, {Quarters.MEMBERS}) ON COLUMNS,

{COST,SoldPieces,Revenue} ON ROWS

FROM CUSTOMER_ANALYSIS

WHERE (Country.Germany,ValueType.Actual)


MDX III: Basic Entities andFunctions

~ Basic Entities

� Numeric Values

� Strings

� Sets

� Members

� Tuples: Collections ofMembers of differentdimensions (Berlin,Qtr1)

~ Functions

� numeric value functions: return numbers

� set value expressions: manipulate/generate sets

� member value expressions: return member

� ......


MDX IV: Set Value Expressions,Numeric Value Functions

~ Controlling the order of tuplesORDER(<set>,<value_expression>,[ASC|DESC|BASC|BDESC])

� ORDER(customer.MEMBERS,Revenue,DESC)

~ Ranking functionsTOPCOUNT|BOTTOMCOUNT(<set>,<index>,<num_exp>)

� TOPCOUNT(customer.MEMBERS,5,Revenue)

~ Filtering FILTER(<set>,<search_condition>)

� FILTER(customer.MEMBERS,Revenue>1.000.000)

~ Numeric Value Functions: AVG,MAX,MIN,MEDIAN...

� AVG(customer.MEMBERS,Revenue)


MDX V: Dimension Properties

~ Members may carry additional information e.g. a material hasproperties colour, weight, packaging information....

~ ODBO supports dimension properties on a per dimension, perlevel and per member basis

~ Dimension properties are selected using the DIMENSIONPROPERTIES clause

� SELECT material.MEMBERS DIMENSION PROPERTIES material.colour, material.weightON ROWS


Fetching cell dataIMDDataset::GetCellData

0 1 2

0 0 1 2

1 3 4 5

2 6 7 8

3 9 10 11

4 12 13 14

5 15 16 17

6 18 19 20

7 21 22 23

Columns Axis3 coordinates 0..2

Rows Axis8 coordinates 0..7

24 cellscell ordinals 0..23

Selection of cells

~ by cell ordinal

~ axis coordinates

~ member unique names


What are the properties of a cell?

~ CELL_ORDINAL

~ VALUE - this is a variant since cell data is not onlynumeric (date/time/string- Key Figures)

~ FORMATTED_VALUE - string representation of thevalue

~ optional cell properties defined by ODBO -FORMAT_STRING, FORE_COLOR,FONT_SIZE...

~ Optional provider specific cell properties

~ Mechanism for the selection of cell properties is thesame as for dimension properties - use CELLPROPERTIES clause

~ list of supported cell properties comes with theproperties schema rowset


Fetching Axis “Masterdata”IMDDataset::GetAxisRowset

Rowset column name Description/CommentTUPLE_ORDINAL Axis coordinate

MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAMEMEMBER_CAPTIONLEVEL_UNIQUE_NAMELEVEL_NUMBERDISPLAY_INFO

For each dimension on the axis

MEMBER_NAMEMEMBER_TYPE::::

Additional mandatory and user definedmember properties

~ Axis Rowsets have at least 5n+1 columns (n is thenumber of dimensions projected along the axis)


Axis Rowset and Cell DataExample


Country DE Germany



Qtr2 12.504.000,00 DM 2.504.000,000 ST 25.004.000,00 DM

Qtr3 12.503.000,00 DM 2.503.000,000 ST 25.003.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.083.940,00 DM 3.619.940,000 ST 36.163.940,00 DM


Qtr2 12.503.500,00 DM 2.503.500,000 ST 25.003.500,00 DM

Qtr3 12.502.000,00 DM 2.502.000,000 ST 25.002.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.213.900,00 DM 3.645.900,000 ST 36.423.900,00 DM

TUPLE_ORDINAL

[city].[MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME]

[city].[MEMBER_CAPTION]

[city].[LEVEL_UNIQUE_NAME]

[city].[LEVEL_NUMBER]

[city].[DISPLAY_INFO]

[Quaters].[MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME]

[Quarters].[MEMBER_CAPTION]

0 [city].[berlin] Berlin [city].[citylevel] 1 0 [Quarters].[qt Qtr11 [city].[berlin] Berlin [city].[citylevel] 1 0 [Quarters].[qt Qtr22 [city].[berlin] Berlin [city].[citylevel] 1 0 [Quarters].[qt Qtr3

CELL_ORDINAL VALUE FORMATTED_VALUE

0 17793... 3.645.900,00 DM

1 3561930.. 18.213.900,000 ST

2 35583... 35.583.920,00 DM....


Dataset Flattening


Country DE Germany



Qtr2 12.504.000,00 DM 2.504.000,000 ST 25.004.000,00 DM

Qtr3 12.503.000,00 DM 2.503.000,000 ST 25.003.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.083.940,00 DM 3.619.940,000 ST 36.163.940,00 DM


Qtr2 12.503.500,00 DM 2.503.500,000 ST 25.003.500,00 DM

Qtr3 12.502.000,00 DM 2.502.000,000 ST 25.002.000,00 DM

Qtr4 18.213.900,00 DM 3.645.900,000 ST 36.423.900,00 DM

[city].[M EMBER_CAPTION]

[Qua rters].[M EMBER_CAPTION]

[m e asures].[cost] [m e asures].[SoldPcs]

[m e asures].[Re venue ]

Berlin Q tr1 17793920 3561920 35583920Berlin Q tr2 12504000 2504000 25004000Berlin Q tr3 12503000 2503000 25003000Berlin Q tr4 18083940 3619940 36163940


Mapping of BW Objects to ODBOSchema Objects

Characteristics(Keyfgs)

Hierarchies (external)

Numbered Levels orDummy level names

Characteristic Values

Display Attributes

InfoCubes

Not supported

Queries

BW

Properties

Catalogs

Schema

Cubes

Dimensions (Measures)

Hierarchies

Levels

Members

ODBO


OLAP dataflow

„INFOCUBE“

DatabaseDatabase Server Server

„QUERY_CUBE (BEx: Query)“

BW ApplicationBW Application Server Server

OLAP Processoroperates on ...

Datasets

PresentationPresentation Server;ODBO client applicationServer;ODBO client application

mdx$

answer

ODBO

Stored in

StarStarSchemaSchema


Mapping of Query Objects

Structure for Key Figs.

Member1: Cost

Member2: SoldPieces

Member1: Revenue

Charact.1:Region

Charact.2:FiscalYear

Charact.3:Customer

BW Query

Dimension1:Region

Dimension2:FiscalYear

Dimension3:Customer

Measures Dimension

QUERY_CUBE structure

Measures

Cost

SoldPieces

Revenue


Creating a QUERY_CUBE

~ Select from an InfoCube characteristics - these willbe mapped to dimensions of the ODBOQUERY_CUBE

~ Create one structure and drag Key-Figures from theInfoCube to this structure - this structure will bemapped to the measures dimension of the ODBOcube, the members of the structure are the membersof the measures dimension

~ Enable the query for ODBO by setting in the Queryproperties dialogue ODBO support checkmark


Benefits of QUERY_CUBES

~ Leverage of existing BW OLAP Processor

~ Consistent definition of derived key figures on theBW server - no calculated members via MDX but onthe BW server

~ Smaller entities for reporting purposes - BWInfoCubes may contain large number of InfoObjects

~ Centralized Authorization concept!!!


~ Section “Elements” - no object qualification by catalog,schema...; numbered levels (dummy level names)

~ Section “Expressions” - #1,#2,#3; <property>.VALUE, caseexpressions not supported

~ Section “Set Value Expressions” - #3 (YTD, MTD, WTD..), #4(nonmeasure dimensions in value expressions)

~ Section “Member Value Expressions” - COUSIN ,PARALLEL/OPENING/CLOSINGPERIOD

~ Section “Numeric Value Functions” - RANK, AGGREGATE,COVARIANCE, LINREG*s

~ Section “MDX Statement” - #1 (formulas), #2 (slicer is singletuple), #3 (no joincubes), #4,5 (supported axes 0..2), #6 (createformula), #7

Application of Leveling Rules


Rollout Status

9/98

BW ODBOBW ODBOPilotPilotcustomercustomershipmentshipment((relrel . 1.2. 1.2GA)GA)

12/98 2/99

PilotPilotcerticerti --ficationsficationswithwithArcplan Arcplan &&BusinessBusinessObjectsObjects

GeneralGeneralavailabilit yavailabilit ywith 1.2Bwith 1.2B


Where to find more information

~ Final OLE DB for OLAP Programmers Reference at:www.microsoft.com/data/oledb/olap

~ Microsoft Data Access SDK 2.0


Summary

~ BW provides access to its data via OLE DB for OLAPcompliant driver

� leverage investment in front end tools via industrystandard interface

� extensibility

~ Queries are mapped to QUERY_CUBEs via the ODBOlayer

~ MDX is the command language for querying MD data

� powerful syntax for manipulation of sets,tuples,members and numeric values


Demonstrations and Q&A

~ Definition of a QUERY_CUBE

~ Applications :Arcplan inSight; Business Objects

~ ADO MD sample

cognos oledb interface for sap bw

Documents