SAP BW Business Content Benefits

SAP BW Business Content has the following benefits .

Immediate access to interpreted information.

Ready-to-run reports, data models, extractors, transformations
Consistency between operational processes and management processes
For business professionals at all levels across all functions
Easy to build on
Validated and comparable information
Comprehensive set of standard key performance indicators
Best practice models from 800+ installations

Installing Business Content in Three Steps

The Install Business Content function in the Administrator Workbench copies and activates the delivered Business Content in your BW system. All the additional required objects and the sequence in which Business Content is activated is taken care of automatically by the system.From the Grouping menu, choose the additional Business Content objects that you want to include. Groupings gather together all of the objects from a single area:

Only Necessary Objects: Only those additional objects that are needed to activate the objecs that you have selected are included (minimum selection).
In Data Flow Before: All the objects that pass data on to another object are collected.
ŸIn Data Flow Afterwards: All the objects that receive data from another object are collected.
ŸIn Data Flow Before and Afterwards: All the objects that both deliver and receive data are collected.
Backup for System Copy: You use this setting to collect some of the objects into a transport request. This request can be added again after a system copy has been made.

Step 1: Checking Business Content Objects

You call the individual Business Content objects by dragging one of the symbols listed above from the left-hand window and dropping it into the central window.When you choose one of the symbols, the system displays the following lists of objects:

InfoCubes: List of InfoCubes and aggregates according to InfoArea.
ŸInfoObjects: List of InfoObjects according to InfoArea and InfoObject catalog.
ŸInfoSources: List of InfoSources according to master data-InfoSources and transaction data- InfoSources.
Ÿ

Roles: List of roles according to industry.

ŸObject Types: A list of all the objects sorted according to type (InfoArea, InfoCubes, and so on).
Input help is available for each type. You can add the selected objects to the tree. This personal object list is stored for each user and is available each time the user starts the program.Objects in BW Patches: List of all the BW patches that are installed. The objects that are (re)delivered with each patch are displayed underneath.

Step 2: Selecting Business Content Objects

In this example a role is used to show how Business Content objects are transferred. If the new version of a role delivered by SAP corresponds with the version of the role that is already active in the system, you are able to select, assign, and activate newly delivered Content objects directly.

Step 3: Transferring Business Content Objects

When you choose a role, all the objects that belong to this role are displayed in the Collected Objects column in the right-hand window. If you want to activate only those objects that you actually need in order to use the role, choose the Only Required Objects option under the Grouping function (see above).

You must transfer any objects that belong to the role but that you have not yet transferred into your system. In the Install column there is a flag icon displayed next to each of these objects. You can either leave or reinstall any objects that belong to the role and that you have installed already. If the option of comparing the Content version with the active version is available, this is indicated in the Match (X) or Copy column.

In the Install Business Content menu option, you have three further options: Running a simulation of the installation process, starting the installation process immediately, or starting the installation process in the background.Running the installation in the background is usually the best option to choose, because the process can take a long time, especially if you are installing a large number of objects or changing objects that are already active in the system. When the installation is complete, click on the Logs button to see a log that the system has written on the installation process.

You can choose to display the collected objects and their links as a list, a tree, or a network (in HTML format). Use the appropriate buttons in this window.

Business Content in the Metadata Repository

In the metatdata repository, users can look at an overview of the whole of SAP Business Content, or find out which Content objects are active in their system.You use hyperlinks to navigate in the metadata repository.You access the metadata repository from the Administrator Workbench, an Internet server, or local HTML pages.You can use the metadata repository to generate HTML pages.

Transporting Objects in a BW System Landscape

BW development projects do not usually take place in the productive system. They take place in a development system instead. Depending on the size of the project, new developments are checked in a quality assurance system before they are applied to the productive system.The development system, the quality assurance system, and the productive system make up a system landscape. The BW transport system is responsible for transferring transport-relevant objects (roles, InfoCubes, InfoSources, DataSources, InfoObjects, InfoPackages, ODS objects, transfer rules, update rules, and so on) from one system into another.

There are three versions of each transport-relevant object:

Version D - The version delivered by SAP (Business Content objects)
Version M - The modified version
Version A - The active version Only activated objects are transported.

Transport Connection: Overview

Before you are able to use the BW transport connection, the following prerequiites have to be met: In the ABAP Development Workbench (transaction code se80) you have to create a transportable development class (1). You have to assign this development class to a transport request - whenever you create a new development class the system displays a dialog box reminding you to do this. You either create a new transport request, or assign your development class to an existing transport request (2).

Open the Administrator Workbench and click on the Transport Connection button (3). In the center window, select the objects that you want to transport and use the drag-and-drop function to move them into the right-hand Collected Objects window. All new objects have the local development class $TMP by default. You must assign a transportable deveoplment class before you start the first transport (4). From now on, whenever the objects are changed, only the modified objects in the development class are transported.

Finally, release the transport request that you have assigned to the development class (5). You do this in the Change and Transport-Organizer (CTO) that you call by clicking on the corresponding button. Before you release the transport request, release the individual transport tasks.