Creating InfoPackages to Load Characteristic Data

BW uses InfoPackages to define how to select data, and when to transfer and load the data. In BW, a characteristic can consist of three data components:

• Master data, or attributes as they are sometimes called
• Text
• Hierarchy

Section 7.1, "BW Star Schema," discusses master data, texts, and hierarchies and explains their relationships to characteristics.

Each part requires an InfoPackage. This section describes how to create InfoPackages to load master data and text. The next section covers entering master data and text manually.

Work Instructions

Step 1. Right-click Source System demo: flat file, and then select Create InfoPackage….

 

 

SCREEN 3.16

Step 2. Select the DataSource Material number (Master data), enter a description for the InfoPackage, and then click to continue.

 

 

SCREEN 3.17

Step 3. Click the External data tab. Select options as shown in the screen. Enter a file name with a path. The file contains the data given in Table 3.1.

 

 

SCREEN 3.18

Note

The data file can reside on a front-end computer (or Client workstation as it is called here) or one of the application servers in the SAP Basis three-tier architecture. In our example, IO_MAT_ATTR.CSV resides in our front-end computer. For better loading performance, it is recommended that you place data files in application server computers.

Step 4. Click the Schedule tab, select the option Start data load immediately, and then click to load data.

 

 

SCREEN 3.19

Result

The staging engine starts to load the data. A status message Data was requested will appear at the bottom of Screen 3.19.

Note

To schedule the loading operation for a later date or to execute loading periodically, select the option Start later in bckgrnd proc, and then click . A pop-up window appears, as shown in Screen 3.20. You can set up a background process to start the data loading job based on the criteria specified in Screen 3.20. The same window is used in R/3 for background job scheduling. In essence, BW Scheduler is embedded in InfoPackages.

SCREEN 3.20

Table 3.1. MATERIAL NUMBER – MASTER DATA

MAT001	TEA
MAT002	COFFEE
MAT003	COOKIE
MAT004	DESK
MAT005	TABLE
MAT006	CHAIR
MAT007	BENCH
MAT008	PEN
MAT009	PAPER
MAT010	CORN
MAT011	RICE
MAT012	APPLE
MAT013	GRAPEFRUIT
MAT014	PEACH
MAT015	ORANGE

By repeating this procedure and selecting DataSource Material number (Texts) (Screen 3.21), we can load the texts in Table 3.2.

SCREEN 3.21

Table 3.2. MATERIAL NUMBER – TEXTS

E	MAT001	Ice tea
E	MAT002	Hot coffee
E	MAT003	Fortune cookie
E	MAT004	Computer desk
E	MAT005	Dining table
E	MAT006	Leather chair
E	MAT007	Wood bench
E	MAT008	Black pen
E	MAT009	White paper
E	MAT010	America corn
E	MAT011	Asia rice
E	MAT012	New York apple
E	MAT013	Florida grapefruit
E	MAT014	Washington peach
E	MAT015	California orange

The first column specifies the language of the texts, with "E" indicating English.