The SAP R3 Query Reporting Tools


The SAP R/3 Query Reporting Tools

In addition to these four main avenues, SAP comes preinstalled with the following end-user reporting tools:

  • SAP Query

  • InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query

  • QuickViewer

The added bonus of these solutions is overwhelming. Instead of using standard canned reports, you can use these tools to create your own reports from scratch, selecting the fields, formatting, and so on. Unlike reports created via ABAP programming, reports created with these tools require no programming skills whatsoever. Many customers assume that BW (or BI or BIW) is the reporting solution designed for all reporting in SAP. BW is a great tool for customers who require it, but many people do not understand several facts about BW:

  • You have to purchase, license, and install BW.

  • BW is not part of your R/3 environment and therefore requires separate configuration.

  • BW does not provide real-time reporting; rather, it reports from a storage warehouse of data.

  • BW is designed primarily for SAP installations where reporting from multiple non-SAP solutions as well as SAP is required.

If the SAP R/3 Query tools are so useful, why aren't they more popular? Let's start with the history. The earliest versions of SAP offered a tool originally called the ABAP/4 Query tool. This tool was the first one designed to allow end users to create their own reports. It was rudimentary in its first deployment, and early on it received a bad reputation for being a resource hog on the SAP R/3 database. Nevertheless, over the years and following releases, SAP continued to work with the updated ABAP Query tool to improve its indexing, speed up its retrieval methods, and encourage the use of standard delivered logical databases as the data source behind the reporting engine. In SAP 4.6, the tool was drastically improved, and by then it was no longer considered a resource hog.

About the same time that the ABAP Query tool was improved, SAP stopped offering training classes on the query-based reporting tools, even though the SAP Query tool had just been enhanced and updated and the new query-based tools, including InfoSet Query and QuickViewer, had just been introduced. Some think that SAP wanted to encourage its SAP customers to purchase and install BW (a new revenue generator), and others believe that SAP simply wanted to make a commitment to its custom ABAP coding for reports, which is a popular class in the SAP training catalog. What the motivation was is unimportant; what is pressing is that reporting tools are available to end users for the creation of custom reports that require no advanced technical training or programming capabilities. Everything you need to know about how to configure and use these tools is included in this book.

Note

The SAP R/3 Query tools are SAP Query, QuickViewer, and InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query. When I refer to the SAP Query tool, I am referring to the individual SAP Query tool, and when I refer to all three of the tools, I use the term SAP R/3 Query tools. This may appear a bit confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it as you move along.


Detailed information, especially training materials, for the three SAP R/3 Query tools is hard to find. Even harder to find is a comprehensive comparison of what these tools offer, their configuration and usage considerations, and how they rank comparatively. The following sections introduce the three SAP R/3 Query reporting tools; later in the book, you will learn more about each tool so you can compare and contrast them yourself.

The SAP Query Tool

The SAP Query tool, known as the ABAP Query tool in earlier versions of SAP, is delivered with the SAP R/3 system. End users can use this tool to quickly and easily create reports from data stored in the SAP R/3 database. This tool can be used in any application module in SAP. Its easy-to-use format simplifies the report creation process. The SAP Query tool includes basic and advanced features for every level of end user. The SAP Query tool offers a broad range of ways to define output and create different types of reports, such as basic lists, statistics, and ranked lists. This tool can be used in a basic or graphical mode.

The InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query Tool

Unlike the SAP Query tool, which is a complete reporting solution, the InfoSet Query tool is designed for basic users to retrieve simple, single-use lists of SAP R/3 data. In SAP 4.6, the Human Capital Management module reporting tool called the Ad Hoc Query tool was combined with the technology of the SAP Query tool and made available for all modules; its new name is the InfoSet Query tool (although it is still referred to as the Ad Hoc Query tool when executed for human resources reporting). This book refers to it as the InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query tool.

Unlike with the SAP Query tool, all query information, including the selection criteria, for InfoSet Query tool reporting is available on a single screen. You can use the InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query tool to quickly answer simple questions or to create a comprehensive report for printing or downloading to your PC. A user can use the InfoSet (Ad Hoc) Query tool to pose questions to the SAP system and receive real-time answers.

The QuickViewer Tool

The QuickViewer tool that is delivered with a SAP 4.6 system is a WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") utility for quickly collecting data from an R/3 system. The QuickViewer tool is actually a variant of the robust SAP Query tool that is designed for new or occasional users or for single-use data inquiry reports. You can use this tool to create reports referred to as QuickViews. To define a report with the QuickViewer tool, you simply enter texts (titles) and select the fields and options that define the QuickView. QuickViews cannot be exchanged among users, but they can be converted to reports to be used with the SAP Query tool.




SAP Query Reporting
SAP Query Reporting
ISBN: 0672329026
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 161

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net