Difference between Update rules and Transformations

[Former Member]

Hello friends,

This is my first post in this forum. I am very new to BI and just went through training. I am very grateful to the forum members' posts which have helped me a lot in learning BI.

My question is:

What is the difference b/w Update rules and Tranformations. Both seem to have the same kind of features ie, formulas, routines to make changes to the target fields from the source fields.

Thanks in advance,

Raghu

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Transformations is a new concept from BI 7.0. yes it is similar to update rules.

Except that transformations use Data Tranfer Process and update rules use infopackages.

Next time, please search the forum and you will find lots of info.

[Former Member]

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.

I am closing this as I got the required answer.

[Former Member]

It's a replacement of TR/UR of BW 3.5 in BI 7.0.

Update Rule:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/EN/3f/0e503c3c0d563de10000000a114084/content.htm

Transformation:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/f8/7913426e48db2ce10000000a1550b0/content.htm

Thanks...

Shambhu

[Former Member]

Hi,

Transformations are the new method (for BI 7.x) used to transform your data between your datasource and data target.

The are very similar to update rules which are one part of the transformation step that was common in version 3.5 and earlier versions.

Transformations are a bit more powerful than the old update/transfer rules that they replaced and only work with the DTP's which were also introduced in 7.x.

As a new person to BI, working in version 7.x, I would try to stick with only using transformations and DTP's since that is the way of the future.

Brian

[Former Member]

Hi Raghu,

Transformations is a BI7 Concept. Update rules is a BW3.5 concept.

You can classify the differences as

1) Update rules are written using ABAP.

Whereas for transformation rules you can use ABAP, or formula builder(which generates ABAP automatically)

2) An update rule must be specified for each key figure and the corresponding characteristics of the InfoCube. For an ODS Object, it must be specified for the data and key fields, and for an InfoObject it must be specified for the attribute and key fields.

When you load data from one BI object into a further BI object, the data is passed through a transformation. A transformation converts the fields of the source into the format of the target.

3) transformations use DTP, Update rules use Infopackage.

4)The following update types exist:

a. No update

b. Addition, minimum or maximum

c. Overwriting (with ODS objects and InfoObjects only)

Transformation rule types:

a. Direct Assignment

b. Constant

c. Formula

d. Read Master Data

e. Routine

f. Time Update

g. Initial

h. No Transformation

i. Unit of Measure Conversion and Currency Translation

5. You create a transformation between a source and a target.The BI objects DataSource, InfoSource, DataStore object, InfoCube, InfoObject and InfoSet serve as source objects. The BI objects InfoSource, InfoObject, DataStore object and InfoCube serve as target objects.

Whereas in update rules, a data target can be supplied with data from several InfoSources. A record of update rules must be maintained for each of these InfoSources, describing how the data is written from the communication structure belonging to the InfoSource into the data target.

Regards

Shilpa