SAP MDM Hierarchy integration to BI

[Former Member]

SAP MDM supports hierarchies. MDM can send hierarchy along with main table information(values). But it seems BI is not able to import hierarchy from MDM. How we can import MDM hierarchies into SAP BI system? Do we have any other mechanism other then predefined flat file format what BI can import? As creating flat file staructure from MDM, looks difficult to create.

[Former Member]

Hi Rajesh,

No we are not linking the hierarchy to the main table (that was the difficult part).

What you need to have in your case is add 2 more fields to the table,

1) Parent Node (contains the parent unique code of a given node)

2) Level in the hierarchy (numeric eg. Level 1, 2, 3 etc)

OR

Type of the node (eg. continent, country, region etc..)

Syndicate this data as the Flat file

then in XI,

Build a logic using the user defined functions:

To produce the CSV file containing the following fields - this is the format BI accepts to load the hierarchy.

1) Sl NO. - a sequence number of the sorted nodes - sorting should be such a way that, all the level 1 first , level 2 next Level 3 next..

2) Node

3) Infoobject - each node type should have a unique info object created

4) Node Description

5) Link - can be left Balnk

6) ParentID = Sl No. of the Parent node (need to derive this from UDF logic)

7) lang = E for english

Then follow the standard BI suggested hierarchy load i.e.

(you should get more details on this from BI documentation)

1.Defining the source system from which you want to load datau2014 For a flat file, choose: File System, Manual Metadata; Data via File Interface

2.Defining the InfoSource for which you want to load data

3.Assigning the source system to the InfoSource

4.Maintaining the transfer structure / transfer rules

5.Maintaining the hierarchy

Hope this helps.

[Former Member]

Hi Rajesh,

We had exact same issue. Yes MDM by defualt does not support synidcating the flat structure that BI needs. We achieved the Hierarchy interface by introducing an extra column in MDM & writing UDFs in XI (we have XI in between MDM and BI).

You need to syndicate the hierarchy table with a separator as the falt file - then depend on the the field(s) you introduce as dummys in the MDM to build the logic to get the file out put that BI accepts.

If it does not resolve, I may be able to help, if you let me know the exact table structure.

Bye

Swamycharan.

[Former Member]

Hi Swamycharan,

Thanks for the response. Are you able to syndicate hierarchy only information (without main table) from MDM? our hierarchy table structure has two field - Name, Description.

Are you using proxy or RFC or Webservice or IDoc on BI system to upload the hierarchy structure?

Can you please suggest how you are using dummy field for creating a flat file structure which BI can understand?