Input Ready Query through BI-Integrated Planning

[sakthi_ss]

Applies to

SAP BI Input Ready Query- Integrated Planning in SAP BI.

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Summary

This article describes the steps required to build an Input Ready Query to load data into BW system through BI Integrated Planning. It also describes the steps to create MultiProvider, Aggregation level and input enabled query.

Integrated Planning

            Planning is an integral part of the management cycle. The management cycle helps companies to position themselves in complex environments and to keep on track in reaching their overall company goal. Planning supports decision making, the coordination of different divisions towards a common goal and defines general conditions for operation.

            BI Integrated Planning provides business experts with an infrastructure for realizing and operating planning scenarios or other applications. BI Integrated Planning can be used to create process-oriented planning.

            BI Integrated planning fulfills both the end user’s and the administrator’s wishes at the same time. The end user can work from a plan query that is equally valid for all planners in a planning area, can open Excel offline planning and then carry out significantly more detailed planning there. Only part of this data is then written back to the enter-able query; that is, the part refers to the cell in question.

Overview of Input Ready Query

                   Input-ready queries are used to create applications for manual planning. These can range from simple data entry scenarios to complex planning applications. You define queries for manual planning in BEx Query Designer. In Web Application Designer or BEx Analyzer, you can combine input-ready queries with other queries and planning functions to create complex planning applications.

            A query that is defined upon an InfoProvider of type aggregation level, it is input ready and can be used for manual planning. Whether a particular cell is input ready depends on the drill-down, specifically whether characteristic relationships and data slices are permitted for the cell.

Prerequisites

            Fundamentals of SAP Business Intelligence, SAP Integrated Planning. Good knowledge of BEx.

Business scenario

            The business requirement is to have a Dispatch Plan upon the actual data. Architecturally this has been enabled by using actual InfoCube which provides the available Data that is used for reporting. The goal is to enable an Input Ready field for Dispatch Plan in Report that allows users to enter data which in background will get updated to the Realtime Cube.

            In the example below Actual Cube is ‘ZS_ICACT’ which contains necessary data for reporting and ‘ZS_IPTRD’ is the Realtime cube that’s used to store the data entered through the reports.

How to start with Integrated Planning:

Creating a Real Time Info Cube

            Real-time Info Cubes differ from Standard Info Cubes in their ability to support parallel write accesses. Standard Info Cubes are technically optimized for read accesses.

Right click on the Info Area and select ‘Create Info Cube’.

Give name for InfoCube and click on ‘Create’ button. ‘ZS_IPTRD’ is the name of the InfoCube.

Creating a Multi Provider

            A MultiProvider is a type of InfoProvider that combines data from a number of InfoProviders and makes it available for reporting purposes. The MultiProvider does not itself contain any data. Its data comes entirely from the InfoProviders on which it is based. These InfoProviders are connected to one another by a union operation. 

            MultiProviders only exist as a logicaldefinition. The data continues to be stored in the InfoProviders on which the MultiProvider is based. A query based on a MultiProvider is divided internally into subqueries. There is a subquery for each InfoProvider included in the MultiProvider. These subqueries are usually processed in parallel.

Right click on the Info Area and select ‘Create MultiProvider’.

Give name for MultiProvider and click on ‘Create’ button. ‘ZS_MULPRO’ is the name of the Multi Provider.

In the next screen, select the Info Cubes which should be in the MultiProvider. So select the check-box for ‘ZS_ICACT’ and ‘ZS_IPTRD’.

Drag and drop Info Objects from the ‘Involved Info Providers’ pane to the right side pane of MultiProvider. 0Calday and 0Calyear should be dragged to the dimension ‘Time’. Drag key figures to the dimension ‘KeyFigures’. Drag Material to the dimension ‘Dimension1’.

Right click on any characteristic and select the option ‘Identify (Assign)’.

Select the check-boxes for the InfoProvider.

In the same way assign all characteristics and keyfigures to both Info Cubes and activate the MultiProvider.

Steps in Planning Modeler

            Go to tcode RSPLAN. Click on the button ‘Start Modeler’ to start the Planning Modeler.

            The Planning Modeler is a Web-based modeling environment for all tasks related to planning. The Planning Modeler is the central modeling tool for all planning-specific objects. You can use the Planning Modeler to model, manage and test all the metadata that belongs to the planning scenario. The different objects are maintained in the modeler in connection with planning, such as aggregation levels, as are the relationships between these objects.

Give the name of the MultiProvider and click on either ‘Start’ button or press ‘Enter’ key.

The Info Objects of the MultiProvider will be listed in the lower part of the screen.

Aggregation levels

            To determine the level on which data can be entered or changed (manually through user input or automatically by a planning function), you define an InfoProvider of type aggregation level. An aggregation level consists of a subset of the characteristics and key figures of a MultiProvider or real-time InfoCube. Real-time InfoCubes are used to store data.

            All Info Objects of the MultiProvider will be listed. Select the Info Objects that should be included in the MultiProvider by checking the check-box in the ‘Used’ column.

Check the Aggregation level by clicking on the ‘Check’ button. Save and activate the Aggregation level.

Steps in BEx Query Designer

            Once you have defined a query on one of the InfoProvider types listed above, you see the Planning tab under the Properties of structural components (in key figures or restricted key figures). You can use the options here to set which structural components of an input-ready query you want to be input ready at run-time. For structural components that are not input ready, you can also set whether they are viewed as data not relevant for locking or are just protected against manual entry.

Option	Description
Not input ready (not relevant for locking)	The structure components are not locked for the exclusive access of a user because many users use this data as a reference (for actual data). This is the default setting.
Not input ready (relevant for locking)	If you want to protect structural components against manual entries but allow changes by planning functions, you can use locks to protect this data for one particular user. This allows you to ensure that the planning function works with the displayed data only and not with data that has been changed by other users.
Input ready (relevant for locking)	The data is locked for a user and is input-ready for manual planning.

In the selection which is needed as Input-Ready, Go to Planning Tab of Properties and in Change Data select ‘Input ready (relevant for locking)’.

Finally in overall properties of query( Ctrl+P) in the Planning tab select ‘Start Query in Change Mode’.

RSRT Output

Then to add the entered values to the Real-time cube click on ‘Save’ and then ‘Transfer’.

BEx Analyzer Output

In BEx analyzer to add the entered values to the Real-time cube click on ‘Save Values’ and then ‘Transfer Values’.

Points to be noted:

• Ensure that Realtime InfoCube is in Planning Mode.

• To ensure that only one user is able to change data, “their” data is locked and cannot be changed by other users. Depending on the expected load (determined by the number of users working in parallel and the complexity of the selection), you can specify one of several lock processes as the default. The lock algorithm is used by BW-BPS and BI Integrated Planning.

• Lock can be released using the Tcode: SM12.

• All the Infoobjects selected in the aggregation level should be maintained in the query; otherwise at times Input Ready Field will be disabled.
• Once you click on Save in the Input Ready Query, then a request is created in the Manage Tab of your Info Cube.

• Data requests in real-time InfoProviders stay open until the number of records in the data request exceeds 50,000. When an application writes data to the request and the limit of 50,000 records is exceeded, the data is stored and the request is closed. Thus, a request can actually contain more than 50,000 records.
• It is still possible to roll-up and define aggregates, compress and so on.
• Note that switching from planning to loading automatically closes the open planning request.