cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Extraction from C4C to BW

Masaaki
Advisor
Advisor
0 Kudos

Hello,

I have some questions regarding sending data from C4C to BW.


Datasources:

CRMSRQHB

And some master data.

Requirements:

1. Best practice to extract data from C4C to BW

    1. How to extract delta data
    2. How to load full data (40000/day, about 10m/year)
    3. Can PI be used for sending data from C4C to BW, then how to extract delta, how to load full data
    • --> in the interface policy of my customer, they want to use PI as much as possible

2.    Enhance the datasource in C4C (add fields in the datasource and include logic to fill the value in those fields).

In my research, the standard way is to extract via ODP ByD datasource in BW and then I think it is necessary to filter the value in Infopackge in BW for "delta" extraction (the field for handling delta is necessary e.g. updated date).

I am not sure if C4C can push data from this datasource, then I think PI can be used to send data in BW. (BW have web service datasource in which FM and web service is created to post the data to this datasource (push)). But if push is not possible in this datasoure, I am not sure PI can be used, or it is not too ineffective to use PI here. (I don't know, but I think too ineffective)


Kind regards,

Masa

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Masaaki
Advisor
Advisor
0 Kudos

Hi,

The points of my questtions have been

- Delta

- Full load (but 12min is max time and 2GB is max size according to the note 1711421.

- enhancement of the datasource (add fields)

Regarding delta, afte discussing with PI expert, I understand "push" from C4C is not an option, so PI cannot be used as dynamic filtering when extracting from C4C to PI is not promising. So the possible way for "delta upload" is to extract to ODP ByD datasource in BW with infopackage in which the data to be extracted is filtered with the value which can be chnaged dynamically (handled by ABAP coding in Infopackage). e.g. filtering value of last update date = sy-datum - 1.

receiving duplicatd data is not problematic in BW because data is overwritten in DSO, if data in datasource has keys.

Regarding full upload, the only way might be to split the Infopakage with different filtering value. if you have other better solution, I would be happy if you share.

Regarding delta extraction, which field is the best for filtering for delta extraction in the datasoruce CRMSRQHB? And How it should be filtered?


I don't know this datasource, but does it has the appropriate field like last updated date?

In ERP, some table has "created on", "updated on", and when a new entry is created, value of "updated on" is not filled. Then infopackage must be created, for "created on", and for "updated on"

But if filtering value is practically mandatory for extracting data from C4C, the field like time stamp should be included on every datasource.)

And Are there some info on the datasource like CRMSRQHB? in normal BW business contents, the web pages regarding the datasource has been published, and I expect the similar one.

Anyway, delta upload, full upload, and enhancement of the fields are so typical requirements that I expect the documents like HTG has been released for penatrating good practice to the customers.

Kind regards,

Masa




Former Member
0 Kudos

Great comments.

You have to go back to my original statements of what does C4C provide to get data out and into an external data warehouse solution.

You have APIs, BW ODP, and Excel/CSV. Since you want to make it "programatic" then Excel/CSV is not an option.

Thus you are left with APIs and BW ODP.

Since you want to use BW as your data warehouse you should used the BW ODP. The BW ODP is a special high volume SOAP API that can get data out of C4C in a high performance manner.

Here are the steps you need to do

1. The CRMSRQHB is a C4C data source and you can enable it for BW ODP in C4C. You do this by going into C4C as an admin -> Administrator -> Data Sources and search for the data source

If the CRMSRQHB data source does not contain all of the fields you will need to do a few things (I suggest you download the data dictionary for the data source to review what is available)

a. If the fields are extensions, you will need to update the data source using the further usage feature. You do this by going into C4C as an admin -> Adaption -> Open the Ticket UI click on the extension field and open the further usage UI to push it to the data source.

b. If the fields are standard, they may be available in other data sources so you will need to create a custom joined data source that joins one or more standard data sources to create the data set you need

2. Once you do this it will expose an API in C4C which you will need to enable it as a communication arrangement/system in C4C so that BW can consume this API. You do this by going into C4C as an admin -> Administrator -> Communication Systems/Arrangements

3. Once the API is exposed as a communication arrangement/system, then point BW to this end point using BW. BW will automatically create a data source as an exact replica of the C4C data source as a BW data source.

4. You may want to create a batch job in BW to periodically call the BW ODP to get new set of data on a predefined interval which you will need to do delta detection in your ETL process in BW or the initial load of the BW data source is so large, that you may need to "split" up the initial load over multiple runs to get the entire C4C data set you want in BW. This is where in BW you would calculate the last extraction date or whatever the date in BW represents the last date and use this as a selection criteria you call the BW ODP. This would ensure that the data set imported into BW would be a subset (delta) of data

5. Create your info cubes, etc... in BW. If you need a data dictionary of the C4C data source, it is available in step 1 when you open the C4C data source and you can download the data dictionary document available for the C4C data source

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi there,

When creating the communication arrangement for Analytics Integration (C4C to BW transfer), only an inbound communication is created. Is this always the case for this scenario and all we need to extract data from C4C to BW? Other scenarios have both inbound and outbound communication ( BP Replication ...).

Thanks

Answers (2)

Answers (2)

pushkar_ranjan
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

More information at

Thank you.

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi Masa,

There is another post that describes the various options you have to get data out of C4C and into a data warehouse here...

Few options..

1. You can do your reporting and analytics in C4C using the C4C Analytics. This keeps it simple since you dont have to move data anywhere and deal with the headaches of maintaining ETL jobs to get data out of C4C and into your data warehouse platform of choice. The CRMSRQHB is a C4C datasource and contains all of the ticket data in C4C.


2. You can do you reporting and analytics in an external data warehouse such as BW.

You have to think of C4C is just another source of data and you have setup an ETL job to get data out of C4C.

C4C has the following to get data out for analytics

1. REST oDATA APIs

2. SOAP APIs

3. CSV/excel spread sheets (this would be a manual effort for a user to use the C4C analytics to download the data to excel)

4. BW ODP datasource (only works with BW and is a "pull" scenario where BW pulls C4C data out)

You will need to "pull" data out of C4C using these techniques above.

The CRMSRQHB datasource, as well as any C4C datasource cannot push data out. It is meant to get data in (meaning it is an in-memory data cube representing data to be reported on in C4C Analytics)

Rei