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Extracting data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud using the Customer Data Browser app and transferring it

IlianaOlvera7
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
‎2024 May 22 12:07 AM
3,971

Extracting data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud using the Customer Data BROWSER app and transferring it to another SAP S/4HANA Cloud instance using the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit

 

This blog is the second part in a series for the topic extracting data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and transferring data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Users or customers who have basic knowledge of SAP data migration and new implementation topics or who are interested in these topics can benefit from the information provided here as it gives more details about SAP tools that support the extraction and transferring of data from and to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. In addition, users can also benefit from the examples provided here.

 

At present, there is no automated way to transfer data from S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. However, SAP provides some standard tools that when used together, support the data extraction from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the data transfer to another SAP S/4HANA Cloud (public) instance.  

 

As mentioned in Blog: Part 1 - Extracting data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud using the Customer Data Return app and transferring it, another extracting option to extract customer information from SAP S/4HANA Cloud is to use the Customer Data Browser or by using CDS Views (including Custom CDS Views). This blog will focus on this topic.

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The Customer Data Browser app allows users to view SAP S/4HANA business data owned by the customer. Among this data is the data of CDS views and custom CDS views, which is the main topic of this blog.

 

CDS (Core Data Service) views are virtual data models of SAP HANA which allow direct access to tables of the HANA database. Custom CDS views provide reuse, extensibility and flexibility for the customer and can serve different purposes. For example, they can be consumed in analytics or serve as external APIs to be used in external systems.

For more information about CDS views see:

 

Custom CDS Views can be created using the Custom CDS Views app (see: SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library (ondemand.com) - Custom CDS Views app). This app allows customers to build their own content based on VDM (Virtual Data Model) and other custom content (for example, custom business objects). This custom content built by customers on VDM is called custom CDS views. .

 

For information about integration of CDS Views and custom CDS views into SAP S/4HANA Cloud see the SAP Help Portal:

 

Regarding the extraction of data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the Customer Data Browser extraction mechanism using CDS views (including custom CDS views) may be simpler for users if data is only partially extracted or extracted step by step, for example object by object. 

 

Below you will find detailed information and some detailed examples of the Customer Data Browser app (using CDS and custom CDS views) and the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit – Migrate your Data app, which are used for data extraction from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

 

1.- Data Extraction - with the Customer Data Browser (CDB)

Customer Data Browser (CDB) 

With the Customer Data Browser app, users can view SAP S/4HANA business data owned by the customer. It is a self-service application that can be used to view data that belongs to specific CDS views and database tables that are allowed for user access by SAP.

 

The CDS views and database tables allowed for user access by SAP in the Customer Data Browser app are called Customer Data Browser objects.

 

Key Features

You can use this app as a self-service to:

  • View business data owned by customers
  • View the data of custom fields
  • View the data of custom CDS views
  • View the technical names and business names of fields
  • Configure filter criteria and sort data
  • Get the total number of records
  • Configure display columns
  • Export data visible on the application to a spreadsheet
  • Provide controlled and restricted access to users (Admin user feature).

Note: The Customer Data Browser app primarily displays data using published CDS views (of the type contract C1), following the SAP S/4HANA Cloud guidelines.

 

Note and Disclaimer: The use of the Customer Data Browser app may conflict with the data protection policies of your organization. The authorization concept does not support any filtering by the Data Controller or by typical attributes reflecting the purposes of processing. In addition, a download of the data is a transfer in a software/environment that is potentially not secured. Hence, before using the Customer Data Browser application, please ensure that you follow the data protection Policies in your organization.

 

To use the Customer Data Browser app, you will require the appropriate authorization (required users, business roles, etc.). Furthermore, some configurations must be done so that the view of the data and data extraction work properly. This information is provided in the SAP Help Portal (Documentation) - Customer Data Browser –  Getting Started | SAP Help Portal


Once the Customer Data Browser application has been properly configured and users have been assigned the required authorizations, the app can be used to view and extract customer data. Among this data are the CDS Views and Custom CDS Views. 

For example, let’s say that you would like to download Cost Center data. For this, you will have to go first to your SAP - Home and search for the app “Customer Data Browser”.

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If the app has not yet been added to your Favorites, Most Used or Recently Used Apps, you can find it under “Data Analysis”:

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When you choose the Customer Data Browser tile, you can see a list of Customer Data Browser objects authorized to view.

 

The list of Customer Data Browser objects includes:

  •  CDS views, including custom CDS views
  •  Database tables

  

The Customer Data Browser app provides some filtering, sorting and export options so that users can download the desired customer data.

 

After opening the Customer Data Brower app, a list of Tables and CDS Views are shown.

 1. Select the icon “CDS Views” and enter in the search box the term “Cost” to search for “Cost Center” CDS view.

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2. Double-click the I_COSTCENTER row to navigate to the Data Details screen of the Cost Center CDS View.

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On the Customer Data Browser – Data Details screen you can view the data relevant to the object, in this case the Cost Center CDS view.

Here you can sort the data or enter filtering options to search for specific data.

 3. To modify the current filtering option, click on the button Adapt Filters. Picture17.png

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Note that if you set filters, the total number of records is calculated based on the filter criteria.

 

4. If you choose a CDS view that requires you to enter parameter values before previewing data, you can enter the values in the Maintain Parameters dialog box.

 

5. To modify the maximum number of rows to be displayed on the screen enter a new number in the text box Maximum Rows to Be Displayed. For example, 999. By default, this value is set to 100. This value can be reset to display a different maximum number.

 

 6. To display the Technical Names of the columns, click the button “View Technical Names”.

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 7. To download the displayed data as a spreadsheet, click on Export from the Export icon.

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A file in .xlsx format will be downloaded.

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8.Open the spreadsheet file using, for example, Excel.

You will find all customer data for the structure cost center.

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2.- Data preparation and transformation – for uploading to another SAP S/4HANA Cloud public instance / target system

Now you can copy the necessary information to the corresponding XML file template of the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit so that you can transfer this data to another instance in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public.

 

The XML template file of the Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app looks like this: 

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In hidden row 5, you will find the technical names of the fields and in row 8 you will find the field description and other relevant field information.  

 

The CSV file template of the Migration Cockpit – Migrate you Data app looks like below:  

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In the CSV template file of the Migration Cockpit, only the technical names of the fields and information about if the field is a key and/or required field are included.  

Using for example Excel or any other tool, you then need to copy the relevant data (column) and/or rows of the CDB file to the appropriate column in the XML file template of the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit.

 

Note that the columns in both files might differ, as well as some fields will not be present in one or the other file. Therefore, you must ensure that you choose the correct field and data and have pasted it to the appropriate column of the Migration Cockpit XML file template. For more details about how to fill data in the XML template of the Migration Cockpit see KBA 2692715 - Migration Cockpit: How to correctly fill data into XML template.

 

For example, Cost Center, Valid From, Valid To, Cost Center Name, Description field data from the Customer Data Browser .xlsx file to the corresponding column and rows in the XML template file Source Data for Migration Object: Co-Cost center.

 

After filling the corresponding data for Migration Object Cost Center in the Cost Center XML template file in the migration cockpit, the file will look like this:  

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We recommend that you check for differences between the newest and previous releases: 

 

 

 

3.- Data load to the target instance (S/4HANA cloud, public edition) - with the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit

For loading (migrating) data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can use the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app.  

Note that users can also load (migrate) data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition, using the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit. For more details about the migration cockpit see: http://help.sap.com/S4_OP_DM . Consider that the functionality of the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit for cloud and SAP S/4HANA might differ. Furthermore, the number of migration objects and its definition might vary from SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA. For available migration objects for SAP S/4HANA see: http://help.sap.com/S4_OP_MO.

 

SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit (MC) for Data load to SAP S/4HANA Cloud 

The SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit is designed for customers who have just installed SAP S/4HANA and want to move their legacy data from SAP or non-SAP software systems. It allows you to migrate your master data and transactional data (open items and balances) to SAP S/4HANA, and it facilitates this process by providing predefined migration content and mapping. It can be launched using the Migrate Your Data app in the Fiori Launchpad (Data Migration Launchpad). The migration cockpit is part of both SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud and is included in these licenses. 

 

Note: The SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit is a tool that provides different methods of migrating business data to SAP S/4HANA cloud.  You can use staging tables to migrate data. It has a comprehensive library of migration object templates with the necessary fields already defined to help you migrate data to the SAP HANA database.

For transferring (migrating) data to another SAP S/4HANA cloud instance using the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit, users must perform a data migration.  For this, users must carry out several steps and activities. The tool automatically maps source data from the templates to the SAP S/4HANA target system and guides you through a series of step-by-step activities to confirm the mappings and finalize migration, with validation checks occurring in the background.

For more details about Data Migration and the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app see the Data Migration landing page.

 

With the migration approach “Migrate Data Using Staging Tables” of the migration cockpit you can:  

  • Use staging tables to migrate business data from any legacy system to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. 
  • Select the migration objects that are relevant for your migration project. 
  • Generate staging tables for your migration objects and populate these staging tables with data by using template files. 

 

More details can be found in the SAP Help Portal: 

 

For uploading the reformatted customer data files coming from one or more CDS views from the customer data browser app, you can use SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit - Migration approach Migrate Data Using Staging tables. If you use the migration approach Migrate Data Using Staging Tables, the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit automatically creates staging tables for each migration object that is relevant for your project. You can fill the staging tables with data either using XML templates, CSV files, or manually using the SAP HANA Studio or by using third party or SAP’s ETL tools (for example SAP Smart Data Integration or SAP Agile Data Preparation). 

 

You must upload the modified data coming from the Customer Data Browser using the XML templates or CSV files of the migration cockpit. This should be done for each migration object XML template or each CSV file, for which you need data to be transferred to the new target system or cloud instance. 

 

For more details on how to load data using the migration cockpit, you can check the following blogs: 

 

 

  

__________________________________________________________________________

 Links and References

 CDS Views and Custom CDS Views

 

 

Customer Data Browser

  

SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit (Public Cloud) References, Blog Posts, and Useful Links

 SAP help portal:

       – Cloud:

  

Blog posts (SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit)

 

Relevant SAP Notes/KBAs:

  • 2538700 – Collective SAP Note and FAQ for SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit (Cloud)
  • 2733253 – FAQ for SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit – Transfer option: Transfer data from staging tables

  

SAP Communities:

 

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