BW Bridge : The use of ...... is not permitted

[jorg_vdst]

Hello,

We are trying to implement some of the dataflows of an older BW system into BW Bridge.

One of the first things we are trying to implement is a routine in a transformation that reads the hierarchy table of an InfoObject to derive an attribute based on the position of the leaf in the hierarchy.

Unfortunately, use of tables, data elements, function modules is extremely restricted on BW bridge (and as I understand other cloud products). Only objects 'released' by SAP can be used in code and views, but this list is really short.

Surely, there must be a way around this?

In our case, not only are there thousands of lines of code that are unusable, I don't even see a way around it if the hierarchy table can't be read.

[Dominik_Graus]

Hello Jorg,

We are planning to expose the hierarchy H table as released objects with the initial release of 2305 or with hotfix collection 4 of 2305, see SAP BTP ABAP Environment – Maintenance Windows and Major Upgrade Windows in 2023.

Note that you have to activate the InfoObject after the upgrade to expose the hierarchy H tables as released objects.

Regards,
Dominik

[jorg_vdst]

That is great news. Thank you, Dominik

[Dominik_Graus]

Hi Jorg,

Migrating own ABAP code to SAP BW bridge is a semi-automatic task that may require manual changes to the code. The set of released function modules and classes is not necessarily carved in stone. We validate requests to release additional function modules or classes on a case by case basis.

May I ask what is the use case to read hierarchy tables?

Regards,
Dominik

[Kanstantsin]

Hi, Dominik. Your replies were extremely valuable. Did I get this correctly that the usage of any custom developed functional modules and classes is not the option unless I make them "released" somehow?

[Dominik_Graus]

No, this is not necessary. You can call your own custom developed function modules and classes without releasing them.

My previous comment was about function modules, classes, interfaces, data types, database tables, etc. provided by SAP which may - or may not - be released. See the API State tab in the Properties view of the artifact in question.

[Kanstantsin]

Thanks for reply, Dominik.

Now, I'm confused a bit because of following situation: On BW Bridge side, I've recreated my Z* FM, which is being used in Start routine of my transformation. While performing the Shell conversion for this transformation, I've got the error message:

"Error in generated class: The use of FUNC Z_*** is not permitted". The system I'm migrating from is BW4HANA 2021.

Maybe, you've got any suggestions how to resolve it?

[Dominik_Graus]

I've tried to reproduce your issue in an internal system, without success. I was able to create a Z function module and use it in an ABAP routine of a transformation.

Could you please log an incident in SAP Support Portal? We can then check in your system why the error is raised.

[Kanstantsin]

Hi, Dominik. Really appreciate your help. We've submitted the ticket about this issue

[Dominik_Graus]

Update: There was a typo in the name of the function module. That's why the (misleading) error message was raised.

Summary: Using (custom) Z function modules in BW bridge is supported. And there is no need to release the function module.

[jorg_vdst]

Hello Dominik,

Thanks for your reply. We are dealing with an old BW system with not a lot of data flows and it was decided to "copy-paste" only what was needed and an RFC between BW and BW bridge is not set up. Would using the remote conversion release the objects that are used in the old ABAP code?

The use case for the hierarchy is as follows. Based on a profit center hierarchy, we need to determine a value for an attribute based on a node higher up in the hierarchy. Not all parents and leaves are on the same level, unfortunately. The orginal code - over 10 years old - makes use of recursion to solve this.

I could rewrite the code, but because we are not able to read the hierarchy and RS* tables or use the function modules (we aren't even allowed to type fields with SAP data types), I don't see how I can.

I could try to do it in the Datasphere, but I'm not sure it is possible being limited to SQL.

Kind regards,

Jorg

[Dominik_Graus]

Hello Jorg,

Using remote conversion would not change the release state of ABAP classes or function modules.

We are currently discussing whether hierarchy data can be made available to your ABAP code and if so how. Keep you updated.

Regards,
Dominik