Open Analysis Interfaces and BI Java SDK

[former_member182193]

SDN is hosting the '<b>Open Analysis Interfaces and BI Java SDK</b>' Webinar as part of The SAP NetWeaver RIG Know How Network Webinars series.

On <b>Wednesday, February 25th</b>, Guido Schroeder, Director, BI Advanced Technologies, will talk about the BW open analysis interfaces that are designed specifically for accessing BW OLAP functions and consist of the OLAP BAPIs, OLE DB for OLAP and XML for Analysis (XMLA).

We invite you to post your questions to the presenter prior to the Webinar taking place and carry on the discussion afterwards.

<u>Dial-in Numbers:</u>

Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Time: 8 a.m. Pacific, 10 a.m. Central, 11 a.m. Eastern; 5pm Central European Time

From within the US, call: (888) 428-4473

From outside the US, call: +1-(651) 291-0618

Password: NetWeaver04

<u>WebEx Info:</u>

Topic: SAP NetWeaver Know How Network

Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Time: 11:00am, Eastern Standard Time

Meeting Number: 742391500

Meeting Password: netweaver04 (lower case)

WebEx link: http://sap.webex.com

A <b>replay</b> of this call is available for five days following each conference. Please access this recording by dialing one of the following numbers and using the replay access code 720129.

Toll free: 800-475-6701

International: 320-365-3844

We encourage you to join this Webinar, educate yourself and collaborate with SAP experts and peers.

[Former Member]

HI

I'm a student in the 4th semester and need do change and add masterdata to a bw 3.5.

I know how to programm in java but I don't find an example how to connect to the masterdata for manipulation on a bw.#In the documentation are just explanationes how I connect to external sources or to the olap processor.#

I would be very very happy if anyone can help how such a connect have to be established.

I need just a littl example or an explanation how it works.

Rgards

Tim

[Former Member]

Guido,

We are building a .Net application that needs to read data from SAP BW 3.0B. Are there any examples in a .Net project that use the Discover and execute method ?

We saw the html example posted, but we have not being able to make it work from .Net.

Pls, your help will be very welcome.

Michele.

[moyalynne]

Hi Michele;

The BI Java SDK is not what you are looking for if you are working with .Net. Currently, it's specific to the Java platform.

I'm not sure what example you're referring to, but I'll email you separately to see if you're interested in a .Net-based exercise we used last year at TechEd '03 that uses Discover and Execute with BW's XMLA provider.

thanks,

-m

[Former Member]

Is it possible with BI SDK kit connect to BW and SAP. An example is Execute a BW Report and based on that report Create a Transaction in SAP.

Thanks in advance for a reply.

Best Regards,

Srini

[moyalynne]

hi srini --

yes, you can connect to BW and other SAP systems with the SDK, but the SDK is for reporting (OLAP) only, not for transactions.

if you need to call a transaction, you can use JCo or the SAP connector and call an RFC function module. i'm told by our developers that there is almost always a way to create an RFC to call the program to which the transaction is assigned, and in many cases the RFCs already exist. if you have more questions in that area i'd suggest a new post to this forum.

thanks;

-m

[Former Member]

Hi Moya,

could you please send me the .Net-based exercise from TechEd '03 (uses Discover and Execute with BW's XMLA provider) that you mentioned in the post?

Thank you very much,

Marco

[Former Member]

Hello Guido,

I am considering building a small demo consisting of a portal java iview querying the BW through xmla. However,

I can see that BW is providing the BEx Web Application Designer for building web frontends.

My question is, what technology should I use for building the fronted?, what would be the differences between both approaches?

thanks in advance,

Jose

[Former Member]

Hello Guido,

Where can I download the Java BI SDK? In the download area I only find the client code example for downloading.

Thanks in advance,

Jose

[moyalynne]

hi jose -

we're pleased to announce that you can now download the BI Java SDK. check out the note and the download link on the SDN downloads page.

enjoy!

-m

[Former Member]

Hi Jose,

as of today the BI Java SDK is available in the download area. Have fun!

Regards, Uwe

[Former Member]

thanks uwe,

my other question is if why should I go fro BI SDK for development a BI frontend instead of using BW web application builder. Is the BI SDK a 'Netweaver' replacement for the web application builder?

thanks in advance,

Jose

[moyalynne]

hi jose!

the BI Java SDK is not a replacement for the Web Application Designer. it simply provides you with another option - but an option with which you can create an entirely customized interface. the creation of the query and display of result set is entirely within your control. in addition, the SDK opens up SAP as well as non-SAP data sources to your analytical applications.

hope that answers your question;

thanks,

-m

[Former Member]

Jose,

the Web Application Designer (WAD) capabilities and the BI Java SDK are very different and

wether you would use WAD or BI Java SDK depends very much on your requirements.

The WAD is a visual tool that allows you to rapidly assemble a BI Web Application from predefined building blocks (web items) such as tables, charts and drop down lists. Web Items can be bound to queries and embedded into any HTML page. You can also add custom Java Script to build highly customized applications. The WAD addresses the needs of BW content experts.

The BI Java SDK is a set of Java class libraries, documentation and examples that supports rapid development of Java applications that access data from BW and diverse datasources. It gives you total freedom to do with the data whatever you want e.g. custom calculations, mixing of data from diverse datasources and addresses the needs of professional Java developers. The BI Java SDK also does not provide its own visualization capabilities, but models that simplify feeding data from resultsets into typical display objects.

Regards, Guido

[moyalynne]

jose;

i published a weblog today that addresses the "Web Application Designer vs BI Java SDK" question, and also includes a little comparison table that might help.

see /people/moya.watson/blog/2004/04/05/the-bi-java-sdk-whats-in-it-for-you

thanks;

-m

[Former Member]

HI,

i search for an way to send XML Requests with Open Analysis from a BSP Site, is there an existing example to do that are what are the things i have to done if i will do that ?

Kind Regards

Marcus

[Former Member]

Dear Marcus,

i am myself not familiar with BSPs, however i think that this would be an environment where you would rather use the OLAP BAPIs in your BSP application class to execute MDX statements. You can locate the OLAP BAPIs with transaction BAPI.

One disadvantage of the approach above might be that with the BAPI you do not get XML formatted data back, which could be easily formatted for rendering a XSLT.

Let me consult with colleagues who know BSPs better.

[Former Member]

Is there a presentation to download?

[Former Member]

Hi Elizabeth,

As Guido has posted, you can fine find the presentation for this Webinar at http://tinyurl.com/2vxz9

Message was edited by: Angie Tran

[Former Member]

Please find the presentation for this Webinar at http://tinyurl.com/2vxz9

Message was edited by: Guido Schroeder

[Former Member]

Hi Everyone, and welcome to the BW Open Analysis Interfaces and BI Java SDK discussion thread. I'm looking forward to the Webinar on Wed. 25th. I would like to invite you to post your questions here on the subject before & after the Webinar. I and my SAP colleagues will be happy to answer them for you. Thank you for your interest in the subject and I look forward to talking to you on the 25th.

[Former Member]

Hi Guido,

Here are my questions upon reviewing your presentation slides:

1 - Can you please provide examples in using

different Communicaton/Access technology mentioned

such as:

· OLAP BAPIs: SAP RFC Libraries, SAP JCO

· OLE DB for OLAP: COM interfaces, ADO MD

· XMLA: SOAP, HTTP

2- So there are three Access technologies. Is each to be used for a specific SAP system or third party tools?

3- Does OLAP BAPIs only used to extract data from 3rd party source system as well as for SAP Internal Users?

4- Does OLE DB for OLAP is used for 3rd party front-end tools like Business Objects, Cognos etc… ?

5- Can you provide some examples on when and how to use XMLA API and OLAP BAPIs ?

6- Could you please explain how I could provide Plug-and-Play Interoperability for 3rd party front-end-tools like Business Objects ?

7- Is the OLE DB for OLAP the only Access technology I shoud use for Business Objects ?

8- Re: SLIDE # 19 - Besides plugging in to SAP J2EE environment, can you use the BI Java SDK to extract/pull data from an external Java application to BW ?

9- Can you use the XMLA in SAP CRM mobile application where the client is PDA, who requests some info from the BW Server ?

Some questions may be redundant now and I hope it will be more clearer to me when I attend your webcast tomorrow !

Thanks for your help !

Best Regards,

Angie

angie.tran@cox.net

[Former Member]

Hello Angie,

here are some answers to your questions:

ad 1: we have posted a sample for using XMLA. This can be downloaded from SDN. The sample is a simple HTML page that uses some Java Script and an ActiveX control to execute HTTP requests against an XMLA provider. It also visualizes the SOAP requests and responses. The sample can easily be adopted using any text editor as the XML messages are hardwired in the application and self-explanatory. I will add soon further examples that will illustrate the usage of ADO MD.

ad 2: As i explained in the call the 3 interfaces (XMLA, ODBO and OLAP BAPI) offer the same functionality. The decision for one of the interfaces in a particular project is driven by what platform requirements you have and potentially also by your skillset. ODBO can be used in Windows environments only. OLAP BAPIs on any SAP platform, XMLA has no platform limitations.

ad 3: The Open Analysis APIs are not intended for extraction of mass data. SAP BW provides interfaces for extraction purposes as part of the Open Hub concept.

ad 4: 3rd party tool vendors such as Business Objects and Cognos use currently eiother OLE DB for OLAP for OLAP BAPIs in their products for interfacing with BW, some vendors support both. Several vendors are also working on implementations of XMLA clients.

ad 5: again, whether you use XMLA or OLAP BAPI depends not on what features your application needs but rather what platform requirements you have. If you are using a 3rd party tool, you need to check of course which of the APIs is supported by the tool you are using.

ad 6: The open analysis interfaces provide Plug-And-Play Interoperability with 3rd party tools in the sense that you do not have to develop anything to leverage the integration of these products with BW. You get these capabilities out of the box. SAP offers a certification for partner products which ensures that the integration between the products works smoothly

ad 7: Business Objects currently offers integration with BW based on OLE DB for OLAP

ad 8: You can use the BI Java SDK also to build stand alone applications, i.e. applications that do not run within the SAP J2EE server environment

ad 9: CRM currently provides no specific integration with XMLA providers

Regards, Guido

ad 7:

[Former Member]

Hi Guido,

Could you please provide a performance comparison between XMLA, ODBO and OLAP BAPI?

Is there anyway to CACHE the XMLA data in BW as we do for native bW reports using reporting agent?

Can the XML web item with BW 3.5 be cached?

Thanks.

-Deepu

[Former Member]

Deepu,

our internal tests show so far that the performance of the three APIs is very similar. This is no surprise as most of the processing is exactly the same, only the transfer method for the data changes between RFC to HTTP/SOAP.

One might think of XMLA as the less efficient API because of the overhead in the XML format as well the parsing.

I would like to point you to an interesting whitepaper article by "Digital Aspects" that did a more detailed comparison between ODBO and XMLA whith a result that might be surpising for you. Find this artivle at http://www.digitalaspects.com/newsitem0006.php

For many applications (for which the APIs are intended) the communication protocol (whether you are using RFC or HTTP ) is not the limiting/most important factor for performance, but the processing of the MDX on the server probably is, and this part is for BW independent of the API you are using.

MDX is very flexible and there are many ways to query the same set of data with very different types of MDX statements, which also differ in their efficiency.

There is no specific caching mechanism yet for XMLA data - however the other generic mechanisms such as the OLAP cache, aggregates etc. certainly can be utilized in this context.

[Former Member]

Hi Guido,

Can you provide an example for using OLAP BAPI & MDX to connect to BW to retreive data? I am not able to find any samples online. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Subha