IO's Attributes flag: Delete master data with 0RECORDMODE

I noted recently a new flag on IO’s attribute maintenance screen. It is available in tcodes like RSA1 or RSD1 while IO is displayed on its Attribute tab. Help key F1 doesn’t say much about it just the same of the flag name itself:

Delete Master Data with 0recordmode

In order to find out what it is about I tried to create new IO and check the flag on. What happened was that it added IO 0RECORDMODE as new attribute of the IO. Similarly if 0RECORDMODE is added manually into the list of IO’s attributes the flag gets turned ON automatically.

I tried to find out what is database table where the flag is stored. I thought about table like RSDIOBJ - directory of all InfoObjects but there was no indication at all that this flag is stored in here. I tried couple of other tables without any success. After same debugging I found out that there is no table which holds this flag. Presence of flag is determined on the fly while system is checking whether particular IO has 0RECORDMODE as its attribute. In case 0RECORDMODE is there the flag gets checked on. There is following standard ABAP method IS_RECORDMODE_CONTAINED of class CL_RSD_IOBJ_UTILITIES which does that via following statement:

p_recordmode_exists = cl_rsd_iobj_utilities=>is_recordmode_contained( i_iobjnm ).

The code of the method goes down to the DB table called RSDBCHATR and checks for field ATTRINM; if there is a value equals 0RECORDMODE. The field ATTRINM is retrieved by e.g. Function Module RSD_IOBJ_GET in its export table E_T_ATR.

OK, so I now knew same basic facts about the flag. But what it is really doing? As next I turned to SCN to check if there is something about this feature. I found few forum threads: here and here but they do not say much about it. I continued to search on SAP Notes/KBAs. Here I found following KBA “1599011 - BW master data loading: Changed time-dependent attribute is not updated into master data table from DSO”. And here it was.

The flag introduces delta handling in master data update. Having 0RECORDMODE in particular IO’s attributes enables to recognize new records (N) for the delta load. In case data flow of particular master data IO has an underlying DSO object which can provide IO 0RECORDMODE it can be leveraged to process deletion of master delta. As long as it is mapped to the same IO’s attribute.

As per the KBA this feature was introduced in SAP BW 7.11 (SAP NW BW7.1 EhP 1).