How to recognize between 3.x and 7.x BEx query?

SAP BW in its versions starting with 7.0 introduced many changes to BEx queries.  This resulted in a situation that there are two types of queries. First there are “old” or 3.x based queries. These were created with BEx Query Designer 3.x tool. On other hand we have “new” or 7.x based queries created in BEx Query Designer 7.x tool.

As a side note sometimes in SAP documentation they refer to 3.x BEx as “Business Explorer 3.5” or “BI BEx Suite 3” or “NW 2004” and to 7.x as “NW 2004s” or “BI BEx Suite 7” or “BEx 7”.

SAP advised to perform 3.x based queries migration to 7.x fashion right after the 7.x version popped up. However customers were neglecting it. The fact is that even in SAP BW 7.3 the 3.x based queries still run without problems. In version SAP BW 7.4 the BEx tools (Query Designer and Analyzer) of version 3.x are not available but Analytic Engine of BW 7.4 can still execute these queries.

Even we still can run the 3.x queries in BW 7.4 it is highly advisable to migrate it finally at this point of time. The BEx queries have gotten many new features in BEx 7.x. Also new BEx Query Designer of 7.x was redesigned so therefore it makes no sense to keep the query in old fashion.

Now how to recognize what queries are in the SAP BW system which the 3.x based? Version of the BEx tool that was used to edit particular BEx Query elements is captured in table RSZCOMPDIR. The table has column called VERSION which hold information about version of the reporting component. And exactly this is the field that tells us either it is query of 3.x or 7.x. As per value of the column; if it is higher than 100 it means that 7.x query if it is less than 100 means it is 3.x.

In case you want to perform the migration of old queries you might be interested to read further. The migration is quite easy in fact. All that needs to be done is to open the BEx 3.x query in BEx 7.0 Query Designer and save it. Once you hit SAVE button on the toolbar the query is migrated. It means you can open it only in 7.x BEx Query Designer and it can’t be opened in BEx 3.x Query Designer again. On such an attempt you will get a following message:

This component was edited with a more recent version of the Editor. You also have to use the more recent version to edit further. Further processing not possible. Update your front end'.

There is one more thing. If you open the old query in new BEx Query Designer the system performs automatic backup of the query. It stores the backup of the query and its component which was originally created in 3.x version of BW. The backup components can be recognized by value “B” of column OBJVER of table RSZCOMPDIR. Unless the query is saved in the BEx Query Designer 7.x it still can be opened in old BEx QD even it has backup version. There is an ABAP report (COMPONENT_RESTORE) provided which can be used to convert migrated query to 7.x back to 3.x version. Needless to say this is not foreseen to be used too much; of course. Also notice that once restore is done then all modifications done with QD 7.x are lost.

There is a possibility to prevent creation of the backup version of the query. It can be achieved by implementing following parameter in the table RSADMIN and setting its value to X: QDEF_NO_3X_BACKUP

Useful information:

Overview of BW 3.x to 7.x migration possibilities per BW objects

1932461 - SAP BW 3.5 BEx tools / BW 3.5 frontend add-ons are incompatible with BW7.4

1807522 - BEx 3.5 Objects Migration to BEx 7.0

1097674 - NW2004s: Administration of backup object version

949330 - NW04s: Query backup and restore

1410878 - Maintenance for BW 3.5 front-end add-ons