BEx Query: Release of external access to query

BW queries can be consumed by 3^rd party BI tools for long time. This feature needs to be enabled for particular query. To enable it there are settings that are to be done in BEx Query Designer. Furthermore there are even more settings that can be set in the query level with regards to external access to the query’s data. In this blog post I look at these settings.

Following flags are available in BEx Query Designer under Properties section of the query and on tab called “Extended”.

1. flag 'By OLE DB for OLAP' = Allows to consume the query in external reporting tools that uses the query as data source. Sometimes such a query is it is referred as ODBO provider or just ODBO (Ole DB for Olap. The flag is present physically in following database tables:

RSRREPDIR-RFCSUPPORT - Report supports access using OLAP API

RSZELTPROP-RFCSUPPORT

2. flag 'By Easy Query' = so called Easy Query (EQ) flag. It allows an access of the query for external access as an Easy Query. The EQ is static query with no formatting settings and it can be used as SOAP service. Once this flag is enabled for particular query then it needs to be managed in Easy Query Manager (tcode EQMANAGER) in BW’s backend system. The flag is present physically in following database table:

RSZELTPROP- EQSUPPORT - Query: RFC Publishing as VirtualProvider (yes/no)

3. flag 'By OData' = so called OData Query flag. It allows consuming of the query data by ODATA service. It is also an integration of SAP Business Warehouse with SAP Gateway system where it provides analytic queries of in BW system as BW OData Queries for mobile scenarios. The flag is present physically in following database table:

RSZELTPROP-ODATASUPPORT

Both the EQ and OData techniques are focused on so called lightweight consumption. This means that need SAP Gateway to be used. Easy queries can be used also via SOAP or RFC as REST based services.

The above two techniques are also part of BW’s Open Analysis Interfaces. This is meat with regards to extraction of the data from source systems and analyzing of the data in BW in various reporting front-end tools.

4. flag 'HANASUPPORT' – Means generation of external SAP HANA view for BW object. There are many BW’s objects for which the HANA view can be generated and the BEx query is one of these. The HANA view is not used by BW itself but by SAP HANA natively while accessing the SAP BW. The flag is present physically in following database table:

RSZELTPROP-HANASUPPORT

For assigning the HANA external view flag to other SAP BW objects see here.

Please note that flag no 1 is available for long time and was introduced in BEx Query Designer 7.x. However for flags 2 and 3 there is a prerequisite to run SAP NetWeaver 7.0 BW Front End for GUI 720.

Useful information:

SAP BW Easy Query

SAP Gateway

Open Analysis Interfaces

1598778 - Query property 'Release for External Access by Easy Query'

1601473 - Query property 'Release for External Access by Easy Query'

2103222 - Generation and Transportation of BEx Query with active OData-Flag