What foreign currency rate was used in BW currency conversion?

BW uses standard SAP’s ECC functionality with regards to foreign (FX) currency conversion. This means that same set of TCUR* tables are being used while the BW system is doing the conversion. This is valid while doing the FX conversion during transformation /loading of data and also while running reports.

In BW reporting a key figure in report can have Conversion Type specifies in its definition under Conversion tab in its properties. 

The Conversion Type that can be chosen here are defined in the SAP BW backend – in tcode RSCUR. Here all settings like: what and how an Exchange Rate shall be obtained; where a source and target currency shall came from; and Time Reference to which the conversion type shall be tied to are specified.

So this is all that can be setup for the FX conversion. While looking at the converted numbers in the report’s output an issue of wrong data can arise from users. Question here is basically what FX from table TCURR was used?

To find out that for starter an “Currency and Unit Conversion” debugging can be started form t-code RSRT. This is available by hitting on “Execute + Debug” button.

While debugging it can be seen that following function modules are used in following sequence:

RSW_CUR_TRANSLATION_RATE_GET   Wrapper function ->

-> RSW_CTT_GET                                  Reads currency translation type

-> RSW_SCUR_CHECK_AND_GET              Determine source currency

-> RSW_TCUR_CHECK_AND_GET              Determine target currency

-> RSW_TRANSLATION_DATE_GET  determines date used to find translation rate

-> RSW_RATE_GET_BASIC                              determine the translation rate

-> CONVERT_TO_FOREIGN_CURRENCY here function DATA_FROM_DATABASE is called which calls another function DATEN_BEREITSTELLEN and this one finally reads the FS rate from table TCURR for previously determined Currency conversion type; from/to currency, date and client of the SAP BW system.

Therefore you may want to just set a breakpoint into the FM CONVERT_TO_FOREIGN_CURRENCY to speed up debugging process.

Notice that variable DATC is nothing else just value from EXC_DATE variable converted into internal format by below ABAP statement:

CONVERT DATE exc_date INTO INVERTED-DATE datc.

This means the source variable in character format is converted into target one as complement on nine - difference to the number nine.

Needless to say that above statement is obsolete ABAP statement. It shall be replaced by using TRANSLATE statement.

More information:

Currency Translation in the Business Explorer

Selection/Formula/Cell Properties

Deleting error stack of DTP via ABAP

Error stack of DTP is function that is very useful in scenarios where data is not coming in proper format. While using it erroneous records are filtered out and only those which are correct are uploaded into data target. Later on BW administrator can correct the erroneous records and upload it too.

Below there is the error stack req ID 2.115.361 as depicted in DTP’s maintenance screen:

Now imagine that this error stack req is snot needed any more. We can also see it via ABAP report RSB_ANALYZE_ERRORLOG. The report provides a list of all available error stacks request in the system while analyzing contents of error tables:

To delete the error stack data of particular request we can use ABAP report: RSBM_ERRORLOG_DELETE while specifying particular DTP’s ID and ticking off “Delete Log” check box:

This is how output of RSBM_ERRORLOG_DELETE report looks like. After that the error stack req is not visible from RSB_ANALYZE_ERRORLOG either in t-code RSA1.

More information:

1095924 - Correction: Deletion/analyis report for error handling logs

Examples for Using the Error Stack

Printing to PDF from SAP GUI

In case you need to save an output from SAP GUI into PDF format there are couple of options.

First of all Spool functionality supports saving PDFs within t=codes related to spool request such as SP02. It is available under menu Spool requests -> Forward -> Export as PDF…

In case system is based on older versions of SAP NetWeaver there are couple of ABAP reports that can be used to convert any spool request to PDF such as: RSTXPDFT4.

At last there are few applications t-codes such as in SD module: VF03 (Display Invoice) in which by entering PDF! Into t-code field automatically generates the PDF file.

More information:

1580639 - Is a PDF software required in windows for PDF conversion via device PDF1?

ABAP inline declarations

One of the new features of ABAP version 74 is inline declarations within ABAP expressions. The feature helps to shorten ABAP statements as there is no need for specific data variable creation upfront the statement.

The inline declaration is executed using an operator in a expression while placed in declaration position. Result of the inline declaration is used within the ABAP statement at the statement operand.

Examples:

DATA:

TYPES t_itab TYPE TABLE OF i 
             WITH NON-UNIQUE KEY table_line. 

DATA(itab) = VALUE t_itab( ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ). 
LOOP AT itab INTO DATA(wa). 
  ... 
ENDLOOP.

DATA(text) = ’…’.

FIELD-SYMBOL:

TYPES t_itab TYPE TABLE OF i 
             WITH NON-UNIQUE KEY table_line. 

DATA(dref) = NEW t_itab( ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ). 

ASSIGN dref->* TO FIELD-SYMBOL(). 

LOOP:

LOOP AT  ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(). 
  ... 
ENDLOOP.

ASSIGN:

ASSIGN ... TO FIELD-SYMBOL().

READ TABLE:

READ TABLE itab INTO DATA(wa) ...

READ TABLE itab ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL() ... 

FIND:

FIND ... IN ... MATCH COUNT DATA(cnt).

CALL TRANSFORMATION:

CALL TRANSFORMATION ... RESULT XML DATA(xml).

Method call:

oref->meth( IMPORTING p1 = DATA(a1)
 IMPORTING p2 = DATA(a2)
 ... ).

DATA(ref) = class=>factory( ... ).

DATA(ixml) = cl_ixml=>create( ).
DATA(stream_factory) = ixml->create_stream_factory( ).
DATA(document) = ixml->create_document( ). 

SELECT:

Target is work area:

  SELECT SINGLE @abap_true FROM /bic/pcompcod
    WHERE /bic/pcompcod = @i_compcod AND objvers = 'A'
    INTO @DATA(lv_compcode).

Target is internal table:

  SELECT scarr~*, spfli~*
     FROM scarr INNER JOIN spfli ON scarr~carrid = spfli~carrid
     WHERE scarr~carrid = @carrier
     ORDER BY scarr~carrid
     INTO TABLE @DATA(jtab).

More information:

ABAP demo report: DEMO_SELECT_INLINE_DECLARATION

Help.sap.com -> Inline Declarations

ABAP News for Release 7.40 – Inline Declarations

What version of JAVA platform does SAP support?

Most of SAP software even up to now supports Java EE 5 (former name was J2EE – Enterprise Edition) platform which was introduced back in 2006. Reason I write “even” is that fully fledged JAVA platform that was implanted to SAP products is still the Java EE 5. The truth is that SAP NetWeaver 75 supports Java 8 but only in limited modes like web profile. To surprise of many enterprise software folks out there it is needless to say that the Java EE 5 was only supported JAVA platform for years. Since SAP NetWeaver 70 and higher (7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 74) supported only the Java EE 5 only. Therefore a move to Java 8 was a big step when it was announced in 2015 even though the Java 8 is not fully supported.

To better understand a reason of SAP it is needed to dig further into history. When SAP introduced JAVA Stack of NetWeaver (NW Java) it was more less clear that it is meant as the J2EE server to be used in a SAP environments. Acquisition of Sun by Oracle (in 2010) also didn’t attract the SAP to pay more attention to the JAVA either. Between these facts small clues are laying. One may be even dare to write that the JAVA has not been the focus of SAP. Even before cloud computing era they tried to support JAVA developers with so called Lean Java Server (LJS). That was never a real products but it later formed the JAVA server in SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) which was earlier called SAP NetWeaver Cloud (and some other former names were: NetWeaver Neo or OnDemand Cloud Platform) which is cloud Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)) offering from SAP. Actually the SAP NetWeaver Cloud supported Java EE 6.

It is obvious that going forward to keep up with rest of the enterprise software world SAP must support newer versions of JAVA platform. It is also reasonable that JAVA underwent many changes between versions the Java EE 5 and the Java 8. Also it needs to be understood that it is not easy to support the version 8 just by releasing a new support package and without disruption of customers installed SAP NW JAVA Stacks.

More information:

A Foundation for the Future - What’s Coming Next with SAP NetWeaver 7.5

When will SAP Java AS for EE 6 see the light?

Smallest possible Netweaver AVA Server

2250903 - Supported JVM versions for versions of NetWeaver Java

BPC related customizing in SPRO

Some BPC related parameters are being set up in t-code SPRO. BPC folks are very much aware of this but some BW folks do not know where to find it. So path in SPRO is SAP Customizing Implementation Guide -> Planning and Consolidation -> then e.g. Configuration Parameters -> Set Global Parameters

HANA 2

On last year Barcelona’s TechEd (Nov. 8–10 2016) a new generation of SAP HANA was introduced – the HANA 2. It is basically a new generation offering functions in areas of DB management, data management, analytical intelligence, and application development. In details they cover following:

DB management – A new active/active read-enabled option allows reading data stored in secondary systems. Before that such a data needed to be replicated first before using it.

Data management – a web based tool called SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer allows to visualize impact of new technologies to current landscapes. E.g. enhancement of tiered storage impacting distributed storage of data by priority.

Analytical intelligence – new algorithms of areas like classification, association, time series and regression were added into predictive library to support job of e.g. data scientists in terms use cases of machine learning.

Application development – in this area functions for application servers, development tools, and development languages were added. New file processor interface allows to extraction of metadata from documents.

Micro services – usage of cloud based micro services can enhance applications with analytical insight using APIs and any language or development platform.

More information:

SAP HANA Platform (Core) 2.0

SAP HANA2 announcement

SAP HANA2 announcement 2

Feature Scope Description for SAP HANA 20 SPS 00

BW: Conversion of DB tables to from Row Store to Column Store

Within a move of SAP NetWeaver based system from any DB to HANA DB there are many steps involved. Also a step of converting tables from row to column based is one of them.

Running the system on HANA DB you can have the table regardless of it store type (either row store or column store). Then depending on type of the system (OLTP or OLAP) majority of tables are set to one of the store types. E.g. in case of OLAP system (e.g. SAP BW) most of the tables are type of column store tables because it delivers a better performance in case of data warehouse data processing (running queries, transforming the data, etc). Also it delivers better compression rate in case of OLAP. On other side in the systems like OLTP it requires balanced approach whereas for some table a row store might be better and for others column store concept.

During HANA migration (or even before that to minimize downtime) an ABAP report called RSDU_MOVE_TO_COLUMN is used convert the tables based on row store to column store. However the program can be run even after the migration to find out what are tables that have potential to be converted to column store. The report has several modes of runtime. In the “Check only” mode a list of biggest row store tables is provided.

Also to see to what store type a particular table is set; see table DD09L (DD: Technical settings of tables) and its field (ROWORCOLST - For distinction between Row or Column Store) in particular.

More information:

ABAP on HANA: How to check what tables are type of columnar?

2044047 - Pre-BW7.4 SP08 RowStore-to-ColumnStore conversion

Usage of t-code LISTCUBE

One of t-codes that enable showing of cube data in SAP BW system is LISTCUBE (report RSDD_SHOW_ICUBE). It is foreseen to be a central tool for analyzing raw data in infoproviders and problems with data in there.

The tool is also used by SAP support organization while solving customer’s issues. As usually custom infoproviders are pretty complex it is not easy to prepare example of data where issue is related to for SAP support. However the LISTCUBE tool can be leveraged in a way that pretty straightforward examples can be created for the support team. Below is procedure how to prepare it.

1. On the LISTCUBE selection screen just a check box called “Technical names” needs to be ticked off and some Z* custom ABAP report name needs to be specified in field “Name of ABAP Program”.

2. Next screen is displayed in case there are many characteristics and key figures within the infoprovider whose data shall be displayed. The screen is only displayed in case a number of objects exceed limit of ALV output. Furthermore it is possible to save a list of selected fields in a text file on your PC or to import changed field lists from the PC. The file is basically used to limit no of objects. E.g. only objects that are needed will be stored into the file and the file will be used in next analysis of the issue.

3. Create a variant of fields that need to be restricted on the selection screen of particular infoprovider. Later on the variant can be used by SAP Support team.

By following this procedure a new custom Z* report that was specified in step no 1 will be created for the infoprovider. When the SAP Support team logs into the system they just simply run the new custom Z* report and they also use the variant with restrictions of data that was also created.

All of these will speed up processing of the issue either by SAP support or within local support team in case more person are working on the issue.

More information:

1956741 - How to create a LISTCUBE report including a display variant

1479893 - BW LISTCUBE improvements

1591837 How to analyze query results

2055174 How to create a listcube-report out of a keyfigure-definition shown in transact