1. InfoObjects: Fleible Update Vs. Direct Update

Flexible updating is not necessary if:

·        texts and attributes are available in separate files/DataSources. In this case, you can choose direct updating if additional transformations using update rules are not necessary.

·        Only the update type: Overwrite option is available. With this option, new values are updated to the InfoObject.

2. ODS Objects

·    Data versions in a standard ODS: active, delta and modified; Data version in a transactional ODS: active only.

·    ODS objects has the option to overwrite data fields, but not Cubes. This is particularly important with document-related structures, since changes made to documents in the source system do not apply solely to numeric fields such as order quantity, but also to non-numeric fields such as goods receiver, status, and delivery date. To map these changes in the BW ODS objects, the relevant fields in the ODS objects must also be overwritten and set to the current value. Furthermore, a source can be made delta-capable by overwriting it and using the existing change log. This means that the delta that, for example, is further updated in the InfoCubes, is calculated from two, successive after-images.

Depending on the type of data and DataSource, you have the options Addition, Minimum, Maximum or Overwrite. If you choose one of these options, new values are updated in the ODS object.

For numerical data fields, you are given a proposal for the update type through the characteristic 0RECORDMODE. If only the after-image is delivered, the system proposes Overwrite. However, it could make sense to change this: For example, with the meter data field “# Changes”, which is filled with a constant 1 but still has to be updated through addition, although only an after-image is delivered

Addition :

Addition is not supported with the data types CHAR, DAT, TIMS, CUKY and UNIT. To be able to use the addition function, make sure the DataSource is compatible with an additive delta.

Overwrite :

Whether overwriting is supported is determined by the delta-compatibility of the DataSource.

In this example, the order quantity changes after it has been loaded into BW. With the second load process the data is overwritten since it has the same primary key.

First Load Process

Document No.	Document Item	Order Quantity	Unit of measure
100001	10	200	Pieces
100001	20	150	Pieces
100002	10	250	Kg

 

Second Load Process

Document No.	Document Item	Order Quantity	Unit of measure
100001	10	180	Pieces
100001	20	165	Pieces

When you update data, the system keeps to the time sequence of the data packages and requests. You have to decide the logical order of the update yourself. Meaning, for example, orders must be requested before deliveries; otherwise the wrong results may appear when you overwrite the data.