BI/MDM Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
- What types of BI/MDM Integration Scenarios are possible?
There are two main types of BI/MDM Integration Scenarios that are currently being rolled out to customers. The first scenario starts with existing data in BI and uses that as the starting point to generate and populate an MDM Repostiory. The second type is integration during the BI data staging.
- How does the Data Staging scenario work?
There are actually two types of the data staging scenario. In each scenario, customers can use existing functionality with BI to access details from MDM to supplement the data that is being loaded into BI. An example might be a feed from an ERP system to a BI system. In this feed there might just be a master data key, like customer number. However using access to MDM, details about this customer, like their sales region, can be read and stored in the BI system or used at runtime inside BI queries.
- What technology is necessary for the Data Staging Scenario?
The data staging scenario utilizes the MDM ABAP API to be able to read directly from MDM (in realtime) using ABAP coding. A good overview of the MDM ABAP API in general is a requirement for starting this scenario. Also anyone interested in implementing this scenario should study this video. The video shows the basics of setting up the MDM ABAP API all the way through implementing one of the data staging scenarios.
- How do you use the MDM API during a Data Load?
For this situation you need to create an ABAP routine as the transformation rule type.
During the editing of the Rule Type, you can choose Routine. You then can custom code an ABAP Routine that reads data from MDM using the MDM ABAP API.
- How do you use the MDM API for building a Remote Master Data Characteristic?
This scenario is a little less "free form" than the data loading routine. Here you use the existing BI functionality for master data characteristics and simply supply a custom implementation for the characteristic.
As you maintain the characteristic, from the Master data/texts tab, you can choose a Master Data Read Class. For this you create and then use a class special suited to reading the master data values from MDM.
