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What's New in SAS Data Surveyor 4.2 for SAP

Overview

SAS Data Surveyor 4.2 for SAP has the following new features and enhancements:

For more information about these updates, see the Help for SAS Data Surveyor 4.2 for SAP. For information about changes to SAS/ACCESS Interface to R/3, see the What's New section of the SAS/ACCESS Interface to R/3: User's Guide.

Enhanced Data Model View

After you select InfoCubes for extraction in the BW Source Designer, you can select related InfoObjects by using the Select InfoObjects window instead of tables.

Enhanced Authorization Checks

You can develop alternative authorization schemes for reading R/3 tables and BW objects by using enhanced authorization checks through the /SAS/AUTH01 Business Add-In (BAdI). By default, this BAdI performs the same authorization check as it did previously on S_TABU_DIS, so no further action is necessary.

New CallRFC Transformation

You can use the SAP CallRFC transformation wizard to select and configure a function or BAPI from SAP RFC-enabled function modules. You can create jobs that use this transformation to extract data from SAP systems. You can then import that SAP data into SAS files, combine the SAP data with other data, or load it into an SAP system.

New Display of RFC Server Information

You can use the SAS RFC Server Monitor to retrieve and display technical information about the SAS RFC server such as configuration settings, start-up statistics, and SAP system details.

New Search Support for Pre-Extracted SAP BW Metadata

By using the new metadata search window in the SAP BW Source Designer wizard, you can quickly find SAP BW metadata that contains a specified search string. You can revise and refine your metadata search criteria by searching within the returned search results. Select an InfoCube or an ODS object to view the associated metadata. You can also view the actual data for an ODS object. From the search window, you can select the InfoCube or ODS object that you want to identify as a data source in SAS Data Integration Studio.

New Subsetting Support

You can subset the extraction of SAP BW InfoCubes and ODS objects by using WHERE statements:

For both kinds of transformations, the subset information can include a WHERE statement.

New WHERE Statements for InfoCube Job Components

When you propagate a WHERE statement to the components of the InfoCube by using the Propagate tab in the Create Star Schema View transformation, the extraction steps of the propagation targets and the Create Star Schema View transformation are optimized.

New Extraction Options for SAP ODS Objects as SAS Views

You can use new extraction options in the Extraction Options window for ODS objects of the SAP BW Source Designer wizard to specify whether you want to create a SAS view from the ODS object that you specified.

New Support for Loading External File Data

You can use a target designer wizard to load external file data into an SAP BW warehouse by creating a flat file based on InfoPackage metadata that is stored in SAP BW. The wizard registers a process to create a flat file in a format that an existing InfoPackage can load into SAP BW. The wizard generates a process flow diagram into which you can drop a SAS data set as input. By mapping the data to the flat file, you can run a job in SAS Data Integration Studio that ultimately returns the file with the new data to SAP BW. The exact process that is used to transfer the data to SAP BW depends on the InfoPackage settings and the location of the external data files.