CLASSIC MULTIPROVIDER VS.

COMPOSITEPROVIDER

This article comes as a continuation of the previous article based on the difference
between the old objects in the SAP and the new objects created in SAP BW on
HANA. The last article talked about the classic DSO (Data Store Object) and the
new ADSO (Advanced DSO), that replaces 4 of the classic objects in SAP: InfoCube,
DSO, Hybrid Provider and PSA.
In this article we continue the same theme referring to different topics. The
subject of this article will be the difference between Multi Provider and Composite
Provider.
At first, I will talk about the classic Multi Provider and its functionalities. Then I’ll
talk about the CompositeProvider and the differences between it and the Multi
Provider.
THE CLASSIC MULTIPROVIDER

What is a MultiProvider?
A Multi Provider is an InfoProvider that combines data from multiple InfoProviders
and makes it available for reporting. It does not contain any data: its data comes
entirely from the InfoProviders on which it is based.
The MultiProvider is most used to create queries based on multiple InfoProvider.
Sap BI supports queries based on a single InfoProvider. The best way to avoid
loading data from an InfoProvider to another and so on, is to create a
MultiProvider based on the Provider you need for the query.

OPERATION USED IN A MULTIPROVIDER

There are 2 main operations which can be run when using a Multiprovider. They
are listed below accompanied by the necessarily explanations:
1.Union
Is used to combine data from InfoProviders in a MultiProvider. The system
constructs the union set of the data sets involved. All the values of this data sets
are combined. The MultiProvider can be based on combinations of 2 types of
InfoProviders:
  InfoProviders that contain data: InfoObject, InfoCube, DataStore Object
 InfoProviders that doesn’t contain data: InfoSet, Aggregation Levels, Virtual
Provider

2.Scenario:
For example, you can combine data from 2 InfoCubes. One Infocube is for Actual
data and the second is for Plan data.
By using MultiProvider we can compare data from these two InfoProviders. When
you want to create a MultiProvider you can use multiple InfoProviders and any
type of InfoProvider is accepted. You can analyze and report the data based on this
Multiproviders. If we want to create a query based on a MultiProvider is important
to know that, this query is divided internally into subqueries. There is a subquery
for each InfoProvider included in the MultiProvider. These subqueries are usually
processed in parallel.
Now, that we through with the MultiProvider topic, let’s take a closer look at the
other concept of this article: the CompositeProvider.
COMPOSITEPROVIDER
What is a CompositeProvider?
The CompositeProvider is an Info Provider, which combines data from several Info
Providers and makes this data available for reporting and analysis, using an SAP
HANA database. These new InfoProvider forms the Virtual Data Mart layer in the
BW on HANA system.
The CompositeProvider consolidates the number of InfoProviders types and
harmonizes the modeling of mixed BW on HANA scenarios:

The CompositeProvider is used for:

 Interface for reporting objects
 Combining providers with analytic indexes
 As an alternative to info-sets for joining data
 As an alternative to MultiProvider to union data
OPERATIONS USED IN A COMPOSITEPROVIDER
Just like the MultiProvider, the CompositeProvider emphasizes 2 mainly operations
which can be run when using it. The operations and their features are listed below
as following:
1.Union of BW InfoProviders and Hana model
If we use the union operation is no runtime difference between the
CompositeProvider and the MultiProvider. The analytic manager inside BW is good
optimized for this kind of operation. When referring to the Union of a
CompositeProvider, it must be underlined that:
Within this operation a few restrictions have to be considered:
 Open ODS Views that you want to use in CompositeProviders can only
contain fields with InfoObject-compatible data type
 Semantically partitioned objects can only be used for the union. They cannot
be used in the join, as all semantically partitioned objects contain unions.
2.Join of BW InfoProviders and Hana model
As mentioned above the CompositeProviders can be based either on: InfoCube,
DataStore object, InfoObject, or Semantically Partitioned Objects.
In order for you to better understand how join operations work, let’s consider the
following Scenario:
When we create a CompositeProvider based on two or more InfoProviders, we
must select, if we choose to join two InfoProvider, the type of Join you want to
use. There are two types of Join we can use in a CompositeProvider: the Inner and
the Left Outer Join
1. Inner Join: Returns all records that matched in both InfoProviders.
2. Left outer Join: Returns all records from the left InfoProvider and the
matched record from the right InfoProvider.
After the choice of the joins type, in the Scenario tab of the CompositeProvider, we
must define a Join Condition Field. To create a Join Condition right click on a field
and select “Create Join Condition Field…”
Now that we learned which the operations used in a CompositeProvider are, let’s
see how we can create one.
How to create a CompositeProvider
The editor for creating a CompositeProvider is based on Eclipse and it is a part of
BW modeling tools. The following steps will guide you accomplishing this process.
Step 1
Open Eclipse and go to an Info Area. Then right click and select new and
CompositeProvider.
Step 2
Write a name and an appropriate description to the CompositeProvider.
Step 3
Select the InfoProviders that you want to join/unite.
Step 4
The CompositeProvider will have 3 Tabs (General Tab, Scenario Tab, Output).
 General Tab: In this Tab you can choose the CompositeProvider description
 Scenario Tab: In this Tab you can add InfoProviders and Hana Views to the
CompositeProvider.

Also, in this tab you can select the primary key common joins, by right click on the
field which you want to join:
In the Target section are the fields that you want to see in the output.
 In the Output Tab are the fields which we had selected to the output.

Step 5) Activate the CompositeProvider

FIELDS IN A COMPOSITEPROVIDER
The fields of CompositeProvider can be associated with an info-object or with an
open ODS view. This will give you access not only to the navigation attributes
available for selection for the output structure of the CompositeProvider, but it will
also give you access to master data at report runtime. In conclusion, we can save
time by using fields instead of modeling with InfoObjects.
When fields are assigned to the CompositeProvider, the associations are
automatically set.
MODELING SCENARIO USING COMPOSITEPROVIDER:
Now that we managed to create a CompositeProvider, let us work based on
scenario. The scenario is the following:
Track the sales information in a company based on customer and the product sold.
1. We begin by creating a CompositeProvider to combine data from 3 DSO
(Product master data DSO, Customer master data DSO and Sales information
DSO)
2. In this case we don’t need to create an additional Infocube to have all data
available for reporting
3. The data from the sales information DSO will be taken in the
CompositeProvider using Union operation
4. We can add the customer and the product master data to the
CompositeProvider using Join operation.
5. In this way, the CompositeProvider will contain all the data from Sales DSO
with the corresponding attributes (Product and Customer).

Considering this scenario, using a CompositeProvider helped us to avoid additional

loading of data, because we store the data once and use it in different situations.
To sum up, I have to underline that a CompositeProvider give us the huge possibility
to combine data either with JOIN or Union!
HOW TO CONVERT A MULTIPROVIDER TO A COMPOSITEPROVIDER
The method below helps us to convert a MultiProvider to a CompositeProvider.
The Procedure is the following:
Step 1
Go to transaction se38 and execute the Program RSO_CONVERT_IPRO_TO_HCPR

Step 2
Select the MultiProvider which we intend to convert into CompositeProvider. Then
write a name for the new created CompositeProvider.
Note! The MultiProvider and the CompositeProvider will have the same name, so
that no Queries or Workbooks will get affected.
Step 3
This program will only work if we create a backup to the MultiProvider.
Note! If you execute the program without a backup you will receive this error
message:
“Conversion is not allowed without backup”
Step 4
Write a backup InfoProvider name and execute in Simulate mode to check if the
MultiProvider can be converted to the CompositeProvider.

If you received the following message, “CompositeProvider is consistent” , it

means that the conversion between the InfoProviders can be done.
Step 5) After doing the test in simulated mode we execute the program and we
choose “Transfer InfoProvider and copy queries”.
Step 6) Select the queries that you want to backup.
Step 7) We can select a prefix for the name of the query; in this way the query will
have the name of the InfoProvider as a prefix.

With this method no Queries or workbooks will be affected!

CONCLUSION
The new CompositeProvider brings many advantages. Reconsidering the
information within this article, you may notice, that the biggest advantage is the
combination of classic BW objects, Hana objects and HANA Views with either Join or
Union operation. These 2 operations, Union and Join, are executed in HANA and
not on the application server. Another benefit of CompositeProvider is the query
execution, which is pushed down to the HANA database. Moreover, the
CompositeProvider enables a faster and simpler data modeling, because it replaces
the Multiprovider and the Infoset. Another point to be mentioned it the support of
the input parameters when Open ODS views are used as source objects. Last, but
not least, the loading time of huge amounts of data through several layers in BW is
now reduced, because the CompositeProvider can be modeled using the DSOs in
the EDW layer itself.
This being said, I hope this article was useful for you. Now, all you have to do is
start implementing the new acquired information and also start using the
CompositeProvider. Enjoy!