SAP BEx Query Designer Tutorial & Query

Elements
1. The key to making informed decisions is having the right data in the right
place at the right time. Executives and line managers rely on business
intelligence (BI) and reporting tools to deliver timely accurate and relevant
data for both operational and strategic decisions.
2. The Business Explorer (BEx) is a component of SAP BI that provides flexible
reporting and analysis tools that we can use for strategic analysis and
supporting the decision-making process in an organization. These tools
include query, reporting, and analysis functions.
3. SAP NetWeaver 7.0 provides the following tools:

BEx Query Designer

BEx Web Application Designer

BEx Broadcaster

BEx Analyzer

4. The BEx tool can be used to display past and present data differing in the
level of their details and from different perspective.
5. It can be used to create planning projections using BI Integrated Planning.
 6. The BEx Information Broadcasting can be used to distribute business
intelligence content by e-mail, either as pre-calculated documents with
historical data, or as links with live data.

Query Designer:

As the name suggests, it is used to define queries to retrieve data from SAP BW.
Query Designer acts as the bridge between SAP BW InfoProviders and the reporting
front-end tools (SAP BW / SAP BO). It limits the field list displayed, which is based
on their requirements. It also defines the default placement of these report objects
within a report Query Designer and adds value by allowing users to define filters,
selection screen variables (a.k.a. Prompts), Calculations, Unit Conversions, etc. that
are not available in InfoProviders.

Accessing Query Designer:

To access BEx Query designer, follow the below steps.

Step 1)

1. Navigate to Start -> All Programs.

2. Under the folder Business Explorer, the Query Designer is available. Click
on Query Designer.

Step 2)

1. Select required BW system

2. Click the Ok button
 1. Enter the Client
2. User Name
3. Password
4. Logon Language
5. Click the Ok Button

Query Panel:
1. InfoProvider Details are available here.
2. Tabs to view various report components.
3. Properties Box which shows the properties of each component selected in the
query.
4. System Messages such as any error or warning messages during the Query
check is displayed here.
5. Shows the Where-Used List of any component selected within the query.
Query Panel Standard Toolbar:
The Standard tool bar in the Query Designer has the following buttons.

1. Create New Query

 2. Open Query
3. Save Query
4. Save All
5. Publish on Web
6. Check Query
7. Query Properties
8. Cut
9. Copy
10. Paste
11. Toggle tabs for Filter and Rows/Columns
12. Cells
13. Conditions
14. Exceptions
15. Properties
16. Tasks
17. Messages
18. Where Used
19. Documents
20. Technical names

Query Elements:
1. Key Figures : Key Figures represent the numerical data or the KPIs(Key
Performance Indicator). They are further divided into Calculated Key Figures
(CKF) and Restricted Key Figures (RKF).
2. Characteristics : A characteristic provides the criteria according to which
objects are classified. e.g. Material,Period, Location, etc.
3. Navigational attributes appear as characteristics in Query designer.
OTHER Query Elements:
1. Dimensions : Similar characteristics are grouped together in a dimension.
e.g. Time dimension consistsof Year, Month, Week, etc.
2. Attributes : Attributes define the additional properties of a characteristic. E.g.
Material may have size,length or width. It is not possible to add a display
attribute to a query unless the related characteristics are also added to the
query. However, it is possible to set the property of characteristic as No
Display.
Query Properties:
1. Select the Tab Variable Sequence. The tab Variable Sequence is used to
control the order in which selection screen variables are displayed to users.
2. List the variables used in the Query. There can be multiple variables present
here. These variables can be sequenced as per our need.

3. Select the Display tab.

4. The Check box Hide Repeated Key Values controls whether the
characteristic will repeat in each row or not.
5. The option Display Scaling Factors for Key Figures controls whether the
scaling factor is reported at the top of corresponding column.
6. Select the Advanced tab. The tab Advanced is most important from BO
perspective . It controls whether the query is visible to BO or not. The option
must be checked to allow query access to BO.
7. The Check box Allow External Access to this Query should be checked if
this Query is to be used from BO

8. Select the Rows/Columns tab.

9. The options under Result position section decide the Location of sub-total
(a.k.a. results in BW world) as below / above or right / left of the
Characteristics.
10. The options under Suppress Zeros section decide the application of Zero-
Suppression on the query.
Filters:
Filters are used to restrict the data retrieved by a query. Filters can be dynamic or
static in nature. Values entered as static filters cannot be overwritten by users at
runtime while dynamic filters or variables can be overwritten by user / system during
query execution.

Steps to apply filters in the Query

1. Select the Filter tab.

2. Filters can be applied in the Characteristic Restrictions section.
3. Filters can be applied in the Default values section.
Characteristic Restrictions are applied before data fetch operation, while the default
values will result in entire data being fetched by query. The restriction is applied only
in report front end. If Clear all filters option is applied in WAD / Analyzer, the filters
in Default Values will be erased from front end, but the filters applied via
Characteristic Restriction will still remain in force. It is recommended to have at least
one or two characteristic restrictions while using a BW query for BO Universe.

Variables:
Variables are query parameters that we define in the Query Designer and are filled
with values only when you execute the query. Variables are reusable objects. The
variables defined in the Query Designer are available in all InfoProviders. They do
not depend on the InfoProvider, but rather on the InfoObject for which they were
created.

Types of Variables
 Characteristic values
Hierarchies
Hierarchy Nodes
Texts
Formula elements

Steps to create a variable:

Step 1)

1. To create a variable, browse to the folder called Characteristic Value

Variables under the corresponding characteristic.
2. Right click on the folder and select the option New Variable.

Step 2)

1. In the subsequent window, enter the Description.

2. Enter the Technical name.
3. Variable Processing Types
4. Under reference characteristic, the variable can be assigned to either the
specific InfoObject or all Info-Objects based on same reference characteristic.
 1. Under the Details tab, we can specify whether the variable accept:
2. Single Value/ Multiple Values/ Range
3. Selection Option (allows any of the above at runtime, is not supported in BW-
BO)

Step 3)
 1. Click the Default values tab.
2. We can specify the default filter applied to the report. This value can be over-
written by user at run-time.

Conditions & Exceptions:

Conditions act as filters on key figures. e.g. Top 10 customers, products with bottom
10% margin, etc.

Exceptions are similar to conditional highlighting in MS excel. They are used to

highlight rows / columns / cells where the KPI value is above or below a certain
threshold. As these are not imported to a BO Universe, we will not discuss them in
details in current tutorial.
SAP BEx: Characteristics & Key Figure Settings
(RKF, CKF & Formulas)
In this tutorial you will learn about

Characteristics Settings Display Name

Characteristics Settings Display Properties

Key Figure Settings Display Name

Key Figure Settings Display Properties

Key Figures Calculated Key Figure

Key Figures Restricted Key Figure

Characteristics Settings Display Name:

By default, when a characteristic is added to the query, it displays the description
specified in SAP BW. It is possible to replace this with customized text as follows.

1. Click on Properties
2. Select the General tab
3. Enter Description

Characteristics Settings Display Properties:

1. Select the Display tab of the properties window of the selected characteristic.
 2. The Display as option is used to display either only the Key or only Text or
both Key & Text.
3. If a characteristic has 2 or more of Short / Medium / Long Text populated,
Text View is used to display corresponding text.
4. It is possible to sort data ascending / descending either by the characteristic
or any of its attributes.
5. The Result Rows option is used to show or hide sub-total for underlying
characteristic.

Characteristics Settings Display Records:

The display option is used to define what data is viewed by user during data
selection (in filters) and after report execution.

1. Select the Advanced tab of the properties window of the selected

characteristic.
2. Access Type for Result Values. Choose one of these values.

Posted values is used to show only records that have got some transactions
associated with them
 Master Data displays all master data records irrespective of whether a
transaction exists for them or not. It is ineffective if used with zero
suppression.

3. Filter Value Selection. Choose one of these values.

Only Posted Values for Navigation: The system displays only posted values
from the current navigational state.
Only Values in InfoProvider: The system displays only values contained in the
InfoProvider.
Values in Master Data Table: It is faster, but may result in zero records
matching selection criteria.

Key Figure Settings Display Name:

By default, when a Key Figure is added to the query, it displays the description
specified in SAP BW. It is possible to replace this with customized text as follows.

1. Click on Properties
2. Select the General tab
3. Enter Description
Key Figure Settings Display Properties:
1. Select the Display tab of the properties window of the selected Key Figure.
2. Hide:

The options Always Show and Always Hide are self explanatory.
Hide (Can be Shown) option is used to keep a key figure hidden in default
output of the report. However, the user can later display this field by using
filters.

3. Number of Decimals places can be used to restrict the decimal places

displayed in report.
4. Scaling factor is used to show data in thousands / hundreds / etc.
5. The sign of key figures can be reversed if required. e.g. Sales Quantity is
negative movement from Inventory perspective, but positive from sales
perspective and we can reverse sign based on user.
Key Figure Settings Currency Or Unit Conversion:
BW does not allow cumulating amount in different units e.g. one rupee to one dollar
or one kilogram to one yard. When data exists in multiple currencies / unit, all
records must be converted to single currency / unit using Currency Translation / Unit
Conversion. The translation can be dynamic (by using selection screen variable) or
static (with target currency / unit hardcoded in adjacent screens). Advantage of
doing this in SAP BW is that it directly imports the conversion factors available in
SAP ERP to SAP BW.

1. Select the Conversions tab.

2. For currency translation, this option can be used.
3. For unit conversion, this option can be used.
Key Figure Settings Aggregation:
Query Designer gives the flexibility of calculating aggregates as average,
summation, minimum,

etc. Similar calculations can also be performed on row-level data.

1. Select the Calculations tab.

2. Select from the Different options available under the drop-down of Calculate
Results As.
Key Figures Local Formula:
BW, allows use of formulae, on data coming from InfoProvider, to provide calculated
values to user.

e.g. Subtracting Cost from Revenue to calculate Profit

Steps to create Formula:

Step 1)

1. Right click on the structure Key Figure

2. Click on New Formula
Step 2)

Click on the edit button of properties box to create / edit a local formula

Step 3)

Some of the common operators used in BW include:

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division

NODIM is used to display key figures without their corresponding unit
NOERR is used to display zero instead of error message (e.g. zero instead of
mentioning that division by zero error)
%GT is used to show the value of key figure as a percentage of total value

1. In the Detail View box, enter the formula

2. Use the operators from the Operators box.
Key Figures Calculated Key Figure:
If same calculation is required for multiple reports, it can be mapped to the
InfoProvider instead of creating it individually in each query. Such key figure is called
Calculated Key Figure or CKF.

Once defined, it can be dragged into a query like any other key figure. The biggest
advantage of this approach is that it facilitates global definitions of common
calculated KPIs.

Steps to create a Calculated Key Figure:

1. Navigate to the Infoprovider section

2. Right Click on Key Figures folder.
3. Choose the option New Calculated Key Figure.
Key Figures Restricted Key Figure:
Restricted Key Figures (RKF) can be used to selectively apply filters only to a
specific KPI in the report, but not to the entire report e.g. split sales into columns like
YTD (Year To Date) Sales, PYTD (Previous Year To Date) Sales, etc.

Step 1)

1. Navigate to the Infoprovider section

2. Right Click on Key Figures folder.
3. Choose the option New Restricted Key Figure.

Step 2)

Click on the edit button of properties box to create / edit a RKF

Step 3)

In the subsequent screen, at least one key figure and one characteristic must be
entered to make a meaningful RKF.

1. Key Figure which is to be restricted.

2. The characteristic may be restricted by a selection screen variable to make it
Dynamic RKF.
3. It may also be restricted by a constant e.g. year = 2008. In the below screen
shot, version is restricted with constant value 1.
Like CKF, RKFs are also global to the InfoProvider and can be reused in multiple
queries using the same InfoProvider.