BI 4.0 BICS connection from Webi and Information Builder

[Former Member]

We have a BW implementation using BW 7+. We have not upgraded any of our queries and they are still in 3.5, everything else runs in 7. When I user Information design tool I am able to make a BICS connection to our BW without selecting a infoprovider.

When I look at the connection and click on Show Values, I get three catalogs. One with no name and the other two are Favorites and InfoArea. I get no cubes in favorites or in Infoarea, but all the cubes are visible in the no name catalog.

When I go to use this connection in Interactive Analysis (Webi) and I select BEX based I am able to select my BICs connection. After a long pause I get on the right side only two catalogs (Favorites and InfoArea). The catalog without a name from Information design tool is not visible. As no cubes are visible except in the catalog without a name I am not able to select a cube/query for my report.

I do not know why this is happening, but I have a theory, although no way to test it at the moment. I noticed that no SAP 7 client tools can make a connection to our BW, that is if you open Query Designer 7 you get a login prompt but after login the application just quits without any notice. I am wondering if BIPlatform 4.0 requires the Client 7 tools to be allowed to make a connection in order to read the Favorites and InfoArea catalogs.

In a meeting my colleagues had with SAP they indicated BICS can use queries from 3.5, so I am at a loss as to why this happening.

[IngoH]

Hi,

when you configure the connection - either in the Information Design Tool or in CMC - do you see the list of queries and InfoProvider ?

like here:

/people/ingo.hilgefort/blog/2011/02/01/sap-integration-update-part-1--crystal-reports-for-enterprise-and-sap-netweaver-bw

the part where I setup the connection.

thanks

Ingo

[Former Member]

Hi Ingo.

I read you blog on Webi and SAP BI and then went back to your first blog and tried to create the connection via CMC. When I try this I get prompted for my user name and password. When I enter in just my user name and password, no reference to SID Or Client, I just get the prompt user prompt again like I did not fill it in. When I enter my user name with SID~CLIENT/USERID format and password I get a your logon failed. This is strange as I am logged on to CMC with my SAP account. So in this case I do not see cubes.

In Information builder I do see cubes but only in the Catalog that does not have a name. I do not see cubes in the Catalog InfoArea or Favorites.

If I log on to BW with Query Designer (3.5) then I see cubes in favorites and in InfoAreas.

Hope this helps.

[IngoH]

Hi Marcel,

in the CMC you first need to enter all the details of your SAP system before hitting the CONNECT button.

Then when the connect is established you will be asked for user and password but first you need to provide all the details like server name, system ID, system number, client number, ...

Ingo

[Former Member]

Hi Ingo.

Yes I fill in the server information first, just like I would then I did it in Information Builder.

I used both Group and Server.

After filling in the information and hitting connect, I enter user name and password then I hit OK.

I get the rainbow spiral for some minutes, I think at this point I may have logged in.

I checked with SM66 and see if I get logged in when I hit OK after putting in my user and password and I did have a very quick connection and a entry in SM66. So I am able to login. Why it then gives me the login page again I do not know.

Hope this helps.

Marcel.

[IngoH]

Hi,

so at the point of "connect" to you see the list of InfoProvider and queries ?

Ingo

[Former Member]

In CMC I never see the infoproviders, just a constant request for username and password.

The only time I see a list of infoproviders is in Information designer tool. There I can define a connection and if I say I want to select a specific query I get only two catalogs (Favorites and InfoArea) neither catalog shows infoproviders. If I say I will not use a specific query, then I can save the connection.

In the Information Designer you can then use a tab called Show Values, which will create the same two catalogs (Favorites and InfoArea), which will have no infoproviders. It will also create a third catalog with no description or name, and in this catalog there are infoproviders visible.

It is not possible for me to see this third unnamed catalog anywhere else. Interactive Analysis will not display this catalog, so it is not possible to use the infoproviders.

Not sure but I hope this makes it clearer.

[IngoH]

Hi,

based on the fact that you don't see the InfoProviders or queries in the CMC there is either a configuration issue or an authorization issue with the user.

Are you able to do an authorization trace ?

on the configuration part - are you able to configure the SAP authentication and logon to the SAP System in the BI Launchpad using your SAP Credentials ?

ingo

[Former Member]

Yes, SAP authentication is configured and I use my SAP account to login to CMC. I have made my account a member of Administrators.

Previous to this thread I did a number of attempts to get connection with BICS. This required some changes in my Authorization before the connection would work at all in Information Designer, where I did my initial setup testing.

I am able to create SAP BAPI connectors and run reports against them. I do think there is a authorization issue, but I think it has to do with the fact we do not allow SAP Client tools 7 for BW to connect to our BW instance.

I will contact my colleagues about doing a authorization trace and provide the results.

[Former Member]

We did the authorization trace and we have two missing roles.

S_RFC RC=4 tcode= ;RFC_TYPE=FUGR;RFC_NAME=RSOBJS_RFC_INTERFACE;ACTVT=16;

S_RFC RC=4 tcode= ;RFC_TYPE=FUGR;RFC_NAME=RSBOLAP_BICS_CONSUMER;ACTVT=16;

Once these are in place I will try again.

I should have done a test on our Test System first as that turns out to be working fine, so I would have realized it was a authorization issue.

Thanks Ingo, I will let you know if this solves our production issue.

[Former Member]

Yes, the above missing authorization fixed the issue.

Thanks.