Data Services XI 3.x is the official name for the EIM (Enterprise Information Management) platform.

BusinessObjects Data Services is the one platform for data delivery and data quality to move, integrate,
and improve any type of data anywhere at any frequency. Data Services is both a platform and a product.
It is the platform upon which all new EIM functionality will be based
SAP BI is the business intelligence platform from SAP.
Data Services tools can be used into the SAP BI staging process, especially for Non-SAP data, where the
enhanced integration capabilities of Data Services might be required anyway.
Following is the procedure for using Data Services features into the SAP BI staging process 1.

Load the non-SAP data in the Data Services engine.

2.

Perform Data Quality operations on the data in Data Services.

3.

Load the data into SAP BI

Connecting SAP BI with Data Services

In order to allow the exchange of data and metadata between SAP BI and Data Services, we have to first
establish a connection between both the systems. On the SAP BI side this is achieved by creating an
External Source System and in Data Services we have to create a new Datastore.
...

1.

Log on to the SAP BI system.

2.

Start the Data Warehousing Workbench using TC RSA1 and select Modeling from the navigation
area. Pick the entry Source Systems.

3.

Position the cursor on the External System folder, and choose Create from the context menu as
shown above.

4.

Enter Logical System Name and Source System Name as shown above and hit Continue.

5.

Data Services will start an RFC Server program and indicates to SAP BI that it is ready to receive
RFC calls. To identify itself as the RFC Server representing this SAP BI Source System a keyword is
exchanged, in the screen shot above it is "DEMO_SRC". This is the Registered Server Program, the
Data Services RFC Server will register itself with at SAP. Therefore, provide the same Program ID
that you want to use for the call of the RFC Server on Data Services side. All other settings for the
Source System can remain on the default settings. To complete the definition of the Source System,
save it.

6.

Now, start the RFC Server on the Data Services side so that we can test the connection and load
data from Data services to SAP BI system.

a)

Open MS-DOS command prompt. (Start > Run > Type CMD & hit OK)

b)

Go to the bin directory/folder for BusinessObjects Data Services. E.g . - C:\Program

Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Data Services\bin>

c)

Call the program "rfcsvr -aPROGRAM_ID -gSAP_ROUTER_STRING -xSAP_GATEWAY".

The PROGRAM_ID is the keyword we used above, "DEMO_SRC" in our example. The
Router-String and SAP Gateway is something the BW admins should know. As a guideline,
you
can
open
the
SAP
Logon
Pad
and
try
the
settings
there.

d)

The server here is 172.17.10.162 and the System Number is 00. The router string could
hence be "/H/172.17.10.162/S/3300". The /H/ stands for the hostname, the /S/ for the port
number. The port number can be derived from the system number, system 00 means port
3300. Same thing with the SAP Gateway. In a standard standalone installation the value for
this is sapgw00.

e)

Type rfcsvr -aDEMO_SRC -g/H/172.17.10.162/S/3300 -xsapgw00 and hit Enter. It should

not return anything

7.

To check the connection, click on Connection Test as shown below -

8.

The result would be as shown below in case of a success.

9.

The newly entered 3rd party system would appear in the list of External Systems as shown below.

PoC Loading unstructured data from Flat files into SAP BI using BusinessObjects Data Services

Let us take a sample tab delimited flat file as shown below. (Note - Sample data is placed in an excel file
only for understanding purpose. In actual PoC we will be using a text file)

For the sample flat file used here, click here.

Define the SAP BI system as Datastore in Data Services

Before we start designing a job for our PoC, let us create a datastore for SAP BI system.
1.

Open the BusinessObjects Data Services Designer.

2.

In the Local Object Library, select the Datastore tab.

3.

Right click and select New to create new Datastore as shown below

4.

Type in datastore name as shown below.

5.

Select SAP BW Target as the Datastore type. This is because we want to load data into SAP BI
and hence SAP BI is the target.

6.

Enter location/IP address of the SAP BI system server

7.

Enter your user name and password for the SAP BI

8.

Under Advanced section, enter Client and System Number. ( You can find system number,
application server details from SAP Logon Pad > Change Item)

9.

In our example (refer screenshot 4), enter /H/ as the router string.

10.

Hit OK.

11.

The new datastore BW_PoC_Target_Datastore is now available under Local Object Library as
shown below.

Defining new Flat File format for our sample data

1.

Open the BusinessObjects Data Services Designer.

2.

In the Local Object Library, select the Formats tab

3.

Right click on Flat Files format and select New.

4.

You

will

see

5.

Select/Enter the data as given below

File

Format

Editor

window

a.

Type Delimited

b.

Name PoC_File_Format

c.

Root directory Path where the sample flat file is stored (In our case it is - C:\Documents
and
Settings\164600\My
Documents\BOBJ
Data
Services\BOBJ
Data
Services\Reference Material\PoC)

d.

File name In our case it is PoC1.txt. You would see a prompt to overwrite the current
schema.

Hit Yes. Now, you would see your sample data in the editor window. Note that Designer
automatically assigned appropriate data types based on the input data.

e.

Under Delimiters, select Column Tab

f.

Click Save & Close

PoC_File_Format is now available under the Flat Files tree in the Local Object Library as shown below.