Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers

1.Remodelling, a term which so obviously states something is either reset or rearranged with terms of
Info providers. What must be the ideal way to modify how data is displayed? Say, we have loaded a
million records into our cube, but in a dire need to modify, do some changes to accommodate some
more Info objects to the existing fact or delete some repeating data / no data columns etc at
dimension level. In such cases what is the handy solution? The most trusted way to resolve hiccups of
this sort is to identify & remodel your Info provider either at fact/dimensions level. In this article well
discuss some steps to change the metadata of our Info Cube and remodel our Info Provider. But first
time users must be cautious enough to use the remodeled object, and transport the same object to
different system landscapes sequentially. The drawback is that, we need to ensure no inconsistency
with regards to definition of the Info provider exists between different systems in our entire landscape,
else objects could become non-transportable at last. A simple example for re-modeling is as below.

So whatever the changes the DW architects make, care must be taken to do a full backup of all data,
followed by stopping all respective process chains. After remodeling existing InfoCube, ensure to reactivate all your transformations & restart process chains (if applicable).
Remodelling in SAP NW-BI 7.0 is applicable only for Info Cubes; not Characteristic Info objects or
DSOs. The following options can be performed during a remodelling.

Add Characteristics / Key figure

Replace Characteristics / Key figure

Delete Characteristics / Key figure

There are some pre-activities to be performed too. Once a remodelling rule is scheduled, it is not
allowed to modify in future; if not we must create a new remodelling rule. The best advantage is
remodelling can be performed even when cube is filled with full data. The remodelling activity can be
monitored also, and the requests can be either reset or restarted. Reset would be an exception, while
Restart would potentially re-initiate the whole process.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers
So, to discuss on the early watches to be taken care, its best advised to never run remodelling for an
Info Cube, while some process chains or SM37 jobs are running in parallel & take care of manually
activating & restarts of the process chains once the remodelling is successful. Also, the Info Cube is
locked for any loads or changes.
This activation must be performed for all objects upper & below the data flow (which would include
transformation rules). Plus, data backups are a must. Aggregates existing on the cube, if any, will
have to be recreated.
Deletion of Characteristics Step by Step Example
Use T-Code: RSMRT or use Re-Modelling in Administration tab on LHS of RSA1.

Consider the data as in the cube. Here we plan to delete the unused field Z08_DTE.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers
Give

the

remodeling

Choose the required options as in the figure.

Save, Check & Schedule the rule.

rule

name

&

description.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers

Click the Monitor hot key to check the status on a periodic basis.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers

Click Release Job. The job which had been scheduled has run successfully.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers

After remodeling has been successful, we need to check & reactivate the transformations, DTPs etc.
& other dependent objects associated with the InfoCube.
Addition of Characteristics
Provide the name & descriptions of new characteristics & dimension it must be included. Also, specify
what mechanism the data is populated. In fact, there are 4 ways: Constant, Attribute (& of
Characteristic), 1:1 Mapping with Characteristic or Customer Exit. Finally add the new characteristic to
the BEx query and execute it.
Replacement of Characteristics is most similar to Addition.
Customer Exit for Remodeling Rules
Go to SE24 or- Tools > ABAP Workbench > Development > Class Builder

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers

Select Add characteristic, select new characteristic in which the dimension characteristic needs to be
added. Select option Customer Exit, select Customer Exit and Transfer.

Use the last option to Insert While the rule is being executed it can be monitored by clicking on the
monitor button. Once the class builder is open, you can goto Interface tab & use the Interface
IF_RSCNV_EXIT. This is nothing but an structure which defines how one class behaves with other
classes, also known as abstract class.

Beginners Guide on Remodelling of Info

Providers
An interface can specify a set of methods, and classes that implement the interface will have to
provide concrete implementations of those methods. IF_RSCNV_EXIT being the interface, we must
implement the remodelling functionality via few methods (exits) Viz. IF_RSCNV_EXIT~EXIT. Once the
class has been coded, we need to save & activate the method.