Unicode Conversion

SAP NetWeaver BIUnicode Compliance Product Management SAP NetWeaver BI Version 7.0 December, 2008 Agenda 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Unicode in General Excursus: MDMP Unicode support of SAP NetWeaver BI Interfaces to SAP Systems Interfaces to non-SAP Systems © SAP 2007 / Page 2 Unicode Essentials What is Unicode? Character encoding schema for (nearly) all characters used world wide Each character has a unique number („Unicode code point“) Notation U+nnnn (where nnnn are hexadecimal digits) See http://www.unicode.org for complete code charts Surrogates using 2*16 bit Platform dependent byte order 16 bit alignment restriction (needs even addresses) UTF-8 – Unicode transformation format. 1 character = 16bit.. 1 character = 1.Representation of Unicode Characters UTF-16 – universal transformation format..4 bytes Platform independent No alignment restriction Character Unicode code point U+0061 U+00E4 U+03B1 U+3479 UTF-16 big endian 00 61 00 E4 03 B1 34 79 UTF-16 little endian 61 00 E4 00 B1 03 79 34 UTF-8 61 C3 A4 CE B1 E3 91 B9 a ä . 8 bit encoding Variable length. 16 bit encoding Fixed length. Transparent Unicode Enabling of SAP Business Suite Character expansion model Separate Unicode and non-Unicode versions of SAP ERP 1 character = 1 byte (types C. (types C. D. D. STRING) Non-Unicode kernel Non-Unicode database ABAP ABAP source source NonUnicode R/3 Unicode ERP No explicit Unicode data type in ABAP Single ABAP source for Unicode and non-Unicode systems 1 character = 2 bytes (UTF16). N. T. STRING) Unicode kernel Unicode database Automatic conversion of character data for communication between Unicode and nonUnicode systems . T. N. e. has to be adapted to comply with Unicode restrictions SAP will deliver powerful tools to convert your existing system .Implications You are not interested in Unicode? No customer is forced to convert to Unicode Possibly minor changes for not Unicode enabled programs (more restrictive syntax check as of WebAS 6.10 on) You are interested in Unicode? Major part of ABAP coding is ready for Unicode without any changes Minor part of ABAP coding. some customer-specific ABAP coding. i. Note that after a conversion.Resource Requirements for Unicode-compliant BI What are the additional resource requirements after a Unicode conversion? Text fields are usually bigger in a Unicode environment than in a Non-Unicode environment.like the SAP ERP requirements. there might not be a significant increase of the DB size. Enhanced functionality requires additional resources. the disk size may even decrease because of DB reorganisation. For a significant share of InfoCube data (only numeric keys!). Disk Storage Disk Storage depends strongly on the underlying DBMS and the given data model/volume. For SAP BI. which strongly depend on the given customer scenario. . tests have resulted in roughly 35% additional disk space. Main Memory We expect additional SAP NetWeaver BI requirements of roughly 50% more memory .like the SAP ERP requirements. we give a rough estimation what a Unicode conversion could mean for the resources. In the following. For SAP ERP on ORACLE. CPU’s We expect additional SAP NetWeaver BI requirements of roughly 30% more CPU power . we expect – depending on the scenario – less additional disk space. The Unicode Upgrade Project Preparation Conversion Post-Conversion Post-Conversion Set up the Unicode upgrade project Analyze data to minimize downtime To be done during system downtime Unload /reload process for small databases Minimum downtime tool for large databases (Incremental Migration IMIG) Set up the system for Unicode Start up the Unicode system . Unicode in General Excursus: MDMP Unicode support of SAP NetWeaver BI Interfaces to SAP Systems Interfaces to non-SAP Systems © SAP 2007 / Page 9 . 5. 2. 4. 3.Agenda 1. MDMP – Definition What does MDMP mean? In the past. SAP supported multiple languages by MDMP MDMP = Multiple Display – Multiple Processing Mixed code page technology depending on logon language Several 100 satisfied customers MDMP was an SAP workaround for accessing multiple code pages Defined users where accessing the solution using SAPgui frontend Only little integration into the world wide web MDMP should not be used anymore for new installations MDMP is not supported for SAP NetWeaver BI . MDMP – Connection How can I connect SAP BI to an SAP MDMP source system? Language-dependent source tables Most text tables include the language key. The code page (or language) has to be defined for EACH record in these language-independent tables either by appending a new column into the table or by defining the extraction job in the corresponding codepage. If there is no language information given. Language-independent source table If a text table does not include the language key (e. This enables the correct conversion of the texts from the source system to SAP NetWeaver BI. . In an SAP system. the source tables will be converted based on the logon language of the user. the code page can be derived from the language key. customer texts). these texts have to be converted “manually”.g. the assignment to a sales organization may help For more information see How-To Guide in SDN .MDMP – Project Based Solution Why is there no generic solution for the connection of MDMP source systems? All language-independent source tables must be checked and for each record. but there is no generic approach Examples: in order to determine the code page of a customer name. the code page which it was created in must be determined In order to derive this code page information. organizational assignments or heuristics may help. a Japanese customer lives in Russia Alternatively. the country where she/he lives in may be used usually not correct. if e. attribute values.g. Design Principles for Source Systems How can I ensure a smooth Unicode conversion? SAP NetWeaver BI receives the following information from source systems Date and timestamp information Key figures Characteristics by key Texts How should I design the data in the source system? Date and timestamp information as well as key figures are just figures. material number.g. Texts are usually language-dependent and must be designed in the source system with an associated language key (even if e. Note that maintaining the permitted characters makes you code page-dependent. As a benefit. customer number. See SAP note 173241 for more information. country key) must be designed as 7-bit-US-ASCII characters (common characters). the conversion is not critical Characteristic keys (e.g. the SAP ERP data model is not providing this). There might be problems with the conversion to Unicode (e.g. transaction data and master data attributes must NOT contain texts. the permitted character setting in the BW customizing need not be maintained. characters like ‘µ’ are a lower case letter in Unicode – and thus not allowed) Texts are ONLY loaded into the text tables of the InfoObjects. . Don’t use other characters as keys or attributes. brand key. 4. 2. 5.Agenda 1. Unicode in General Excursus: MDMP Unicode support of SAP NetWeaver BI Interfaces to SAP Systems Interfaces to non-SAP Systems © SAP 2007 / Page 14 . 3. Unicode-Compliant SAP NetWeaver BI Unicode-compliance means: SAP NetWeaver BI can interpret and display Unicode characters User interface will be shown in local language Business data can use all languages in parallel SAP NetWeaver BI can extract data from source systems with specific code pages (Non-Unicode or Unicode) SAP NetWeaver BI can extract data from SAP source system running mixed code pages (MDMP) Interfaces to 3rd party systems support correct code page conversion . Unicode Platform Availability Which platforms support Unicode? Database Management Systems Available DB management systems MS SQL-Server DB2/UDB V8 maxDB 7. available as of 2004 Informix: no Unicode support planned Operating Systems restrictions Reliant Unix is not Unicode-enabled OS/390 available as of 2004 .2 DB2/AS400 V5 R2 Delayed DB management systems DB2/zSeries.5+ ORACLE 9. 0 and later SAP NetWeaver BI 7. Non-Unicode) SAP ERP source system (release <= 4.6D Non-Unicode NW BI Project Solution Unicode SAP NetWeaver BI BEx Web Analyzer Fully Unicode compliant (including right-to-left languages) BEx Analyzer (.Unicode in SAP NetWeaver BI 7. SAP ERP <= 4.6D) into Unicode SAP NetWeaver BI.0 is fully Unicode compliant SAP NetWeaver BI Server Fully Unicode compliant Note: when loading from a double-byte (i.e. so-called container misalignments may occur (see SAP notes 673533 and 510882 for more information).NET tools) Fully Unicode compliant Exception: Right-to-left languages are not supported by all controls . . but not the German ones (‘#’ characters will be displayed for special German characters).Supported Scenarios for SAP BW 3. The client is configured in one Non-Unicode code page. transactional data is not affected. work books. query elements or web templates with Non-US-7-bitASCII (English) texts that have been originally created in a different code page. Note that also the Windows default code page must be switched to this Non-Unicode code page. For example. Query Designer) – see also SAP note 588480 Object keys must be in US-7-bit-ASCII to ensure access to keys in all logon languages / code pages The restrictions only apply to texts.5 Unicode supprt for SAP BW 3. Only the data in the logon code page are displayed correctly: I.5/SAP NetWeaver ‘04 SAP NetWeaver BI Server (backend) Load of data in different code pages Display of all data in SAP Gui environment Unicode Web front end Display of all data if front end is configured in Unicode code page Restrictions for MS Windows-based client tools (BEx Excel front end.e. whereas the German employee can see the German texts (but not the Russian ones) English texts (US-7-bit-ASCII) are displayed correctly A user must not change and save queries. a query containing Russian text elements should only be changed in Russian code page. Web Application Designer. a Russian employee can see all Russian texts. 5 in Detail –1– Restrictions for MS Windows-based client tools – Example: BEx Excel Frontend Logon Language Russian German characters corrupted Logon Language German Russian characters corrupted No restrictions in Web Frontend Correct characters from both code pages – independent from logon language .Front end Restrictions SAP BW 3. if Russian characters were allowed in keys. Keys in US-7-bit-ASCII Keys (of any InfoObject) must be in US-7-bit-ASCII to enable users in every code page to enter the key in a search criterion.5 in Detail –2– BEx Analyzer Excel front end Note that the corrupted text is a pure display matter. However BEx Web does support them. never select these . query elements. Web Application Designer) do not support RTL languages (like Hebrew. web templates containing texts (also hidden ones in e. a German user could never enter these and. the data in the database is always correct! Query Designer / Web Application Designer In order to avoid corrupted text written back to the database. organizational means must be installed. query elements.Front end Restrictions SAP BW 3. web templates must only contain English texts (US7-bit-ASCII) Queries. Arabian). work books. restricted key figures or variables) in a specific language / code page must not be changed by users in a different code page RTL (Right-to-Left) Languages The Windows frontend components (BEx Analyzer.g. Query Designer. work books. hence. There are basically two options Queries. Japanese). you can use report RSTLAN_SUPPLEMENT_PERIODIC (parameter: preceding supplementation run) and include it into your process chain. Usage Start in transaction SMLT and check by double-clicking on the (target) language (e. This standard language is used to generate all missing translations. but the availability of translations for all languages cannot be guaranteed. if the supplementation language has been maintained (e. Then use the menu path Language Special Actions Supplementation (Expert) in order to select all affected tables (usually all language-dependent /BIC/T* and /BI0/T*-tables – those tables are cross-client class A tables) If you want to run supplementation periodically. Hence. Supplementation The text tables can be supplemented with a standard language. Check SAP note 111750 for supplementation of German language . English).g. you want to define a standard language. Example: you want to use English material texts in case the Japanese ones are not available.g.Supplementation Business Scenario You run your SAP NetWeaver BI in different languages. Unicode Installation and Conversion How can I make SAP NetWeaver BI Unicode-compliant? Delivery You can choose between Non-Unicode and Unicode installation Note: Unicode installation requires more hardware resources (depending on DB platform) Installation modes New Install Conversion of an existing SAP NetWeaver BI Before the conversion. virtual characteristics/key figures.) must be in line with the Unicode rules The duration of a conversion depends on the size of the existing database .5 (or later release) R3LOAD converts an existing SAP BW 3. realigning the DB and importing the DB again Note that the Unicode Conversion is a pilot project as part of a BW System Copy (see note 543715) Customer-developed programs (variable exits. table interface etc. upgrade your SAP NetWeaver BI to SAP BW 3.5 (or later release) automatically by exporting the DB. transformation rules. 2. 5. Unicode in General Excursus: MDMP Unicode support of SAP NetWeaver BI Interfaces to SAP Systems Interfaces to non-SAP Systems © SAP 2007 / Page 23 . 3. 4.Agenda 1. they transform characters „on the fly“ to the correct code page The RFC call derives the source code page information from the language key Note: English texts (US-7-bit-ASCII) is converted correctly in ALL code pages For mixed code page systems..) A Unicode source system is also a single code page system Mixed code page systems SAP source systems with several code pages (usually: MDMP) How does the conversion work? RFC-Calls are enhanced by source and target code page parameters. language information on RECORD level defines the conversion PROJECT based solution .g. Latin-1 contains German.Interfaces to SAP Source Systems Which SAP Source System Types exist ? Single code page systems One single code page can include several languages (e. Spanish. Italian etc. French. but some information might be lost not recommended ok.x NonUnicode Project! Some information might be lost not recommended ok SAP source nonUnicode SAP source MDMP Ok (from double-byte sources: on project basis) (*) Project! (*) see slide 17 ok. but some information might be lost not recommended ok SAP BW 2.Connection Scenarios – 1 – Which systems can I connect to ? Overview on the supported connections SAP SAP BW 3.x NetWeaver Non-Unicode BI Unicode SAP source Unicode Ok ok. but some information might be lost not recommended . 6D. No issues as of release 4.0B SP3 resp.g. R/3 Unicode / Non-Unicode Service API 3. .Connection Scenarios – 2 – What are the prerequisites for a proper connection ? Unicode SAP NetWeaver BI systems and Unicode / Non-Unicode SAP source systems SAP BI-Service API 3.0B SP3 or PI_BASIS 2002_1_620 SP3 BI Unicode BI See slide 17 for restrictions for double-byte languages from SAP ERP <= 4.7. PI_BASIS 2002_1_620 SP3 is required to connect the Unicode source system with SAP BI e. x systems and Unicode SAP source systems During conversion some information might be lost.x . suffix characters could get cut off during the extraction.g.Connection Scenarios – 3 – Non-Unicode SAP BW 3. as the bigger Unicode containers must be mapped to the target non-Unicode containers e.x Non-Unicode SAP BW 2. R/3 Unicode Restrictions apply BI Non-Unicode SAP BW 3. R/3 Unicode BI Project Solution Non-Unicode SAP BW 2. in special scenarios.x systems and Unicode SAP source systems SAP BW 2.x as non-Unicode BW system is not generally released to extract data from Unicode source systems. this connection might be possible on a project basis e.g. The following restrictions apply Characters might be corrupted as the target system does not know all Unicode characters In multi-byte code pages (Asian languages). Connection Scenarios – 4 – What about other interfaces to SAP source systems ? The same connection scenarios apply for transient interfaces to SAP source systems Report-Report-Interface RemoteCubes Virtual InfoProviders to SAP source systems . Technical Settings for Unicode Be sure to set up your system according to the following recommendations Languages You can only extract languages to SAP NetWeaver BI. which are defined in the basis parameter ZCSA/INSTALLED_LANGUAGES (language vector) . 4. Unicode in General Excursus: MDMP Unicode support of SAP NetWeaver BI Interfaces to SAP Systems Interfaces to non-SAP Systems © SAP 2007 / Page 30 . 5.Agenda 1. 2. 3. Unicode-compliance of Interfaces Which source system code pages are supported for Non-SAP sources? For Non-SAP sources. only English texts (7-bit-US-ASCII) or Unicode texts are converted correctly Examples Flat File DB Connect (Same restrictions apply like for all MultiConnect connections – independent from Unicode) UD Connect Virtual InfoProviders to Non-SAP sources . it is difficult to determine the source code page. In most cases. OLE DB for OLAP or XMLA These interfaces are currently released as a pilots for Unicode ETL or frontend partners Ask our partners for Unicode-compliance of their products . Asian code pages and UTF-8) AND Transfer structure is larger than 250 characters Displaying data in a 3rd party front end via OLAP BAPI. but only for transfer structure of size 250 characters and smaller This interface is not released for the following sources: Multi-byte code pages with variable byte length (I.Unicode-compliance of BAPIs and 3rd Party Tools What about Unicode with respect to BW -BAPI’s and 3rd Party Tools? Loading data into BW via Staging-BAPI (and 3rd party ETL-tools) This interface is released for the following sources: (see SAP note 765543) Single-byte code pages Unicode UTF-16 All other code pages.e. Thank you! © SAP 2007 / Page 33 .