How to Create an InfoObject Catalog in SAP BI/BW

By : Jessica Blake Jessica Blake
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⚡ Smart Summary

An InfoObject catalog in SAP BW is an organizational container that groups related characteristics or key figures within an InfoArea, created as either a characteristic catalog or a key figure catalog to keep InfoObjects structured and maintainable.

  • 🗃️ InfoObject Catalog: A container that groups characteristics or key figures inside an InfoArea.
  • 🔀 Two Types: A catalog is created as either a characteristic catalog or a key figure catalog.
  • 🔧 Transaction RSA1: Catalogs are created in the Data Warehousing Workbench under an InfoArea.
  • 🧹 Organization Only: Catalogs help structure InfoObjects and are not related to reporting.
  • 🔁 Multiple Catalogs: An InfoObject can be assigned to more than one catalog.
  • 🤖 AI Assistance: AI can group InfoObjects and recommend catalog structures.
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Create an InfoObject Catalog in SAP BI/BW

What is an InfoObject Catalog?

An InfoObject catalog is a container used to organize InfoObjects within an InfoArea. Every InfoObject must be created within a catalog. The catalog helps with organization and maintenance and is not related to reporting functions. There are two types: a characteristic InfoObject catalog and a key figure InfoObject catalog.

Creating an InfoObject Catalog

Step 1)

  1. Go to transaction code RSA1 to open the Data Warehousing Workbench.
  2. Click the OK button.

Create an InfoObject Catalog

Step 2)

  1. Navigate to Modeling -> InfoObjects.
  2. Right click on the InfoArea and choose the option “Create InfoObject Catalog” as shown below.

Create an InfoObject Catalog

Step 3)

  1. Enter the technical name of the InfoObject catalog.
  2. Enter the description of the InfoObject catalog.
  3. Click the “Characteristic” option button to create a characteristic catalog, or click the “Key figure” option button to create a key figure catalog.
  4. Click on the Create button.

Create an InfoObject Catalog

Save and activate the InfoObject catalog. The InfoObject catalog created appears as shown below.

Create an InfoObject Catalog

FAQs

There are two types: the characteristic InfoObject catalog, which holds characteristics, and the key figure InfoObject catalog, which holds key figures. You choose the type when you create the catalog, and each InfoObject is created in the matching catalog type.

Yes. The same InfoObject can be assigned to multiple InfoObject catalogs. Catalogs are purely an organizing layer, so reusing an InfoObject in several catalogs does not duplicate the object or its master data.

A catalog groups large numbers of related characteristics or key figures, for example all SAP Financials InfoObjects, into one place. This makes the objects easier to find, manage, and maintain, but it has no effect on reporting.

Yes. The SAP Joule AI copilot and metadata tools can group InfoObjects by subject area, suggest catalog names, and flag uncategorized objects, helping administrators keep a clean catalog structure in a large BW system.

Machine learning reads object descriptions and usage to recommend logical groupings and detect duplicates. AI assistants then let users search InfoObjects by meaning, speeding up modeling and maintenance across the repository.

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