SAP InfoSet Tutorial: What is, Create, Joins

Infoset is a special kind of Infoprovider which does not store data physically. In other words, Infoset are InfoProviders that logically join data and provide this data for BI queries. Infoset collects data from the tables of InfoProviders used to build it. Infoset describes data sources that are defined as a rule of join on Datastore objects, Info-objects or standard InfoCubes.

When to Use Infosets?

To join required data from basic InfoProviders
To allow BEx Reporting on a DataStore object without turning the BEx Reporting indicator on
To evaluate time dependencies
To create self joins and left outer joins

What are InfoSet Joins ?

DSO ( Data Store Objects) and/or InfoObjects (characteristics with master data) are connected in the InfoSet using join conditions. The joined data from the InfoSets are available for access from Business Explorer Queries. InfoSets allows you to report on several Info-Providers (Infocubes, Data Store objects, master data InfoObjects), but they contain no data. With activated Infosets , you can define queries in the BI suite.

Joins are classified into four categories:

Inner Join
Left Outer Join
Temporal Join
Self Join

Inner Join:A record can only be in the selected result set if there are entries in both joined tables.

If table 2 has corresponding records of table 1, by comparing a key field (EMPNO in the below example), only those records would be part of the result set. The result set would have the fields of table 1 and table 2 filled in from the corresponding fields.

Example:

Left Table(Table 1)

EMPNO	LASTNAME
000020	THOMPSON
000250	SMITH
000100	SPENSER

Right Table(Table 2)

EMPNO	PROJNO
000020	AD3112
000100	OP2010
000150	PL2100

Inner Join Result

EMPNO	LASTNAME	PROJNO
000020	THOMPSON	AD3112
000100	SPENSER	OP2010

Left Outer Join: If table 2 has corresponding records of table 1, by comparing a key field (EMPNO in the below example), those records would be part of the result set. The result set would have the fields of table 1 and table 2 filled in from the corresponding fields.

If table 2 has no corresponding record when compared with table 1, those records of table 1 is also part of the result set (fields belonging to table 2 will have initial values). This is shown in the example below.

Left Table(Table 1)

EMPNO	LASTNAME
000020	THOMPSON
000250	SMITH
000100	SPENSER

Right Table(Table 2)

EMPNO	PROJNO
000020	AD3112
000100	OP2010
000150	PL2100

Left Outer Join Result

EMPNO	LASTNAME	PROJNO
000020	THOMPSON	AD3112
000250	SMITH
000100	SPENSER	OP2010

Temporal Join: A join is called temporal if at least one member is time-dependent.

Self Join: The same object is joined together.

How to Create Infoset?

Step 1)

Go to Transaction Code RSA1
Click the “Ok” button

Step 2)

Browse to the tab “InfoProvider”
Right-Click on the infoarea and choose the option “Create Infoset” from the context menu.

Transaction RSISET can also directly be used to create InfoSet.

When the Info Set Builder is called for the first time, the below two display mode options as

Network (Dataflow Control)
Tree (Tree Control).

The network display is clearer.

The tree display can be read by the Screen Reader and is suitable for visually-impaired users.

You can change this setting at any time using the menu path Settings -> Display.

Step 3)

Enter the Technical Name
Description
In the Start with Info Provider section, you determine which Info Provider you want to use to start defining the Info Set. Select one of the object types that the system offers you: