Achitectural difference - Webi vs. BEx

Question

I'd like to find out if there is a document that explains the architectural difference between BEx and Webi in a SAP BI environment. To my knowledge BEx uses ABAP calls to the cube and somewhere the BEx query is transformed into SQL statement(s) which is then send to the backend database.
On the other hand Webi uses MDX for the cube and somewhere the MDX is converted to SQL statements which are then send to the back end database.
What is the use of MDX parser? Is the SQL submitted to the back end by the two processes different, if so, what is the difference?
I'd really appreciate if someone can either share a document or share some thoughts.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Jerin,
Each Key Figure used in a BW query can have up to three different sets of information:
Numeric value of the Key Figure corresponding to the Key Figure without the unit.
Unit or Currency information, A Dimension object with character format that contains the unit or currency. For example, 'USD', 'u20AC', 'km'
Formatted value, representing the user-specific formatting. A Dimension object with character format that contains the Key Figure and the unit (formatted value) based on user preferences configured on the SAP server. For example, '200 USD', '345 u20AC', '25 km'
Each Key Figure is represented with a Measure object in a Class u201CKey Figures.u201D In the case where the Key Figure is configured in BW with a unit, an additional Dimension object will be added representing the unit information. The u201CFormattedu201D value represents the numeric value Formatted as a string value, following the user-specific formatting settings.
Or if doesn't appear the Unit, for some CKF or RKF it happens, you can add to your BEx query and then to the universe the unit or currency and create a separate dimension with that information.
I hope this help you.
Best regards,
  Fede