Best way to Import Data from a SQL Server Table?

Question

Hi,
Firstly thanks for looking at this question.
We need to import data into SAP BPC 5.1 on a twice daily basis and have chosen not to export to a .CSV file but instead to hold all data in a SQL table and import it directly from there.  As part of the import we wish to run the default logic, however only over the data which is imported as opposed to having to running default logic over the entire database after every import.
We did some research on this topic and the only thing we could find that would work as described above is using the "Import SQL" package.  However we keep experiencing problems with it and have not yet been able to run it successfully; the errors it gives are not consistent from run to run which makes it difficult to start a thread, though we are getting help from the helpdesk at the moment.
My question here though is - is there another way that someone knows of to import data into SAP BPC from a SQL table, and being able to run default logic over just the data being imported, or is our only hope getting the "Import SQL" package working?
Any help much appreciated.
Regards,
Iain
Forgot to mention details of our environment:
SAP BPC v5.0.495, 2 server environment -
Server 1 (DB/AS/SSIS/File server) = 64bit Windows 2k3 server with 64bit SQL Server Enterprise Edition
Server 2 (IIS/App server) = 32bit Windows 2k3 server
Edited by: Iain Hambleton on Jun 17, 2008 3:25 PM

Answer 1

Lain,
I recently created SSIS packages that need to work with a staging table that does all kind of manipulations of that data before it is loading into SAP BPC, because it also has to load the data in the drillthrough table within the same package. From one point in my package the data is also in a SQL table so basically the same as in your situation. This also works with an export to CSV within the DTSX file like Alwin said, because in this case you can use the standard transformation and conversion stuff during the load.
I also needed to limit the data region for logic to the data region that is in the load for currency conversion purposes. This is not very much of a problem. I had a situation where I have an Accounts receivable cube containing a daily time dimension for keyduedates and a datasrc dimension containing weeks. Every week has a complete overview of the open AR items in that week and need to be converted for that week (datasrc) only and not for the whole database every time we load. But by default data would be converted based on the Keyduedates dimension while I wanted the Week dimension to be used as the data region. I solved it by using these rows in the logic:
*Scope_by=version,Weeks
*xdim_memberset weeks=%weeks_set%
*xdim_memberset version = %version_set%
I can send you the SSIS package and logic if you want. Just send me your details then.
-Joost
Edited by: Joost Hoppenbrouwers on Jun 17, 2008 4:25 PM