In the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) environment, InfoProviders serve as essential objects for storing and structuring data to support reporting and analysis. Among various types of InfoProviders, Transient InfoProviders offer a flexible, temporary approach to data handling, ideal for scenarios requiring ad hoc data access without permanent storage. This article explores the concept of Transient InfoProviders, their use cases, and how they fit within the SAP BW ecosystem.
A Transient InfoProvider is a special type of InfoProvider in SAP BW that exists only during the execution of a query or a data retrieval session. Unlike traditional InfoProviders such as InfoCubes or DataStore Objects (DSOs), transient InfoProviders do not store data physically in the database. Instead, they are dynamically created by combining data from one or more underlying InfoProviders for a specific query run.
Because they do not persist data, transient InfoProviders are lightweight and useful for temporary or virtual data aggregation scenarios.
When a query is executed that references multiple InfoProviders combined via a CompositeProvider or a similar construct, SAP BW creates a transient InfoProvider internally to represent the combined data set for that particular query.
This approach allows users to:
| Feature | Transient InfoProvider | InfoCube / DSO (Physical InfoProviders) | CompositeProvider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Storage | None (temporary at query runtime) | Physical storage in database | Virtual, combines other InfoProviders |
| Data Persistence | No | Yes | No |
| Use Case | Temporary, dynamic data aggregation | Long-term, structured data storage | Flexible virtual data modeling |
| Performance | Depends on source data and query | Generally optimized for performance | Depends on combined objects |
Transient InfoProviders in SAP BW provide a powerful way to work with temporary, virtualized data sets without the overhead of physical storage. They empower analysts and developers with the flexibility to combine and analyze data dynamically, accelerating insight generation and reducing data modeling complexity.
While they are not a replacement for physical InfoProviders when permanent data storage and governance are required, transient InfoProviders serve as an important tool in the SAP BW toolkit for agile and flexible reporting scenarios.
Understanding how to effectively leverage transient InfoProviders alongside other SAP BW objects is key to building responsive and scalable BI solutions in modern SAP landscapes.