SAP Data Services is a world leading Enterprise Information Management solution for all your data integration, data quality, data profiling and text data processing needs. Using it’s agile and powerful information management capabilities and user friendly approach SAP Data Services let’s you easily integrate, transform, improve and deliver trusted data to your business.

In this post I will provide you the summary of what’s new in SAP Data Services 4.2 version.

Improved and updated Data Services Workbench

• Create data flows using Query, Case, Merge, Row Generation, Map Operation, and SQL transforms in the replication job.
• Convert replication tables into data flows.
• The Workbench Data Flow editor includes the Data Flow diagram (top), list of input schemas for the selected transform (bottom left), and a tabbed area containing the properties of the object currently selected in the Data Flow diagram (bottom right).
• Now the Table Reader and the Template Table Loader uses the same options as Data Services Designer.
• Validate process in the Data Flow editor.
• In this version you can define expression macros that you can re-use to apply the same function to a selection of fields with a single mouse click.
• Create multiple file formats using the new wizard.
• Files are supported as a source for replication.
• A replication job now allows using tables from different sources for replication.
• Data Services Workbench now includes the ability to consume and model data cleansing solutions.

Enhanced SAP HANA support

• Data Services has been enhanced to take advantage of HANA calculation views to push down more data flow operations to the HANA database.
• The following transforms for push down are supported – Merge, Query (FILTER, GROUP BY, JOIN, and ORDER BY), Profiling/Profiling pivot (Information Steward).

Enhanced extraction capabilities for SAP Business Suite

• Data Services now supports logical range and list partitioning when you define the SAP Table Reader in a regular dataflow (set Partition type to Range or List for a table in the Properties tab and enable the Enable partitioning option).

Updated connectivity for Big Data and CDC

• Data Services 4.2 includes integration with SAP Sybase Replication Server to capture changed data, transform and apply it to the target system.
• Data Services 4.2 provides native Microsoft SQL Server support on UNIX as a source or a target including the following functionality: CDC support, Bulk loading support, Allow merge or upsert option support for SQL Server 2008 and later, Linked datastores support. The following functionality is limited: no possibility to use SQL Server as a repository on UNIX, Windows authentication for the MS SQL Server datastore is not supported on the UNIX platform.
• INSERT…LOCATION SQL statement for a data flow that uses Sybase IQ as the loader and Sybase ASE or Sybase IQ as the reader is now supported.
• SAP Sybase SQL Anywhere as both a datastore and a repository using the ODBC client is now supported.

Usability improvements

• Variables and Parameters window has been enhanced to support the following actions – Replicate , Insert Before, Insert After, Move Up and Move Down variables and parameters.
• Global Variables tab of a job’s properties has been enhanced in the following ways:  Improved column resizing, Filter, Multi-select, Bulk value update.

Monitoring, administration and installation enhancements

• The following additional web service operations are included to this release of Data Services – Get_Repository_List, Get_BatchJob_ExeDetail, Get_BatchJob_FlowDetails, Get_DF_Auditdata, Get_DF_Monitor_Log, Get_DF_Monitor_Log_Pivot which provides even more possibilities to further analyze operational statistics.
• Data Services Object Promotion Management – the new Promotion Management tool enables you to securely copy one or more Data Services objects from a development environment to a production environment. This tool can be accessed and launched from the Administrator in the Data Services Management Console.
• New user application rights are introduced in this version of Data Services – View internal information in log, Manage datastore and substitution param configurations, Manage Object Promotion Configurations, Manage Object Promotion Import.

Functions and Transforms improvements

• Map_Operation transform was improved to support data modifications based both on current operation codes and mapping expressions.
• XML_Map transform can be used in Batch mode to accumulate data as a block of rows instead of a single row.

Text Data processing

• Text Data processing was improved with the following features – Language identification, Expansion of Dutch and Portuguese extraction, New Simplified Chinese Voice of the Customer rules, Expansion of Emoticon and Profanity extraction in French, German, and Spanish, Expansion of Russian and Korean extraction.

Adapter SDK now includes four new interfaces which allows to implement CDC and finer controls for pushdown operations.

The following Data Quality transforms have been enhanced

• Data Cleanse transform (Remove diacritical characters, Information and status codes, Phone parser, Parse discrete input, New Data Cleanse output fields, New Data Cleanse input fields, Memory cache).
• Geocoder transform (New country directory data).
• Global Address Cleanse transform (Transliteration support for Chinese and Cyrillic address data, Address-line validation for Russia, Improved Austrian address assignment).