SAP Data Services is among the most optimized software applications for integrating and transforming data. It is widely used for developing and carrying out activities for extracting SAP data from various sources, which include data stores, web services, applications, and databases. After the data is extracted, it can be processed, integrated, and transformed for real-time business analytics. 

The SAP Extractor

Among the most optimized and efficient SAP data extraction tools is the SAP Extractor. It is a data management feature of SAP that extracts data from source systems and later stores it in business intelligence systems or downstream data warehouses.

The Extractor was primarily launched by SAP Data Services to extract SAP data to input into an SAP BW application. The SAP Extractor, as one of the SAP data extraction tools, can be used for integrating data even when an SAP customer is not using the Business Warehouse of SAP.

The SAP Extractor also populates the delta queue with delta-type new and changed records. This data can be transferred to SAP BW via a simple data transfer remote call. For extracting SAP data and transferring it to the input layer of SAP Business Warehouse, also called the Persistent Staging Area (PSA), it is necessary to define the load process with an InfoPackage in the scheduler.

The data load process is triggered by an request IDoc to the source system when the InfoPackage is to be implemented with process chains used for executions. 

The Functioning of the SAP Extractor

SAP data extraction tools, such as the SAP Extractor, are specific to applications with the BI Content of the Business Warehouse being delivered after the extractors are hard-coded for the Data Source. However, it is necessary that the Extractors are used to match the precise architecture of the Data Source.

Additionally, users can also use different types of Extractors to extract SAP data and move it to BW. The advantage here is that SAP Extractors are fully automated. After the generic extractor names the Data Source, it can identify which data needs to be extracted and the tables where data is in read-only form. 

How to Extract SAP Data

SAP data can be extracted in three ways with SAP data extraction tools, including the SAP Extractor.

1. Content Extractors: These are application-specific and used to extract BW content, FI, HR, CO, SAP CRM, and LO cockpit.

2.  Customer-Generated Extractors: These, too, are application-specific and used for LIS, FI-SL, and CO-PA.

3. Generic Extractors: These have wide-ranging cross-application uses that function on the DB View, Infoset, and Function Modules.

An Extractor consisting of related database views, master data attributes or texts, SAP query functional areas, or transaction data from all transparent tables can seamlessly extract SAP data. All these data types can generically be read and transferred to BW by the Data Source.

The SAP Extractor offers several features as an Enterprise Resource Planning product and is a standout among the best SAP data extraction tools.