Forum Discussion
Power BI: Can't determine relationships between the fields while consuming SAP Analytical CDS Query
Hi BhargavTomar,
Thank you for the update and for sharing the screenshots.
According to the official Microsoft documentation:
- In SAP BW, every Characteristic includes a Level 01 object, even when no hierarchy is defined. The Level 01 object represents a flat list of all members for that characteristic. For characteristics with multiple hierarchies, only one hierarchy or the Level 01 object can be selected.
- When connecting to SAP BW using DirectQuery, Power BI exposes the available objects based on the metadata returned by the SAP BW source. Additionally, the list of columns and measures is fixed by the underlying source, and relationships can't be defined in the Power BI model because they're considered inherent in the SAP BW source.
For more information, please refer to the below official documentation:
DirectQuery and SAP Business Warehouse (BW) in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
SAP Business Warehouse connector troubleshooting - Power Query | Microsoft Learn
I hope this helps. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.
Thank you.
Thanks for the guidance!
I've verified both points:
1. Implementation 2.0 – In the current Power BI Desktop version I'm using, there's no separate toggle for this under Preview Features anymore, which suggests Implementation 2.0 is now the default/standard (the old Version 1.0 option doesn't appear as a choice).
2. SAP .NET Connector (NCo) – Confirmed this is now installed on the machine, with "Install assemblies to GAC" selected during setup. Restarted Power BI Desktop after installation.
However, after re-testing, I'm still seeing the same issue - Power BI is unable to determine relationships between the split "Level 01" hierarchy tables (Status Text / Status Description), and the same "Can't determine relationships between the fields" error occurs when both are used in a visual together.
Are there any other known causes for this behavior with SAP BW Cube connections - specifically around characteristics that get exposed with hierarchy/"Level 01" splitting? Would appreciate any further pointers.
Update: To further isolate this, I tested with a completely different, simple custom CDS view (unrelated to the original Notification/Status issue) - a basic Purchasing Document query exposing Company Code, Purchasing Organization, Purchasing Document Type, Purchasing Document, and Supplier as flat fields, built as a Cube via SAP BW.
Connecting to this via the SAP BW Application Server connector produces the exact same crash:
"Something went wrong - Sequence contains more than one element"
This occurs even before any fields are added to a visual, right when Power BI tries to build the initial connection/schema.
This is a completely independent CDS view from the original one I reported (different tables, no hierarchy/status fields involved at all), which strongly suggests this isn't related to any specific CDS design or hierarchy characteristic - it looks like a more general issue with how Power BI Desktop's Modeling Engine handles BW Cube connections in DirectQuery mode.
Attaching a screenshot of this second occurrence for reference. Both cases point to the same stack trace (GetCubeDataSourceType / System.Linq.SingleOrDefault) mentioned earlier in this thread.