SAP HANA and BOBI 4.0 Knowledgebase Universe Design Guide

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SAP HANA and BOBI 4.0 Knowledgebase

Universe Design Guide (Multi Source)

A SAP HAN Community Service

Author: Chief Architect::
Pals Nagaraj, PMP Jothi Periasamy A SAP HANA Community Services
SAP HANA Certified Solutions Architect SAP HANA/EPM/BI/EIM Community Thought Leader 01/10/2012
SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Certified Lead/Manager SAP BPC/BOBJ/BI/MDM Community Domain Champion
pnagaraj@enterpriseitech.com Joesaran@gmail.com, (916)-296-0228 - Cell

CloneSkills, Inc., http://www.CloneSkills.com , Info@CloneSkills.com , 1.800.836.8959, Page - 1

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary: ............................................................................................... 4
Universe Development – Implementation Steps: .................................................. 10
Launching Information Design Tool ...................................................................... 12
Create a Project .................................................................................................... 13
Create a Session .................................................................................................. 15
Create a Relational Connection to InfoCube......................................................... 17
Create a Data Foundation from InfoCube ............................................................. 27
Create a Business Layer from Data Foundation ................................................... 33
Create Classes & Objects ..................................................................................... 39
Create Actual & Plan Folder(class) ............................................................................... 41
Create Category Dimension .......................................................................................... 43
Create Other Dimensions and Measure ........................................................................ 45
Create Year and Month from Time Dimension ...................................................... 46
Create Month Dimension .............................................................................................. 47
Create Year Dimension ................................................................................................ 49
Create Parameters and List of Values .................................................................. 51
Create List of Values .................................................................................................... 51
Create Parameters ....................................................................................................... 58
Parameters and List of Values at Data Foundation Level.............................................. 61
Filters .................................................................................................................... 62
Prevent technical data from business users ......................................................... 66
Publish the Universe ............................................................................................. 68
Creating Web Intelligence Document from the published universe ....................... 71
Preview the data ........................................................................................................... 74
Using Filters.................................................................................................................. 75
Filter - Plan Category Only............................................................................................ 75
Filter - Actual Category Only ......................................................................................... 76
Filter – Cost Center France........................................................................................... 77
Filter – France and Germany data ................................................................................ 78



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Filter – Actual Category for Germany and India for Q1 ................................................. 82
Parameters ........................................................................................................... 83
Category Parameter ..................................................................................................... 83
Aliases and Contexts ............................................................................................ 90
Aliases and contexts are used to resolve loops in the schema...................................... 90
Aliases .......................................................................................................................... 92
Using OLAP Connection ....................................................................................... 93
Insert a OLAP Connection ............................................................................................ 94
Publish the OLAP Connection ...................................................................................... 99
Create a new Webi Document .................................................................................... 100
Select BEx as Data source ......................................................................................... 101
Select the OLAP Connection and the query ................................................................ 102
Create a Webi Document from OLAP ......................................................................... 103
Publish the webi document to the server. ................................................................... 106
Using Single Source MS Access Connection ..................................................... 109
SAP Note on creating and using OLAP connection in Information Design Tool . 110
Disclaimer: .......................................................................................................... 111
_________________________________________________ .......................... 111
SAP Community Contributors: ............................................................................ 111



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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this document is to demonstrate step by step implementation instruction
on how to design and implement multi source universe functionality in SAP BOBI 4.0. It is
assumed that the reader has enough proficient in SAP HANA and SAP BOBI
terminologies and technologies and also the application navigating in SAP HANA and
BOBI user interfaces. In this implementation guide, SAP BusinessObjects Information
Design Tool has been used to build out the multi source Universe.

Business Drivers:
Access enterprise business information through single source
Maintain single version of the truth
Enable self servicing report functionality
Combine data from multiple sources to analyze business insights
Reduce technical complexity in data analysis and report development, including
Data model
Data architecture
Data dictionary
Meta data
Data flow
Data filter
Table join
SQL complexity
Easy access of business information irrespective of source systems
Business driven , and IT enablement
…much more



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Multi Source Universe Architecture:

Source # 1: SAP HANA
Source # 2: SAP BW 7.3



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Source # 1: SAP HANA | Application Navigation



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Source # 1: SAP HANA | Connection Information

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Certified Lead
Lead/Manager SAP BPC/BOBJ/BI/MDM Community Domain Champion

CloneSkills, Inc., http://www.CloneS
eSkills.com , Info@CloneSkills.com , 1.800.836.8959, Page - 7
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Source # 2: SAP BW 7.3 | Application Navigation



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Source # 2: SAP BW 7. | Connection Information
7.3


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Multi Universe Development – Implementation Steps:



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Launching Information Design Too
Tool

Option 1

Option 2


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Create a Project

Select - File – New Project. Enter project Name. Leave Project Location as default
and click Finish.

The project created will be listed in the Local Projects


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Create a Session

Under the Repository Resources, click on the down arrow next to green + sign,
and select Insert Session

Enter your login credentials in the Open Session window and click OK.

By creating a session you are logging into the Repository, to publish the
connection to the source and business layer/universe to the repository. So that it
can be used by any presentation
presentation/reporting tools like Crystal Reports, Web
ls
Intelligence, Dashboards, etc.


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Once you are connected to the repository all the Connections and universes
published to the repository will be listed under Repository Resources.



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Create a Relational Connection to InfoCube

Under the Repository Resources right click on Connections and select Insert
Relational Connection


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In the New Relational Connection window, enter the resource name and
description and click next.



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In the Database Middleware Driver selection window, select SAP Java Connector
(JCO) under SAP NetWeaver BW and click Next.



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In the Create an SAP NetWeaver BW Connection window, enter the BW server
credentials and click Test Connection. If the credentials are correct and valid, Test
Result window will display with “Test Successful” message. Close the Test Result
Window. (Contact your system administrator for BW server credentials)



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After the Test Connection is successful, click on the button with three dots (…) at
the end of the InfoProvider line.


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After click on the (…)
button, “Select an
InfoProvider Fact Table”
window will display with list
of all InfoProviders for the
BW system.

InfoProviders listed will be

IOBJ – InfoObject
CUBE – InfoCube
MPRO – MultiProvider
VIRT- Virtual Provider
ODSO – Operational Data
Store.

By selecting object of your
interest the list will be
filtered and only fact tables
of selected type will be
displayed.



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Here CUBE is selected, so
Fact tables of InfoCube
type are displayed.

List can be searched for a
particular cube by selecting
the search icon and
entering the letters in the
cube description, to search
the cube of your interest.
Once the cube is displayed
select it and click OK. Here
in the example, entering 33
brought up the BOBJ Class
3312 cube. This cube will
be selected.



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The selected cube will be displayed in the InfoProvider field of the Create an SAP
NetWeaver BW Connection window. Click Finish.

The connection will be created and published to the repository. Following Info
window will be displayed. Select Yes for “Do you want to create a shortcut?”



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At this point connection to the InfoCube (or any other info source) is published
to the repository and a short to the connection is also created in the local
computer. Connection published to the repository will be used by the reports,
created based on this universe, during run-time. The connection shortcut that
is saved locally in the development system will be used during development
time.



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Shortcut connection is listed under
Local Projects with extension .cns

Connection published to the
repository is listed under Repository
Resources without any extension.



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Create a Data Foundation from InfoCube

Select File-New-Data Foundation. In the New Data Foundation window, enter the
Data
name for the data foundation and click next.

Enter the name of
the Data
Foundation and
click Next.


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In the Select Data
Foundation Type,
select
Multisource-
Enabled and click
Next.



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Click Next in the
CMS user
Authentication
window.



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In the Select
Connections
window select the
appropriate
connection. (if the
project has more
than one
connection, all
connections in the
project will be
listed here)

NOTE: the
connection listed
here is shortcut
connection (.cns
extension).

Click Next.



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In the Define
connection
properties for
connection
window, click on
Advanced and
select
“Automatically
create tables and
joins” option.

Click Finish.



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• Data foundation with the given name (DF_UNIV_DEV) will be created.
• It will be created with the extension .dfx (DF_UNIV_DEV.dfx) and listed under
local project
• A data foundation tab with data foundation name (DF_UNIV_DEV.dfx) will open
• Fact table and dimensions with join will be displayed.
• List of tables and joins will also be displayed



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Create a Business Layer from Data Foundation

Select File – New – Business Layer

Select Relational Data
Source in the New
Business Layer (Select
the type of data source
for the business layer)
window and click next.


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Enter name and
description for the
Business Layer and click
Next.



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In the Data Foundation
selection window, click
on the (…) button, to
open data foundation
list.



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Select the data
foundation created
before and click OK.



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Selected data foundation
will be populated in the
Data Foundation
selection window. Select
the option for
“Automatically create
classes and objects for
SAP NetWeaver BW
connections” and click
Finish.



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• Business Layer will be created with the given name (BL_UNIV_DEV.blx)
with the extension .blx and listed under the project in the Local Projects area
(will not be in the Repository Resources yet)
• Business Layer tab with the name (BL_UNIV_DEV.blx) will be open
• Created classes (folders) and objects (dimensions and measures) will be
displayed (since “Automatically create classes and objects for SAP
NetWeaver BW connections” option was selected in the previous step)
• Data foundation from which the business layer was created will be displayed



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Create Classes & Objects

Naming in BI 4.0 and before
BusinessObjects V 4.0 BusinessObjects V3 and before
Folder Class
Dimension Object
Measure Object
Parameter Prompt
Creating business user friendly objects is the main task of universe design where the
columns that contain business data are translated to appropriate business domain friendly
terms to make business user independent from technical domain. Security, Parameters,
Paramet
List of values are also defined in universe design.


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The following table describes the Dimensions and Measure that will be created in
this exercise using the objects in the above screenshot.

Class and Objects to be created in this exercise

Name Type Source
Actual & Plan Folder -
Category Dimension Category
Account Dimension P_ACCT
P Activity Dimension P_ACTIVITY
Cost Center Dimension P_CC



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Data Source Dimension P_DATASRC
Report Currency Dimension RptCurrency
Year Dimension Time
Month Dimension Time
Revenue Measure Revenue

The example data set contains Actual & Plan data. So Actual & Plan data
folder(class) will be created to contain dimensions and a measure.

Create Actual & Plan Folder(class)

Right click on the universe
name – select New - Folder



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In the Folder Properties window enter the name of the folder – Actual & Plan and
enter description if any. Actual & Plan folder should appear in the Business Layer
listing.



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Create Category Dimension

Right click on the Actual & Plan – select New –Dimension.

In the Dimension Properties window enter the dimension name – Category and
click on the SQL Assistant Window.



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SQL Expression Editor window will open.

1. In the Business Layer section expand category folder and select
Category dimension by double clicking.
2. Selected dimension – Category will appear in the SQL Expression
section.
3. Validate and click OK.

SQL Expression editor will close and Category dimension selection expression
@select(CON_UNIV_DEVCategoryCategory) will show up in Dimension



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properties window and the Category dimension will be listed under Actual & Plan
folder.

Create Other Dimensions and Measure

Repeat the above steps to create Account, P Activity, Cost Center, Data Source,
Report Currency dimensions and Revenue measure. (Refer to the table few pages
above for the source)

Save the universe.



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After creating all the dimensions and measure the Actual & Plan class(folder)
should appear as shown below.

Create Year and Month from Time Dimension
The time data in the data set is in YYYY.MMM format as a string variable. By
getting the first 4 characters will return Year and last 3 characters will return month.



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Create Month Dimension

Follow the steps to create a dimension. In the SQL Expression window:
1. Go to the Functions list
2. Navigate to Database Functions – CharString and double click Rightpart function
3. Rightpart (right())functions syntax and description will appear at the bottom. Also the
function template, right($1,$2), will be add to the expression window.
4. Delete $1 from right($1,$2) template. Navigate to Time dimension in Business Layer and
double click it. Template will change to right(@Select(CON_UNIV_DEVTimeTime),$2)
nd
5. Change the 2 parameter to 3 in function template. The right($1,$2) function finally should
be right(@Select(CON_UNIV_DEVTimeTime,3)
6. Validate and click OK.



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Checking the Month values

Back in Dimension Properties window for Month dimension, click on Show Values..
button to preview the values for Month.



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All the unique values for the Month Dimension will be displayed in the “Show
Values for Month” tab. Close it after checking the values.

Create Year Dimension
Follow the steps for creating Month dimension from year. Instead of right()
function use left($1, $2) function to get the Year from Time (in the format
YYYY.MMM).



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After adding all dimensions and a measure the final list of objects should be as
shown here in the folder Actual & Plan

Save the universe.



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Create Parameters and List of Values

Parameters: Parameters are used during run time to prompt the user to select
run-time
values to filter the data. Selected parameter values will be used in the where
clause.

List of Value (LOV): Predefined set of data for an object. Mostly used in
combination with parameters.

Create List of Values
The following exercise creates list of values for Category, Cost Center and Account

In the Business Layer tab, click on the Parameters and Lists of Values button,
below the Queries button. Parameter and List of Value editor will open. Click on
the down arrow button in List of values. There will be 3 choices to create list of
values.
values
1. List of values based on business layer objects
f
2. Static list of values
3. List of values based on custom SQL
In this exercise first option will be used to create list of values. Select the 1st option.
values.


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In the Business Object LOV Properties window enter the name for the LOV
(Category LOV) and click on Edit Query.. to open Query Panel



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In the Query Panel, double click on Category under Actual & Plan folder so that it
will in Result Objects for Query #1.
Click OK to go back to Business Object LOV Properties window (shown above)



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Back in Business Object LOV properties window, click Preview button, the values
available in the LOV will be listed (Category LOV has 2 values “ACTUAL” and
“PLAN” ). Values can be sorted using the sort menu.
Close the Preview Values window.



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Created LOV (Category LOV) should be listed in List of Values.

Repeat the above steps to create Cost Center, Account LOVs.
Save the universe



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Category LOV, Cost Center LOV and Account LOV should be listed under List of
Values.



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Create Parameters
1. Click on the Insert Parameter icon (green +). Parameter Properties will open
2. Enter name for the parameter (prompt)
3. Check Prompt to users option (this will display the Prompt Text at run-time)
4. Enter Prompt Text: (the text entered here will be displayed at run-time)
5. Click (…) button to get list of LOVs to associate with this parameter (prompt)



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In the Select a List of Values window, select Universe List of Values.
All the LOVs created in the previous section will be listed.
Select Category LOV and click ok.

Selected LOV will be associated with the parameter.

Allow multiple values : This option allows entering or selecting (from LOV) more than
one value during run-time for a prompt. When this is checked, where clause in the SQL
generated, will have “column in (value1, value2, etc.)” If this option is not selected then the
where clause would be “column= value1”
Keep list values: This option saves the values selected from LOV or entered for the
next run-time. For example. If Category=PLAN was selected and ran a report. Next time
when the report is run, it will populate Category=PLAN automatically.



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Category Prompt/Parameter with Category LOV

Repeat the above steps to create Cost Center parameter and Account parameter.
Save the universe.

Finally the all the parameters and LOVs created should appear as shown in the
following screenshot.



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Parameters and List of Values at Data Foundation Level
Parameters and List of values can be defined at data foundation level also. When defined
at data foundation level, all Business Layer that uses the data foundation inherits those
parameters and list of values.

NOTE: More than one Business Layer (universe) can be defined based on one data
foundation. Ex. data foundation can have all the enterprise data from which Sales,
Inventory, and Product etc universes can be built



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Filters
Filters are objects that will be used in the “where clause” of the generated SQL. Like
dimensions and measures, filters are also named in business terms like – Plan Category
only, Actual Category Only, Cost Center France, Cost Center Germany, etc. so that
business users can understand and use them to filter appropriate data.

Steps to create Filters are same as those of creating dimensions and measures.

Right click on the Actual & Plan folder and select Filters.

In the Filter Properties window:
• Enter the filter name and description.
• Select Business for Filter type:
o Native Filter: defined using SQL
o Business Filter: define using objects in business layer.
• Click Edit Filter



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In the Edit Custom Filter window,

Double click on Category in Actual & Plan folder.
Category object will appear on the Filter Objects column in the right
Select “Equal to” from the operation dropdown.
Enter PLAN for the value. (Category LOV can also be used to get the value PLAN)
Click OK.



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Filter “Plan Category Only” will appear under the dimensions and measure in the
Actual & Plan folder /class and Filter definition (Category=’PLAN’) will be displayed
in Filter Properties

Repeat the steps to create Actual Category Only, Cost Center France, Cost Center
Germany, Cost Center India, Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 filters.
For Q1 uses Month In (JAN; FEB; MAR) (note semicolon between months).
Repeat the steps to create Q2 and Q3 filters.

Save the business layer.



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The final list of dimensions, measures and filters, in this exercise, should be as
shown in the screenshot below



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Prevent technical data from business users
The objects in the folder with the connection name (CON_UNIV_DEV) contains
name of the columns from the underlying data source. This should be prevented
from business users during report creation by them. Only the folder Actual & Plan
with business termed dimensions, measures and filters should be visible to
business users. To achieve this, the folder with technical names
(CON_UNIV_DEV) can be hidden. (any object can be hidden from run-time)



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Save the universe/business layer.



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Publish the Universe

Right click on the business layer
Select Publish – To Repository


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In the Check Universe integrity window, select “Check all” and click Next.

Check Integrity: checks if the underlying data source schema is changed between
the times, when data foundation retrieved the schema and when publishing the
universe. If changed, the integrity check will fail. In that case, data foundation must
be updated to synchronize with data source schema before publishing. Otherwise,
runtime error may occur.



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Select the folder to publish the business layer/universe (top level folder “Universes”
is chosen here) and click Finish.

Business layer/ Universe will be published to repository and listed under
Repository Resources also.



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Creating Web Intelligence Document from the published
universe
Before creating a Web Intelligence document, you need to log into BI Lauchpad (browser
based) or Start Web Intelligence Rich Client (Windows based).

BI LaunchPad

Optionally you can enter the url: http:<server>:8080/BOE/BI in the browser.
Web Intelligence Rich Client

In this exercise Web Intelligence Rich client will be used.
Launch the Web Intelligence Rich Client and enter the login credentials.


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Double click the published universe (BL_UNIV_DEV) from the universe list.



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Query panel will open with all the Dimensions, Measures, Filters, Parameters and
List to values developed in the Information Design Tool business layer.



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Preview the data
This exercise uses Query Panel to demonstrates filters, parameters and LOVs and
preview the results in the Data Preview panel. The query can be converted to report by
selecting Close-Apply changes and Close menu item, which will transfer the objects to a
web intelligence report that can be saved.

Select all the dimensions and the measure (click on Category first and hold shift on
Revenue to select all objects in between them).
Drag the selected objects into Result Objects section.
Click Refresh in the Data Preview section, to preview the all the data in the cube.

NOTE:SQL generated can be view using SQL script viewer.



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Using Filters
Filter - Plan Category Only
Double click the “Plan Category Only” filter or drag and drop into Query Filters
section and click Refresh and verify only PLAN data is retrieved.



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Filter - Actual Category Only
Replace the Plan Category Only filter with Actual Category Only filter and verify the
data retrieved.


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Filter – Cost Center France
Replace the previous filter with Cost Center France filter and refresh. Verify data
for only France is retrieved.



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Filter – France and Germany data
Add Cost Center Germany filter to the Cost Center France filter. When you add
second filter both will be joined with “And”. Click on “And” to change it to “Or”

NOTE: Filters on same columns should have “OR” operator.
Filters on different columns should have “AND” operator.


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Refresh and verify that data for France and Germany only retrieved.



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Filter – Actual data for France and Germany
Add Actual Category Only filter to the previous filter.

When you add the Actual Category
Only filter the filters may have OR
operator.

The proper filter should be
(Actual Category Only) AND (Cost
Center France or Cost Center
Germany)
Cost Center France and Cost Center
Germany need to be grouped
together

To group Cost Centers, click and
hold on Cost Center Germany, push
it towards Cost Center France and
release the mouse. This will group
Cost Center France and Germany
together and isolate Actual Category
Only as a separate group.

Click on the “And” and “Or” to toggle
them appropriately as shown here.



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Refresh and verify only Actual Category data is returned for France and Germany.



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Filter – Actual Category for Germany and India for Q1



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