What Is a Universe?
The SAP Business Objects is the semantic layer that allows report designer to access the data base without having to know any information about the underlying data structure.Being able to build reports without writing SQL statements highlights the ease-of-use of the SAP Business Objects Enterprise suite of reporting tools.
The Importance of the Universe
Each universe is a single file that contains a connection to your database and business "objects" aliases to database fields.An unlimited number of Web Intelligence reports are then sourced from a single universe.As the database evolves and structures change, updates flow through seamlessly to reports by making corrections in one place:the universe.
Although the concepts are fairly simple and straightforward, universes should carefully designed and tested.Errors in universe design can have profound negative effects on reports that lead to long running queries and worst of all,inaccurate results.
Primary Elements in a Universe
Following are the primary elements in a universe
- Classes
- Objects
- Database tables(when mapped to a relational database)
- Joins
Classes
Classes appear as folders and serve as a grouping structure for aliased database fields and calculations.The primary goal in building a useful class structure is to organize objects into logical folder groupings that can be easily understood by users when creating Web Intelligence or Crystal Reports.
Objects
Objects are simply aliased database fields.In general database tables contains large number of fields with cryptic naming conventions not easily understood by a business user or with little value to a business user.With the objects creation using universe designer, any fields not used for reporting can simply be ignored.
Using Objects, we can embed business logic and calculations that appear in a report.
Object Types
Objects are created in the universe and defined as one of three object types:
Dimensions: Objects used to provide the basis for analyses.Dimension objects usually consists of geographic information,date information,products, and other descriptive fields.
Detail:(optional) Very similar to dimension object types but provide supporting details rather than used as the primary basis of analysis.Example ZIP code and address.
Measure:Numeric values used to quantify and calculate data.Aggregations and counts are the two most common types of measures.
Database Tables
Database fact tables,dimension tables, and views are inserted into the universe and then joined according to their relationship in the database schema.
Which Tables can be Inserted?
The tables available to be inserted depend on the database credentials of the developer logged on to the Designer tool.
To revise the database connection after a universe has been created, click File-->Parameters, and select Edit to revise the current connection.
To use the commonly used ODBC connection type, Create an ODBC system data source to connect to your database,open the administrative tool called Data Sources (ODBC), click the system DSN tab, and then add a system Data source.
Joins
To create a cohesive set of related objects, a successful Universe should contain a collection of correctly related joined tables.
Join Types
Traditional Join types are inner join,left join,right join, and full outer join.Other joins include the following
Equi-joins: Two tables are linked when the values in both fields are equal.
Theta join: Theta joins are most commonly used in warehouse that don't contain keys and when an equivalent field doesn't exist in both the fact and dimension table.The operator can be anything except equal.
Outer joins: It's important that you understand the data before applying these types of joins.Outer joins can have a significant impact on the speed at which a query is returned.This is especially true when views are used.
Creating a New Universe
To create a new universe, open Designer, and then log on to the SAP Business Objects Enterprise system.You will be prompted to enter the following information:
System: SAP Business Objects Enterprise or Edge series system
Username: valid user name previously set up in the CMC
Password:valid password
Authentication type:Enterprise,LDAP,Windows AD, or Windows NT.
After you have successfully logged on to Designer, click FILE.New or Click the blank page icon to begin creating a new universe.The universe parameters box will open, and you will need to enter a name and select a connection to proceed.
Available Database Middle ware selections
- Apache
- Business Objects
- Generic
- Hewlett Packard
- HSQLDB
- Hyperion
- IBM
- Informix
- Microsoft
- NCR
- Netezza
- Open Edge
- Oracle
- Salesforce.com
- SAP
- Sun
- Sybase
Setting Query Limits
Two important settings can be found on the controls tab: Limit the size of the Result set and limit the execution time.
The default settings are 5,000 rows for the result set and 10 minutes for the execution time.It's best not to uncheck the Limit Size of Result Set To box to protect your database from potentially huge sets of data returned by a user.In most cases, you database administrator(DBA) can provide you with a maximum number of rows to retrieve in a single single query.The maximum Result Set is commonly set between 100,000 and 500,000 rows.
It's also not recommended to remove the limit execution time to checkbox to protect your database from potentially long-running queries created by Web Intelligence report consumers.The default limit for execution time is set at 10 minutes but can be easily adjusted up or down.
Creating Classes and Objects
To create a Class, follow these steps:
>>Right click on the Universe pane, and then select Class
>>When you are prompted to enter a name, be sure to use a descriptive term that will be easily interpreted by the user.
To create Object, follow these steps:
>>Click on a field in one of the tables in the structure pane of the Universe.
>>Drag and drop field into the Class
>>A second way of creating objects is by right clicking on a class and selecting object.By creating an object in this way,you will need to build the select section of the object manually by clicking the button labelled >>located to the right of the select box.
The where condition in the Definition tab of an Object can be a valuable method of creating objects that meet business requirements.This section is commonly used to hard code a value associated with an object.The benefit is to remove the burden of the Web Intelligence report developer from adding a required filter when building adhoc reports.
It's important to note that a variety of built-in functions are available for creating complex custom fields.
After creating your formula, be sure to click parse to validate the formula.
Objects Properties Described
The below screen shows a close-up look at the properties of the Number of guests object in the Island resort marketing universe.There are several important areas available to be modified when editing or creating an object.The Island Resorts Marketing universe is a demo universe that installs with SAP Business Objects and the Designer tool.To locate the universe, launch Designer, and click File-->Open, A window opens to a folder of default universes.
The options in the above screen are described below:
>The Name is the object alias that will be visible to Web Intelligence users when creating reports.
>Type is the data type of the field in the select section.
>The description section is optional but can be very helpful to a user when developing reports.The description is displayed on mouse over in Web Intelligence.
>The Select section is where the field name is inserted.You will notice in the above screen that the field is identified as table_name.field_name.To select a field,click the >> button on the right of the select box.You will then have the opportunity to simply select a table and column, class and object, or use a built-in function to further customize your object.
>The Where condition is most commonly used to hard code a filter to be applied anytime the object is included in a report.
Object Definition Properties
Each Object contains 5 tabs used for customizing object properties.The properties tab allows you to change the qualification of the object.
A default qualification is selected based on the data type of the object.The most common reason to revise this setting is to change an object from a Dimension to a Detail.To change the Qualification, click the properties tab as shown below
The advanced tab is also very important in highly secured deployments.Here,universe designers have the opportunity to restrict objects to users with rights to certain security access levels.
Grant or Revoke Privileges to the following Roles
Also in advanced tab, objects can be restricted to a certain role in a report.Check boxes are provided to allow or grant the capability of three role types:
Result: Allows an object to be used in a query.
Condition: Allows an object to be used as a condition or query filter.
Sort: Allows returned values of the object to be sorted in the report.
Security Access Levels
The Security Access Level setting allows you to the requirement for a certain level of privilege to access the object.Following is a list of the available access levels.This setting is helpful in advanced and secure deployments of SAP Business Objects that contain data and objects that range from public to confidential and private access rights.
>Public
>Controlled
>Restricted
>Confidential
>Private
Join Tables
After you add the tables to the universe, identify the keys and join the fields, and select join types.
Select the first field in a table used to create the join.This will most likely be a key if you are working on the relational data base.Then drag it to the table you are joining to and drop it on the top of the join to field.
As an example, if you are joining field 1 in table 1 to field 1 in table 2, click on field 1 in table 1 , and then drag and drop it on top of field 1 in table 2.
You can edit the join by right-clicking on it and selecting the join properties.
Editing Joins
To edit the properties of a Join, double-Click the line (or Join) connecting two tables in your universe to open the Edit Join Properties window.
The following is a list of available Join settings that can be edited.
>Cardinality: Explicitly force the join to a one-to-one,one-to-many,or many-to-many relationship.By selecting a one-to-many or many-to-many relationship, a crows-foot is added to the join line connecting the two tables.
>Detect Cardinality: This button is used to detect the type of relationship that exists between the two tables.
>Set Outer Joins: Two Check boxes labeled Outer Joins are located just beneath each table.Check the box just beneath the table that requires all fields to be returned.If both boxes are checked, a full-outer join will be created.
>Setting Join Conditions: There are 6 default conditions available in a simple equi-join.These conditions are: =,!=,>,<,>=, and <=.
>Between Condition: If two fields are selected from one of the tables, then the Between Condition is set by default.This is very useful when joining to a table that does not contain a key or field to join to with an equi-join.
>Complex Join Condition: If your Join requires additional modification to a duplicate the business rules in the universe, a Complex condition can be used to further customize the join.
>Advanced: If you click the Advanced tab, an Advanced Join properties window will be open stating that ANSI 92 must be supported to edit these properties.
Note:To enable ANSI 92 mode, Click File-->Parameters to open the Universe Parameters properties window.Select the parameters tab, and select the parameters name ANSI 92.The default value is NO, but when selected, the value can be changed to Yes.Click the Replace and then OK to accept.
Right click on a join gives you several additional modification options.Among the most significant are the Context, Number of Rows in a Table, and options.The below screen shows the options presented when right-clicking on a join.
Contexts are used when more than one Fact table exists within a Universe or when a loop exists when joining dimensional tables.Context need to be set up to define the correct join path in the universe.Contexts can become complex especially to Business users developing ad hoc Web Intelligence reports.Contexts should only be used when necessary.In most cases, a new universe should be created to accommodate the additional join path.
The Options selection allows you to modify many aspects of the Visual representation of the tables and joins in the structure view, including modification choices of changing the join space,column alignment,print settings,default universe folder location, and checking universe integrity.
Publish a Universe to SAP Business Objects Enterprise
After inserting data base tables in your universe and creating classes and objects, you will be ready to publish the universe to the SAP BO enterprise system.
By Publishing a Universe to SAP Business Objects Enterprise, several SAP Business Objects reporting tools can use the universe as the data source for creating queries and building reports.
Run an Integrity Check on your Universe
Before publishing a Universe to the SAP Business Objects repository, be sure to check the integrity of all the objects and conditions within the Universe.
An Icon with a Green check mark is available within the Editing toolbar in Designer.Click this shortcut icon to see a quick list of checks and tests to run before publishing the universe to a SAP Business Objects test or production repository.
If loops are detected, you will need to resolve these before exporting or publishing universe.This can be resolved by creating the contexts or aliased tables.
The parsing of objects,joins, and conditions can be done at the time of creation or while editing each item individually.The integrity check provides a method of verifying that the syntax and properties are configured properly.
Be sure that your universe is well tested before publishing or exporting to your SAP Business Objects production repository.Many organizations requires some type of review or analysis by a Project Manager or team lead before approving a universe to be published to the repository.
Save and Export
When a Universe is ready to be submitted to the repository, the first step is to save it locally.A saved version must exist before exporting a Universe.
Click File-->Export. to publish the universe to the SAP Business Objects repository of your choice.Before clicking OK, you must select a Domain and Group.This allows you to place the universe in the domain of your choice while selecting the group access at the same time.
Importing a Universe
To Import a Universe click File-->Import.
Be aware that if you double-click a universe from the available universes list before importing, a lock will appear to the left of the universe name.This will prevent other developers from importing the universe until the lock is removed.
When a universe has been imported and edited, the changes are not available to Web Intelligence report writers and report consumers until it has been exported to the CMS.