Suppose you have shared your SAP BW bridge models and other models with the customer Space in which you want to integrate the different data sets. Suppose you want to connect additional non-SAP sources. It is recommended to avoid copying data. Instead, you define a graphical view in the Data Builder tool of SAP Datasphere core tenant.
Databuilder artifacts
The figure, SAP Datasphere Data Builder Artifact Types, shows the entry point from the navigation bar on the left side of the SAP Datasphere home page and some useful types of artifacts for this purpose.
Creating Graphical Views
SAP Datasphere provides an editor to model Data Builder artifacts in an intuitive graphical interface.
The graphical view allows you the following options:
- Drag and drop sources from the Source Browser
- Add transformation operators in the intended sequence to a canvas
- Specify details of your output structure in the output node
The first step is to choose the source object(s).
The next step is to define include nodes for transformation steps. In a view, these steps are performed at each time when data is accessed.
The following table lists the available operators.
Types of Transformation Operators
| Transformation Operator | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Union | Combine two data sets with similar columns |
| Join | Combine two data sets based on a join condition |
| Filter | Define a condition to restrict the data set |
| Projection | Rename or remove columns |
| Aggregation | Aggregate values |
| Formula | Add a column with a calculation |
Finally, define additional properties (settings) for view type, view persistence, associations, data access controls, or measure types.
When setting a Data Builder model, you have to make a decision on the semantic usage type:
- Relational Dataset: [default] Contains columns with no specific analytical purpose.
- Dimension: Contains attributes containing master data like a product list or store directory, and supporting hierarchies.
- Fact: Contains one or more measures and attributes and form the foundation for the Analytic Model.
- Text: Contains attributes used to provide textual content in one or more languages.
- Hierarchy: Contains attributes defining a parent-child hierarchy.
Note
For transactional data that with measures that should be displayed in reports, you should choose Fact.
Modelers can specify semantic types for fields to identify the type of data in your columns (attributes and measures) in Facts and Dimensions. This property defines the contents of a column, for example, a value, a quantity, a date, geo or textual information, or another kind of semantic information. Semantic types are used by the core engines for data processing, analytics, and data consumption.
Note
If you have already defined similar semantic properties in SAP BW bridge, are lost during the import of the objects. Therefore, you must define them again.At the end, you save and deploy the model.
Watch the following video and learn how to create a graphical view.
It is possible to preview the data contained in your tables and views and, when working in the graphical view editor, the data output by each of the nodes in the diagram. The preview options is not only available in graphical modeling, but also for the other SAP Datasphere artifacts.
Now, you want to make the enriched data set available for consumption from external tools, add parameters and business-oriented measures. Therefore, you should learn about the model type Analytic Model which is designed for this purpose.
