Previously I discussed about the CDS view, Types, Architecture and how to create custom CDS views using ABAP development tools. In this blog, I am going to discuss more of an end user approach where Business Users can enhance and create existing CDS views using simple Fiori Apps.

Apps we are going to use

Custom CDS, Custom Analytical Queries, View browser

Please install the above apps and make sure ATO setup is done in the backend SAP system.

Creating Custom CDS view

Launch Fiori Launchpad

Launch Custom CDS view App

Click create

Give name, Label and add Primary data source. Once we add the primary data source and associations if needed

Check ODATA if this CDS, needed to be consumed elsewhere as API

The analytical option can be either cube or dimension type

Select the fields for the cube

Select field properties, here select aggregation, semantics, currency, and associations. This is equivalent to object level annotations we give in eclipse method.

Parameters Tab is not supported in On-prem version 

Assign filters as needed in filters tab

Save draft and Publish the CDS view. Once successfully Published you can view the data preview

You can also view the data and properties of the CDS view using the View Browser app.

Creating analytical query

Launch Custom Analytical Query App.

Click New. Give name and select the custom CDS view created in the above step

Under General, give label for end user display (Description of Query)

Under Fields selection, select fields for the query. By default, measures go into columns and all characteristics under Free char’s.

Under Display select properties for the field.

For measures, we can define scaling factors, decimals, display

• For characteristics, you can select display type, result suppression, and Row selection
  

Under Filters, we can define variables/Prompts for the query.

Save and Publish.

Consuming the Query

By default, all the queries created using Custom analytical apps are available in query browser. With Live /Import connection defined between SAC and On-prem, you can consume the query in Analytics Cloud

As of now, I haven’t seen any option to define Planning enabled queries.

What is a CDS view

Core Data services are new next-generation modeling object from SAP. In short words, it will be the one-stop place for all the modeling with embedding DDL (Definition), QL (Query) and DCL (Control). It works with Code push down approach with database doing the heavy lift.

You can find more about CDS in below SAP link.   CDFS has two flavors. 1) ABAP CDS which behave as full ABAP native object defined in ADT. 2) HANA CDSW which is more native to Hana database modeling.

More about CDS concepts – 

ABAP CDS – https://help.sap.com/viewer/f2e545608079437ab165c105649b89db/7.51.1/en-US/4ed2245c6e391014adc9fffe4e204223.html

HANA CDS – https://help.sap.com/doc/29ff91966a9f46ba85b61af337724d31/2.0.00/en-US/SAP_HANA_Core_Data_Services_CDS_Reference_en.pdf

*Below blog is intended for ABAP CDS modelling

CDS view types

We have three main types of CDS View (Few others for Extensions)

Basic view – First level of CDS virtual model which is mostly one on one replication of database table. Basic views can be Dimension type or Fact type. The basic view will be mostly private and avoid user consumption for BI

Composite view –  Composite view have joins/associations between Fact and Dimension basic views. Composite views are like cubes. we can define aggregation types and calculations in Composite view

Consumption view – Query views on top of composite view with all the end user semantics and can be consumed in any BI tool including Firoi apps

Setting up Eclipse and ADT

Step 1 – Login to Eclipse and start ABAP Prospective

Step 2 – Create a new ABAP project for the desired backend system

Step 3 – Add the package where the objects will be stored as a favorite so it can be easily accessible
 

Creating a Basic view on ACDOCA table

Navigate to Core data services under the above added package.

Step 1 – select new from the context menu on core data services and give a relevant name as per naming standards
 

If the change management is turned on, it will prompt to select a transport. After selecting the transport request, a pop-up with predefined templates are available to kick-start, select “Define view”

 Click finish. The template will come up with standard annotations and please update the code with relevant names and add table fields names.

Key annotations :
@VDM.viewType: #BASIC
@Analytics.dataCategory: #Fact

Validate the code and activate.

Check data preview.

 Creating a Composite view

Composite views are intermediate views where typically all the semantics and calculations are done.

Step 1 – Create a new CDS view same as basic view ( ABAP annotations will define the view type)

 (Optional = select annotation type template for predefined code skeleton)

Below is the Composite view definition with Associations and data category is Cube. Data extraction annotation will also adds extends CDS view as an extractor in ODP
@VDM.ViewType: #Composite
@Analytics.dataCategory: #Cube 

Finally, create a Consumption view/ Query.  Below annotation will create Odata and Transient Bex for BI consumption.
Key annotations :
@VDM.viewType: #Consumption
@odata.publish: True – creates a OData service for UI / Fiori consumption
@analytics.query: True – Creates a Transient Bex for BI consumption

Once the consumption view with analytics query annotation is activated we can check the transient query in RSRT T code

Bex query naming: 2C

Consuming in Fiori Query Browser App

Navigate to SAP Gateway system and activate the OData services for the above CDS View

Login to Fiori Launchpad

Pre reqs – Query Browser app and Security setup is done

Consuming from Analytics – Cloud

Create a Live/Import connection ( You can use the existing one if you want)

Create a Model and consume the Transient Query (2C)

Planning models can be created on Transient Bex planning queries with required Annotations. 


Please reach out to us, Let Tek -Analytics take care of S4 Analytics strategic planning and development for you 🙂 

– Karthik Addula