Generating an SAP BusinessObjects Universe

PowerDesigner can generate an SAP® BusinessObjects™ universe from your PDM for editing in the BusinessObjects Universe Design or Information Design tools, or for direct consumption by the Web Intelligence rich client. Generating a universe from your PDM gives you access to table, view, and column names and comments and more reliable cardinality information than if you create a universe directly from your database.

1. [optional] Optimize your PDM for generation of a universe in the following ways:
   • Specify auto-incrementing primary keys (see Creating Primary Keys) together with one or more human-readable alternative keys (see Creating Alternate Keys) to uniquely identify dimension rows.
   • Identify fact and dimension tables either manually or by retrieval (see Identifying Fact and Dimension Tables) and review the choices that PowerDesigner has made:
     
     
   • [optional] To completely control the format of your multidimensional objects, retrieve facts and dimensions in a multidimensional diagram (see Generating Cubes), and edit them as necessary:
     
     
2. Select Tools > SAP BusinessObjects > Generate BusinessObjects Universe.
3. [optional] Click the Connect button to connect to the BusinessObjects CMS.
4. Select a data connection to allow BusinessObjects to connect to your database. If you have not connected to the CMS, you can use an existing local connection from the BusinessObjects connection list; otherwise choose from the list of secured connections. You can, alternatively, click the Create button to create a new connection with the BusinessObjects New Connection wizard.
   Note: The user that you specify in this connection must have sufficient privileges and permissions to read all of the database objects contained in the PDM you are creating your universe from.
5. Click Next to select the objects to generate from your model. PowerDesigner will propose objects to generate as follows:
   • If facts and dimensions are present in your model, the facts are proposed for generation.
   • If no facts are present, but one or more tables have been specified as fact tables, then these will be proposed for generation.
   • If no facts or fact tables are present, then PowerDesigner will evaluate all the tables in the model and propose those which could serve as fact tables for generation.

   Note: By default, tables that have no links to other tables are excluded from the list. Select the Include isolated tables option to add them for selection.
6. [when facts are not present] Click Next to select any appropriate generation options:

   Option	Description
   Expand fact date columns as time dimensions	[selected by default] Creates a time dimension with the standard Year, Quarter, and Month attributes for each date column in each fact table.
   Add Large Object dimension details	[deselected by default] Specifies that dimension attributes are created for columns of type blob (which commonly contain images, audio, or other binary data). If this option is deselected, these columns will still appear in the data foundation, but will not be visible in the business layer.
   Use primary keys as dimension identifiers	Specifies whether dimension identifiers can or must be generated from the primary keys of their source tables. You can choose from the following settings: Force - Dimension identifiers must be generated from the primary keys of their source tables. Allow - [default] PowerDesigner chooses the first available columns in the following list to use as dimension identifiers: The first alternative key (all associated columns concatenated). The first unique index not identified as a primary key. The first column with a string data type, including primary keys with a string data type. The first non-key column. The first key column. Disallow - Same as allow, but dimension identifiers cannot be generated from primary keys even if they have a string data type (for example a primary key containing a GUID).

7. Click Next to review your choices and then click Finish to begin the universe generation.
   When the universe is generated, you can:

   • Open it in the Universe Design tool or import it into the Information Design tool (select File > Convert UNV Universe) for further editing.

     PowerDesigner generates a universe comprising a connection, data foundation, and business layer. The business layer has one folder for each fact containing: A dimension for each dimension associated with the fact in PowerDesigner. Dimension series, such as the Product dimension in our example are grouped within their own subfolder. Dimensions with more than one attribute list each attribute beneath them. A measure for every numeric column in the fact.

     After the import is complete, open the data foundation view and select Actions > Refresh Structure to obtain access to the richer selection of data types available in the Information Design tool.
   • [if you are connected to the CMS] Import it into the CMS for editing or consumption.
   • Consume it directly in the Web Intelligence rich client: