About Adding Data to a Story

You can import data as a dataset or model from an external data source into a new story.

When you import a data into a story, a “private” or “embedded” entity is created in the background. This entity contains your data structures, notably dimensions, measures, attributes for dimension, such as descriptions or hierarchy information. The imported data is embedded in the story as a self-contained entity. It will not appear in the folder list for use with other stories.

The source data can be your own data from local or server-based files, or from supported data sources.

Note

When you import data from Microsoft Excel on a network, the first sheet is automatically imported. When importing from a local file system, you can choose which sheet to import.

When importing data into a story, the import process analyzes the source data and creates an initial inferred data view with proposed dimensions and measures. You then further refine the proposal by geo enriching dimensions, specifying certain columns as either dimensions or measures, and fixing any data-quality problems.

The overall workflow for adding data to a story involves the following:

Import your data.
Optional: specify descriptions or hierarchies for the dimensions, or specify a column to be a measure.
If necessary, cleanse your imported data and fix any data-quality problems. For more detailed information about preparing data, see Editing a Dataset.
Embed the dataset by saving the story, or by switching from Data to Story view.
Note
If you are importing a model, please refer to Models in Stories.

Agile versus basic data preparation

SAP Analytics Cloud supports two data preparation experiences:

An agile experience that is geared to consume datasets for adhoc and flexible analysis. This is the default experience for adding data to a story. For a better understanding of datasets see Datasets. You can import and immediately use data to create visualizations within your stories. Using this experience, you can smoothly move between the data and the story layout views. You can quickly edit the imported data to suit the changing requirements of your story creation process. Other benefits of this agile data preparation experience:
- Data structures and data types are inferred during the initial data import, letting you immediately start working on story layout.
- A Dataset Overview panel listing all the dimensions and measures included in the imported dataset is displayed. You can use this panel to make some quick changes to your data structures.
- You can immediately consume the imported data and any consequent data modifications to charts and other visualizations in your stories.
- You can easily create level hierarchies based on the imported dimensions.
- Unresolved data quality issues will not prevent you from consuming unaffected data cells to create charts and other visualizations.
A basic data preparation experience that is geared to working with models, and where data structure is a paramount consideration. These scenarios include working with live data where structure is defined by the source of data, and governed data that is centrally controlled. You can launch this experience after importing your data. Under the Save toolbar select the Open With Basic Data Preparation option.

Note
The basic data preparation experience supports certain functionalities not available in the default agile option. For a detailed list see Limitations to Preparing Data

Preparing data imported from a dataset

You can import and immediately use data to create visualizations within your stories.

Launching the Data Preparation Tool

Launch your story. From the () Main Menu, select Create Story.
Select the Access & Explore Data option.
The Let's add some data! dialog is displayed.
Import your data by selecting one of the following options:
- Data uploaded from a file: for an Excel or CSV (comma-separated-values) file stored locally or on a file server. Choose the file you want to import.
- Data from a data source: for data stored in a supported data source (SAP HANA, etc.). Select the dataset you want to import from your source.
Note
Don't select the Data acquired from an existing dataset or model option. This option opens the Data Exploration view. You cannot prepare data in this view.

The Acquiring Data process is launched. Upon completion, the Data view for the story is displayed.
Note
If you import a large-volume dataset, you'll be informed that a data sample will be used rather than the entire dataset. Select Got it to continue. If you want the entire dataset to be validated when performing any data preparation tasks, select Validate Full Dataset at the bottom of the Dataset Overview panel. This will give you a better sense of how many issues, such as mismatched values for specific data types, exist in your dataset.

Once data has been imported, you can perform any of the following tasks:

Use the Story/Data control to switch to Story. There, you can quickly create and view charts or other visualizations based on your imported dataset, and add tables where you can carry out simulations. See Running Simulations on Embedded Data for details.
View the imported data in more detail. More information is available in Viewing the Imported Dataset.
Save the story – the embedded dataset will be stored as part of the story.