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Definition
Use

On this tab page, you determine whether or not the characteristic has display or navigation attributes, and if so, which properties they have.

Note

This tab page is only available if you have set the With Master Data indicator on the Master Data/Texts tab page.

In the query, display attributes provide additional information about the characteristic. Navigation attributes, on the other hand, are treated like normal characteristics in the query, and can also be evaluated on their own.

Structure

Attributes are InfoObjects that exist already, and that are assigned logically to the new characteristic. There are the following ways to maintain attributes for a characteristic:

  • Choose attributes from the Attributes of the Assigned DataSources list.

  • Use F4 Help for the fields that are ready for input in the Attributes of the Characteristic list, to display all the InfoObjects. Choose the attributes that you need.

  • In the Attributes list, specify directly in the fields that are ready for input the name of an InfoObject that you want to use as an attribute. If the InfoObject that you want to use does not yet exist, you have the option of creating a new InfoObject at this point. Any new InfoObjects that you create are inactive. They are activated when the existing InfoObject is activated.

Properties

Choose Detail/ Navigation Attributes to display the detailed view. In the detail view, you set the following:

Time Dependency

You can decide for each attribute individually whether it is to be time-dependent. If only one attribute is time-dependent, a master data table is created. However, there can still be attributes for this characteristic that are not time-dependent.

All time-dependent attributes are in one table. That is, they all have the same time-dependency and all time-constant attributes are in one table.

Example

Characteristic: Business Process

Table /BI0/PABCPROCESS - for time-constant attributes

Characteristic: Business Process

Attribute: Cost Center Responsible

Characteristic value: 1010

Attribute value: Jones

Table /BI0/QABCPROCESS - for time-dependent attributes

Business Process

Valid From

Valid To

Company Code

Characteristic value: 1010

01.01.2000

01.06.2000

Attribute value: A

02.06.2000

01.10.2000

Attribute value: B

View /BI0/MABCPROCESS connects these two tables:

Business Process

Valid From

Valid To

Company Code

Cost Center Responsible

1010

01.01.2000

01.06.2000

A

Jones

02.06.2000

01.10.2000

B

Jones
Note

In master data updates, you can either load time-dependent and time-constant data individually, or together.

Sequence of Attributes in Input Help

You can determine the sequence in which the attributes for a characteristic are displayed in the input help. There are the following values for this setting:

  • 00: The attribute is not displayed in the input help

  • 01: The attribute appears in the first position (far left) in the input help

  • 02: The attribute appears in the second position in the input help.

  • 03: ......

Altogether, only 40 fields are permitted in the input help. In addition to the attributes, the characteristic itself, its texts, and the compound characteristics are generated in the input help. The total number of fields cannot be greater than 40.

Navigation Attribute

The attributes are defined as display attributes by default. You can activate an attribute as a navigation attribute in the relevant column. You might want to give this navigation attribute a description and a short text. These texts for navigation attributes can also be supplied by the basic InfoObject. If the text of the characteristic changes, the texts for the navigation attribute are adjusted automatically. This process requires very little maintenance and translation resources.

Caution

When you are defining and executing queries, it is not possible to use the texts to distinguish between navigation attributes and characteristics.

As soon as a characteristic appears several times (as a characteristic and as a navigation attribute) in an InfoProvider, you must give the navigation attribute a different name. For example, you could call the characteristic Cost Center and call the navigation attribute Person Responsible for the Cost Center.

See also the topic Elimination of Internal Business Volume: The characteristic pair Sent Cost Center and Received Cost Center has the same reference characteristic and has to be differentiated by the text.

Authorization Relevance

You can mark navigation attributes as authorization relevant independently of the assigned basic characteristics.

Navigation Attributes for InfoProviders

For characteristics that are identified as InfoProviders, you can maintain two-level navigation attributes (that is, navigation attributes of navigation attributes) using Navigation Attribute InfoProviders. This is used for master data reporting on the characteristic. See also Modeling InfoObjects as InfoProviders.

It has no effect on characteristics used in other InfoProviders. In other words, if you use this characteristic in an InfoCube, the 2-level navigation attributes are not available for reporting on this InfoCube.