Creating a Local Characteristic

You can create a local characteristic that takes its properties and attributes from a central master InfoObject.

Prerequisites

An InfoObject can act as a master InfoObject if:

It is used in at least one of the workspace's central providers
It has master data
It is not set to constant
It is not authorization relevant
It is not compounded to a characteristic that is authorization relevant

Authorization-relevant attributes of the master InfoObject are ignored in the local characteristic. Changes to the master data of the master InfoObject also appear in the master data of the local characteristic, provided that the key values were not changed when the local characteristic was created.

Context

You can create a local characteristic that takes its attributes and most of its properties from a master InfoObject. This is always non-time dependent and non-language dependent, even if the master InfoObject is time-dependent and language-dependent. If the Master-InfoObject has texts, texts can also be defined for new values in the local characteristic. Existing texts cannot be overwritten. You can load data into the local characteristic using a file (CSV or Microsoft Excel) or by entering the data manually.

You can also define additional attributes. The additional attributes are stored locally.

The local characteristic can only be used in local providers and in local CompositeProviders in the same workspace. In the local provider, you can assign an InfoObject to a column. When doing this, you can choose whether the original characteristic or the local characteristic should be assigned. In the local CompositeProvider, you can choose whether the original characteristic or the local characteristic should be assigned.

Procedure

Choose Create Local Characteristic.
Select a master InfoObject to base the local characteristic on. Only one local characteristic can be created per characteristic and per workspace. Choose either file or BW InfoObject as the source. Choose Continue.

File as Source

If you have selected File as the source, proceed as follows:
1. Select a file to upload to the workspace. The system can process text-based files containing comma-separated values (CSV files) and Microsoft Excel files. The columns in the file should be aligned as follows:
  
  Keysof the reference characteristic Attributes of the reference characteristic Local attributes Texts (TXTSH, TXTMD, TXTLG)
  - Key of master InfoObject: the column for the keys should have the same name as in the master InfoObject. If it has a compound, the key name of the compound parenet should be included in a column of its own.
  - Attributes of master InfoObject: attributes of master InfoObject are automatically flagged as changeable. The values from the file are used as values for the local characteristic's master data.
  - Local attributes You can define local attributes. These are automaticlly marked as changeable.
  - Texts: If the master InfoObject has texts, you can create columns with the supported text types. You can thus define texts for new key values. The column headers must be TXTSH for short texts, TXTMD for medium texts and TXTLG for long and extra-long texts.
2. You can specify the header that contains the field names. If you do not specify anything, the first row is used as the header.
3. Enter the first data row if it deviates from the default setting (in the default setting, the first data row is in row two).
4. For CSV files: Make settings for how separators, decimals, date and field separators are displayed. The field separator sign can be used to set special characters in the date field. If the field separator is contained in the date itself, it has to be set twice in the date field.
  
  Note If you CSV file is very large, and no field separator signs are required, you should remove the ' " ' in order to improve load performance.
  
  For the date, the format that the dates in the file are in has to be taken.
  
  Note With Excel files, the formatting generally taken from the file. We therefore recommend formating the columns accordingly in Excel files.
5. By choosing Display Data, you can see where the first data row begins, and how many headers there are.
6. The name for the local characteristic is made up as follows: 3L<workspace prefix><name of the reference characteristic>. You can change the generated name, but the prefix (3L<workspace prefix>) cannot be changed. Enter a description.
7. Choose Continue. The attributes from the file are mapped to the attributes of the master InfoObject. Additional attributes from the file are added as purely local attributes.

Editing the Attributes:

Locale attributes, and attributes that are contained in the master InfoObject and in the file, are flagged as changeable. If an attribute does not have the property Changeable, you cannot edit it in master data maintenance.
You can flag attributes that are not contained in the master InfoObject as excluded. These are then not used in the query.
For local attributes, you can change the type.
By choosing Add Attribute, you can add further attributes (characteristics or key figures) that are not in the reference characteristic or in the file. These are always changeable. As these attributes do not contain any data at first, you then need to create some data by editing the master data.
Choose Create and Load. The local characteristic is now saved, and the data is loaded from the file.

InfoObject as Source

If you have selected InfoObject as the source, proceed as follows:
1. You can change the name and the description. The prefix of the generated name (3L<Workspace-Präfix>) cannot be changed however. Choose Continue.
2. As no data exists yet, the system does not make a proposal in terms of whether it is changeable or not. You can decide yourself which attributes are changeable and which should be excluded from the query.
3. Choose Create Characteristic. The local characteristic is now saved.
4. As these attributes do not contain any data at first, you then need to create some data by editing the master data.
The next step is to create a new CompositeProvider that uses the characteristic, create another local characteristic, or edit the master data.