Business Objects

Let’s take an example of Business Partners. A Business Partner is a business object in the SAP back end system which we would like to geo-enable. Firstly, we need to define how we would like to see our Business Partners on the map. For example, you would like to separate Business Partners which are organizations from groups and persons. While viewing the map, you would like to be able to switch on or off the layers with organizations or with persons. In order to be able to do so, you need to define three geo objects: Organizations, Groups, Persons where you maintain filter criteria that identify organizations or persons.

Since this is a hierarchical structure, in order to drill down to all the details available in this view, you must first choose the business object, next choose or create a geo object and then double-click on further nodes in the subdialog. In this example, let’s choose the business object BP and then drill down further.

After choosing BP, you want to create a new geometry context or view existing ones for this business object. Geometry context is something which characterizes geometry and not business object. For example, you want to maintain the headquarter and service area. Do this by double-clicking the Geometry Context Assignments node. In the delivered example, this node contains three different contexts, including a default context for situations where a context is not explicitly chosen.

You must select a geo object from the Geo Objects node to proceed. You can now display all the geo objects that belong to the selected business object or create new geo objects in this node. In our example, geo objects can be Organisations, Groups and Persons. Each geo object has fields that are defined in the geo object structure in the data dictionary. Those are sets of business attributes which you can see in the popup window on the UI when you click on the geometry.

You can also view or create filters for your searches in the Filters node. In our example to identify only organizations we need to set a filter PARTNERCAT = 2. If you select the ORGN geo object, you can see the filter that has been set for this geo object by double-clicking the Filters node. You can select the fields using the included F4 Help and assign values to it.

You can also define actions for a geo object in the Actions node. Actions are operations that you can perform on an object displayed on the map. For example, you can “display” the organization in the business partner transaction BP, you can “edit” the business partner, you can “update” geometry for this organization, and so on.

You use the action type to launch your application using the Fiori Launchpad. For more information, see the corresponding section under Geo Objects.

Next is the Business Layers node. A business layer has geometries that are shown on the map. You can assign a single business layer to a group within the hierarchy. A business layer contains a list of assigned business and technical fields that are used on the map and shown in the popup window when a geometry is clicked. Each business layer can have up to three geometry layers. In our example, the Organization geo object can have multiple business layers — one for the headquarter context, one for the service area context and so on. It is also necessary to have a business layer with a different legend for editing assigned to the geometry layers and another business layer for search function.

Next, in the Geometry Layers node, you can assign specific geometry relevant information. Each business layer can have three geometry layers – one for each geometry type (point, line and polygon). Additionally, for each geometry layer, you have the option to assign legends in the Legends node. A legend identifies how a geometry is shown, what colors, line types and thickness will be used, what icons can be shown on the geo-location of that business object and so on.