Tab Page: General 

Use

In this tab page, you determine the basic properties of the characteristic.

Structure

Dictionary

Specify the data type and the data length. The system provides you with a list to choose from in the F4 Help.

The following data types are supported for characteristics:

Char:	Numbers and letters	Character length 1 - 60
Numc:	Numbers only	Character length 1 - 60
Dats:	Pricing Date	Character length 8
Tims:	Time	Character length 6

Miscellaneous

Lowercase letters allowed / not allowed

If this indicator is set, the system differentiates between lowercase letters and capital letters when you use a screen template to input values. If this indicator is not set, the system converts all the letters into capital letters when you use a screen template to input values.

If you choose to allow the use of lowercase letters, you must be aware of what happens when you input variables:

If you want to use the characteristic in variables, the system is only able to find the values for the characteristic if the lowercase letters and the capital letters are typed in accurately on the input screen for variables. If, on the other hand, you do not allow the use of lowercase letters, any characters that you type onto the input screen, are converted automatically into capital letters.

Conversion routines

The standard conversion for the characteristic is displayed here. If this standard conversion is unsuitable you can override it by specifying a conversion routine in the underlying domains. See also Conversion Routines in the BI System.

Exclusive attributes:

If you select Exclusively Attributes, the created characteristic can be used only as a display attribute for another characteristic, and not as a dedicated characteristic in the InfoCube. Furthermore, you then cannot transfer the characteristic into InfoCubes. However, you can use it in DataStore objects or InfoSets.

Characteristic Is Document Property

You can specify that a characteristic be used as a document property. This enables you to assign a comment (this can be any document) to a combination of characteristic values. See also Documents and the example Characteristic is Document Property.

Since it does not make sense to use this comment function for all characteristics, you need to identify explicitly the characteristics that you want to appear in the comments.

If you set this indicator, the system generates a property (attribute) for this characteristic in the metamodel of the document management system. For technical reasons, this property (attribute) has to be written to a (dummy) transport request (the appropriate dialog box appears) but it is not actually transported.

Constants

By assigning a constant to a characteristic, you give it a fixed value. The characteristic then exists on the database side (for example, verifications), but it does not appear in reporting. Assigning a constant is most useful with compounded characteristics.

The storage location characteristic is compounded with the plant characteristic. If only one plant is ever run within the application, a constant can be assigned to the plant. The verification for the storage-location master table runs correctly with this value for the plant. In the query, however, only the storage location appears as a characteristic.

Special case:

If you want to assign the SPACE constant (type CHAR) or 00..0 (type NUMC) to the characteristic, type # in the first position.

Transfer routine

When you create a transfer routine, it is valid globally for the characteristic, and is included in all the transformation rules that contain the InfoObject.

During the data transfer, first the logic stored in the individual transformation rule is executed. Then the transfer routine for the value for the corresponding field is executed for each InfoObject that has a transfer routine.

The transfer routine can thus store InfoObject-dependent coding that only needs to be maintained once, but that is valid for all the transformation rules.