Board

A tabbed area in the workspace used to manipulate the model and its elements: Design board, Layout board and Source board.

Characteristic

A type of InfoObject in SAP BI systems that provides a classification such as company code, product, customer group, fiscal year, period, or region. Related to the OLAP-standard term dimension.

Component

A reusable model element, such as a UI component or a data service.

Cube

A set of data organized as a multidimensional structure defined according to dimensions and measures.

Related SAP BI terms include InfoCube and query.

Data binding

A connection between two UI components (or between a web service and a UI component) that channels identical data from the output port of one UI component to the input port of the other UI component.

Data flow

The means by which data is channeled between a data service and connected UI components, or between two UI components whose connection was changed from Data binding to Data flow.

Data mapping

Connection between two model elements, describing, for example, the data that is input to an element or the fields that are output from another element.

Data service

Any function call, business object or query imported into the model. At runtime, the data service is called and returns results.

Data store

A central data container where data of a model can be temporarily stored for future use.

Dimension

In OLAP-standard systems:

A collection of similar data which, together with other such collections, forms the structure of a cube. Typical dimensions include time, product, and geography. Each dimension may be organized into a basic parent-child hierarchy or, if supported by the data source, a hierarchy of levels. For example, a geography dimension might include levels for continent, country, state, and city.

The related term in SAP BI systems is characteristic.

In SAP BI systems:

A grouping of those evaluation groups (characteristics) that belong together under a common superordinate term.

With the definition of an InfoCube, characteristics are grouped together into dimensions in order to store them in a star schema table (dimension table).

Element

A general term indicating any item used to create a model, including: components, connectors and operators.

Enterprise service

A Web service defined to perform functions of an SAP system. Web services are published to and stored within a repository.

Field

An element of a table that contains a single piece of data. Fields are organized into rows, which contain all the data relevant for one specific entry in the table. In some databases, field is a synonym for column.

Filter

A set of criteria that restricts the set of records returned as the result of a query. With filters, you define which subset of data appears in the result set.

Hierarchy

A logical tree structure that organizes the members of a dimension into a parent-child relationship. If supported by the data source, the hierarchy consists of levels, where the top level is an aggregate of all members and each subsequent level has zero or more child members.

InfoArea

An element for grouping meta-objects in the Business Information Warehouse. Each InfoProvider is assigned to an InfoArea. The resulting hierarchy is displayed in the Administrator Workbench.

InfoCube

An SAP BI system that consists of a quantity of relational tables created according to the star schema: a large fact table in the center, with several dimension tables surrounding it. It provides a self-contained dataset which can be used for analysis and reporting.

Similar to the OLAP-standard term cube.

InfoObject

A business evaluation object (for example, customer or quantity) in SAP BI systems. Types of InfoObjects include characteristics, key figures, units, time characteristics, and technical characteristics (such as request numbers).

JDBC

Java Database Connectivity, which provides an API that lets you access relational databases using the Java programming language. This enables connectivity to a wide range of SQL databases, and also provides access to tabular data sources such as spreadsheets or flat files. The BI JDBC Connector accesses data from JDBC-compliant systems.

Join

A relationship between two tables that produces a result set that combines their contents. You create a join by indicating how selected fields in one table are related to selected fields in the other table.

Key figure

A value or quantity in SAP BI systems. Related to the OLAP-standard term measure. You may also define calculated key figures, which are derived using a formula.

Layer

A collection of UI elements that are all visible at the same time at runtime.

Level

A set of nodes (members) in a tree hierarchy in supporting data sources that are at the same distance from the root of the tree. For example, in a geography hierarchy, the top level might be all places, the second level might be continents, the third level might be countries, and the fourth level might be cities.

MDX

Multidimensional Expressions, a query language used to retrieve and manipulate multidimensional data.

Measure

One category of values – usually numeric – used to define a cube. These values are derived from one or more columns in the cube's fact table and are the basis for aggregation and analysis.

Related SAP BI terms include key figure and structure element.

Member

An element of a dimension that represents one or more occurrences of data. A member can be unique (it occurs only once) or non-unique (it may occur more than once in its dimension). For example, in a geography dimension that includes cities in the US, the member Portland could be non-unique, since there is a city called Portland in the state of Oregon and in the state of Maine.

In SAP BI systems, members are referred to as instances of characteristics.

Model

An object created in Storyboard. Models may contain packages, pages, iViews and any other model elements.

Multidimensional data

Data in dimensional models suitable for business analytics. In this documentation, we use the term multidimensional data synonymously with OLAP data.

Navigation line

A connection that provides event annotation, running between model layers. The source element raises the event that can be handled by the connected element. By default, a navigation line is curved.

ODBO

OLE DB for OLAP – Microsoft’s set of objects and interfaces that extend the ability of OLE DB to provide access to multidimensional data sources on the Windows platform. Providers of OLAP data can implement the interfaces described with OLE DB for OLAP to allow all OLAP clients to access their data. The BI ODBO Connector accesses data from ODBO-compliant systems.

OLAP

Online analytical processing – a system of organizing data in a multidimensional model that is suitable for decision support. SAP BI systems are OLAP systems.

Operation

A functionality provided by a Web service.

Operator

A mechanism used to manipulate data returned from the data service before it is displayed in the iView.

Package

A high-level “container”; it can contain any number of pages, iViews or other packages.

Port

A defined point of interface into and out of a component.

Query

In SAP BI systems, a collection of selected characteristics and key figures (InfoObjects) used together to analyze the data of an InfoProvider. A query always refers exactly to one InfoProvider, whereas you can define as many queries as you like for each InfoProvider.

Query view

In SAP BI systems, a view of a query after navigation, saved in an InfoCube. You can use this saved query view as a basis for data analysis and reporting.

Relational database

A repository for typically large amounts of information, structured in accordance with the relational model, in tables with columns. A relational database is created and administered by a relational database management system (RDBMS).

Row

A set of fields within a table that contains the data for one specific entry in the table. Each row in a given table has the same structure, predefined for a particular table. In some databases, row is a synonym for record.

SAP Query

A component that allows you to create custom reports without any ABAP programming knowledge. The BI SAP Query Connector uses SAP Query to access data from such SAP operational applications.

Storyboard

The Visual Composer client from which you design models.

Table

A set of rows, also known as a relation. The table is the central object of the relational model.

Task panel

A work area of the Visual Composer Storyboard desktop that displays a specific set of tools for building a model.

Toolbar

The horizontal row of buttons under the main menu (main toolbar) or the vertical row of buttons in the task panel (task-panel toolbar).

Toolbox

A set of board-specific tools that assist in performing tasks in the Visual Composer workspace.

Value help

The offering, typically in a pop-up dialog box, of possible valid values for an input field. Also known as input help, selection help, or F4 help.

Web service

An interface between two or more software applications that is implemented with the industry standards SOAP, WSDL and UDDI.

Workspace

The main grid area of Visual Composer that displays the model as it is built and modified. The workspace consists of boards.

XMLA

XML for Analysis, an XML-messaging-based protocol specified by Microsoft for exchanging analytical data between client applications and servers (for example, OLAP providers) using HTTP and SOAP as a service on the Web. The BI XMLA Connector accesses data from XMLA-compliant systems.