Characteristic Properties 

Use

At the runtime for a BEx Web application, you can make various settings for a particular characteristic, such as Order.

Features

You make the settings on the following tab pages:

General

●      Under Display, you can specify whether and how the individual characteristic values of the characteristic are to be displayed:

○       None: The characteristic display is hidden.

○       Text: The characteristic values are displayed with their shortest available text. 

○       Key: The characteristic values are displayed with their technical key.

○       Text and Key: The characteristic values are displayed with their shortest available text, followed by their technical key.

○       Key and Text: The characteristic values are displayed with their technical key, followed by their shortest available text.

Depending on the system setting, other options may be available, such as Short Text, Medium-Length Text, and Long Text, and combinations of these with the key. The key can be displayed in various ways (external, internal), depending on the system setting.

The system only allows you to select from those texts that were created in InfoObject maintenance for the characteristic (see Tab Page: Master Data/Texts). If you do not set anything, the system uses the display type that you set during query design under Characteristic Properties. If you did not make a setting when you designed the query, the system uses the standard display type that you set in InfoObject maintenance under Tab Page: Business Explorer.

●      Under Display Results, you can choose whether the results rows are displayed always, never or with more than one value. With more than one value means that those results rows are suppressed that aggregate only one value; the value and the result are identical and the results row repeats the same value.

●      Under Access Mode for Result Set, you can restrict the display of query result values:

○       Posted Values (= standard setting): Only posted values are displayed.

○       Standard: This option corresponds to the setting made in the Query Designer – Posted Values, Master Data, or Characteristic Relationships.

○       Characteristic Relationships: This option only appears if the Web application is based on an input-ready query.

For more information about this access type, see Form-Based Planning.

○       Master Data: All characteristic values from the master data are displayed, independently of transaction data.

Using this access type, you can easily generate a "List of Slow-Moving Items”, for example. For more information, see Example: List of Slow-Moving Items.

Attributes

This tab page appears only when the characteristic has one or more attributes.

You can specify which attributes are to be displayed, how they are to be displayed, and the order in which they are to appear.

To display a specific attribute, select it and choose the Add arrow button to add it to the Selected Attributes selection area on the right.

To specify how the attribute is to be displayed, select:

●      Text: The attribute values are displayed with their shortest available text.

●      Key: The attribute values are displayed with their technical key.

●      Text and Key: The attribute values are displayed with their shortest available text, followed by their technical key.

●      Key and Text: The attribute values are displayed with their technical key, followed by their shortest available text.

●      Long Text: The attribute values are displayed with their long text.

●      Medium Text: The attribute values are displayed with their medium text.

Depending on the system setting, other options may be available, such as Short Text, Medium-Length Text, and Long Text, and combinations of these with the key. The key can be displayed in various ways (external, internal), depending on the system setting.

If you select multiple attributes, you specify their order by selecting an attribute and moving it with the relevant arrow button.

Hierarchies

This tab page appears only when the characteristic has one or more hierarchies.

In the Hierarchy dropdown box, select the name of the hierarchy if the characteristic is to be displayed with this hierarchy. The Hierarchy Active checkbox is automatically selected, meaning the hierarchy is an active display hierarchy and the characteristic is displayed hierarchically. If you deselect the Hierarchy Active indicator, the characteristic is not displayed as a hierarchy but as a basic list.

To specify the hierarchy level to which the hierarchy is to be expanded, select the expansion level (0,1,2,3,…) in the Expansion Leveldropdown box.

Under Position of Subnodes, you can specify whether the lower-level nodes are to be displayed above or below. Choose the option Above if, for example, you want to see the overall result at the bottom of the screen.

If you want to suppress nodes that only have one lower-level node, select Hide under Nodes with Only One Lower-Level Node. Hiding nodes with only one lower-level node helps you to access detailed information quickly.

In the following example, Cost Center A and Cost Center A.1. contain the same information, since Cost Center A has only one lower-level node in the hierarchy. If you are interested in the detailed data for the individual cost centers, you can hide the top node with only one lower-level node, which does not contain any additional information. The lower-level node, together with its lower-level nodes and their leaves, is still displayed.

This setting is not executed while the query is input ready.

Under Display Values of Posted Nodes, you can select whether you want to always show or always hide the values of posted nodes.

In hierarchies, nodes always display the aggregated values of the lower-level nodes and leaves. If a node has a posted value, it is not obvious to the user. To display this posted value, an additional leaf is inserted that has the same name as the node. This leaf displays the value posted to the node.

 

In the following example, an additional leaf has been added for Cost Center A.1., which displays the value of Cost Center A.1. itself (10). This additional leaf does not exist in the hierarchy. You can show or hide this leaf (with the value of the posted node).

If you want to specify how the hierarchy nodes of the characteristic are to be displayed, in the relevant text node dropdown box and the available hierarchy characteristic nodes, choose the required display type:

●      Text

●      Key

●      Text and Key

●      Key and Text

Depending on the system setting, other options may be available, such as Short Text, Medium-Length Text, and Long Text, and combinations of these with the key. The key can be displayed in various ways (external, internal), depending on the system setting.

Sorting

Here you specify how you want to sort the data:

Under Sort Direction, choose Ascending or Descending.

Under Sort By, specify which criteria you want to sort by:

●      If you sort using the standard setting, the characteristic values are sorted according to the first display variant (key or text). For time characteristics, the system always sorts the characteristic values by the key.

●      If you sort by data cell values, select the key figure or structure element that you want to sort by under Structure.

●      If you sort by characteristics, select whether you want to sort by the characteristic itself or by its attributes under InfoObject. You then select the type of display (key, text).

●      If you sort by Selection, the elements are sorted according to the order of the selected filter values of the characteristic in the input help dialog.

●      If you sort by Hierarchy , the elements are sorted according to the current presentation hierarchy of the characteristic.

Advanced

Here you can associate the display type of the characteristic (with relation to texts and attributes) that you choose in the analysis grid with the characteristic display in the input help or the characteristic display in the filter displays.

If you associate the characteristic display from the analysis grid with the characteristic display in the input help, the same settings that you made in the analysis grid are also available in the input help (on the left side of the input help dialog).

If you associate the characteristic display from the analysis grid with the characteristic display in the filter displays, the same settings that you made in the analysis grid are also available in the filter values (on the right side of the input help dialog). The filter values can, for example, also be included in the dropdown boxes or text elements, and are also displayed there in this display type.

Activities

In the Web application, choose Properties → Characteristic in the context menu of a characteristic or its characteristic value. The Characteristic Properties dialog box appears. Make your setting and choose OK.