Form-Based Planning  

Use

With characteristic relationships for real-time InfoCubes, you can model valid combinations of characteristic values. The system uses this information to suggest combinations of characteristics in input-ready queries for which values have not yet been saved. To ensure that the generated combinations of characteristics are valid, the system uses the values that are currently being used in the filter of the query and the relations from the characteristic relationships.

Prerequisites

You have modeled characteristics relationships (see Characteristic Relationships).

You have defined an input-ready query (see Input-Ready Query).

Features

In the BEx Query Designer, in the Properties of a characteristic, you can set the Access Type for Result Values. You have the following options:

●     Posted values

●     Characteristic relationships

●     Master data

The first option is the default setting. If you want the system to suggest combinations for planning, choose the Characteristic Relationships option.

For more information, see Characteristic Properties.

Activities

To generate proposed combinations, choose Characteristic Relationships. If a characteristic should not be included in a relation, the system refers back to the master data to generate the valid combinations. This is also the case if you choose the Characteristic Relationships option.

However, if you choose the Master Data option for an input-ready query, the system first generates all the possible combinations that are restricted by time characteristics and navigation attributes only. For each cell, the system checks whether the relevant characteristic relationships produce a valid combination for the cell; if this is the case, the cell is input ready.

Note that if you choose the Characteristic Relationships or Master Data option, a considerable number of combinations can easily be generated. For this reason, the filter restrictions for these characteristics should be accordingly restrictive. You can specify a maximum number of combinations for characteristic relationships for each real-time InfoCube.

Example

In sales planning you are planning (rolling) quantities for the periods of a predefined time interval (one year, for example). The products are arranged in a Product Hierarchy that you have modeled using the characteristic relationships. Product belongs to a Product Group which in turn belongs to a Product Line. You use these characteristics in the rows of an input-ready query. In the columns, you use the key figure Sales Quantity and the time characteristic Fiscal Year/Period in the drilldown. Under Access Type for Result Values, you choose the Characteristic Relationships option for these four characteristics. The system generates the valid combinations in the rows; for the characteristic Period/Year, the system determines all the valid periods from the master data that is contained in the filter. It generates the corresponding number of combinations in the key figure structure with the values for the periods.

The following figure provides an example of this form-based planning:

Note that with fiscal year variants, the special periods are valid master data. If you use the fiscal year variant Q4, the system suggests the special periods 13.2006, … 16.2006 and period 0.2007 for the selection 1.2006 - 12.2007. If you do not want to use these values in planning, you have to remove them from the selection.