Static
and Dynamic Geo-Characteristics
Definition
Static and dynamic characteristics describe data with a geographical reference (for example, characteristics such as customer, sales region, country). Maps are used to display and evaluate this geo-relevant data.
Structure
There are four different types of geo-characteristic:
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1. Static geo-characteristics
A static geo-characteristic is a characteristic that describes a surface (polygon), whose geographical coordinates rarely change. Country and region are examples of static geo-characteristics.
Data from areas or polygons are stored in Shapefiles that define the geometry and the attributes of the geo-characteristics.
2. Dynamic geo-characteristics
A dynamic geo-characteristic is a characteristic that describes a location (information in point form), whose geographical coordinates can change more frequently. Customer and plant are examples of dynamic geo-characteristics because they are rooted to one geographical “point” that can be described by an address, and the address data of these characteristics can often change.
A range of standard attributes are added to this geo-characteristic in SAP NetWeaver BI. These standard attributes store the geographical coordinates of the corresponding object for each row in the master data table. The geo-attributes concerned are:
Technical Name |
Description |
Data Type |
Length |
LONGITUDE |
Longitude of the location |
DEC |
15 |
LATITUDE |
Latitude of the location |
DEC |
15 |
ALTITUDE |
Altitude of the location (height above sea level) |
DEC |
17 |
PRECISID |
Identifies how precise the data is |
NUMC |
4 |
SRCID |
ID for the data source |
CHAR |
4 |
At present, only the LONGITUDE and LATITUDE attributes are used. ALTITUDE, PRECISID and SRCID are reserved for future use.
If you reset the geographical type of a characteristic to Not a Geo-Characteristic, these attributes are deleted in the InfoObject maintenance.
3. Dynamic geo-characteristics with values from attributes
To save you having to geocode each dynamic geo-characteristic individually, a dynamic geo-characteristic can get its geo-attributes (longitude, latitude, altitude) from another dynamic characteristic that has been geocoded already (postal code, for example). Customers and plants are examples of this type of dynamic geo-characteristics with values from attributes (type 3).
The system treats this geo-characteristic as a regular dynamic geo-characteristic that describes a location (geographical information as a point on map). The geo-attributes described above are not added to the master data table on the database level. Instead, the geo-coordinates are stored in the master data table of a regular attribute of the characteristic.
You want to define a dynamic geo-characteristic for Plant with the postal code as an attribute. The geo-coordinates are generated from the postal code master data table during the runtime.
This method prevents redundant entries from appearing in the master data table.
4. Static geo-characteristics with geo-attributes
A static geo-characteristic that includes geo-attributes (longitude, latitude, altitude) which geo-characteristics of type 3 are able to refer to. The postal code, for example, can be used as a static geo-characteristic with geo-attributes.
0POSTCD_GIS (postal code) is used as an attribute in the dynamic geo-characteristic 0BPARTNER (business partner) that gets its geo-coordinates from this attribute. In this way, the location information for the business partner is stored on the level of detail of the postal code areas.
See also: