SAP BO INTRODUCTION

   Overview

This chapter gives you an overview of the Designer tool which is used to build universes. It also describes about the universes, how they are created, what they contain, and the role of universes in your business environment. 

A typical universe development cycle is described, with recommended best design practices. Also, the demonstration databases and universes shipped with this release are described.

    Role Of Universe

The role of a universe is to provide an easy to use and understand interface, for non technical Interactive Analysis users. Also to run queries against a database to create reports and perform data analysis.

    Universe is basically divided into two areas:

1.  Universe Pane 

2.  Structure  Pane

     Universe Pane:

•Classes
•Objects

Classes: A class is a logical grouping of objects within a universe. It represents a category of objects. The class name should indicate the category of the objects that it contains. A class can be divided hierarchically into subclasses.

Objects: An object is a named component that maps to data or a derivation of data in the database. The name of an object should be drawn from the business vocabulary of the targeted user group. For example, objects used in a universe used by a product manager could be Product, Life Cycle, or Release Date. A universe used by a financial analyst might contain objects such as Profit Margin or Return on Investment.

      Structure Pane

As a universe designer you create this schema based on the tables and join that are required to return the data, needed by users for their analysis and report creation.

The schema is a part of the universe file, but is only visible and accessible in Designer. You can create a schema in the "Structure pane" of the "Universe window".