Environment
Transcript
Hello. My name is Steve George and I'm a Senior Solution Engineer of SAP with a focus on Gold Client. I hope that you were able to watch the preceding video that introduces new users to the Gold Client solution; if not, I strongly advise that you take a few minutes to watch it as it contains some foundational type of content that most users should find very useful in understanding the solution.
The purpose of this video is to introduce a very important object of Gold Client named "Data Echo data types". These data types play an important role in the copy process, and so we need to dive into this content so that the user has some understanding of: what these objects are, the fact that most data types have relationships and are part of one or more data type hierarchies, and that some data types have a special categorization known as "Primary" data types. At the end of the presentation, I will summarize how these objects can have an impact on the data copy.
So, what exactly is "Data Echo"? It's a major component within the Gold Client solution that provides users the functionality to copy data subsets selectively. It has its own configuration set that contains a complex set of data mappings. This config aligns with the highly complex SAP data model and is sometimes referred to as the Data Echo "brain". Please be aware that subsequent videos will cover how to use the Data Echo functionality for copying data sets.
A "data type" is a Gold Client term for an object that represents a specific SAP data object. Each data type has at least one "header" table defined, and all other tables are related from it. The tables within a data type typically share one or more common key fields. It's worth mentioning that Gold Client is delivered with a significant number of data types already predefined. And of course, customers are allowed to create new data types as well as make changes to the predefined data types.
Data types are provided for both master data objects and transactional data objects. This slide shows a very limited number of common examples which the Qlik team provides as part of the standard configuration that is delivered to our customers.
This slide provides two examples of Data Types where the screen capture on the left shows one named SD - SALES DOCUMENTS; its header table is V-B-A-K and the highlighted relation is to table V-B-E-P, and we can see that the join uses common field V-B-E-L-N which is the field that stores the sales order number. The capture on the right shows similar content but uses SD - CUSTOMER MASTER as the example. It uses K-N-A-1 as the header table and its relation to table K-N-B-1 relies on a join using common field K-U-N-N-R which is the field that stores the customer number. It's worth noting that data types can be customized and that the most common way of doing so is by adding a relationship to one or more Z-tables.
It is important to understand that data types can be related to one another. Relations are often necessary to help ensure that the various dependent data objects which are stored in other Data Types are included when performing a data copy. Please be aware that it is possible to activate or inactivate data type links as there are valid use cases for doing so. Having a link defined as Inactive means that the relationship will be excluded from the copy process while a link defined as Active means that the relationship will be included in the copy process. And just to let you know, around 90% of all predefined links are set as active within the Gold Client standard configuration and this is because the Qlik team understands that most users are going to want to include more data objects in their copies and not less.
This slide provides two examples where the screen capture on the left shows a data type named MM - PURCHASING DOCUMENTS and that it has a number of data type relationships defined; the highlighted one is to MM - SERVICE ENTRY SHEET, and it is possible to see that the relationship uses a mapping of E-B-E-L-N equals E-B-E-L-N which is the field that stores the purchase order number. The capture on the right shows similar content but uses CA - BUSINESS PARTNERS as the example; the highlighted link to CA - CENTRAL ADDRESS MANAGEMENT is visible, and the relationship uses a mapping of A-D-D-R-NUMBER equals A-D-D-R-COMM both of which store the address number.
It is worth noting that the Gold Client standard configuration is delivered with a significant number of Data Type relations predefined. The various Data Type relationships ultimately create a series of complex hierarchies, and it's important to understand that these hierarchies are constructed almost exclusively in a top-down model; please be aware that the top-down model is used in the Gold Client configuration because it results in higher levels of data integrity and because the export performs more efficiently when querying the database.
This slide contains two screen captures that provide a small glimpse into an example of a data type hierarchy. The parent data type used here is named SD - SALES DOCUMENTS and the left capture shows all of its data type relationships or children. One of these is named LINK - SALES ORDER ITEMS and the right capture shows all of its relations or children, including the data type CO - SETTLEMENT DOCUMENTS and its children. Notice that there are two types of icons next to each data type. A folder indicates that the data type can be exploded to see its relations and a piece of paper indicates that the data type has no children of its own.
It's important to understand that users are free to initiate data exports using any data type of their choosing, but that doing so may result in missing data. For example, let's say that a user starts their export using a data type named SD - BILLING DOCUMENTS. This will result in the Billing document and dependent data objects being included; however, since the hierarchies are constructed in a top-down model, an export that uses this data type would not include preceding objects like the sales document and delivery just to name a couple. If the user instead chose to use SD - SALES DOCUMENTS as the data type for initiating their export, then many more data objects would be included, and that this includes the data type named SD - BILLING DOCUMENTS. So, this is an important point for a new user to be aware of -- that choosing a data type with which to initiate their data export will have an impact on what data is included in the copy.
Here are some details for a special kind of data type that the Qlik team refers to as "Primary". This term reflects the fact that these data types are located at the top of their respective hierarchies. They are well structured with respect to dependent data objects and are therefore highly recommended as the best option for initiating data copies because they tend to generate the best results from a data integrity perspective. Gold Client's standard configuration is delivered with 20 data types set as Primary and of course this is a configurable setting so that customers are free to add or remove this designation accordingly.
Here is a list of the most frequently used Primary data types.
So with respect to the content that's been shared during this presentation, the following details provide some important insight on what this means from a data copy perspective; Gold Client's export program utilizes the Data Echo configuration to determine what tables to query and what data to collect; A user's data copy is impacted by two important items: First, the Data Type which the user selected to initiate their data export, and second, the various table mappings and data type relations that are defined within the user's Data Echo configuration. Regarding the first point, Qlik's best practice recommendation of using Primary Data Types should be followed so that the data copy ideally leads to high levels of data integrity.
We've reached the end of this presentation and I thank you for your attention. My hope is that you now have at least a basic understanding of what data types are in the Gold Client configuration, that they can be related to one another so that they create simple or complex hierarchies, and that it's important to choose the proper data type when initiating an export in order for the copy to achieve ideal data integrity. Please check out the next training video to learn how to search for data types within the Gold Client user interface.
