In modern business applications, handling and processing textual data efficiently is as crucial as numeric data processing. Within the SAP-HANA-Live environment, Core Data Services (CDS) views offer powerful capabilities to integrate and manage text alongside transactional data. This is essential for scenarios like multilingual reporting, descriptive analytics, and user-friendly interfaces where meaningful text is key.
This article explores how text processing is handled in CDS views and its importance for SAP-HANA-Live content delivery.
Text processing refers to the handling, integration, and display of descriptive texts linked to master data or transactional data records. For example, instead of showing only a product ID, users need the product name or description in their preferred language.
CDS views offer built-in mechanisms to link and consume text data effectively:
Most master data in SAP is stored with language-dependent text tables. CDS views use associations to link base data to its corresponding text entity.
define view ZProduct
as select from product_master
association [0..*] to product_text as _text
on $projection.product_id = _text.product_id
{
key product_master.product_id,
product_master.product_category,
_text.product_name,
_text.language
}
Here, _text.product_name provides the description in various languages.
CDS supports filtering text based on the user's preferred language using variables or annotations, ensuring personalized data display.
@ObjectModel.text.element: ['_text.product_name']
define view ZProductWithText ...
This annotation marks the text field as the preferred description element.
Text tables are typically joined using left outer joins to ensure that the base data is displayed even if text is missing for a specific language.
SAP-HANA-Live delivers virtual data models for operational reporting that must be business-user-friendly. Text processing enhances these models by:
Imagine a sales report where customer IDs are linked to customer names in different languages. Using CDS associations, you can fetch the appropriate customer name dynamically, enhancing report clarity and user experience.
define view ZCustomerSales
as select from sales_orders
association [0..*] to customer_text as _custText
on $projection.customer_id = _custText.customer_id
{
key sales_orders.order_id,
sales_orders.customer_id,
_custText.customer_name,
sales_orders.sales_amount
}
By applying language filters, the report automatically shows customer names in the user’s language.
@ObjectModel.text.element for better integration with SAP UI technologies.Text processing in CDS views is a vital feature that brings life and clarity to raw data within SAP-HANA-Live models. By effectively linking and managing textual information, SAP professionals can create more user-friendly, localized, and insightful reports and applications. Mastering text processing techniques in CDS elevates the quality and usability of SAP’s real-time operational reporting and analytics solutions.