Why should i use attrubute view description mapping on a field why not add as attribute

[Former Member]

Why should i use under attrubute view "description mapping" on a field, why not add as attribute the same field, what we are trying to associate as description mapping property to an attribute key or to an "int" attribute column within an attribute view.

Is there an advantage of brinnging in that fields information via description mapping vs adding the same field as an attribute within the view?

Thanks a lot for the helpful info.

[justin_molenaur2]

Just to add my observations on this same topic...

I was investigating the same functionality and I found that by using the description mapping technique instead of just adding the description as another column in the view, the description is not exposed in two of the front end tools that were tested (Excel and Lumira). In the data preview tab in HANA, the .description column follows the attribute that it is mapped to, but that goes away in the front end tool.

So it seems by adding the description (MAKTX) for example as it's own standalone column is preferable for usability across tools. I can't comment how this shows up in IDT, AAO/Olap or Explorer Information space yet, however.

Thanks,

Justin

[shauking]

Hi Justin,

I tested the "Label Column" (previously known as Description Mapping) function on HANA SP08.  I have to add the description attribute (for example MAKTX) to the output before I can select it in the label column.  I agree with you that there is not much difference by using a standalone column as the description and not bothering with the label column.  And I can't find the way to rename a label column attribute as <attribute>.description as described in the F1 help.  I don't know if something is changed by SAP again? 

Thanks,

Jerry

[former_member182302]

Hi ,

Have a look on this blog, hope it answers your question

Regards,

Krishna Tangudu

[rama_shankar3]

I do not see any difference. Two ways of doing the same thing.

Regards,

Rama

[former_member184768]

Hi Kumar,

This is the standard way of mapping Description to key value in SAP BW. HANA is just using the same methodology.

In my opinion, one of the key reasons is to provide multilingual description. Secondly many a times it helps in the search with Key-Description Value pair.

Its a modeling technique because from Storage perspective it doesn't reduce the data volume.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ravi

[patrickbachmann]

Ravi, we have recently upgraded db to SPS5 and I'm using Studio 46 and I am no longer seeing the option for 'description mapping'.  Do you know if it went away or perhaps it's been moved somewhere else? 

[former_member184768]

In the attribute view, in Scenario please select Semantics. You will find the "Label Column" with the description mapping.

Please refer to page 116, point 5 on HANA Developer Guide, for the details on the same.

Regards,

Ravi

[patrickbachmann]

Thanks Ravi.  But I think that label just allows me to describe the field.  For example my field is material number or MATNR.  With the label instead of the user seeing MATNR I can label it as 'Material Number'.  However I'm talking about automatically mapping the MATNR field to the material description field MAKTX.  In the old TZHANA class manual I'm reading the mapping would be something like: TRAINING.MAKT.MAKTX.

Also I do not see anything on page 116, point 5 but I'm using the new SPS5 Hana Developer Guide.

Thanks!

PS: Should I open a new thread about this?

[lbreddemann]

Hi Patrick,

this is from the HANA Studio help file (simply press 'F1' in HANA Studio 😞

"Note:
You can choose to associate an attribute with another attribute that describes it in detail for example, while reporting via Label Mapping (also known as Description Mapping). For example, you can associate Region_ID with Region_Text.
Before SP05, when you used to associate an attribute with another attribute in a model, in the runtime object an <attribute>.description column gets generated that you see during data preview. Now, SP05 onwards the behavior is as: 
For an attribute (CUSTOMER) you can now maintain label mapping by selecting another attribute (TEXT) from the same model as "Label Column" in Semantics node. This result in displaying "TEXT" as the label column in data preview. Now, CUSTOMER.description column is not generated and is not shown in data preview anymore.
If you have created an object using old editor (which was supporting old way of description mapping) and try to open using the new "One View Editor" you will see a new column CUSTOMER.description (as an attribute) which is hidden and disabled since this column cannot be used in other places such as Parameter/Variable, Calculated column, Restricted measure etc. You cannot maintain properties for this attribute such as description. CUSTOMER.description appears in the data preview as long as you do not change it in the editor. You are allowed to change its name. After changing the name you can maintain its properties and use it like other attributes."

So, yes the way this is done has changed a bit.

- Lars

[former_member184768]

Hi Patrick,

Please check if you have the correct version of the document. I updated the document with me just recently. The guide is available at http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_dev_en.pdf.

Kindly refer to the page 116 which describes how the description mapping has been modified in SPS05.

Regards,

Ravi

[patrickbachmann]

Lars that is exactly what I was looking for, thanks.  As for the F1, I am not finding this info when I press F1.  I tried a search on description mapping too.  Maybe I'm Forest Gump?  ;o)

Ravi, thank you as well, I was looking at version 1.0 of developer guide for SPS5 and you have 1.1.  I now found the section you are refering to.

Thanks both for your help as always and happy new year.

[patrickbachmann]

Lars, I just found the section in F1 under 'creating attribute views' and scrolling all the way down to bottom....