Enhance an ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) View in SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) ABAP Environment

To make the input fields more useful, you will now add input value help to the field AgencyID.

1. Specify the source of the value help. This works a bit like a join: You need to point to an entity, and field common to both the value help entity and your CDS entity. In this case, you will point to AgencyID in the CDS entity /DMO/I_Agency. Add the following annotation to your field AgencyID.

   CDS Copy

   @Consumption.valueHelpDefinition: [{  entity: {name: '/DMO/I_Agency', element: 'AgencyID'}  }]

2. You also need to expose this second entity in the OData service. To do this, add the entity /DMO/I_Agency to your service definition, so the complete definition looks like this:

   CDS Copy

   @EndUserText.label: 'Service exposes Travel Data 000'
   define service Z_EXPOSE_TRAVEL_R_000 {
     expose Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 as Travel;
     expose /DMO/I_Agency as Agency;
   }

3. Format, save, and activate both CDS entity and service definition ( Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+3 ).

4. Refresh your Fiori Elements preview and choose value help for the input field AgencyID.

   

5. Now the value help appears. Enter the country key DE and choose Go. Only German agencies appear on the list.

   

6. Repeat this step for CustomerID:

   CDS Copy

   @Consumption.valueHelpDefinition: [{entity: {name: '/DMO/I_Customer', element: 'CustomerID' }}]

7. Also, expose this entity in the service definition:

   CDS Copy

   expose /DMO/I_Customer as Customer;

Next, you will make the Agency field more readable by adding the agency name to the ID, using a text association. CDS associations are simply specifications of joins, always in the same place in the syntax. The main advantage of an association is reuse: Once you have specified an association once, you can conveniently string several associations together in a path. In this case, however, you will use a simple association.

For more information, see:

• ABAP Keyword Documentation: CDS - Associations

1. Add the following statement to your CDS entity, Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000, just before the list of fields. The first statement creates an association from the source CDS entity Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 to the target CDS entity /DMO/I_Agency, joined on the field AgencyID. The source entity is represented by the alias $projection, because you cannot use the original name in a path statement. The target entity is represented by its alias name _Agency.

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     association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Agency as _Agency on $projection.AgencyID = _Agency.AgencyID

   

2. Now add the following annotation to the field AgencyID:

   CDS Copy

     @ObjectModel.text.association: '_Agency'

3. Check that the association has been added to the field list. (This should have been done automatically when you inserted the signature of /DMO/I_TRAVEL_U.)

   

4. Format, save, and activate ( Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3 ).

5. Make sure that the entity /DMO/I_Agency has been added to your service definition. (You should have done this in step 1.)

   

6. Refresh your Fiori Elements preview. The agency name should now be shown, with the ID number in parentheses.

   

7. Repeat for the field CustomerID:

   CDS Copy

   association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Customer as _Customer    on $projection.CustomerID =   _Customer.CustomerID

   CDS Copy

   @ObjectModel.text.association: '_Customer'

8. Also make sure this association are added to the list of fields:

   CDS Copy

   //Associations
   _Customer

   

ABAP has many built-in SQL functions for both numeric and string fields.

For more information on these functions, see : ABAP Keyword Documentation: SQL Functions.

You will use a simple one to easily merge two fields. The two fields are provided by the association _Customer.

1. Add an association.

   CDS Copy

       association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Customer as _Customer on $projection.CustomerID = _Customer.CustomerID

2. After CustomerID, add a comma, then add the function concat_with_space using auto-complete ( Ctrl+Space ); then add the alias as Addressee.

   CDS Copy

     concat_with_space(_Customer.Title, _Customer.LastName, 1) as Addressee,

   

3. Also make sure this association is added to the list of fields:

   CDS Copy

   //Associations
   _Customer

4. Format, save, and activate these objects using Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3 .

5. Check the result in the data preview, by clicking in the editor and choosing Open With > Data Preview from the context menu. The result should look like this.

   

   

6. Now you have the addressee, you may want to comment out the text association for CustomerID.

It would be nice to find out how much money each Agency has received in total. To do this, you first need to convert all the sums paid to one currency. To do this, you will again use a built-in function. For more information, see the ABAP Keyword Documentation: ABAP CDS - Conversion Functions for Units and Currencies

1. Convert the price (TotalPrice) of each line item to US Dollars. Again, you do this using a built-in conversion function. You simply have to define the variables you are using for amount, source currency, etc, and the built-in function does the rest.

   You need to cast the character value 'USD' to the correct type and length, abap.cuky( 5 ).

   You may get a warning: “Reference information missing…”. Ignore this for now.

   CDS Copy

   @Semantics.amount.currencyCode: 'CurrencyCode'
   currency_conversion(
   amount => TotalPrice,
   source_currency => CurrencyCode,
   round => 'X',
   target_currency => cast('USD' as abap.cuky( 5 )),
   exchange_rate_date => cast('20200429' as abap.dats),
   error_handling => 'SET_TO_NULL' )
   as PriceInUSD,  

2. Format, save, and activate ( Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+3 )

3. If you check the result in the data preview, it should look like this.

   

4. Now you will remove the warning. If you select the warning, then choose Problem Description from the context menu, you will see that you need to add an annotation, •Semantics.amount.currencyCode. However, this will simply add the original currency code (e.g. NOK) to the PriceInUSD column. Also, you can only add an element name to the annotation, not a literal such as 'NOK'. So you need to:

   • Create a column, TargetCurrency
   • Give it the value of the literal
   • Cast the string literal to a currency type, abap.cuky
   • Add the semantic annotation to PriceInUSD

   Your code should now look like this:

   CDS Copy

   //Conversion to USD
   @Semantics.currencyCode: true
     cast( 'USD' as abap.cuky ) as TargetCurrency,

5. Optional: Test in the Fiori Elements preview. Your app should look like this:

   

The code for your CDS entity should look like this:

@AbapCatalog.viewEnhancementCategory: [#NONE]
@AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #NOT_REQUIRED
@EndUserText.label: 'Travel Model View Entity - Read Only'
@Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true
@Metadata.allowExtensions: true
@Search.searchable: true
@ObjectModel.usageType:{
  serviceQuality: #X,
  sizeCategory: #S,
  dataClass: #MIXED
}
define view entity Z_I_TRAVEL_R_ENHANCED as select from /DMO/I_Travel_U

 association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Agency   as _Agency       on $projection.AgencyID = _Agency.AgencyID
  association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Customer as _Customer     on $projection.CustomerID = _Customer.CustomerID

{

      ///DMO/I_Travel_U

  key TravelID,
      @Consumption.valueHelpDefinition: [{entity: {name: '/DMO/I_Agency', element: 'AgencyID'}}]
      @ObjectModel.text.association: '_Agency'
      AgencyID,

      @Consumption.valueHelpDefinition: [{entity: {name: '/DMO/I_Customer', element: 'CustomerID' }}]
      @ObjectModel.text.association: '_Customer'
      CustomerID,

      concat_with_space(_Customer.Title, _Customer.LastName, 1) as Addressee,
      BeginDate,
      EndDate,
      
      @Semantics.amount.currencyCode: 'CurrencyCode'      
      BookingFee,

      @Semantics.amount.currencyCode: 'CurrencyCode'
      TotalPrice,

      //Currency Conversion
      @Semantics.amount.currencyCode: 'CurrencyCode'
      currency_conversion(
      amount => TotalPrice,
      source_currency => CurrencyCode,
      round => 'X',
      target_currency => cast('USD' as abap.cuky( 5 )),
      exchange_rate_date => cast('20200429' as abap.dats),
      error_handling => 'SET_TO_NULL' )                         as PriceInUSD,

      CurrencyCode,

      @Search.defaultSearchElement: true
      @Search.fuzzinessThreshold: 0.90
      Memo,
      Status,
      LastChangedAt,

      /* Associations */
      //DMO/I_Travel_U
      _Agency,
      _Booking,
      _Currency,
      _Customer,
      _TravelStatus

}

At the moment, your application is a simple list. It would be nice to click on a row, i.e. a travel, and get more details in a separate page, known as an object page. Later you can add details from other CDS entities using associations. For more information on object pages, see SAP Help Portal: Defining UI Annotations

1. First add the page itself. Add the following annotation to your metadata extension, just after the opening curly bracket:

   CDS Copy

   @UI.facet: [ { id:              'Travel',
                   purpose:         #STANDARD,
                   type:            #IDENTIFICATION_REFERENCE,
                   label:           'Travel',
                   position:        10 } ]

   

2. You then specify which elements you want to include in the object page. Since the facet type is #IDENTIFICATION_REFERENCE, you use the identification annotation, so that the complete annotation plus element now looks like this:

   CDS Copy

   @UI: { lineItem:     [ {  position: 20, label: 'Agency', importance: #HIGH } ],
    identification:[ { position: 10, label: 'Travel' } ],
    selectionField: [{position: 20  }] }
   TravelID;

3. Add a similar annotation for each of the other elements; see step 7.5 below for complete code:

4. Finally, add a header to your object page, just after the layer annotation (before the annotate view... statement):

   CDS Copy

   @UI: {
           headerInfo: {
           typeName: 'Travel',
           typeNamePlural: 'Travels',
           title: {
               type: #STANDARD,
               label: 'Travel',
               value: 'TravelID'
           }
       }
   }

5. Your complete code should look like this:

   CDS Copy

   @Metadata.layer: #CORE
   
   @UI: {
       headerInfo: {
           typeName: 'Travel',
           typeNamePlural: 'Travels',
           title: {
           type: #STANDARD,
           label: 'Travel',
           value: 'TravelID'
           }
       }
   }
   
   annotate view Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 with
   {
   
   @UI.facet: [ { id:              'Travel',
                   purpose:         #STANDARD,
                   type:            #IDENTIFICATION_REFERENCE,
                   label:           'Travel',
                   position:        10 } ]
   
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 15, label: 'Agency', importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 15 }],
           selectionField: [{position: 15 }]
           }
   AgencyID;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 20, importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 20 }],
           selectionField: [{position: 20 }]
           }
   CustomerID;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 10, importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 10, label: 'Travel' }],
           selectionField: [{position: 10 }]
           }
   TravelID;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 30, importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 30 }],
           selectionField: [{position: 30 }]
           }
   BeginDate;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 40, importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 40 }],
           selectionField: [{position: 40 }]
           }
   EndDate;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 50, importance: #HIGH}],
           identification: [{position: 50 }]
           }
   TotalPrice;
   
   @UI           : {
           lineItem      : [{position: 50, importance: #HIGH}]
           }
   Memo;
   
   @UI           : {
       lineItem      : [{position: 60, importance: #HIGH}],
       selectionField: [{position: 60 }]
       }
   Status;
   
   }

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6. Test your object page in the Fiori Elements preview. It should look roughly like this:

   

You will now add more information to the object page by creating:

• A CDS entity for bookings
• Adding a second UI facet to the travel metadata extension

You will also create a parent-child hierarchy for these two entities. Your business object will then consist of a tree of nodes linked by a special associations known as a composition. For more information on this relationship, see Defining the Data Model in CDS Views, particularly the first two sections, Travel Root View /DMO/I_Travel_U and Booking View /DMO/I_Booking_U.

1. In the Package Explorer, select Data Definition, then choose New Data Definition from the context menu.

   

2. Enter the following:

   • Name = Z_I_BOOKING_R_000
   • Description = Consumption view from /DMO/I_BOOKING_U
   • Referenced Object = /DMO/I_BOOKING_U

3. Choose the same transport request, then choose Next. Do not choose Finish.

4. Finally, choose Use template then choose Define view. Then choose Finish.

Your CDS entity appears in a new editor. We will fix the errors now.

6. Change the @AccessControl.authorizationCheck: to #NOT_REQUIRED.

1. Add the following to Z_I_BOOKING_000, using Auto-complete (Ctrl+Space). Then Save, but DO NOT yet activate your entity.

   CDS Copy

   association to parent Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 as _Travel
     on $projection.TravelID = _Travel.TravelID

2. Change Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 to a root view entity and add the composition association as follows. Again, Save, but DO NOT yet activate your entity.

   CDS Copy

   define root view entity Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000
     as select from /DMO/I_Travel_U as Travel
   
   composition [0..*] of Z_I_BOOKING_000 as _Booking

3. Now, choose Activate All (Shift+Ctrl+F3).

   

4. Choose Deselect All, then choose your two entities Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 and Z_I_BOOKING_000, then choose Activate.

   

5. Change the @AccessControl.authorizationCheck: to #NOT_REQUIRED.

6. Add an alias to the define view statement, so that your code looks like this:

   CDS Copy

   @AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #CHECK
   @EndUserText.label: 'Read-only view from /DMO/I_BOOKING_U'
   define view entity Z_I_BOOKING_000 as select from /DMO/I_Booking_U as Booking

7. Format, save, and activate the CDS entity (Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3) Z_I_BOOKING_000.

1. Add semantic annotations as follows:

   CDS Copy

   @Semantics.amount.currencyCode: 'Currency_Code'
   FlightPrice          as Flight_Price,
   
   @Semantics.currencyCode: true
   CurrencyCode         as Currency_Code,

2. Format, save, and activate the CDS entity (Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3).

1. First, allow metadata extensions to your CDS entity by adding the following annotation just after the @EndUserText.label: 'Consumption view from /DMO/I_BOOKING_U' annotation:

   CDS Copy

   @Metadata.allowExtensions: true

2. In the Package Explorer, select the CDS entity Z_I_BOOKING_R_000, then choose New Metadata Extension from the context menu.

3. Enter a name ZMDE_BOOKING_R_000 and description Metadata for Z_I_BOOKING_R_000; select the transport request and choose Finish.,

4. In the editor, enter the following code:

   CDS Copy

   @Metadata.layer: #CORE
   
   @UI: {
   headerInfo: {
   typeName: 'Travel',
   typeNamePlural: 'Travels',
             title: {
               type: #STANDARD,
               label: 'Travel',
               value: 'TravelID'
                   }
             }
         }
   annotate view Z_I_BOOKING_R_000 with
   
   {
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 10, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 10 } ] }
    TravelID;
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 10, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 10 } ] }
     BookingID;
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 20, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 20 } ] }
     BookingDate;
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 30, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 30 } ] }
     AirlineID;
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 40, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 40 } ] }
     ConnectionID;
   
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 50, importance: #HIGH } ],
            identification: [ { position: 50 } ] }
     FlightDate;
   
     @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 60, importance: #MEDIUM } ],
            identification: [ { position: 60 } ] }
     Flight_Price;
   
   }

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5. Format, save, and activate the metadata extension (Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3).

1. Also, add the entity Z_I_BOOKING_R_000 to the service definition Z_EXPOSE_TRAVEL_R_000:

   CDS Copy

   @EndUserText.label: 'Expose travel Service 000'
   define service Z_EXPOSE_TRAVEL_R_000 {
   expose Z_I_TRAVEL_R_000 as Travel;
   expose Z_I_BOOKING_R_000 as Booking;
   }

2. Format, save, and activate (Shift+F1, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+F3).

3. Check the service binding. It should now include a to_Booking association, like this. If not, try choosing Unpublish, then Publish again.

   

1. In metadata extension Z_MDE_TRAVEL_000, before the square bracket, insert a comma after the Travel facet, then insert the Booking facet to the Travel metadata extension, so that your code looks like this:

   CDS Copy

   @UI.facet: [ { id:              'Travel',
                   purpose:         #STANDARD,
                   type:            #IDENTIFICATION_REFERENCE,
                   label:           'Travel',
                   position:        10 } ,
                   { id:              'Booking',
                   purpose:         #STANDARD,
                   type:            #LINEITEM_REFERENCE,
                   label:           'Booking',
                   position:        20,
                   targetElement:   '_Booking'} ]

   

2. Now, in the metadata extension ZMDE_BOOKING_R_000, specify which fields from Booking you want to include in the object page, again using an identification annotation as follows:

   CDS Copy

   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 10, importance: #HIGH } ],
          identification: [ { position: 10 } ] }
   BookingID;
   
   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 20, importance: #HIGH } ],
          identification: [ { position: 20 } ] }
   BookingDate;
   
   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 30, importance: #HIGH } ],
          identification: [ { position: 30 } ] }
   AirlineID;
   
   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 40, importance: #HIGH } ],
          identification: [ { position: 40 } ] }
   ConnectionID;
   
   
   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 50, importance: #HIGH } ],
          identification: [ { position: 50 } ] }
   FlightDate;
   
   @UI: { lineItem:       [ { position: 60, importance: #MEDIUM } ],
          identification: [ { position: 60 } ] }
   Flight_Price;

3. Test your new facet in the Fiori Elements preview. It should look like this:

   

You can also display information from another entity using an association.

1. In the CDS entity Z_I_BOOKING_R_000, add an association from Booking to Connection.

   CDS Copy

       association [1..1] to /DMO/I_Connection as _Connection on $projection.ConnectionId = _Connection.ConnectionID

2. You will get a warning. If you choose Problem Description, you will see that this warning can be hidden, by adding the following pseudo-comment:

   CDS Copy

     /*+[hideWarning] { "IDS" : [ "CARDINALITY_CHECK" ] }*/

3. Now add the following two elements to the CDS entity Z_I_BOOKING_R_000:

   CDS Copy

   @Semantics.quantity.unitOfMeasure: 'DistanceUnit'
   _Connection.Distance as Distance,
   
   @Semantics.unitOfMeasure: true
   _Connection.DistanceUnit as DistanceUnit,

4. Optional: Test your Fiori Elements preview again. It should look like this:

   

1. Add the following code, immediately after the element DistanceUnit:

   CDS Copy

   case
       when _Connection.Distance >= 2000 then 'long-haul flight'
       when _Connection.Distance >= 1000 and
        _Connection.Distance <  2000 then 'medium-haul flight'
       when _Connection.Distance <  1000 then 'short-haul flight'
                         else 'error'
   end                      as Flight_type,

2. Also, make sure that the distance is in kilometers, by adding this code after the select list:

   CDS Copy

   where
   _Connection.DistanceUnit = 'KM'

   

3. Format, save, and activate the CDS entity.

4. Test your Fiori Elements preview again. It should roughly look like this:

   

• Blog post: From Open SQL Joins to CDS Associations

• SAP Help Portal: Defining UI Annotations

• SAP Help Portal: Defining CDS Annotations for Metadata-Driven UIs

• Troubleshooting: Blog post: Find Errors in Metadata Extensions, by Andre Fischer

• Troubleshooting: Blog post: Use the SAP Gateway Error Log in ADT, by Andre Fischer