SAP BI BusinessObjects

SAP Business Objects Information Portal

Working with BusinessObjects Universe Designer

The operational commands can be issued in Universe Designer in a few ways:

  • Menu options - the menu bar has standard options known from other windows based applications, which are: File, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, Window and Help
  • Toolbar buttons - three toolbars are available: Standard toolbar, Editing toolbar, Formula Bar toolbar.
  • Right-click menus - display on the screen when the right mouse button is clicked.

    These menus usually give developers access to options related to the performed task, for instance doing a right-click in the Universe pane shows a drop-down menu for creating classes and objects.

    Universe Designer window

    The BO Universe Designer window is split into two main areas:

    • Structure pane - located on the right-hand side. The place where users insert the database tables and view the universe structure that generates the FROM and SELECT clauses into a SQL statement.
      The structure pane is a dynamic graphical view which can be adjusted easily and navigated with such commands as zoom, arrange tables option, drag and drop operations, roll-up/unroll tables (show all columns or table header only). Furthermore, a View table/column values option is available for gaining a partial view of the data content of the given table or column.
    • Universe pane (object explorer) - located on the left-hand side, in which users create the classes and objects seen later when building queries using the given universe. The objects physically point to the tables from the Structure pane.
    Universe designer view with object explorer view (left-hand side) and a schema diagram (in the center)
    Universe designer view with object explorer view (left-hand side) and a schema diagram (in the center)