How to Create Publications with SAP NetWeaver MDM Using … · 2017-02-23 · IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, S/390, AS/400, OS/390, ... Being

SAP NetWeaver How-To Guide

How to Create Publications with SAP NetWeaver MDM Using MDM Publisher

Applicable Releases:

SAP MDM 5.5 SP06 and above

IT Practice:

Data Unification

IT Scenario: Master Data Management

Version 1.0

May 2009

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Table of Contents

1. Business Scenario............................................................................................................... 1

2. Background Information..................................................................................................... 1

3. Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................ 1

4. Step-by-Step Procedure...................................................................................................... 2 4.1 Define Families’ Partition- MDM Data Manager ........................................................... 2 4.2 Create Default Layouts................................................................................................. 5

4.2.1 Getting Familiar with the Environment............................................................. 5 4.2.2 Setting Default Layout Rules ........................................................................... 7

4.3 Create Publication ...................................................................................................... 16 4.3.1 Create New Publication ................................................................................. 16 4.3.2 Getting Familiar with the Environment........................................................... 17 4.3.3 Data Updates ................................................................................................. 18 4.3.4 Pagination ...................................................................................................... 19 4.3.5 Templating ..................................................................................................... 24

4.4 Arranging the Catalog................................................................................................. 29 4.4.1 Flow Section .................................................................................................. 29 4.4.2 Remove Empty Pages ................................................................................... 31

4.5 Printing........................................................................................................................ 32 4.6 Create a catalog index................................................................................................ 34

4.6.1 Create Indexed Data Sources ....................................................................... 34 4.6.2 Creating the index in MDM ............................................................................ 34 4.6.3 Assigning Styles to Indexed Keys.................................................................. 37 4.6.4 Publishing the Index to DTP .......................................................................... 38

4.7 Alternative Publishing ................................................................................................. 39


1. Business Scenario Using SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (MDM) you can create visually stimulating print catalogs which retain their connections to ever-changing product data. The GUI client for creating printed catalogs is the MDM Publisher.

2. Background Information MDM Publisher offers an elegant and seamless combination of many different technologies, concepts, and minute details to create a comprehensive solution to an age-old problem: how to produce visually stimulating catalogs which retain their connections to ever-changing product data.

This guide leads you through step by step in order to create fast and easy publications. The steps are accompanied with best practices and advices to make you work easier and more efficient.

3. Prerequisites In order to start creating your publications as explained in this document the following prerequisites must be fulfilled:

• General:

Your MDM repository has been created and most or all of the initial data has been added.

In the Families tables, a family field is defined. The selected family field serves as the basis of all your future publications and all your families will be based on the selected taxonomy. Only a lookup taxonomy field may be selected.

• Software:

The following SAP NetWeaver MDM components should be installed: MDM Server, MDM Layout Server, MDM Publisher, and MDM Indexer.

MDM Data Manager is needed to manipulate the families’ partition though it is not mandatory as a default partition is automatic.

Please also see Note 1290736 to troubleshoot issues in starting work with the MDM Publisher.

A prior experience and knowledge in MDM is an advantage though not mandatory. It is useful to be familiar with MDM operations (such as MDM Console operations).

Being familiar with the data is an advantage, it is recommended to spend some time to get familiarized with the data (different data types, data population, taxonomy structure, the different data domains- lookup tables etc.)

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4. Step-by-Step Procedure

4.1 Define Families’ Partition- MDM Data Manager In this step our aim is to define the partitioning rules to achieve the product families corresponding to the business requirement.

A family is a group of related product records. Product families provide a way of organizing and identifying data groups.

Example In the following example, there are four families in the publication layout:

Partitioning is the division of a set of records into sub-sections.

The default and first partition of the main table records is based on the taxonomy hierarchy.

However, when you publish the contents of a repository, main table product records often need to be organized into a more granular structure than that provided by the categories of the taxonomy, not only grouping records based on the product category, but also further sub grouping them based on attribute values as well as other criteria (such as the manufacturer).

The definition of the families’ partition is done from the MDM Data Manager- Family Mode. Follow these steps:

1. Switch to MDM Data Manager- Family Mode.

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2. Under the Family Hierarchy (the left hand side) you will see the initial selected taxonomy structure (see Image 1).

3. Under the Partitioning you will see the available items you may further partition the families by. (Available are text attributes and single value lookup fields only).

In order to further partition a category, just double click on the available item, it will then by shown under the partition by: on the right.

Tip Partitioned families will be noted with a purple mark on the Family Hierarchy pane.

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Tip You may want to make those partitioning definitions from the top category as possible as category partitioning is an inherited property and by doing so you will save a lot of effort.

Note- a specific child node maybe defined differently then its sibling and parent category definitions.

Tip You can add fields to the families table. This is very efficient when you have data that is related to the families them selves rather to single records. Such fields maybe family images, family description or others.

After this step, the initial structure of future publication is defined.

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4.2 Create Default Layouts At this stage we would like to create default rules for structuring the data. This will be the basis to all our future publication and will save a lot of work when creating future publications.

Physical geometry of the objects and page layout will be dealt with at a later stage.

Tip Rarely ever will you work in MDM Publisher with all panes open. At each stage of work, different panes are relevant. You may want to close the panes that are not needed when working to create a cleaner work environment.

Tip You may want to save the displayed panes as you perspective by clicking View-> Perspective->Save perspective.

Tip You can always return to the default full perspective by Cntl+1 or from the View-> Perspective->[Default].

4.2.1 Getting Familiar with the Environment First, let’s get a bit familiar with the different panes. Below is a screen capture of the default panes, marked are the relevant panes for this stage of work, you may want to close other panes.

1

2

3

4


1 Family Hierarchy - Contains the tree representing the hierarchy of families. Its default families’ structure is a direct result of the partitioning defined in MDM Data Manager. Select any node of the Family Hierarchy (including the root) whose layout properties you want to view and edit.

Tip All new products with this data partition values will be added automatically to the correct family, without any need to assign products to the families.

2 Spreads - Displays thumbnails of the pages and spreads of the current publication. A spread is the combination of two facing pages.

3 Family Objects - Displays a preview of the items (fields, attributes, texts and images) linked to the records included in the family.

4 Layout Items: Node pane- Contains multiple tabs for presentation objects’ properties definition. Specifically, we will focus at the Items pane, which lists the layout items for the selected node in the Family Hierarchy; and (2) the Properties pane, which lists the set of properties for each layout item.

Tip Items in this context are fields and attributes.

Items

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4.2.2 Setting Default Layout Rules Make sure that the <Family Hierarchy> is selected.

At this point, all of the items are included in one raw base table.

Family Hierarchy

Raw Data

We would want to apply rules to the default level of this family hierarchy.

Tip You can define those rules to any specific node of the hierarchy, to any parent node or to the top parent node. You may want to always work from the heist node possible in order to define rules once and let them propagate to the children nodes.

Tip You can set specific items or all of them, or set Default Item which is for future items also.

Let’s apply some rules to a specific family to see the effect.

Though there are numerous rules to apply, we will focus on some very basic and efficient rules that are common to many business requirements:

• Hide/ Unhide Items

Obviously, there are some internal/ organization related data that we would not want to publish. There may be other items which are not relevant and we may not want to publish.

We will go over the list of items and hide them entirely.

In this screenshot we hide the Updated By field.

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• Hide empty item

Empty field often do not add any additional information to the reader and take up a lot of space on the layout. You may want to hide an item when its empty.

To do that, select all the items and set on the Hide Empty Item.

After saving the definition, the empty fields will not be displayed.

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• Promote column with all common values

Information which is repeating itself for all or most records, can be promoted to be shown only once. This will simplify the data display and make the data much more understandable. Data that is left in the table is usually only the difference between products while promoted data is similar to all products.

To do that select all the items and set on the Promote Colum with All Common Values.

• Convert UOM

You may convert UOM for different purposes and set different display methods. You can convert to all units of measure relating to the same dimension.

In this example we have converted the Capacity UOM values to deciliters and set to display the unit for each record.

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• Pivot tables-

Powerful tool for dividing and ordering the table, and avoiding repetition of information. As an example, we would like to divide the table to two sub tables per the packing type. Switch to the Table Layout tab. In order to pivot the table, double click on the item you wish to partition by.

There are several options Stack pivot, Vertical pivot, Horizontal pivot. Each will pivot the table differently

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Stack Pivot: will create two split sub tables

Vertical Pivot: will divide the table vertically.

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Horizontal Pivot: will divide the table horizontally.

• Table properties tab-

Definitions of multiple table properties: table transpose, table border etc.

In this example we define the Table border to 3 points.

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• Styles-

You can define any style you wish and apply it to your item.

If the style you need is not defined, in the Workspace Tab, under Styles, right click and select Add Style:

Define the Style Properties. Here: Font Size= 20points, Text Format: Bold Italic and Color: red.

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Switch back to the specific family (or from top Family Hierarchy node).

Select to which item you want to apply the new style (here: manufacturer), under Node pane, Item tab, set the style (My First Style). There are many rules how to apply the style.

Here: style is applied t Common Information Value Style.

This is the result:

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Tip You can switch very efficiently between MDM Publisher and MDM Data Manager. Open the MDM Data Manager on record mode. Right click on any family node -> Set search in record mode.

Switch to Data Manager, you will see that the right family records are displayed in DM. After editing data in DM; refresh the data in MDM Publisher by pressing F5 on the Family Hierarchy root.

MDM Publisher is a powerful WUSIWUG. While working in MDM Publisher you may see data that needs to be changed or updated. In this method, it is very easy to do.

...

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4.3 Create Publication We can now go ahead and create a specific publication. It can be either the yearly book of our entire catalog, a flyer of one or two item or any other sub section of records.

Each publication we will create will inherit the setting we have made in the <Family Hierarchy>.

4.3.1 Create New Publication There are several options when creating new publication:

1. Create a publication which is based on the families’ partition.

2. Create an empty publication and assign families.

3. Create a publication based on masks.

To create a new publication press New under File as shown below:

...

You will be shown with the following dialog. Provide a name (here: My First Publication). Either select or deselect the Empty publication check box. Choose masks if you want to base you publication on a masks.

In this example, we will select a publication which is based on a preconfigured mask which consists of records of the 2 first families (named publication A). Click OK on the dialog.

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4.3.2 Getting Familiar with the Environment Let us familiarize ourselves a bit with the relevant panes of this phase:

4

3

2

1

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1 Spread- Enables you to precisely place presentation information on the pages and spreads of a publication. Using this editor, you can add, delete, resize, and rearrange objects on the actual spreads of your publication (operation named pagination).

2 Presentation Objects snapshot- Display the presentation objects that have been deleted from the spread. You may re-use later presentation objects you once deleted.

3 Master Pages - Represents the master pages for the publication. Master pages are very useful for creating pages templates (for example: headers and footers of texts, images etc).

4 Template Tree- This is where templates for presentation spreads are stored. As its name suggests, the pane displays a tree in which templates can be stored hierarchically.

4.3.3 Data Updates While working on a publication which is an effort of a considerable duration, one must keep in mind that data may be constantly changing.

Therefore, you should decide if you want to reflect those changes and let data refresh so that it is displayed at its current state, or if you want to “freeze”” the state of the data you are working on publishing and not deal with an ever changing data.

This option is controlled in the Node Pane, the Refresh Options Tab. Here you may select whether you want New records to refresh or not (if the refresh is enables, new records while be added to the correct families automatically, per the partitioning) and if you want to New Families to refresh or not.

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4.3.4 Pagination In this phase we would like to set the physical geometry (size, place etc) of the presentation objects (pagination).

The pagination is done in the Spread Pane.

Tip Before starting pagination, you may need to first Calculate Initial Presentation Objects. You will notice that though you have defined your presentation objects rules, data appears raw in the Spread pane.

The Spreads needs to be calculated with the Presentation Objects settings

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To acquire the definitions of presentation objects to the spread, right click from the top Presentation Hierarchy node and select Calculate/ Recalculate Initial Presentation Objects.

The Spread will be now identical to the Presentation Objects layout.

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Now, you may start pagination.

Tip You would want to do the efforts of pagination on a specific representative family. Then, when this family’s layout is satisfactory you can save its template and apply it to all other similar families. This will save you hours of redoing the same pagination over and over for each family.

1. Changing Items Position

Any item on the spread may be replaced with a simple dragging of its box. In this example, the image was replaced on the right hand side:

2. Resizing Images

There are several ways to resize images.

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You may right click on the Image and select Size Images as shown below.

In the dialog box, select one of the options for resizing (absolute resizing, setting to original size or a relative resizing).

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You can also adjust the size of the image box directly in the Spread. Just select the image and stretch its borders:

You may now wish to fit the image to the new frame. For the right click on the image and choose Fit Content to Frame:

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The result:

4.3.5 Templating MDM Publisher offers practical and powerful tools for reducing the effort historically needed for this time-intensive part of catalog production.

Besides the basic set of white board page layout functionalities (dragging and dropping, grouping, etc.), MDM Publisher offers templating capabilities that considerably reduce, and at times succeed in eliminating, the work which needs to be done at each family presentation.

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You have achieved the desired layout for your representative family.

• Select the representative family you have paginated from the spread. Right click and Save As Template

• Provide a name for you template in the Template Tree. Here it is My first Template

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• Apply the template to all relevant other families, you may apply it to specific families or to parent node families.

The second family before applying the template:

• Select the template name from Template Tree; drag it to the family you want to apply it to. A dialog box will be opened. Select one of two options.

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• Now, the second family acquired the template and will look like:

Notice the little red square on the right to the table. That means that the frame of the table is too small and that the frame does not fit the content therefore some content might be hidden.

Select the table, right click and select Fit Frame to Content

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The red triangle is gone and the content is fully displayed:

...

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4.4 Arranging the Catalog

4.4.1 Flow Section Each family takes up one page currently. You would like to put as many families per page you can to save page space .The Flow Section will serve this need by flowing one family to the other and placing them as efficiently as possible to take up the least amount of page space.

Right click on the Spreads header (here: My first Publication) and select Flow Section

Select in the dialog box the alignment method.

The Separation input is in order to define a space separation between families.

Runaround Anchor is if you want to stabilize a families exact positioning on a page and let all other families flow around it.

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Notice that the two families are now places efficiently one after the other

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4.4.2 Remove Empty Pages You may want to remove empty pages from your publication. As a result of the previous step of Flow Section, the second page is now empty. Right click on the Spreads header (here: My first Publication) and select Remove Empty Pages

Now, the second page will be removed:

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4.5 Printing You wish to print your catalog now.

SAP NetWeaver MDM offers a plug- in to Adobe InDesign (Desktop Publication application) for page layout, pagination, and final publishing.

Right Click on the Presentation Hierarchy root node.

There are two options:

1. Publish Section: Sends a section’s pages and spreads.

2. Publish Sequential: Sends presentation objects only (no spreads).

Right

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In the dialog, select the Format (here: Adobe InDesign). In the Paper Module insert the machine IP in which Adobe InDesign is installed.

Tip When publishing to Adobe InDesign or Adobe InDesign Server, the destination application must be running on the machine named in the Publish dialog’s Paper Module property.

Once opened in Adobe InDesign, you can modify, save, and package the publication just as any other InDesign document.

In addition, the MDM plug-in to Adobe InDesign lets you perform certain MDM Publisher operations (such as refreshing object data and reflowing presentations) from within Adobe InDesign. This means that once you finalize an MDM publication in Adobe InDesign, you can update it with new data quickly and easy inside Adobe InDesign.

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4.6 Create a catalog index You may want to create a catalog index.

The steps to achieve that are:

1. Create Indexed Data Sources

2. Create the Index in MDM

3. Assign Styles to Indexed Keys

4. Publish the Index to DTP

4.6.1 Create Indexed Data Sources For each paginated Quark or InDesign document, you will extract paginated indexed data sources to be stored in the MDM catalog. ...

These sources drive the document of the indexes created within the MDM index mode.

1. Open the paginated document.

2. Select SAP MDM Plug-in > document > set paginated state

3. On the MDM tab within the DTP, the “Notification Pending” indicator will say “Yes” while the indexed keys are being extracted. Once the process is complete, the indicator will say “No”.

4. At this point, the paginated indexed keys have been saved off in the publication “Chapter 1” in the catalog along with the document name and time stamp information.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each paginated document.

4.6.2 Creating the index in MDM This may be done before creating the paginated indexed keys. ...

1. Use the MDM Client application to open the catalog used to publish the final paginated document (in this example, we will use Chapter 1).

2. Switch to Index Mode by selecting the Index Mode button.

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3. Create an index by right clicking in the Indexes pane and selecting Create Index from the menu.

4. Type in the desired name for the index in the Create Index dialog. Select the index sources you extracted from the paginated DTP documents.

Note: you can always add and delete sources after creating the index.

5. Create a key in the Index Keys tab by right-clicking and selecting “Add Index Key”.

6. Modify the name, Key Field 1, and optionally Key Field 2 and Key Field 3 if the index has multiple levels.

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This example will use Category as the first level and Manufacturer as the second level.

7. Repeat steps 6 as needed if multiple keys are desired for the index.

8. Bring in the Index Sources we previously created from the DTP document, if you chose no sources in step 4. These will be shown in the Index Sources pane with the time stamp from when they were created, organized by publication and InDesign document name.

Drag the desired source from this pane to the Index pane and drop anywhere on the index tree. If multiple sources are required, this step can be repeated.

9. The MDM Client will now take all of the paginated indexed keys and create an index using the selected source and the created key.

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Once this is done the results will show up in the Index Preview pane.

10. If any of the index values need to be renamed or combined, follow the procedures in the Renaming and Combining Paginated Indexed Keys section.

11. If the index is to contain multiple chapters, then repeat steps 1-10 for each catalog.

4.6.3 Assigning Styles to Indexed Keys This step allows you to apply style elements such as font properties, text color, leader dots, etc. from within MDM that will show in the Index Preview, and will be sent to Quark/InDesign when the index is published. Styles are created and edited in the Styles tab of Index Mode.

MDM index styles are organized in a hierarchical basis. There is the default style for the index accesses by right-clicking in the left view within the Styles tab. There are level styles that are based on the default style. And finally there are the user-defined styles, Key A in the picture below.

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User defined styles are based on the level for which they are assigned to key fields within the Index Keys tab.

4.6.4 Publishing the Index to DTP To publish the index to Quark or InDesign, right-click on the index tree. Choose Publish from the context menu.

The result may look like:

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4.7 Alternative Publishing MDM Publishing Solution used to consist of some MDM tools (like MDM Data Manager) and the MDM Publisher desktop application itself.

Now it has been extended with Publishing Java API (PJA) and Publishing Web Portal (PWP) set of code examples.

This new publishing extended functionality offer some strong benefits: ...

1. Complexity can hidden/abstracted, behind some easy-to-use specialized Web UI.

2. Enables to expose published layout from another machine or via the Web

3. Enables automation (i.e. scripting to enable doing some batches of actions without an operator involved)

4. Interface enabling any 3rd party applications to do the layout.

Detailed explanations on how to achieve these functionalities are beyond the scope of this document. Stay tuned for documentation on the subject.

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How to Create Publications with SAP NetWeaver MDM Using … · 2017-02-23 · IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, S/390, AS/400, OS/390, ... Being