Oh, hi there! I see you keep coming back for more blogposts related to SAP Profitability and Performance Management Cloud - Universal Model (SAP PaPM Cloud UM). Well, you’re in luck today because this blogpost will introduce some modeling features which you will find useful in your Universal Model journey.
Action Buttons like Activate, which you might be familiar of also exist in Universal Model. In Universal Model though, we do have some more buttons like Remove and Undeploy All. In continuation to this blogpost entitled SAP PaPM Cloud Universal Model: Deploy your environment via Manage Containers, I will be discussing more about the how to’s of the Action Buttons in Manage Environments and other screens.
Spoiler
IMPORTANT
Some of the action buttons can be seen on different screens. They are acting the same however, they differ on the type of entity they are dealing with.
Some of the action buttons can be seen on different screens. They are acting the same however, they differ on the type of entity they are dealing with.
CREATE
Before you can start modeling, ofcourse, you need to have an environment which will contain the entities you will be using for your configuration. The first button Create is solely used to make an environment. The newly created environment is set to “Inactive” by default until it gets activated.
For creation of environment, which I believe has already been tackled on the previous blogpost, you just need to click on Create button and choose the Environment type, add a name, description and optionally a parent folder then save it.
COPY
What if I want to try out some configuration without ruining my original environment? Copy button is here to save the day! 😊 Once you perform copy, all the functions, fields, and connections from the Original environment will be cloned to the new environment.
Just search the environment you want to copy, then click on copy button. The system will prompt you to specify the number of copies, with a maximum limit of 10 copies. By default, the status of the copied environment is set to Inactive.
ACTIVATE
Now for the activate button, as mentioned in the recent blogpost Unveiling the new functionality in 2024 of SAP PAPM Cloud: Welcome to Universal Model!, it is very important to consider the Design-Time environment and Runtime Environment. As this is exclusive to SAP PaPM UM, it allows you to refine your configurations during design time without interference on runtime environment.
Activation is only possible on the environment level. Why full activation and not on a function level? The rationale is that, in the end, each of the functions will be API based. Without you being able to activate the whole environment, you cannot package the functions via API.
An activated environment contains the following Runtime status:
Status | Inactive | Current | Not Current |
Runtime Status | There are no changes in the whole environment yet | Changes in the whole environment is saved and activated | Changes in the whole environment is saved but the environment is not yet activated |
Runtime Field Status | There are no changes in the Fields within the selected environment yet | Changes in the Fields within the selected environment is saved and activated | Changes in the Fields within the selected environment is saved but the environment is not yet activated |
Runtime Functions Status | There are no changes in the Functions within the selected environment yet | Changes in the Functions within the selected environment is saved and activated | Changes in the Functions within the selected environment is saved but the environment is not yet activated |
Runtime Artifact Status | There are no stored procedures yet | All stored procedures are currently activated | All stored procedures are not activated yet |
There are two ways on how to activate an Environment:
- Activate in Background: Yes
- Activate in Background: No
Activate in Background = Yes, this helps you perform activation in a non-interactive way or process. This means that you are free to leave or perform a parallel activity while the activation is happening in background.
Activate in Background = No, sometimes called dialog activation is then needing user intervention. Meaning the session or request for activation ends or terminates as soon as you leave the session such as logoff the system or visits another application.
Regardless how you activate an environment, there will be a notification message regarding the activation action.
Spoiler
IMPORTANT
- It is advisable though to use background activation on environments that are huge and needing more time to complete.
- If you have environments with huge data models, then it is recommended to activate less than 30 of them in one tenant - mainly because the first time UI access after logon to the application by end users might become slower, as a lot of metadata needs to be cached by the browser. There will be also a message to warn you during activation.
DEACTIVATE
Ofcourse, if activation is possible to be done in an environment, deactivation is also possible. By selecting the environment and choosing Deactivate button, you have the capability to delete all dependent processes, activities, comments and data associated with the runtime environment. Once the environment is already deactivated, Runtime status will be reverted to Inactive.
While deactivate button is used for one environment deactivation at a time, the Undeploy All button, which can be found in Manage Tenant Settings, can do it for all active environments.
Spoiler
IMPORTANT
When you deactivate an environment, all runtime artifacts including processes, reports, activities, comments, and data associated with the runtime environment will be gone.
RUN
Now, we have come to another action button which can be found in Manage Functions screen, the Run button.
When an environment is activated, the functions inside it can already be executed. Run button gets enabled when a function is selected in Manage Functions screen.
Run also has In Background = YES and In Background = NO option with the same logic as with activation.
We are now done with Activation and done with Run, but I still have some related facts for you.
Model functions like Model Entity can be activated but they don’t need to be executed for them to provide results.
These Model Functions are treated as information functions, and they can do the functionality of their counterpart Enrichment or Processing functions. Like for example, Allocation for Model Allocation. As stated in our Application Help documentation, they can both be used to distribute key figures from one entity to another, using a distribution base. But from a technical aspect, the Model Allocation and Allocation functions behave in different ways. For example, upon successful activation of a Model Allocation function, the system generates an SQL view in the underlying database schema of the tenant, acting more like an information function where no procedure is created. The Allocation as an enrichment function, on the other hand, generates SAP HANA procedures that are run to populate temporary data records.
This difference applies to all Model Functions and their counterpart.
Model Functions | Counterpart Functions |
Model View | View |
Model Join | Join |
Model Calculation | Calculation |
Model Derivation | Derivation |
Model Allocation | Allocation |
Though they can already produce results without being executed, the Run button is still enabled for a specific reason which is when you trigger the run of model function, a special _model stored procedure will be triggered in the HANA Database Library, which will test the access to the data print helpful statistical information into the event log.
DELETE and REMOVE
An environment can also be subject for deletion or removal if it is no longer needed. Delete and Remove buttons are the ones to do the trick. How do they differ from each other then?
When there are fields or functions inside an environment, you cannot delete it using the Delete button. Hence, before deleting the environment, delete such entities in line with that.
With regard to the Remove button, you can utilize it even in the event that fields or functions are still present in it after the environment has been deactivated.
On a security point of view, Delete button is available for users with role MODEL or MODEL_ALL. If there are dependencies, an error will occur. Remove button is only available for users with role MODEL_ALL. This will resolve all dependencies and removes everything related to the environment.
Now I have mentioned about roles, these information will be discussed in the next blogposts.
As we conclude this journey through the action buttons in SAP PaPM Cloud – Universal Model, it's evident that these very simple buttons have a big impact on how we can start with our modeling. Thank you for joining me on this exploration, and remember, the greatest adventures often begin with the smallest steps.
Before I end this blogpost, I’d like to leave you with a question to entice your curiosity.
Can I somehow lock my created environment so others can’t be able to makes changes to it? Are there some kind of restrictions that can be implemented in SAP PaPM Cloud – Universal Model? That’s what we will be discussing on the next blogposts so stay tuned! 😊
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