Using Extended Field Properties for an SAP NetWeaver BI System
New: 14 April 2006
The SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence data source supports extended field properties. Extended field properties are properties in addition to Value and IsMissing that are defined for a dataset field by the data processing extension. Extended properties include predefined properties and custom properties. Predefined properties are properties common to multiple data sources. Custom properties are unique to each data source.
Working with Field Properties
Extended field properties do not appear in the Datasets window as items that you can drag onto your report layout. Instead, you drag the parent field of the property onto the report and then change the default property from Value to the property you want to use. For example, if the field name Calendar Year/Month Level 01 is created in an MDX query designer by dropping a level from the Metadata pane onto the Query pane, you would refer to the custom extended property Long Name in an expression using the following syntax:
=Fields!Calendar_Year_Month_Level_01("Long Name")
The name for an extended field property appears in the ToolTip when you hover over a field in the Metadata pane. For more information about the query designers you can use to explore the underlying data, see SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer User Interface.
For more information about using fields and field properties in an expression, see Using Global Collections in Expressions (Reporting Services).
Note Values exist for extended field properties only if the data source provides these values when your report runs and retrieves the data for its datasets. You can then refer to those Field property values from any expression using the syntax described below. However, because these fields are specific to this data provider and not part of the report definition language, changes that you make to these values are not saved with the report definition.
Use either of the following syntaxes to refer to predefined extended properties in an expression:
- Fields!FieldName.PropertyName
Fields!FieldName("PropertyName")
Use the following syntax to refer to custom extended properties in an expression:
Fields!FieldName("PropertyName")
Predefined Field Properties
The following table provides a list of predefined field properties that you can use for an SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence data source.
| Property | Type | Description or expected value |
|---|---|---|
Value |
Object |
Specifies the data value of the field. |
IsMissing |
Boolean |
Indicates whether the field was found in the resulting data set. |
FormattedValue |
String |
Returns a formatted value for a key figure. |
BackgroundColor |
String |
Returns the background color defined in the database for the field. |
Color |
String |
Returns the foreground color defined in the database for the item. |
Key |
Object |
Returns the key for a level. |
LevelNumber |
Integer |
For parent-child hierarchies, returns the level or dimension number. |
ParentUniqueName |
String |
For parent-child hierarchies, returns a fully qualified name of the parent level. |
UniqueName |
String |
Returns the fully qualified name of a level. For example, the UniqueName value for an employee might be [0D_Company].[10D_Department].[11]. |
See Also
Reference
Using Global Collections in Expressions (Reporting Services)
Concepts
Defining Report Datasets for Analysis Services Multidimensional and Data Mining Prediction Data
Defining Report Datasets for Multidimensional Data from an SAP NetWeaver BI System
Other Resources
Using Expressions in Reporting Services