SAP Datasphere Multilingual Support - Master Data Translation

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In this blog we will provide you the overview of Master data translation. We will walk you through each case and how it can be visualized in the Analytical Model Preview as well.  

This article is the first in the blog post series on multilingual capabilities in SAP Datasphere.

Blog Post #1: SAP Datasphere Multilingual Support - Master Data Translations (this blog) 

Blog Post #2: Translating Metadata using the Translation Dashboard in SAP Datasphere

Introduction 

Master data text is the descriptive information associated to the respective master data. For example, customers, products, vendors, materials and their hierarchies can have their independent description in their respective text table. In general, the master data or fact data entity has only IDs. In the analytical representation, if the textual data gets fetched it adds more value and additional context to the better understanding. 

In SAC stories, displaying the product description rather than their id's gives a better understanding to the visuals. 

Master Data Translation within SAP Datasphere can be accomplished through various methods. 

1. Semantic mapping from an attribute within entity 
2. Text Association 
3. Dimension Association 
4. Hierarchy Association

Figure1: Dependent entities of the Analytical Model

     Figure2: Text/Dimension Associations in the entity – SALES (fact)

1.Semantic mapping from an attribute within entity

Here Product Id attribute fetching the corresponding description from the attribute Description of the same fact. When an attribute is marked as semantic type Text, it can be referenced in another attribute for Text/Association. Description with Semantic type Text is referenced at Product ID for Text/Association as mentioned in Figure2.

Figure3: Analytical Model Preview - Fetching the description from the same entity.

2. Text Association

Customer ID attribute has the Text association to table Description.

Figure4: SALES – Description Text Association

Based on the Data Access Language the description will be retrieved. Here I have German (Deutsch), and the texts are fetched for the same.

Figure5: Data Access Language Settings

To get the descriptions, we need to enable the ID and Description or Description from Presentations.

Figure6: Analytical Model Preview - Retrieving the description via Direct text association.

3. Dimension Association

Purchase Date is associated to the Time Dimension – Day.

Figure7: Purchase Date – Time Dimension - Day Association

Figure8: Time Dimension – Day, Here the associated Text tables are highlighted.

Since the day Dimension has a text association for months, the description for months is fetched accordingly (refer Figure10) based on the data access language settings. 

Select the Hierarchy like below and enable the display of ID and Description from Presentations settings.

Figure9: Hierarchy Selection

Figure10: Analytical Model Preview - Retrieving the description via Dimension text association.

4. Hierarchy Association

SAP datasphere has released the external hierarchy with directory support. Here the language and texts for Hierarchy label and the Node can be retrieved as well. This blog has already addressed the same  here - An Introduction to Hierarchy with Directory in SAP Datasphere

Summary

Text tables serve as the core of master data translation. While importing master data, ensure that if you are using the ABAP language codes like E or D, as compared to i18n language codes like de or en, the string length for the language column is set to 1. And this ensures the effective translation of master data if it has ABAP language codes. A cleaner data without any text duplications is recommended for the effective translation.