SAP MDM Modeling

Data Management Strategy
Formal architecture toward a common context for data to be viewed and managed as any other asset within the enterprise











MDM Repository Stucture
- Main table – One for each repository. In product repository, be the product including a field for each general valid piece of information
- Sub-tables – Lookup tables (value/customizing)
- Object tables – Images/text blocks and PDFs
- Special tables – Masks, families, image variants, relationships, roles, users, data groups

Main Table (flat table)
- A repository must only have one main table
- All other tables support it (directly-flat lookup or qualified lookup; / indirectly-tables linked to qualifier table & qualifier table linked to main T)
- Main table fields reference tables:
-- Flat lookup
-- Qualified lookup
-- Hierarchy
-- Taxonomy
-- Image, sound, video, PDF, and external binary object
-- Text block, copy blocks, and text HTML
-- Special tables

Flat & Qualified Lookup Table
- Flat tables (sub-table) can be multi-valued
- Qualified tables- Stores lookup records; Supports qualifiers; Is always multi-valued. Can be used for search

Hierarchy and Taxonomy Tables
- Hierarchy - sub-table orgainzing infor in a hierarchy (record related to parent/sibling record; contains lookup info for fields in main T; ordered sequence)
- Taxonomy- classification scheme that defines categories and subcategories.

Special Tables
- Families – Further partition records in taxonomy into smaller groups based upon values of other fields and/or attributes
- Relationships – Define different product-level relationships

Keep in mind...
- Many table and fields properties cannot be changed after creation (Table type; field type; multilingual option; Lookup table)
- Null values are not blank values
- Maintainable properties: (Name, code, Description, Display fields; Unique fields; Key mapping)

Repository Objects
- Taxonomies - general term classification scheme (hierarchy table, special lookup table) – created and managed using MDM Data Manager in Taxonomy mode.
- Attributes – characteristics in category (is a field applied to a subset of the records in a table)
- Product is assigned to category - Typical categorization of products is reflected in a taxonomy

- Flat / hierarchy lookup tables
- Taxonomy Lookup tables
- Qualified link tables – larger number of records
- Non-lookup sub-table = Relationship functionality (used for one-to-many relationship between main table records and sub table records

Relationship in Data Manager
- Parent/Child Relationship – Relates a group of records that are not equivalent (eg. Assembly)
- Sibling relationship – Relates a group of main table product records that are equivalent (eg. Cross sells)

Field Types & Properties
- Each table must have at least one Display Field (Display Field - value used as lookup field value; node name for the record; name of record in Product Relationships dialog box)
- Multiple Display Fields value is combination values separated by a comma
- Each field name must be unique within a table
- Items can be re-ordered

Field Details
- Variety of compond and structured data type (table types) specifically suited for managing info in a product repository
- Text Normalized – stores the actual text value, but uses normalized value for sorting and searching (upper-case with non-alphanumeric removed)