SAP Global Data Types Catalog

Authors: Michael Seubert, Dirk Richtsteiger

Abstract

Properties of business objects and service operations are typed by SAP-wide normed data types – called Global Data Types – to achieve a harmonized representation of business-related subject matters.
All these Global Data Types defined by SAP are contained in SAP’s Global Data Type Catalog. 

Introduction

The semantic integration of components is an essential key differentiator in the competition with other software providers. Along with the tools required for this, SAP also provides the business content (process integration content) necessary for the communication between systems and their components. This content is designed in line with international standards. This outside-in approach ensures that SAP (“inside”) is speaking the language of the business world (“outside”).

The basis for this is an integrated Business Object Model (iBOM) that is harmonized across industries and business areas. The iBOM describes the business-relevant concepts in one central location. This means that it reflects all the design decisions that were made during the modeling of the business entities from the real world. It consists of the individual business objects and their relationships to one another. A business object is a capsule with an inner hierarchical structure of nodes with their properties, an object behavior specified by its service operations, and constraints. The overall consistency of operations is ensured by their derivation from the iBOM. Business objects are semantically non-overlapping (disjoint), which means that a business information unit is represented exactly once.

The SAP-wide normed data types play a significant role in the harmonization of the representation of business-related subject matters (that means, how these are represented on the data level – length, integrity conditions, and value ranges for example) across industries and business areas. Data types type the properties of business objects and their service operations with a specified semantic and structure. A data type represents a specific business-related subject matter. Properties that reflect a particular subject matter are always typed by the same data type. By this harmonization of the representation of business-related subject matters across all service operations is achieved.

Global Data Types

Global data types (GDTs) are SAP-wide normed and reconciled data types that represent business-related subject matters as they occur in standards or would correspondingly be defined there.
Within a GDT definition the business-related subject matter is defined and named. Furthermore the data structure, value ranges, and integrity conditions are specified. By this the representation of a business-related subject matter is fixed and therefore harmonized (bottom-up).

In contrast to this the harmonization of business objects and their properties is achieved by the integrated Business Object Model (top-down).

The basic idea of uniform typing and hence harmonization is expressed by the following key sentence:

„ … the same subject matter is always described (typed) by the same data type …” (uniform typing)

Global data types represent a business-related subject matter that is described by a specified structure. If this semantic subject matter occurs in a business object node or in a service operation, it is always typed by the same global data type.

This leads to uniform typing across all business objects, service interfaces, and service operations:

Figure 1: Simplified View of Meta Model for Data Types, Business Objects & Service Operations

Global data types are, with regard to a subject matter, maximally defined data types that contain all elements (properties) required for the subject matter in different contexts.

Global Data Type Catalog

SAP’s Global Data Type catalog contains all global data types defined by SAP. The catalog is updated twice a year and published in the SAP SDN.