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Vocabulary-Based Annotation Support in Service Builder

former_member196472
Explorer
‎01-21-2014 1:11 PM

So far using SAP NetWeaver Gateway you can annotate OData elements only with SAP annotations, now it is possible to enhance the metadata with custom-annotations also and this can be done with vocabulary-based annotation.  Basically vocabularies provide the ability to annotate metadata. A vocabulary file is a namespace that contains terms and these terms are used to annotate OData artifacts.

This blog will explain how you can annotate metadata with consumer specific vocabulary using SAP NetWeaver Gateway Service Builder tool.

This feature is available from SAP NetWeaver Gateway SP07.

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Step-by-Step Procedure

Following are steps which you need to follow

  • Upload Vocabularies into the Vocabulary Repository
  • Create a Project
  • Import a vocabulary file
  • Add Vocabulary-Based Annotations
  • Generate Runtime Artifact
  • Registration and Activation of the Generated Service

Upload Vocabularies into the Vocabulary Repository

Start the Service Builder by using the transaction SEGW.

To upload a vocabulary file into the Vocabulary Repository in the Service Builder, proceed as follows:

  1. From menu bar choose Extras ->Vocabulary Repository . The central Vocabulary Repository opens and shows a table for displaying the vocabulary ID, version, namespace, and description. Any previously uploaded vocabulary files are displayed here, otherwise the table is empty.
  2. Change to edit mode and choose Append Row to add a new row to the table.
  3. Enter a unique vocabulary ID for the vocabulary file you want to upload. Version 1 is assigned automatically to the first version of
    the vocabulary file you upload.
  4. Click the Upload icon in the Upload Vocabulary Content column to navigate to the vocabulary file you want to upload. The namespace of the vocabulary file is entered automatically.
  5. Enter a description for the newly uploaded vocabulary file.
  6. Save the changes and choose Enter.

Create a Project

  1. Create a New Project by clicking on

  2. Select Service with Vocabulary-Based Annotations in order to use custom annotations.

  3. Use any of the available options(like Import ,Redefine etc) to create OData service.

  Import a vocabulary file

  • In the edit mode, right click on the Data Model, choose Import->Vocabulary in the resulting menu.
  • The Vocabulary Repository window appears.
  • Select the required vocabulary(s) and click continue.

  • In the Tree view a new folder with the name Vocabularies will be created under the Data Model
    and the vocabularies imported into this folder.

  • Double click on the Terms node under the Vocabularies folder to see the details of the imported annotations in the mass maintenance view.

Note: Terms can be classified into following types

    1. Core Type
    2. Type Definition
    3. Enum Type
    4. Complex Type
    5. Entity Type

Add Vocabulary-Based Annotations

Once the vocabulary definitions are added to the data model, the terms from the vocabulary definition can be used to annotate the vocabulary based services if the term applies to the respective OData artifacts.

To add annotations to artifacts for which vocabularies define applicable terms, proceed as follows:

  • Double-click the subfolder that contains the artifacts you want to annotate, for example, Entity Sets. Existing entity sets are listed in the mass maintenance view.

  • Choose the Annotations pushbutton to see the vocabulary that is valid for these entity sets. If more than one vocabulary defines applicable terms, you can select the vocabulary you want to use to annotate the entity set and, if required, toggle between the different vocabularies. If none of the imported vocabularies includes applicable terms for entity sets, for example, this pushbutton is not enabled.

  • After you have selected the vocabulary you want to use for the annotations, all entity sets are displayed in a table in the mass maintenance view with the name of the applicable vocabulary displayed as a header.
  • To create annotations for an entity set, select either the entire row to create all available annotations, or select the applicable cells for each annotation you want to create and choose the Create Annotation pushbutton. You can select more than one row and more than one cell to enable the mass maintenance of multiple entity sets and annotations, for example.

  • Annotation value can be maintained in Annotation Data table.

  • If you want to delete any annotations, select the relevant rows or cells and choose the Delete Annotation pushbutton.
  • Save your entries.

Generate Runtime Artifact

Vocabulary related code can be found in DEFINE_VOCAB_ANNOTATIONS( ) of  generated MPC class.

In SP7, commented code gets generated for annotation. Follow the instructions provided in method.

Registration and Activation of the Generated Service

Refer to section "Registration and Activation of the Generated Service" of my blog on SPI.

You will find new tags namely Annotation Targets in metadata file.

That is all for now and if need be this blog be enhanced, stay tuned :wink: Any feedback is highly appreciated :smile:

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