The process of upload of GeoJSON content to the Visual Business Content Database can be seen a sequence of three broad steps.

The first is identifying the source of data. The geographical features that eventually need to be displayed on the map vary vastly – ranging from something as standard as countries of the world to something extremely custom such as sales areas, etc. In line with that, there are variety of sources that provide this content with varying level of detail.

Once the appropriate content has been agreed upon, the same may need to be transformed into GeoJSON format appropriate for it to be uploaded to the content database. This step isn’t needed of the source identified in the previous step already provides GeoJSON data.

Lastly, the GeoJSON content needs to be uploaded to the Visual Business Content Database. This is done using either SAP GUI transactions or SAP NetWeaver Gateway OData service.

FETCHING AND TRANSFORMING CONTENT GEOJSON

<path to ogr2ogr.exe> -f “GeoJSON” <path to output GeoJSON> <path to ESRI .shp file>​

“C:\Program Files\GDAL\ogr2ogr.exe” -f  “GeoJSON” “Geo.json” “ne_10m_admin_0_countries.shp”

https://<system>:<port>/sap/opu/odata/sap/VBI_CONTENT_UPLOAD_SRV?sap-client=<client>

var xhrForHead = new XMLHttpRequest()
var csrfToken

xhrForHead.onreadystatechange = () => {
    if (xhrForHead.readyState == 4) {
        csrfToken = xhrForHead.getResponseHeader("X-CSRF-Token")
    }
};

xhrForHead.open(
    "HEAD", 
    "../../../../../sap/opu/odata/sap/VBI_CONTENT_UPLOAD_SRV?sap-client=<sap-client>",
    true)
    
xhrForHead.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
xhrForHead.setRequestHeader("X-CSRF-Token", "fetch")
xhrForHead.send()

var upload = (contentCategory, reqBody) => {
    var reqHdr = {
        method          : "POST",
        queryStr        : () => "sap-client=<sap-client>&sap-language=EN"
    }

    switch (contentCategory) {
        case "Countries":
            reqHdr.requestUri = () => "../../../../../sap/opu/odata/sap/VBI_CONTENT_UPLOAD_SRV/Countries"
            break
        case "Counties":
            reqHdr.requestUri = () => "../../../../../sap/opu/odata/sap/VBI_CONTENT_UPLOAD_SRV/Counties"
            break
        case "FeatureCollection":
            reqHdr.requestUri = () => "../../../../../sap/opu/odata/sap/VBI_CONTENT_UPLOAD_SRV/FeatureCollections"
            break
    }

    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest()
    xhr.onreadystatechange = () => {
        if (xhr.readyState == 4) {
            console.log(JSON.stringify(xhr.response))
        }
    }

    xhr.open(reqHdr.method, reqHdr.requestUri() + "?" + reqHdr.queryStr(), true)
    xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
    xhr.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json")
    xhr.setRequestHeader("X-CSRF-Token", csrfToken)
    xhr.send(reqBody)
}

var reqBody = {
    ContentKey: $("#contentkey").val(),
    Version: $("#version").val(),
    Default: $("#default").val() === "on",
    Scale: $("#scale").val(),
    Description: $("#description").val(),
    ContentString: $("#content").val()
}
upload("FeatureCollection", JSON.stringify(reqBody))

Upload Response

Normally a HTTP POST is expected to return the created entity back in the HTTP response. However, given the enormous size that the GeoJSON content can be of – depending upon the level of detail and the nature of data, it isn’t practical to return the content GeoJSON string. The response body contains all other parameters that were passed at the time of triggering the HTTP POST.

The only meaningful values to be parsed out of the response is the HTTP status code. For a successful upload, a status code of 201 is returned. This along with all other response codes returned are standard response codes returned out of SAP NetWeaver Gateway and they imply their usual outcomes.

The only custom handling in the service implementation is for the failure for an authority check. As was the case with usage of ABAP transactions, in addition to the standard authority checks – such as the ones of external service invocation (S_SERVICE), an additional check is performed for the authorization object S_TABU_NAM with the below authorization field-values.

If the authority check fails, a HTTP status of 400 is returned with the response body as below.

{
    "error": {
        "code": "/IWBEP/CM_MGW_RT/000",
        "message": {
            "lang": "en",
            "value": "User does not have the sufficient authorizations."
        },
        "innererror": {
            "transactionid": "----------------",
            "timestamp": "----------------",
            "Error_Resolution": {
                "SAP_Transaction": "Run transaction /IWFND/ERROR_LOG on SAP NW Gateway 
hub system and search for entries with the timestamp above for more details",
                "SAP_Note": "See SAP Note 1797736 for error analysis (https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1797736)"
            },
            "errordetails": [
                {
                    "code": "/IWBEP/CX_MGW_BUSI_EXCEPTION",
                    "message": "User does not have the sufficient authorizations",
                    "propertyref": "",
                    "severity": "error",
                    "target": ""
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

RETRIEVAL OF GEOJSON CONTENT

The GeoJSON content is uploaded to the Visual Business Content Database using either the ABAP transactions or the SAP NetWeaver Gateway OData service.

This GeoJSON content can be retrieved using a REST service and GeoJSON content thus obtained can be used to draw the respective geographical features they represent.

In SAPUI5, this can be done using sap.ui.vbm.AnalyticMap or sap.ui.vbm.GeoMap. The subsequent sections are based of SAPUI5 and JavaScript.

BORDERS ON ANALYTIC MAP

The sap.ui.vbm.AnalyticMap is a SAPUI5 control which allows boundaries in the map to be drawn according to GeoJSON content. It does not have a base map layer. It needs to be provided with a source of content GeoJSON. This is done by assigning the GeoJSON content source’s URL to the static property sap.ui.vbm.AnalyticMap.GeoJSONURL before the control’s instantiation.

This URL can point to the server on which the Visual Business Content Database is hosted which would result in geographic boundaries on the map control being drawn based on the content retrieved from the Visual Business Content Database.

sap.ui.vbm.AnalyticMap.GeoJSONURL = 
    "https://<system>:<port>/vbi/analyticmap/L0.json?sap-client=<client>"
const oMap = new AnalyticMap()

GEOJSON LAYER ON GEOMAP

The sap.ui.vbm.GeoMap is a comprehensive SAPUI5 control which enables viewing business data in a geographical context. One of inputs it need to be provided with is a collection of map layer stacks which are displayed as base map tiles in the control. Visual Object are then rendered above it as overlays thereby providing the whole thing a geographical context.

The GeoMap control has an aggregation geoJsonLayers that can be set to GeoJSON retrieved from Visual Business Content Database. This would result in the geographical features represented by the GeoJSON being drawn over a base map layer in the GeoMap control as below.

In this illustration, the L1-data (counties/provinces) of Germany was fetched from the Visual Business Content Database using the Analytic Map REST service and then displayed as regions over the base map tiles. The snippet below shows how this was achieved.

const oMap = new sap.ui.vbm.GeoMap({
    width: "100%",
    height: "100%"
})
oMap.setMapConfiguration(config)

oMap.addGeoJsonLayer(new sap.ui.vbm.GeoJsonLayer({
    srcURL: "https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?sap-client=<client>&country=DE",
    defaultFillColor: "rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)",
    defaultBorderColor: "rgba(255, 0, 0, 1)",
    defaultLineWidth: 10
}))

ANALYTIC MAP SERVICE

The analytic map service is a REST service that provides a mechanism for retrieval for GeoJSON from Visual Business Content Database. As shown in preceding sections, the URL to this service can set to SAPUI5 control properties in order to display the geographical features represented by the GeoJSON on the map control.

As with the upload of content GeoJSON, there are three different types of content that can be retrieved – L0-data (Countries), L1-data (Counties) and External Feature Collections.

Retrieval of L0-data

The L0-data (Country boundaries) are retrieved from the Visual Business Content Database by performing a HTTP GET from the below URL. The response, if successful, will contain the content GeoJSON representing the boundaries of the countries of the world (as uploaded from Natural Earth in this case).

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/vbi/analyticmap/L0.json?sap-client=<client>

The following illustrates an Analytic Map control with country boundaries drawn based on the GeoJSON retrieved from Visual Business Content Database.

Retrieval of L1-data

The Analytic Map allows for retrieval of L1 data. In addition to indicating the type of content to be retrieved as L1, an additional parameter as a filter condition (ex. Country for which Counties are to be retrieved) needs to be specified.

L1-data for restricted by Countries

This is easiest of L1 retrievals. It allows for retrieval of county data for one or more countries by specifying a parameter to that effect. The below indicates a sample URL to retrieve L1 content for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?sap-client=<client>&country=SA,BR

The following shows the result of a GeoJSON layer added to GeoMap control out of the content retrieved from the above URL.

L1-data by Counties

It is also possible to restrict the L1-data by specifying one more county codes. The below retrieves the content for states of Montana and Texas in the United States.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?sap-client=111&county=US-TX,US-MT

The below is outcome of the resulting content added to GeoMap as GeoJSON layer.

L1-data by Viewport and Selection Mode

It is also possible to restrict the L1-data between a maximum and a minimum bound of geo-coordinates. The bounds are specified using the option viewport. An option to specify a one of the selection modes – to further restrict the L1 data is also available. The following sections illustrate the differences between the various selection modes with the same viewport. The viewport is a rectangle colored in yellow and is placed somewhere over Australia and New Zealand.

Selection Mode -visible

The URL for this option is as below.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc /vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?
sap-client=111&
viewport=[[137.197265625;-53.12040528310657;0],[206.630859375;-31.728167146023935;0]]
&selection=visible

The resulting L1-data of this on GeoMap control is as below with boundaries in red. Note that the states of New South Wales and South Australia are returned as part of the content GeoJSON from the service and hence marked with red boundaries even though they aren’t completely inside the bounds of the viewport specified (yellow).

Selection Mode -inside

The URL for this option is as below.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc /vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?
sap-client=111&
viewport=[[137.197265625;-53.12040528310657;0],[206.630859375;-31.728167146023935;0]]
&selection=inside

The resulting L1-data of this on GeoMap control is as below with boundaries in red. Note that the states of New South Wales and South Australia are not returned as part of the content GeoJSON and hence not marked with red boundaries since they aren’t completely inside the bounds of the viewport specified (yellow). The states of Victoria and Tasmania however – which lies completely inside the bounds of the viewport are marked appropriately.

Selection Mode – center-country

The URL for this option is as below.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc /vbi/analyticmap/L1.json?
sap-client=111&
viewport=[[137.197265625;-53.12040528310657;0],[206.630859375;-31.728167146023935;0]]
&selection=center-country

The resulting L1-data of this on GeoMap control is as below – with boundaries in red. The country at the center of the viewport is New Zealand and hence only it’s state boundaries are marked in red. None of the states of the Australia were fetched as part of the resulting content data.

Retrieval of Feature Collections

Feature Collections are identified for retrieval using their unique content key used at the time of upload. The URL is as shown below.

https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/vbi/analyticmap/FC(<Key>).json?sap-client=<client>

The below shows the result for an arbitrary feature collection uploaded to the Visual Business Content Database and then retrieved using the Analytic Map REST service referring to the same key used at the time of upload.