SAP Datawarehouse Cloud + SAP Analytics Cloud: how to build a christmas tree from data

[Sven_Knöpfler]

To get into the Christmas spirit, I will show you how to make a Christmas tree out of data with my two favorite SAP tools: SAP Datawarehouse Cloud (DWC) and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).

1. First, we need to create the data foundation and upload it to the DWC 

The christmas tree consists of several layers (a lot of branches and a short trunk), each layer consists of a key and the length for the left side and the right side of the tree:

ID;Left Side;Right Side

1;-1;1

7;-7;7

13;-13;13

19;-19;19

25;-25;25

31;-31;31

37;-37;37

43;-19;19

49;-25;25

55;-31;31

61;-37;37

67;-43;43

73;-49;49

79;-55;55

85;-61;61

91;-67;67

97;-73;73

103;-55;55

109;-61;61

115;-67;67

121;-73;73

127;-79;79

133;-85;85

139;-91;91

201;-20;20

202;-20;20

203;-20;20

204;-20;20

205;-20;20

We copy and paste this list into a csv file:

This file can then be uploaded using the manual file upload to the DWC:

As you can see the DWC detects the CSV delimiter and the data types automatically so we can just deploy this uploaded data model without any futher activity to have it available as a local table in our data builder environment:

2. The second step is to create an analytical dataset as a source for the visualization

This is necessary in order to access this data within SAC:

The columns "Right Side" and "Left Side" are used as measures, where as the column "ID" is used as an attribute.

3. Finally we can use this data in the SAC to visualize the christmas tree

So now that we have the data foundation, we can start visualizing the christmas tree. We logon to a SAC tenant, connect to the DWC and build a story on top of the analytical dataset which we just created:

As soon as we have the data available, we can start to visualize it: therefore we use a "Stacked Bar/Column" chart, as measures we choose "Right Side" and "Left Side" and as dimension we select "ID". Then we change the color of both measures to a fitting "tree" green:

After that, we want to change the color of the trunk: for this we select every chart line of the trunk individually and change the color of it in the styling options to brown:

Of course we also want to decorate the tree in order to make it look more festive, for that we use the "Add Image" feature of the story builder and add the decorative images of our choosing:

After we are finished decorating, we hide the technical details so nothing distracts of the beauty from our data christmas tree:

 

At the end, we can see the results of our work: here it is, our data christmas tree visualized in the SAP Analytics Cloud:

 

 

Short summary: we uploaded a file containing the data for a christmas tree to the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, created an analytical dataset on top of it and used this as a source for a SAP Analytics Cloud story.

If you want to create this tree by yourself: trials for both products are easily available:

https://www.sap.com/swiss/products/cloud-analytics/trial.html

https://www.sap.com/swiss/products/data-warehouse-cloud/trial.html

If you have any feedback or thoughts about this blog please write them in the comments.

And last but not least: I wish all of you and your families a happy and contemplative pre-Christmas season.

Thanks for reading my blog post and kind regards
Sven