Introduction:
SAP Spatial Asset Management (formerly known as Geographical Enablement Framework) has two new apps – Spatial Editor and Spatial Explorer. These apps are used to manage the spatial attributes of the SAP objects and use the maps to run your business process.
Spatial Explorer and Spatial Editor are the two-freestyle sap ui5 applications developed using Esri JavaScript API to display or locate business objects on the map-based UI.
Usage:
You will use Spatial Editor to add/delete/edit Spatial attributes (latitude and longitude) for a single SAP object (like functional locations, equipments, notifications, work orders et al.,). The key here is single object and not multiple objects.
You will use Spatial Explorer to overlay the reference layers (including features, multiple SAP objects) on a base map and to drive the business process. For example, Spatial explorer will render a base map from ESRI ArcGIS online and then render a forest feature from a service hosted by ESRI ArcGIS or by an OGC compliant server. Then Spatial Explorer will overlay the SAP Objects on top of the base map and features and provides a consolidated Spatial view of the SAP objects. You can then perform actions on SAP objects to drive the business from the map.
Backend Services:
Unlike other Fiori applications, Spatial Editor and Spatial Explorer use REST services instead of OData services for backend calls. The services used for Spatial Asset Management can be viewed under SICF node "GEF".
Config service is used to transfer the summary of configuration details from GEF_UI_CONFIG, GEF_FRW_CONFIG, GEF_GIS_CONFIG transactions.
In GIS, a feature is simply an object that persists a geographical representation. For example, a tree is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of point), a road is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of line), a lake is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of polygon). Each feature therefore represents an object having a geometrical shape and a set of attributes.
In Spatial Explorer, each feature is a rendered through a feature layer on to the map. Spatial Explorer will invoke a service to fetch the features to overlay on the map.
In Spatial Asset Management, you can configure each SAP object as a feature and render it on the base map. For example, just imagine that a pole (which is an equipment of category M and object type, say 9001) is a geographical feature. This becomes a feature layer – a group of poles – having same geometrical shape (=point) and set of attributes (equipment attributes). Since such feature layers are representing business objects in SAP, Spatial Explorer terms them as “Business Layers”.
In short, a business layer is a feature layer rendering the SAP objects. Spatial Explorer invokes a service hosted on SAP server under node ‘/sap/ca/gef/rest/services’ for business layers.
Currently you will be able to create three different geometries (Point, Polyline, Polygon) for each business object and each geometry is retrieved from different feature layers by invoking the following services:
Point /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/0
Polyline /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/1
Polygon /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/2
Creating a Geometry (aka Shape) for a SAP Object:
Spatial Editor application is used to create geometries for any SAP business object based on configuration and these geometries are stored in HANA dB under "SAP_GEF" schema.
Querying for geometry of a SAP object:
Spatial Explorer uses spatial queries to fetch the SAP objects based on the current extent of the map.
Conclusion:
FLP configuration for these application also varies from standard process and you can refer those details on documentation.
I hope this blog helps to understand, how spatial explorer and spatial editor is different from other applications.
You can also refer below blogs for more information about SAP Spatial Asset Management.
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/11/10/what-is-sap-geographical-enablement-framework/
https://blogs.sap.com/2022/05/08/consuming-secured-non-arcgis-ogc-services-using-sap-spatial-asset-m...
Please don’t hesitate to share feedback or thoughts in a comment or ask questions.
SAP Spatial Asset Management (formerly known as Geographical Enablement Framework) has two new apps – Spatial Editor and Spatial Explorer. These apps are used to manage the spatial attributes of the SAP objects and use the maps to run your business process.
Spatial Explorer and Spatial Editor are the two-freestyle sap ui5 applications developed using Esri JavaScript API to display or locate business objects on the map-based UI.
Spatial Explorer
Usage:
You will use Spatial Editor to add/delete/edit Spatial attributes (latitude and longitude) for a single SAP object (like functional locations, equipments, notifications, work orders et al.,). The key here is single object and not multiple objects.
You will use Spatial Explorer to overlay the reference layers (including features, multiple SAP objects) on a base map and to drive the business process. For example, Spatial explorer will render a base map from ESRI ArcGIS online and then render a forest feature from a service hosted by ESRI ArcGIS or by an OGC compliant server. Then Spatial Explorer will overlay the SAP Objects on top of the base map and features and provides a consolidated Spatial view of the SAP objects. You can then perform actions on SAP objects to drive the business from the map.
Backend Services:
Unlike other Fiori applications, Spatial Editor and Spatial Explorer use REST services instead of OData services for backend calls. The services used for Spatial Asset Management can be viewed under SICF node "GEF".
Config service is used to transfer the summary of configuration details from GEF_UI_CONFIG, GEF_FRW_CONFIG, GEF_GIS_CONFIG transactions.
In GIS, a feature is simply an object that persists a geographical representation. For example, a tree is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of point), a road is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of line), a lake is a feature (= a geographical object with a shape of polygon). Each feature therefore represents an object having a geometrical shape and a set of attributes.
In Spatial Explorer, each feature is a rendered through a feature layer on to the map. Spatial Explorer will invoke a service to fetch the features to overlay on the map.
In Spatial Asset Management, you can configure each SAP object as a feature and render it on the base map. For example, just imagine that a pole (which is an equipment of category M and object type, say 9001) is a geographical feature. This becomes a feature layer – a group of poles – having same geometrical shape (=point) and set of attributes (equipment attributes). Since such feature layers are representing business objects in SAP, Spatial Explorer terms them as “Business Layers”.
In short, a business layer is a feature layer rendering the SAP objects. Spatial Explorer invokes a service hosted on SAP server under node ‘/sap/ca/gef/rest/services’ for business layers.
Currently you will be able to create three different geometries (Point, Polyline, Polygon) for each business object and each geometry is retrieved from different feature layers by invoking the following services:
Point /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/0
Polyline /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/1
Polygon /sap/ca/gef/arcgis/rest/services/NTF_C_E/featureserver/2
Creating a Geometry (aka Shape) for a SAP Object:
Spatial Editor application is used to create geometries for any SAP business object based on configuration and these geometries are stored in HANA dB under "SAP_GEF" schema.
Querying for geometry of a SAP object:
Spatial Explorer uses spatial queries to fetch the SAP objects based on the current extent of the map.
Conclusion:
FLP configuration for these application also varies from standard process and you can refer those details on documentation.
I hope this blog helps to understand, how spatial explorer and spatial editor is different from other applications.
You can also refer below blogs for more information about SAP Spatial Asset Management.
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/11/10/what-is-sap-geographical-enablement-framework/
https://blogs.sap.com/2022/05/08/consuming-secured-non-arcgis-ogc-services-using-sap-spatial-asset-m...
Please don’t hesitate to share feedback or thoughts in a comment or ask questions.
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