Grouping Business Logic In a Business View

A Business View is a limited set of fields accessible by users and stored as part of a real Master File. Defining a Business View provides users with a limited view of the data, simplifies application maintenance, and provides additional security.

A Business View is organized into virtual segments called folders, which are defined below all of the real and cross-reference segments in the Master File. Each folder can contain a group of fields and can contain other folders. A folder can also be empty. The fields in a folder can come from different segments in the Master File. If the fields do not lie along a single path in the Master File and your request includes fields from separate paths, warning messages may be generated when you run the request.

Hierarchies of folders can be defined by specifying the PARENT attribute in the child folder declarations.

When a Business View is used in a request, all of the actual field and security information comes from the original segments. If the field is from a cross-referenced segment in the Master File, all of the cross-reference segment and key information remains in the original Master File containing that segment.

If you open a Master File that contains a Business View in a WebFOCUS tool, only the folders in the Business View display. If you run a request against a Master File with a Business View, only fields from the Business View will be retrieved and displayed. Referencing a field not in the Business View will result in the following message, and the request will terminate.

(FOC003) THE FIELDNAME IS NOT RECOGNIZED: fieldname

A Business View can include real fields, calculated values (COMPUTEs), virtual fields (DEFINEs), and filters from the original Master File.

Business Views are most useful as views of relational and FOCUS data sources. They are not recommended against cube data sources, as they eliminate drill-down capabilities.

The field and segment names in a Business View can be the same as the names in the original segments, or you can assign new names in the Business View. When a new field name is assigned in a Business View, the ALIAS value must be the original field name.



Syntax: How to Define a Folder

FOLDER = folder_name, [PARENT=parent_folder_name 
    [,DESCRIPTION="default_desc" 
    [, DESC_ln="desc_for_ln" ...]] $ 
     [FIELD = bv_field_name, [ALIAS=real_field_name] , 
     [BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT= real_segment_name]  ,  
     [, TITLE = "default_title" 
     [, TITLE_ln="title_for_ln" ...]]]
     [, DESC="default_desc" 
     [, DESC_ln="desc_for_ln" ...], $]]
      FIELD= bv_field_name[, ALIAS = real_field_name], 
          BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT = real_segment_name
          [,TITLE = default_title]
          [,TITLE_ln = title_for_ln]  
          [,DESCRIPTION = default_description ]
          [,DESCRIPTION_ln = desc_for_ln]  ,$  

where:

folder_name

Is the name of a virtual segment in the view. A folder is allowed to be empty.

parent_folder_name

Is the name of the parent of the virtual segment.

bv_field_name

Is the field name you assign. It can be the same as the real field name or a different field name. If it is different, the real field is identified by the ALIAS attribute.

real_field_name

Is the name of the field in the original Master File. This field can be a real field, a virtual field, or a calculated value. If bv_field_name matches real_field_name, the ALIAS attribute can be omitted. If no ALIAS is specified, the Business View field name must match the field name in the original Master File.

real_segment_name

Is the name of the segment in which the field resides in the original Master File. If the real field name is unique in the original Master File, the BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT attribute can be omitted. If BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT is missing and the field name is not unique in the original Master File, the first field with a matching field name in the original Master File is used.

default_title

Is the column title to use when the LANG parameter is set to the default language for the server, or another language is set but the Master File has no corresponding TITLE_ln attribute for that field. This title is also used if the ln value is invalid.

default_desc

Is descriptive text to use when the LANG parameter is set to the default language for the server, or another language is set but the Master File has no corresponding DESC_ln attribute for that field. This description is also used if the ln value is invalid. This description displays in the front-end user interface.

ln

Specifies the language for which the title or description applies. Valid values for ln are the two-letter ISO 639 language code abbreviations.

title_for_ln

Is the title to use when the LANG parameter is set to a non-default language for the server, and the Master File has a corresponding TITLE_ln attribute, where ln is the two-digit code for the language specified by the LANG parameter.

desc_for_ln

Is the description to use when the LANG parameter is set to a non-default language for the server, and the Master File has a corresponding DESC_ln attribute, where ln is the two-digit code for the language specified by the LANG parameter.



Reference: Languages and Language Codes

Language Name

Two-Letter Language Code

Three-Letter Language Abbreviation

Arabic

ar

ARB

Baltic

lt

BAL

Chinese - Simplified GB

zh

PRC

Chinese - Traditional Big-5

tw

ROC

Czech

cs

CZE

Danish

da

DAN

Dutch

nl

DUT

English - American

en

AME or ENG

English - UK

uk

UKE

Finnish

fi

FIN

French - Canadian

fc

FRE

French - Standard

fr

FRE

German - Austrian

at

GER

German - Standard

de

GER

Greek

el

GRE

Hebrew

iw

HEW

Italian

it

ITA

Japanese - Shift-JIS(cp942) on ascii cp939 on EBCDIC

ja

JPN

Japanese - EUC(cp10942) on ascii (UNIX)

je

JPE

Korean

ko

KOR

Norwegian

no

NOR

Polish

pl

POL

Portuguese - Brazilian

br

POR

Portuguese - Portugal

pt

POR

Russian

ru

RUS

Spanish

es

SPA

Swedish

sv

SWE

Thai

th

THA

Turkish

tr

TUR



Reference: Usage Notes for Business Views

  • The detailed information about fields, such as USAGE and ACTUAL formats or indexes remain in the original segment.
  • To include fields from more than one Master File in the Business View, the segments must all be included in the Master File that contains the Business View, either as a cross-reference or a cluster join.
  • DBA attributes that are defined in the Master File that contains the Business View will apply to the Business View. To apply DBA attributes from cross-reference segments, the SET DBASOURCE=ALL command must be in effect.
  • Business Views do not support data source maintenance commands such as Maintain or REBUILD.
  • When a Master File contains more than one field with the same name, as can occur when files are joined, the BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT attribute identifies which instance of the field name is being referenced in the Business View.
  • Folders can be empty.
  • The USE command supports Business Views.
  • Master File Profiles (MFD_PROFILE attribute) are run for each master file accessed.
  • SORTOBJ and STYLEOBJ declarations are not supported in the original master
  • You can issue an SQL SELECT command against a Business View. However, a Direct SQL Passthru request is not supported against a Business View.
  • Business Views can be encrypted and decrypted with the ENCRYPT and DECRYPT commands.
  • Business Views support alternate file views and fully qualified field names.
  • The SEG. operator against a Business View folder displays all of the fields in that folder, not all of the fields in the real segment.
  • Requests against a Business View cannot reference real fields or segments that are not in the Business View.
  • All HOLD formats are supported against a Business View.
  • All adapters for non-FOCUS data sources support retrieval requests against a Business View.


Example: Creating a Business View

The following Business View of the EMPLOYEE data source consists of three folders:

  • The first folder contains the employee ID, name current salary, and current job code fields from the EMPLOYEE Master File.
  • The second folder contains the salary and increase history fields from the PAYINFO segment of the original Master File.
  • The third folder contains the job code and job description fields from the JOBSEG segment, which is a cross-referenced segment.

Note that a field named JOBCODE exists in folders 2 and 3. The BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT attribute distinguishes between the JOBCODE field from the PAYINFO segment and the JOBCODE field from the JOBSEG segment in the EMPLOYEE Master File. Also note that the fields defined with different names than in the real segments have ALIAS values that specify the field names in the real segments.

FILENAME=EMPLOYEE, SUFFIX=FOC, REMARKS='Legacy Metadata Sample: employee',$
SEGNAME=EMPINFO,  SEGTYPE=S1
 FIELDNAME=EMP_ID,       ALIAS=EID,     FORMAT=A9,       $
 FIELDNAME=LAST_NAME,    ALIAS=LN,      FORMAT=A15,      $
 FIELDNAME=FIRST_NAME,   ALIAS=FN,      FORMAT=A10,      $
 FIELDNAME=HIRE_DATE,    ALIAS=HDT,     FORMAT=I6YMD,    $
 FIELDNAME=DEPARTMENT,   ALIAS=DPT,     FORMAT=A10,      $
 FIELDNAME=CURR_SAL,     ALIAS=CSAL,    FORMAT=D12.2M,   $
 FIELDNAME=CURR_JOBCODE, ALIAS=CJC,     FORMAT=A3,       $
 FIELDNAME=ED_HRS,       ALIAS=OJT,     FORMAT=F6.2,     $
SEGNAME=FUNDTRAN, SEGTYPE=U,   PARENT=EMPINFO
 FIELDNAME=BANK_NAME,    ALIAS=BN,      FORMAT=A20,      $
 FIELDNAME=BANK_CODE,    ALIAS=BC,      FORMAT=I6S,      $
 FIELDNAME=BANK_ACCT,    ALIAS=BA,      FORMAT=I9S,      $
 FIELDNAME=EFFECT_DATE,  ALIAS=EDATE,   FORMAT=I6YMD,    $
SEGNAME=PAYINFO,  SEGTYPE=SH1, PARENT=EMPINFO
 FIELDNAME=DAT_INC,      ALIAS=DI,      FORMAT=I6YMD,    $
 FIELDNAME=PCT_INC,      ALIAS=PI,      FORMAT=F6.2,     $
 FIELDNAME=SALARY,       ALIAS=SAL,     FORMAT=D12.2M,   $
 FIELDNAME=JOBCODE,      ALIAS=JBC,     FORMAT=A3,       $
SEGNAME=ADDRESS,  SEGTYPE=S1,  PARENT=EMPINFO
 FIELDNAME=TYPE,         ALIAS=AT,      FORMAT=A4,       $
 FIELDNAME=ADDRESS_LN1,  ALIAS=LN1,     FORMAT=A20,      $
 FIELDNAME=ADDRESS_LN2,  ALIAS=LN2,     FORMAT=A20,      $
 FIELDNAME=ADDRESS_LN3,  ALIAS=LN3,     FORMAT=A20,      $
 FIELDNAME=ACCTNUMBER,   ALIAS=ANO,     FORMAT=I9L,      $
SEGNAME=SALINFO,  SEGTYPE=SH1, PARENT=EMPINFO
 FIELDNAME=PAY_DATE,     ALIAS=PD,      FORMAT=I6YMD,    $
 FIELDNAME=GROSS,        ALIAS=MO_PAY,  FORMAT=D12.2M,   $
SEGNAME=DEDUCT,   SEGTYPE=S1,  PARENT=SALINFO
 FIELDNAME=DED_CODE,     ALIAS=DC,      FORMAT=A4,       $
 FIELDNAME=DED_AMT,      ALIAS=DA,      FORMAT=D12.2M,   $
SEGNAME=JOBSEG,  SEGTYPE=KU ,PARENT=PAYINFO, CRFILE=JOBFILE, CRKEY=JOBCODE,$
SEGNAME=SECSEG,  SEGTYPE=KLU,PARENT=JOBSEG,  CRFILE=JOBFILE,$
SEGNAME=SKILLSEG,SEGTYPE=KL, PARENT=JOBSEG,  CRFILE=JOBFILE,$
SEGNAME=ATTNDSEG,SEGTYPE=KM, PARENT=EMPINFO, CRFILE=EDUCFILE,CRKEY=EMP_ID,$
SEGNAME=COURSEG, SEGTYPE=KLU,PARENT=ATTNDSEG,CRFILE=EDUCFILE,$
FOLDER=FOLDER1, $
 FIELDNAME=EMPID, ALIAS=EMP_ID,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $
FIELDNAME=LASTNAME, ALIAS=LAST_NAME,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $
FIELDNAME=FIRSTNAME,
  ALIAS=FIRST_NAME,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $
 FIELDNAME=DEPARTMENT, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $ 
 FIELDNAME=CURRSAL, ALIAS=CURR_SAL,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $
 FIELDNAME=CURR_JOBCODE,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $

FOLDER=FOLDER3, PARENT=FOLDER1, $
 FIELDNAME=DAT_INC, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=PAYINFO, $
 FIELDNAME=PCT_INC, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=PAYINFO, $
 FIELDNAME=SALARY,
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=PAYINFO, $
 FIELDNAME=JOBCODE, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=PAYINFO, $

FOLDER=FOLDER2, PARENT=FOLDER1, $
 FIELDNAME=JOBCODE, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=JOBSEG, $
 FIELDNAME=JOB_DESC, 
  BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=JOBSEG, $

The following procedure references the Business View. Note that the SET FOCTRANSFORM=ON setting is in effect by default and is needed in order to translate the qualified name FOLDER3.JOBCODE to its name in the original Master File (PAYINFO.JOBCODE):

TABLE FILE EMPLOYEE
PRINT FOLDER3.JOBCODE JOB_DESC
BY LASTNAME BY FIRSTNAME
BY HIGHEST 1 DAT_INC  NOPRINT
END

The output is:

LAST_NAME        FIRST_NAME  JOBCODE  JOB_DESC
---------        ----------  -------  --------
BANNING          JOHN        A17      DEPARTMENT MANAGER
BLACKWOOD        ROSEMARIE   B04      SYSTEMS ANALYST
CROSS            BARBARA     A17      DEPARTMENT MANAGER
GREENSPAN        MARY        A07      SECRETARY
IRVING           JOAN        A15      ASSIST.MANAGER
JONES            DIANE       B03      PROGRAMMER ANALYST
MCCOY            JOHN        B02      PROGRAMMER
MCKNIGHT         ROGER       B02      PROGRAMMER
ROMANS           ANTHONY     B04      SYSTEMS ANALYST
SMITH            MARY        B14      FILE QUALITY
                 RICHARD     A01      PRODUCTION CLERK
STEVENS          ALFRED      A07      SECRETARY

Next, add a filter to the EMPLOYEE Master File, and include it in FOLDER1 of the Business View.

In the EMPLOYEE Master File:

FILTER DFILTER  WITH EMPINFO.EMP_ID=DEPARTMENT EQ 'MIS'; $

In the Business View:

FIELDNAME=DFILTER, ALIAS=DFILTER, BELONGS_TO_SEGMENT=EMPINFO, $

The following request implements the filter:

TABLE FILE EMPLOYEE
PRINT FOLDER3.JOBCODE JOB_DESC
BY LASTNAME BY FIRSTNAME
BY HIGHEST 1 DAT_INC  NOPRINT
WHERE DFILTER
END

The output is:

LAST_NAME        FIRST_NAME  JOBCODE  JOB_DESC
---------        ----------  -------  --------
BLACKWOOD        ROSEMARIE   B04      SYSTEMS ANALYST
CROSS            BARBARA     A17      DEPARTMENT MANAGER
GREENSPAN        MARY        A07      SECRETARY
JONES            DIANE       B03      PROGRAMMER ANALYST
MCCOY            JOHN        B02      PROGRAMMER
SMITH            MARY        B14      FILE QUALITY


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