Glossary
Glossary is a small dictionary of special terms and abbreviations used in MetaMiner and its documentation. It is sorted alphabetically.
Basic Terminology
Action
Any action (passive or active) with a business object (folder, document, report, so on) in your BI landscape (create, retrieve, delete, so on). Such actions are stored in the Audit DB as Audit DB events. They are retrieved by MetaMiner from the Audit DB directly (it takes some time, but it can provide you the updated information faster).
See also Update.
Alert
In MetaMiner documentation, a customizable notification you can set up in MetaMiner when some kind of change happens in your business data (for example, a new user is registered).
Asset
In MetaMiner documentation, assets are all various BI objects - universes, web reports, software tools, folders, users.
Audit Database
Audit Database (Audit DB) is a part of SAP BusinessObjects suite where audit information – events and statistics describing how users interact with SAP BusinessObjects - is stored.
Business Intelligence
1) In general, Business intelligence (BI) is a term in business analysis that means a set of techniques, technologies, solutions, and software tools that provides corporate management with ad hoc reporting, data visualization, predictive analysis, and more.
2) Also, BI is a part of the SAP technology suite full name: SAP BusinessObjects BI. See also SAP BusinessObjects - A Brief History.
BusinessObjects
1) An enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence, acquired by SAP SE (former SAP AG).
2) Its key product was BusinessObjects (BO, BOBJ), currently known as SAP BusinessObjects technology suite, and the most important SAP component for MetaMiner.
Connection
On of the key business objects in MetaMiner, derived from SAP BusinessObjects. It is a link between a universe and a datasource.
Container
In BI assets tree, a node that contains subnodes (other containers, folders, or documents).
Crystal Reports
An end-user reporting tool focused on highly-formatted, volume reporting for enterprise distribution. It offers a rich programmatic approach to report development. It was originally developed by Crystal Services Inc., later acquired by Seagate, then BusinessObjects, and finally SAP.
Datasource
On of the key business objects in MetaMiner, derived from SAP BusinessObjects. It is an information storage that provides business information to a universe via a connection.
Document Type (or: Kind)
Each BI document in your SAP environment belongs to one of Document Types (or Kinds). It corresponds the SI_KIND property of infoObject in SAP BusinessObjects.
Environment
On of the key business objects in MetaMiner, derived from SAP BusinessObjects. It is a part of a corporate BI landscape, provided by a single CMS.
Filter
In MetaMiner Client in most of its application tabs you can use filters to limit your huge business data to what you really need in any particular case. Filters are united in filter groups in the Filter Pane.
Impact analysis
Impact analysis (IA) or change impact analysis is about identifying the potential consequences of a change in your data, or about estimating what needs to be modified to accomplish a change. Business impact analysis (BIA) focuses on your business, financial data. This is the main goal of MetaMiner. With our product you are able to examine the effect of any financial events and/or figures on your environment.
Instance
In SAP BusinessObjects, Web Intelligence reports can have multiple instances as their structure can be filled in with different content. Filling reports is usually performed through scheduling activity. Recurring instances are updated constantly. In the SAP BusinessObjects environment, documents can be scheduled either through BI Launchpad or the Central Management Console. Schedule state shows the current progress with a particular instance: Complete, Failure, Paused, Pending, Running.
Landscape
Landscape in MetaMiner includes multiple SAP BusinessObjects nodes with potentially different versions, databases, data, and so on, connected to MetaMiner.
MetaMiner Database
MetaMiner Database (MMDB) is a database created especially for MetaMiner for storing business metadata extracted from SAP BusinessObjects nodes for quick access and handling.
Node
Node in MetaMiner BI assets tree is any item on this tree. It can be a container (folder) or a "leaf" (document, instance, so on).
Security Principal
In SAP BusinessObjects and MetaMiner, security principal is a user account or a user group that have certain security permissions set for a particular BI asset (object). For example, a user John have a Write permission to a document MyPaper, therefore he is a security principal for this document.
Semantic Layer
A business representation of business data that helps corporate management access data using common business, not technical terms. Developed and patented by SAP BusinessObjects.
Technical Medatada
Metadata that focuses on the technical aspects of SAP BusinessObjects. Examples of technical metadata are: Users, Groups, Folders, Documents, Dataproviders, SQL, Datasources, and so on.
Universe
On of the key business objects in MetaMiner, derived from SAP BusinessObjects. It is a semantic layer developed through either the SAP Universe Designer or Information Design Tool that describes your corporate datasources through business-friendly objects and shields end-users from the complexity of the underlying databases. This way, business users can query and report on corporate data without need to know SQL or programming.
Universe can be of UNV or UNX types.
Update
Update is an active action (write, delete, create) performed by a user over an object in your BI landscape. Passive actions (retrieve, so on) are not updates. Actions are tracked within an Audit Database.
List of Abbreviations
Abbreviations used in MetaMiner and its documentation, and their meanings.
BI
Stands for Business Intelligence. In our documentation, BI can point to a general term, or to the most up-to-date version of the SAP BusinessObjects technology suite (see also SAP BusinessObjects - A Brief History).
BIA
"Business Impact Analysis".
BIAR
"Business Intelligence Archive Resource". The SAP file format for selective content backup archives. Usually pronounced like the word "beer".
BO, BOBJ
"BusinessObjects" (see BusinessObjects above).
BW
Here stands for "SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse," or SAP BW. This is a core component of SAP strategic Enterprise Data Warehouse solutions.
CCIS
Stands for "Command & Control Information Systems" (a SAP term).
CMC
Central Management Console software is a part of SAP BusinessObjects BI suite.
CMS
In our documentation, CMS stands for Central Management Server. This is one of several core services of the SAP BusinessObjects backend infrastructure and informally considered the backbone of an SAP BusinessObjects environment. It also serves as a primary datasource to MetaMiner (along with the Audit Database).
CSV
Comma Separated Value. File format.
DBA
"Database Administrator".
EAI
"Enterprise Application Integration".
EE
Enterprise Edition of MetaMiner.
ERP
"Enterprise Resource Planning".
ID
A decimal integer identifier assigned to each and every BI asset in MetaMiner. This ID corresponds to SI_ID property of an InfoObject in SAP BusinessObjects environment, and is unique inside of this environment. Value varies from 1 to 2147483647.
IDT
Information Design Tool, used to author new or change existing UNX-style universes. This is sometimes referred to as the "Semantic Layer".
IA
In this documentation, IA stands for "Impact Analysis".
MM
"MetaMiner".
MMA
It may stand for 1) MetaMiner Administrator, one of the key MM components; 2) MetaMinerAdmin account in SAP BusinessObjects.
MMC
MetaMiner Client. One of the key MM components.
MMDB
MetaMiner Database (see above).
MMS
MetaMiner Server. One of the key MM components.
PE
Professional Edition of MetaMiner.
RDBMS
"Relational Database Management System".
SAP
The world-leading ERP software platform developed by the German company SAP SE (former SAP AG). SAP stands for "Systems, Applications, and Products" in data processing.
SPN
Service principal name (SPN). The service principal name is associated with the principal (user or groups) and the security context (logon ticket or kerberos ticket) that the service or application uses to run a process.
SQL
Structured Query Language used to communicate with all supported databases
UDT
Universe Design Tool. The older of the two Universe authoring tools (the other being the Information Design Tool), used to create new, or modifying existing, UNV files. This is sometimes also known as a "Semantic Layer".
UI
"User Interface".
UMT
SAP Upgrade Management Tool.
UNV
One of the formats for storing Universes (see above) in SAP BusinessObjects BI.
UNX
One of the formats for storing Universes (see above) in SAP BusinessObjects BI.
WebI
Web Intelligence (WebI) is an ad-hoc query and reporting environment within the SAP BusinessObjects suite of products. Fundamentally, it is an environment that provides self-service access to data. Web Intelligence contains reporting, querying, and information analysis in one integrated product, helping end-users turn business insights into effective decisions. With just a few clicks of the mouse, WebI users can quickly access and format information as well as easily analyze information to understand underlying trends and root causes.
Web Intelligence contains a highly-interactive data interface that allows the report user a great deal of flexibility to view data from different perspectives. Although many report users may only need to build their reports from scratch, it is often necessary for the users to adjust reports to answer current business questions. With Web Intelligence, users can easily edit queries and reports to reflect their latest information needs.
WS
WebSocket protocol.
XI
In this documentation, XI points to the version of the BusinessObjects product developed between 2005 and 2011, from version BusinessObjects Enterprise XI to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI3.3 SP5. Originally "XI' indicated just "version #11" written in roman numerals, and later "XI" became a part of the product name (without any particular definition) with its own version numbers. For the detailed history of SAP BusinessObjects versions and names, see SAP BusinessObjects - A Brief History.
Warning:
Do not confuse it with SAP Exchange Infrastructure, an outdated version of SAP NetWeaver Process Integration, which had an "XI" abbreviation as well. SAP PI/XI has nothing to do with MetaMiner.