ListCube Test Case is a collection of ListCube Variants.

After you click on the 'Variants' button a screen for ListCube Variants selection is displayed

_{Creation of ListCube Test Case}

_{ListCube Test Case variant selection screen}

Here you can create a new or add an existing ListCube Variants into a ListCube Test Case. All functions are accessible from the toolbar menu.

Create New ListCube Variant

The screen for creating a new ListCube variant is displayed after clicking on the 'Create New ListCube Variant' button (Shift + F4).

_{Create a new ListCube Variant screen}

In this screen you can specify the following variant detail:

RFC Destination – RFC Destination of the system where the InfoProvider is to be read. When the RFC destination is specified, the F4 help displays values from the specified RFC destination in the InfoProvider field.
Variant Description – description of the new ListCube Variant.
InfoProvider (required) – technical name of the InfoProvider to be read. F4 help is available for this field.
Max. Rows. – Max. Rows. – Maximum number of rows to be read from the InfoProvider. If this field is set to 0 or left empty, then all possible rows will be selected. 0 value should be always used as ListCube functionality does not guarantee the order of rows returned.
Data Access Type:
1. Read Online Data – option to read-only online data via the ListCube.
2. Read Online + NLS Data – option to read the NLS Data via the ListCube. This option is ignored for releases below 7.3 (i.e. only online data will be read for such releases).
3. Read Only NLS Data – option to read-only data from NLS. InfoProvider that will be read will need to have an active DAP created. This option is not release-dependent.
4. Read Online / Read NLS Data – when this option is selected two variants are generated with the only difference being in the data access type. One variant is generated with Read Online Data option selected while the second one is created with the Read-Only NLS Data option selected.
Use DB Aggregation – option to use DB Aggregation for the ListCube execution. It is always recommended to use DB aggregation so the output of ListCube is aggregated on the Database level. This reduces the chance of multiple rows with the same key and image memory footprint. Turning this setting off should only be done in special cases when the Validate additional aggregation is used.
Display the number of Hits – option for the column 'ROWCOUNT' to be added to the output of ListCube.
Use mat. Aggregates – option to use materialized aggregates during the ListCube execution. If selected the defined aggregates should be used for the InfoCube when preparing the output list. If you choose to use materialized aggregates, the query is not executed directly in the fact table, instead, aggregate tables are used and performance is improved. However, if aggregates are not recalculated there may be differences in the data returned.
Use Conversion: If enabled, on writing into the Cluster step the info objects conversion exit will be applied to the data. Important Note: In the current version of Validate the Automated Root Cause Analysis doesn't support this.
Characteristics in Output – selection of the defined characteristics to be selected from the InfoProvider (from Validate version 1.4.2 also navigational attributes are supported). All the key figures are always selected together with the unit characteristics*.
Set Filters (button) – used for defining the filter values to be displayed and you can define the filtering values to be used during ListCube execution. It is possible to swap between the descriptions of filtering fields and their data element by clicking on 'Display Description/Technical Name' button.

_{ListCube filters selection}

11. After Image Variant – ID of the ListCube variant that is used for the after image creation. Allowing you to compare the output of different InfoProviders or InfoProviders from different systems.

12. Referenced Time point – click on the 'Advanced Settings', an option to set up the reference time point is displayed. The referenced time point is the date and time setting that is used in the following way: When a ListCube Variant has a referenced time point set up, a check is done before each execution. This check searches for the load request ID from all of the requests in the system that has an update time equal to or lower than the specified referenced time point. This request ID is then used in ListCube execution as a filter on the 0REQUID field where the condition is set to – Select all the data with 0REQUID equal to or lower to the found request ID. You can make a snapshot of only part of this data available in InfoProvider. Please see the important notes below for any restrictions that apply to this functionality.

Important

The update request times that you see in the RSA1 transaction are transformed based on your defined Time Zone setting. Prior to the execution of the Before/After image creation (before the search for a global request is done) the user-defined time is transformed from its local time to the UTC time.

It is also important that the referenced time point specified by the user is the same Time Zone setting as the user who will execute the test in Validate. In addition, when searching for a referenced time point on the remote server you need to also check that the user (or RFC user if used) has the same time zone setting as the user who will execute the tests in Validate.

For ADSO InfoProviders the filter is created on top of the 0REQTSN field while using the same logic. For composite providers, filters are created on both 0REQUID and 0REQTSN fields.

13. Exclude old data – mark this checkbox if you want the ListCube variant to read data newer than the specified referenced time point instead of the older ones.

14. Excluded Key Figures – All Key Figures specified here will be not read from the InfoProvider during the image creation. If excluded, the key figure does use a unit that is not used by any of the non-excluded key figures this unit will also not be read from the InfoProvider.

15. Excluded Units – You can define which units that are not to be read from InfoProvider during the image creation. For each excluded unit all key figures that are dependent on this unit will be excluded automatically from the InfoProvider read.

To save the ListCube Variant click 'Continue' (Enter), before saving various checks are done to ensure the correctness of variant definition.

*Important Notes:

All the key figures and appropriate unit/currency characteristics are always returned in the ListCube output. There is an exception for Key Figures with the aggregation function NOP. When the 'Use DB Aggregation' setting is active, Key Figures of this type are not returned in the output.
All characteristics of the InfoProvider (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported) are checked for compliance with the specified characteristic selection. If yes then they are returned in ListCube output.
From Datavard Validate version 1711 order of characteristics for output is important. The same order will be used for storing data of the current image. Make sure before/after images have the same order/number of key characteristics otherwise, data comparison will not be successful.
Reference Time Point setting usable only for InfoCubes, MultiProviders, certain types of ADSOs, and Composite Providers. For other InfoProviders, this setting is ignored, as it is not possible to use the filtering on 0REQUID/0REQTSN field in the ListCube. For InfoCubes this setting influences only the read data from the Fact table. For ADSOs read of data from the Inbound table. Please note that in MultiProvider Cubes, this setting will affect the InfoCubes below but not the DSOs as their data have 0REQUID set to value ‘0’.
t to value '0'.

If a different after image variant is specified for the ListCube variant some restrictions are then applied in terms of comparing results of the before/after image. The used ListCube variants must have exactly the same number, type, and name of characteristics and units of the InfoObjects selected for output. When so, Validate is able to compare the before/after image, if some Key Figures are missing in one of the variants in comparison to another variant then these columns are ignored during the comparison.

Add Existing ListCube Variant

The 'Add Existing ListCube Variant' button displays all existing ListCube variants in the system and you can select one or more variants to be added to the current Test Case.

Add ListCube Variants of Run

The 'Add ListCube Variants of Run' button displays all the ListCube runs in the system and you can select one that variants to be added into the current test case.

Copy ListCube Variants of Run

The 'Copy ListCube Variants of Run' button displays all the ListCube runs in the system and you can select one that variants to be added as copies into the current test case.

Generate ListCube Variants

The Screen for the generation of ListCube variants is displayed after clicking on the 'Generate ListCube variants' button (Shift + F5).

_{Generate ListCube Variants screen}

In this screen you can define:

InfoProviders – The selection of InfoProviders for which ListCube variants are to be generated.
Characteristics in Output – The selection of characteristic InfoObjects that are to be selected in ListCube output (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported).
Filter Objects – The selection of characteristic InfoObjects on which you want to define filters (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported).
Set Filters (button) – You can define the filtering values of the characteristics selected in the 'Filter objects' select option. Validate does not support more than 100 different characteristics for filtering. It is possible to swap between the descriptions of filtering fields and their data element by clicking on 'Display Description/Technical Name' button.

_{Filter values for the generation of ListCube Variants}

Maximum Rows – You can define the maximum number of rows to be selected in all generated ListCube variants.
Data Access Type:
1. Read Online Data – option to read only the online data in the generated ListCube variants.
2. Read Online + NLS Data – option to read the NLS Data in the generated ListCube variants. This option does not apply for releases below 7.3 (i.e. only online data will be read for such releases).
3. Read Only NLS Data – option to read only the data from NLS. InfoProviders that are to be read need to have an active DAP created.
4. Read Online / Read NLS Data – when this option is selected two variants are generated with the only difference being in the data access type. One variant is generated with Read Online Data option selected while the second one is created with the Read-Only NLS Data option selected.
Use DB aggregation – To choose if the DB aggregation should be used in generated ListCube variants.
Display Number of Hits – The option to add column 'ROWCOUNT' to the output of generated ListCube Variants.
Use mat. aggregates – To choose if mat. aggregates are to be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Use Conversion – To choose if conversion exits are to be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Referenced Time point – After clicking on the 'Advanced Settings' button an option for the referenced time point specification is displayed. When this is filled, a reference time point is set for all of the generated ListCube Variants.
Excluded Key Figures – Key figures that should be excluded in the generated ListCube variants.
Excluded Units – You can define units that are to be excluded in all generated ListCube variants.

The Generation of ListCube variants is executed by clicking on the 'Continue' (Enter) button. For each InfoProvider that matches the InfoProvider Selection, a ListCube Variant is generated (except if the 'Read Online / Read NLS Data' option is selected because two variants would then be generated for each InfoProvider). Using the selection of specified characteristics a cross-section of the InfoProvider characteristic is used as a range of characteristics for the InfoObject to be displayed in the ListCube output. This is also done the same way for filtering objects; only those that can be applied for the specific InfoProvider are then added to the specific ListCube variant.

Generate RFC ListCube Variants

This is used for the generation of ListCube variants with their specified RFC destination.

The screen for generation ListCube Variants is displayed after clicking on the 'Generate RFC ListCube Variants' button (CTRL+F1).

_{Generate RFC ListCube Variants screen}

In this screen you can define:

Characteristics in Output – The selection of characteristics for the InfoObjects that are to be selected in the ListCube Variants (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported).
Filter Objects – The selection of characteristic InfoObjects on which you want to define the filters (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported).
Description suffix – This is what will be added to the description of generated variants. Description of the variants is generated in the form 'Gen. Variant for $INFOPROVIDER_NAME'. If the description suffix is a specified string then '- $SUFFIX' is added to the description.
Set Filters (button) –Defines the filtering values for the characteristics you have selected in the 'Filter objects' select option. Validate does support using more than 100 different characteristics for the filtering. It is possible to swap between the descriptions of filtering fields and their data element by clicking on 'Display Description/Technical Name' button.

_{Filter values for the generation of ListCube Variants}

Maximum Rows – You can define the maximum number of rows to be selected in all of the generated ListCube variants.
Data Access Type:
1. Read Online Data – option to read only the online data in the generated ListCube variants.
2. Read Online + NLS Data – option to read the NLS Data in the generated ListCube variants. This option is ignored for releases below 7.3 (i.e. only online data will be read for such releases).
3. Read-Only NLS Data – option to read-only data from NLS. The InfoProvider that will be read needs to have an active DAP created.
4. Read Online / Read NLS Data – when this option is selected two variants are generated for each of the selected InfoProvider with the only difference being in the data access type. One variant is generated with the Read Online Data option selected while the second one is created with the Read-Only NLS Data option selected.
Use DB aggregation – The option to select if DB aggregation should be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Display Number of Hits – The option if the column 'ROWCOUNT' is to be added to the output of generated ListCube Variants.
Use mat. aggregates – To choose if the mat. aggregates are to be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Use Conversion – To choose if conversion exits are to be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Excluded Key Figures – Key figures selection that defines, which key figures are not to be read from InfoProviders of generated ListCube variants.
Excluded Units – Units selection that defines which units should be not read from InfoProviders of generated ListCube variants.
Use different after image filter – If this option is set to 'X' and after image variants are generated for all of the before image variants. These variants will be created with a filter that is specified in the following option rather than a filter specified at the top of the window.
After Image Filter Objects – Selection of characteristics InfoObjects on which you want to use as a filter for the after image variants.
InfoProviders Table – To specify if the InfoProviders are used in each of the generated variants. For each InfoProvider, you can also specify the RFC Destination where this InfoProvider exists. When the After Image InfoProvider is specified, the second ListCube Variant is generated and used as an After Image Variant for the ListCube Variant of Before Image InfoProvider. If the After Image InfoProvider column is left empty then the same InfoProvider as the one specified in the Before Image is used for the After Image. It is also possible to display the columns for referenced Time Point, if these are specified then they are used during the generation of ListCube Variants.

From Validate version 1.4.2 it is possible to execute the generation of RFC ListCube variants in a background job. The Background job can be executed after you click on 'Generate Variants in Background' button.

When the variant generation is executed in the background, you can check the background job state through the SM37 transaction. It is important to note that you should not try to adjust/ change the variants on the selection screen while the generating jobs are running. You can exit the selection screen but should not save the variants selection because variants that are generated in the background are automatically saved under the appropriate Test Case / Run.

Add Variants of Test Case

The 'Add Variants of Test Case' button displays all the ListCube Test Cases in the system and you can select one that variants to be added into the current test case.

Copy Variants of Test Case

The 'Copy Variants of Test Case' button displays all the ListCube Test Cases in the system and you can select one that variants to be added into the current test case as copies.

Generate OutBoard variants

By clicking on the 'Generate OutBoard Variants' button you can generate ListCube variants based on NLS secondary indexes. This option is available only when DataVard OutBoard ^TM is installed on the same system as Validate.

The screen for generation ListCube Variants is displayed after clicking on the 'Generate RFC ListCube Variants' button (CTRL+F1).

_{Generate Outboard ListCube Variants screen}

In this screen you can define:

Characteristics in Output – The selection of characteristics for the InfoObjects that are to be selected in the ListCube Variants (from Validate version 1.4.2 navigational attributes are also supported).
Description suffix – This is what will be added to the description of generated variants. Description of the variants is generated in the form 'Gen. Variant for $INFOPROVIDER_NAME'. If the description suffix is a specified string then '- $SUFFIX' is added to the description.
Maximum Rows – You can define the maximum number of rows to be selected in all of the generated ListCube variants.
Data Access Type:
1. Read Online Data – option to read only the online data in the generated ListCube variants.
2. Read Online + NLS Data – option to read the NLS Data in the generated ListCube variants. This option is ignored for releases below 7.3 (i.e. only online data will be read for such releases).
3. Read-Only NLS Data – option to read-only data from NLS. The InfoProvider that will be read needs to have an active DAP created.
4. Read Online / Read NLS Data – when this option is selected two variants are generated for each of the selected InfoProvider with the only difference being in the data access type. One variant is generated with the Read Online Data option selected while the second one is created with the Read-Only NLS Data option selected.
Maximum variants - InfoProviders can contain large amounts of archiving requests and for each arch. request is created one test variant. By this setting, we can define the maximum number of variants generated from one InfoProvider.
Select by - additional filter for maximum variants. We can select to generate x Largest/Most average/Smallest variants (where x are maximum variants defined in Maximum variants field) from archiving requests.
Use DB aggregation – The option to select if DB aggregation should be used in the generated ListCube variants.
Display Number of Hits – The option if the column 'ROWCOUNT' is to be added to the output of generated ListCube Variants.
Use mat. aggregates – To choose if the mat. aggregates are to be used in the generated ListCube variants.
InfoProviders Table – To specify if the InfoProviders are used in each of the generated variants. For each InfoProvider, you can also specify the RFC Destination where this InfoProvider exists. When the After Image InfoProvider is specified, the second ListCube Variant is generated and used as an After Image Variant for the ListCube Variant of Before Image InfoProvider. If the After Image InfoProvider column is left empty then the same InfoProvider as the one specified in the Before Image is used for the After Image. It is also possible to display the columns for referenced Time Point, if these are specified then they are used during the generation of ListCube Variants. With button on the ALV toolbar user can paste InfoProvider from the clipboard instead of manually adding lines.

Click on the button Generate or button Generate in BG to start the process of ListCube variants generation.

After the generation is confirmed the InfoProviders archived via OutBoard NLS that has active DAP (Data Archiving Process) multiple variants are generated. The number of variants depends on the number of archiving requests for which secondary indexes are defined. Each variant is then created with filters defined by the archiving request index selection. If the index selection object cannot be used in ListCube, it is omitted.
By selecting the variants additional options are displayed in the context menu where you can access the following functions:

Create After images as copies

Select multiple variants and create after image variants for them. To access this functionality, in the context menu of the selected variants choose 'Create After Images as copies'. A Dialog is displayed where you can define the RFC destination that will be applied to all generated after image variants. All other settings are copied from source variants.

_{Create After Image Variants as copies}

Compare settings

You can compare chosen settings for variant and it's defined after image variant (if there is one). Select the requested variants and then choose the 'Compare Settings' option from the context menu.

_{Compare settings of before and after image variant}

Settings that can be checked are displayed and you can choose what is to be compared between the variants. After you confirm the selection check is done and the table with compare status messages is displayed.

Copy settings

You can copy the settings of variants to its' defined after image variant. After the selection of variants, choose 'Copy Settings' from the context menu. A dialog allows you to define which settings are to be copied from the source variant to the after image variant (if there is any).

_{Copy settings of the variant to its after image variant}

After you confirm the selection, the specified settings are copied and a message table is displayed with information about the updated variants.

Copy variants

You can create copies of ListCube variants by selecting multiple variants in the selection table and clicking on 'Copy ListCube Variants' toolbar button. For each selected variant a new variant is created with exactly the same settings as the source variant. If a copied source variant has a different after image variant specified then a copy of this will also be created. The copied after image variant is then assigned to a copied source variant as an after image variant.

_{Copy Variants}

Edit ListCube Variant

To edit the existing ListCube variants, you double click on these in the table, only Variants that are not already used in a Test Run can be edited. If a ListCube Variant is already being used, their details can be only reviewed but not changed.
When variant details are displayed you can check where this variant is used. By pressing the 'Where Used' button, a table is displayed that contains all Test Plan/Test Case/Run ID information where this variant is used.

_{Where Used List for Variant}

By clicking on 'Copy Settings to After Image' button you can copy specified settings of this variant into its After image variant if it is specified.

Mass Edit Variants

You can edit more ListCube variants at once. Mass edit is performed by selecting the variants in the list and clicking on 'Mass Edit Variants' button, a dialog for mass editing the selected variants are displayed.

_{Mass Edit Of ListCube Variants}

You can define new values for numerous settings. Changing these values is done after clicking on the 'Continue' (Enter) button. Only the values which you specified to be changed, using the marking 'Edit' checkbox (on left) will be replaced in the selected variants. If a ListCube variant has a different After Image specified, then only the After Image parameters will be replaced in that variant, as nothing else needs to be updated with the changes. Note: Only variants that are not yet used in test runs can be changed by mass edit. Settings you can change are:

RFC Destination – RFC destination of the system where ListCube will be executed
Use DB Aggregation – The option to select if DB aggregation should be used in the generated ListCube variant.
Use mat. aggregates – To choose if the mat. aggregates are to be used in the generated ListCube variant.
Display Number of Hits – The option if the column 'ROWCOUNT' is to be added to the output of the generated ListCube Variant.
Use Conversion Exit – If enabled, on writing into the Cluster step the info objects conversion exit will be applied to the data
Read – Data access type
Mapping ID – ID of the field mapping that will be used when comparing ListCubs. Support F4 help or double-click to create a new one.
Reference Time and Reference Date – When a ListCube Variant has a referenced time point set up, a check is done before each execution. This check searches for the load request ID from all of the requests in the system that has an update time equal to or lower than the specified referenced time point. This request ID is then used in ListCube execution as a filter on the 0REQUID field where the condition is set to – Select all the data with 0REQUID equal to or lower to the found request ID. You can make a snapshot of only part of this data available in InfoProvider.
Exclude Old Data – Check this checkbox if you want the ListCube variant to read data newer than the specified referenced time point instead of the older ones.
Max Rows To Display – Max rows to display

Additional options available from (DV-2111) Variant Editor:

Variant editor

(DV-2111) Variant Editor provides a central location where you can manage all the backend-testing variants.

Delete ListCube Variants

To delete the existing ListCube Variants, select the rows and click on the delete button in the ALV toolbar.

Any ListCube Variants still in use in the Backend Testing will be locked; therefore it is necessary to delete the ListCube Variants from the given runs before they can be deleted from the ListCube Variant Editor.

Transport ListCube Variants

You can add ListCube Variants to the transport, so these can be transferred to another system (with Validate installed). Specify the ListCube Variants you want to transport by selecting them from the list (Figure 146). There are options for filtering and sorting in the ALV table and can be used to select specified ListCube Variants more easily.

_{Selecting ListCube Variants to be transported}

After selecting the desired ListCube Variants and clicking on the 'Transport ListCube Variants' button, a screen for choosing the transport request is displayed, once selected press Confirm.
It is important to note that ListCube Variants only carry the information about Validate-related items and not the InfoProvider structures. These Variants should only be imported to a system where Validate is installed and the same InfoProviders with the same structure exist.

ListCube with mapping - Test Case Definition

The ListCube with the mapping test Case consists of a number of ListCube Variants. If you click on the 'Variants' button a screen for the ListCube Variants selection is displayed.

_{Creation of SLO ListCube Test Case}

The SLO ListCube scenario uses the same variants as the standard ListCube scenario therefore the same screen is displayed.

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