Meta Model Configuration

Overview

To adjust the configuration of the meta model for your workspace, in the administration area, navigate to the Meta Model Configuration section. You land on the Meta Model Configuration page listing fact sheet types. To navigate to the configuration of a specific fact sheet type, select it.

Fact Sheet settings

Clicking one of the Fact Sheet types will lead you to the Meta Model Configuration, where you can adapt the configurations of the Fact Sheet type.

On this page, you can see every section of your Fact Sheet. You can select those sections by hovering on the specific area, allowing you to select the respective section easily. Once you select a section, you will see the configuration panel on the right side of the page. In that panel, you can adjust and configure the Fact Sheet.

You can also access the Fact Sheet settings from a Fact Sheet. To do this, go to the More actions menu in any Fact Sheet of the type you want to configure (see screenshot), and select Configuration.

Fact Sheet Name

In the Fact Sheet Name section, you have 4 options to choose from:

1. Configuration

You can adjust the color of the Fact Sheets, the Maximal Hierarchy Level, and the settings for On-the-fly creation. If you enable "On-the-fly" creation, you can create new Fact Sheets, as you want to add new relationships and the related Fact Sheet is not yet available.

2. Manage Translation

Admins can alter individual fields by default and customize Fact Sheets based on the preferred languages of their users. Non-admins can also select for themselves which language to operate in SAP LeanIX overall. There are 5 languages available: English, German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. This feature is intended to make the tool more accessible and increase its speed of adoption within global operations. In this panel, you can also define what to call a certain Fact Sheet in Singular form or Plural form.

3. Facets Configuration

On this panel, you can select and define which facets you wish to show by default for this Fact Sheet type in the inventory filter sidebar. Once users configure their own facets via the "Manage Facets" option in the inventory, they will only see those personalized custom facets until they select "Reset to default" again.

4. Completion Weights

The Completion weights in Fact Sheet settings will help you adapt the Fact Sheets Types that will help you stay focused on quality management and contribution of new data in Fact Sheets.

Adjusting the weights enables you to adapt the weight of an attribute. The higher the weight, the more it will be counted toward completing the Fact Sheet. If the value is set to "0" the attribute will not be counted as completion, and the attribute will be marked with "optional" on the Fact Sheet.

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Information

You can check out the detailed information on the Completion Weights on the Completion weights impact on completion score documentation.

External ID Field

External ID (externalId) is a standard field that applies to multiple fact sheet types and is not linked to any specific fact sheet type. When you change labels and help texts (translations) for the externalId field, they apply to all fact sheet types where this field is present. Avoid references to a specific fact sheet type in labels and help texts.

If needed, you can create a custom field for external IDs on a specific fact sheet type. To do that, please contact SAP LeanIX Support.

Fact Sheet body configuration

By performing similar actions as before, you can now quickly adjust each section of the Fact Sheet in detail.
You can toggle the visibility of certain portions of the Fact Sheet:

Add or remove subsections

You can quickly add or remove subsections by selecting a section and clicking on the + Add subsection button.

Add or Remove Fields

Add fields or field values

To add a field, the admin can select a section or subsection, when selected, you will see the option on the right panel as shown below:

To add a field value, the admin can select the field and when selected, the option on the right panel will appear as shown below:

There, the admin can add new Values, e.g., Developer, and click on the + button to add the value. You can also add a translation to the value by clicking on the value and adding the translation accordingly.

Delete fields or field values

Now, the workspace admin has access to delete DataModel fields and field values.

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Special behavior for the category field

Admins can also create the category field on Fact Sheets types that do not have it by default. The category has special behaviour in the Inventory and Fact Sheet details page. End-users will be able to select it directly when creating new Fact Sheets.

Note: if the Category field is not immediately visible in the Facet Filter menu, please navigate to the Meta Model Configuration and define it as a default Facet. For more detailed instructions on how to do so see Default facet configuration

The special behaviour for this field is not available as a relation field.

To delete a field, select it and then click Delete in the sidebar.

To delete specific field values, in the sidebar, click the trash bin icon for the desired values.

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Attention

Fields starting with the prefix "lx" are internal fields used for integrations and other features. Deleting or changing fields, altering, adding or deleting field values of those fields might result in unwanted behaviour. We recommend to not delete or alter them, if necessary you can hide them from the Fact Sheet by moving the fields in the Unused section.

Please acknowledge that deleting fields or field values from your workspace will temporarily put your workspace in a read-only mode. No Fact Sheets can be modified while these changes are processed. Usually, the workspace should be in read-only mode not longer than 15 minutes.

During the read-only mode, the users will see this notification in their SAP LeanIX workspace.

You will receive a confirmation email when you perform changes such as: deleting fields or field values. Other changes will be active immediately without an email confirmation.

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Information

You will receive this email when you do any changes in the configuration. This behavior is not specific to the deletion of fields inside the Self-Configuration, but works this way for all (mass) updates (Excel, GraphQL, Integrations). This is also necessary for auditing.

From the same panel, you can now reorder the field values by doing drag and drop to the desired positions.

In order to reduce complexity for your end users, it's often better to conceal your Fact Sheet fields and relations that are not yet in the scope of your organization's activity in SAP LeanIX. To achieve this, you can transfer these elements to the Unused Fields and Relations section. This practice helps maintain focus on essential information and simplifies the overall experience for your end users. When your organizational scope evolves, these fields can be easily moved back to the intended sections and thus made visible again. You can move the fields by navigating to the Change position tab on the right-side panel and selecting Unused Fields from the drop-down menu.

You will find the Unused Fields and Relations section located at the bottom of the Fact Sheet configuration page. Any fields in this section remain hidden throughout the SAP LeanIX application, allowing you to declutter your workspace without losing any data. You can move back the fields to the intended subsection from the drop-down menu on the right-side panel.

Field Value Types

These are some of the Field value Types you will find in SAP LeanIX:

DOUBLE: A double-precision floating-point data type is used for numeric values that can include decimal points. It provides a higher precision level than a single-precision floating-point data type.

INTEGER: This is a data type used for whole numbers, which means it represents non-decimal numeric values. For example, 1, 2, 3, -5, and so on.

MULTIPLE_SELECT: Multiple-select field allows users to choose multiple options from a list. It's used when multiple choices are applicable, and users can select one or more items simultaneously. The IDs of field values must start with a letter.

SINGLE_SELECT: Single-select field enables users to pick a single option from a list. It's suitable when only one choice is applicable or allowed. The IDs of field values must start with a letter.

STRING: String is a data type used for text or character-based information. It can encompass letters, numbers, symbols, and other characters, making it useful for various types of textual data, including markdown syntaxed embedded URLs.

BASE_FIELD: Base field refers to a fundamental or essential field within the database. It is a core element that often serves as a foundation for other fields and data components. Base fields can include fundamental data types like text, numbers, dates, or identifiers.

EXTERNAL_FIELD: An external field refers to a database field linked or associated with data from an external source or system. It may be used to store data retrieved or integrated from outside the current database or application. External fields are used to import and manage data originating from external systems, files, or sources.

Enabling search for new fields

Note that new fields are not searchable by default. To enable searching, create the new field and then navigate to the Options tab (gear icon). Toggle the switches Include in full-text search and Include in quick search as needed.

If you have already created a field and need to enable searching, the only way is to delete data, re-create the field and toggle the switches before clicking on the Show Changes and Apply buttons. Take care to export your data before deleting and recreating the field.

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Note

When enabling search for new fields, proceed with caution. Too many fields can slow down search performance significantly.

Field widths

When choosing the Width for the field, you can choose between XS through XXL. This T-Shirt sizing is there to help you align the fields on the Fact Sheet page. Here, you can see the T-Shirt size comparison for the Type: String and Rendered as: Text Area:

Here is the size comparison for the Type: String and Rendered as: Text:

There is no character limit associated with the size. However, fields with content longer than 32.766 characters will cause an incorrect behavior on your workspace.

Apply Changes

After configuring the Fact Sheets, you can see all the changes you just made by clicking the Show changes button. Here, you can also safely review your changes before applying them.

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Fact Sheet Completeness - best practice

The advanced settings are a great feature to get grip on tracking data completeness and stay focused in regard to adding new data. In regard to the completeness, make sure what use case you want to deliver and what data you need to do so. Afterward set the weight of those attributes to "0" which is not needed to deliver the use-case.

To reach 100% Fact Sheet completeness be sure that you have filled out every single field in a subsection. If there is a field without data you are not able to reach 100%.

Showing Fields in Filters and Views

You can decide whether you want to show specific fact sheet fields in:

• Filters
• Report and diagram views

In the fact sheet configuration, select a field. On the right-side panel, navigate to the Options tab indicated by the gear icon, enable or disable the corresponding toggle, then save the changes. The Include in views and Show in filters options are available for both standard and custom fields, but only for certain field types.

• Include in views: Show the field in report and diagram views. This option is available for the following field types: Double, Integer, and Single Select.

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  Note

  For custom fields, the Include in views toggle is disabled by default to avoid overwhelming users with too many view attributes. Once you’ve completed the configuration, you can display a custom field in views by enabling the toggle.

  The following image shows how a custom field Maintenance Cost appears in report views.

  

  
  

• Show in filters: Show the field in the Filter sidebar. This option is available for Multiple Select and Single Select field types.

  For custom fields, the Show in filters toggle is enabled by default. To show a custom field in the filter sidebar, select a fact sheet type, click Manage Filters, then click the eye icon for the custom field that you want to display.

  The following image shows how a custom fact sheet field Development Status appears in the filter sidebar.

  

  
  

Audit Log

You can see an overview of all historical configuration changes made on the “Audit Log” tab of the Meta Model Configuration. This overview summarises the changes, when they’ve been executed, and by who. Hoovering over the user and date entries provides additional information, such as the email and exact timing of the change.

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Important Note

Currently the changes are reflected in the “Changes” column instead of the “Old Value” and “New Value” format you might be used to from the Audit Log on the Fact Sheet Details page. This is due to technical complexity on our side which we are currently not able to resolve, but will explore in the future.

Additionally we will enhance the Audit Log by providing filtering functionality on different aspects such as type, user and date.