Lesson 6 Practice — Semantic Booking Model

In Lesson 6 — CDS Semantics & Annotations, you added business meaning to CDS fields and relationships. In this practice, you will apply those concepts to booking data.

Your target model is:

Booking
  ├─ CustomerId → CustomerName
  ├─ CarrierId  → CarrierName
  └─ FlightPrice → CurrencyCode

You will also use:

Active Annotations

and inspect SAP's language-dependent travel-status text model.

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Objects

Create:

ZI_BOOKING_BASE_###
ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###

If you already completed the Lesson 5 practice assignment and have:

ZI_BOOKING_ASSOC_###

you may reuse it instead of creating ZI_BOOKING_BASE_###, provided it exposes the fields required below.

Reusing the Lesson 5 model

The standard Lesson 5 solution exposes CustomerLastName, not CustomerName. When creating ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###, project CustomerLastName as CustomerName, or keep the original name and update the text annotation reference consistently. The examples below use CustomerName.

Replace ### with your suffix.

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Part 1 — Inspect the amount source

Open:

/DMO/BOOKING

Find:

flight_price
currency_code

Open Data Preview.

Record one booking:

Flight price:
Currency code:

Answer:

Why is FlightPrice ambiguous without CurrencyCode?

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Part 2 — Inspect SAP's reference booking CDS

Open one of the SAP Flight Reference booking CDS entities available in your tenant, for example:

/DMO/I_BOOKING_U

or the corresponding current booking model in the demo package.

Find the price annotation.

Record the annotation name:

________________________________________

Record the referenced element:

________________________________________

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Part 3 — Create the base association model

If you are not reusing your Lesson 5 booking entity, create:

ZI_BOOKING_BASE_###

Use:

/DMO/BOOKING

as the source.

Add associations to:

/DMO/I_CUSTOMER
/DMO/I_CARRIER

Your base model must expose:

TravelId
BookingId
CustomerId
CustomerName
CarrierId
CarrierName
ConnectionId
FlightDate
FlightPrice
CurrencyCode
_Customer
_Carrier

Use:

_Customer.LastName

for CustomerName.

Use:

_Carrier.Name

for CarrierName.

Activate and preview.

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Part 4 — Create ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###

Create a new Data Definition:

Name:        ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###
Description: Lesson 6 - Semantic Booking

Source:

ZI_BOOKING_BASE_###

or your compatible Lesson 5 booking entity.

In the select list, retain all ten scalar fields (value columns) and both associations listed in Part 3:

TravelId          (key)
BookingId         (key)
CustomerId
CustomerName
CarrierId
CarrierName
ConnectionId
FlightDate
FlightPrice
CurrencyCode
_Customer
_Carrier

Declare TravelId and BookingId with key in this entity too. The later SQL exercises select and order by these identifiers. Parts 5–7 add metadata to fields in this list; do not add duplicate projections of those fields.

If you reuse the Lesson 5 entity, project CustomerLastName as CustomerName here to match this list and the examples in Part 6. If you choose to keep CustomerLastName as allowed above, retain that field in place of CustomerName and use its name consistently in the text annotation and your checks.

Add:

@Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true

to the CDS header.

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Part 5 — Add amount/currency semantics

Expose:

FlightPrice
CurrencyCode

Add the semantic annotation to:

FlightPrice

It must reference:

CurrencyCode

Do not hard-code:

EUR
USD
GBP

Hint

The annotation starts with:

@Semantics.amount.currencyCode:

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Part 6 — Add Customer text metadata

Expose:

CustomerId
CustomerName

Annotate:

CustomerId

so that:

CustomerName

is defined as its descriptive text element.

Hint

Use:

@ObjectModel.text.element: [...]

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Part 7 — Add Carrier text metadata

Expose:

CarrierId
CarrierName

Define:

CarrierName

as the text element for:

CarrierId

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Part 8 — Activate and preview

Run:

Ctrl + F2

Activate:

Ctrl + F3

Open Data Preview:

F8

Confirm the data still contains normal scalar columns.

Answer:

Why does semantic metadata not necessarily create a visibly different row result in Data Preview?

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Part 9 — Open Active Annotations

Right-click:

ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###

Choose:

Open With
  → Active Annotations

Find:

FlightPrice

Record:

Annotation:
Value:
Origin:

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Part 10 — Inspect CustomerId annotations

In Active Annotations, find:

CustomerId

Record the text-related active annotation and its value.

Expected relationship:

CustomerId → CustomerName

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Part 11 — Inspect CarrierId annotations

Repeat for:

CarrierId

Expected relationship:

CarrierId → CarrierName

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Part 12 — Explain propagation suppression

Your semantic entity contains:

@Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true

Answer:

What does this annotation do?

Why are the amount and text relationships defined explicitly in this entity?

What advantage can this give a higher consumer layer?

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Part 13 — Propagation experiment

Use a temporary label as a known marker so that the result does not depend on metadata supplied by your tenant.

13.1 Add a marker to the lower entity

Open the entity used in the as select from clause of ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###: either ZI_BOOKING_BASE_### or your reused ZI_BOOKING_ASSOC_###.

Find the projection of ConnectionId. If it already has an element-level @EndUserText.label, copy that original annotation into your notes before replacing it temporarily. Otherwise, add the annotation immediately above the field:

      @EndUserText.label: 'Booking connection (Lesson 6)'
      Booking.connection_id as ConnectionId,

This is inside the select list, not in the CDS header. The snippet uses the standard lower model's source alias Booking; if yours uses another alias, retain your existing field projection and add only the label above it. Keep the upper entity's ConnectionId as a direct projection, without a local label or an expression, so the marker can propagate.

Activate the lower entity. Open its Active Annotations and confirm that ConnectionId has EndUserText.label with the value Booking connection (Lesson 6) and the lower entity as its origin.

13.2 Compare suppression on and off

Start with the header setting from Part 4 still present in ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###:

@Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true

Activate the upper entity, then open or reopen its Active Annotations. Check both ConnectionId and FlightPrice against the first two rows below.

Temporarily remove the suppression annotation from the upper header, activate the upper entity, and reopen its Active Annotations. Check the last two rows.

Upper header setting	Element and annotation	Expected active value	Expected origin
Suppression is true	ConnectionId → EndUserText.label	The marker Booking connection (Lesson 6) is absent	No propagated marker origin
Suppression is true	FlightPrice → Semantics.amount.currencyCode	CurrencyCode	ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###
Suppression annotation removed	ConnectionId → EndUserText.label	Booking connection (Lesson 6)	The chosen lower entity: ZI_BOOKING_BASE_### or ZI_BOOKING_ASSOC_###
Suppression annotation removed	FlightPrice → Semantics.amount.currencyCode	CurrencyCode	ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###

Record the values and origins you observed in both states. The lower label appears when propagation is allowed; the amount reference remains because you declared it locally in Part 5.

If the marker does not appear with suppression removed, check:

• The upper as select from clause names the lower entity you edited.
• The lower label sits directly above Booking.connection_id as ConnectionId, and the activated lower entity shows the marker in Active Annotations.
• The upper field is a direct projection of ConnectionId, with no local @EndUserText.label that overrides the marker.
• The upper suppression annotation has been removed, the upper entity has been activated, and you reopened Active Annotations for the upper entity.

Resolve these checks and repeat the comparison; an unchanged display is not the expected result for this controlled experiment.

13.3 Restore the submitted model

Restore the upper header setting:

@Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true

In the lower entity, restore the original element label you saved. If there was no element label before the experiment, remove only the temporary Booking connection (Lesson 6) annotation.

Activate the lower entity and then the upper entity. Reopen the upper Active Annotations: the temporary marker should be absent, while the local FlightPrice → CurrencyCode relationship should still have ZI_BOOKING_SEM_### as its origin.

The final submitted model again suppresses inherited annotations, preserves the lower entity's original labeling, and keeps its required semantics locally defined.

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Part 14 — Alias-change challenge

Create a temporary higher layer or temporary copy.

Rename:

CurrencyCode

to:

TransactionCurrency

Keep:

FlightPrice

Question:

What must the amount annotation on FlightPrice reference now?

Implement the correct annotation.

Activate.

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Part 15 — Prove the reference with Active Annotations

Open Active Annotations for the alias-change model.

Verify:

FlightPrice
  ↓
TransactionCurrency

not:

FlightPrice
  ↓
CurrencyCode

Explain why the annotation must use the local CDS element name.

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Part 16 — Inspect a text provider

Open:

/DMO/I_TRAVEL_STATUS_VH

Find:

TravelStatus
_Text

Find the annotation that tells the model that _Text supplies descriptive text.

Record:

Annotation:
Association:

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Part 17 — Inspect the text target

Open:

/DMO/I_TRAVEL_STATUS_VH_TEXT

Find:

Language
Text

Record the annotation on the language field:

________________________________________

Record the annotation on the text field:

________________________________________

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Part 18 — Draw the text model

Complete:

TravelStatus
    ↓
____________________
    ↓
TravelStatus Text
   ├─ ____________________
   └─ ____________________

Use:

association
language
text

in your explanation.

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Part 19 — Text element vs text association

Explain the difference between:

@ObjectModel.text.element: ['CarrierName']
CarrierId

and:

@ObjectModel.text.association: '_Text'
TravelStatus

Your explanation must mention:

text in same entity
associated text provider

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Part 20 — SQL Console

Query:

ZI_BOOKING_SEM_###

Return:

TravelId
BookingId
CustomerId
CustomerName
CarrierId
CarrierName
FlightPrice
CurrencyCode

Order by:

TravelId
BookingId

Question:

Does ABAP SQL need special syntax to select FlightPrice because it carries currency semantics?

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Part 21 — Reasoning questions

Answer in your own words.

1. What is the purpose of a CDS annotation?

2. What is the difference between an element annotation and an entity/header annotation?

3. What does @Semantics.amount.currencyCode describe?

4. Why does it reference an element instead of a literal currency?

5. What is the quantity/unit equivalent?

6. What does @ObjectModel.text.element describe?

7. Does a text annotation retrieve the text data by itself?

8. What does @Semantics.text identify?

9. What does @Semantics.language identify?

10. What does @ObjectModel.text.association describe?

11. What does @Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true do?

12. Why can calculations interrupt annotation propagation?

13. Why can renaming CurrencyCode require re-annotating the amount?

14. What does Active Annotations tell you?

15. Why are UI annotations deliberately not the focus of this lesson?

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Optional challenge 1 — Semantic Route

Create your own semantic layer on:

ZI_ROUTE_ASSOC_###

Add:

Distance → DistanceUnit
CarrierId → CarrierName
OriginAirportId → OriginAirportName
DestinationAirportId → DestinationAirportName

Use:

@Semantics.quantity.unitOfMeasure
@ObjectModel.text.element

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Optional challenge 2 — Annotation investigation

Open Active Annotations for:

/DMO/I_FLIGHT
/DMO/I_CONNECTION
/DMO/I_CARRIER

For each, record one active semantic annotation and its origin.

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Submission checklist

• A valid booking source/model exists.
• ZI_BOOKING_SEM_### exists.
• It uses define view entity.
• It retains TravelId and BookingId as keys.
• It exposes all ten required scalar fields and both _Customer and _Carrier associations from Part 4.
• It uses @Metadata.ignorePropagatedAnnotations: true.
• FlightPrice references CurrencyCode.
• No literal currency is hard-coded.
• CustomerId references the exposed customer text element: CustomerName in the examples, or CustomerLastName if intentionally retained from Lesson 5.
• CarrierId references CarrierName as its text element.
• The CDS entity activates.
• Data Preview works.
• Active Annotations has been opened.
• FlightPrice semantic metadata has been verified.
• Customer/Carrier text metadata has been verified.
• The propagation comparison records the lower label's absence/presence and the unchanged local amount reference, including their origins.
• The temporary lower label has been removed or the original label restored, and suppression is restored in the upper entity.
• Alias-change challenge has been completed.
• /DMO/I_TRAVEL_STATUS_VH has been inspected.
• /DMO/I_TRAVEL_STATUS_VH_TEXT has been inspected.
• Language and text annotations have been identified.
• SQL Console can query the semantic entity.
• Reasoning questions are answered.

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Useful ADT shortcuts and actions

Action	Shortcut / menu
Open ABAP Development Object	Ctrl + Shift + A
Code completion	Ctrl + Space
Syntax check	Ctrl + F2
Activate current object	Ctrl + F3
Activate inactive objects	Ctrl + Shift + F3
CDS Data Preview	F8
Active Annotations	Open With → Active Annotations
Format source	Shift + F1