Child Entities and Addressability

Some SAP CDS analytical views and OData services expose entities that don’t have their own top-level URL — they’re reachable only via a parent entity’s navigation property. This page explains how the connector surfaces them and what to expect at query time.

What “non-addressable” means #

In an OData service, every entity declares whether its EntitySet is addressable. An addressable entity has its own root URL: /Service/EntitySet. A non-addressable entity is exposed only through a navigation from a parent: /Service/ParentEntity('id')/childNav.

This is common in CDS analytical views generated by SAP, where the analytical core is paired with helper entities (address, user, currency lookups) that aren’t independently queryable but are referenced from the analytical entity itself.

How the connector shows them #

Non-addressable child entities are listed alongside the regular ones in the data source editor, with a small via {parent} badge next to the name. The badge tells you which parent entity the connector will go through when Power BI queries the child.

What you can do with a non-addressable child #

• Select fields — identical to any other entity.
• Preview — works. The connector hits the parent entity with $expand=childNav under the hood. The preview dialog shows you the rows that would reach Power BI.
• Filter — works. The filter is passed through as $expand=childNav($filter=…).

What stays hidden #

SAP services often declare framework EntitySets prefixed with SAP__ (for instance SAP__PDFHeaderSet, SAP__FormatSet). The connector hides them from the entity list because the back-end returns 404 on $expand even though the metadata declares the navigation — loading them would just generate failing requests with no useful payload. If you’re looking for one and don’t see it, that’s why.

Related #

• Use parametrized OData entities — another SAP-specific construct supported the same way.
• Preview data