Begin of Universe (Project)

Begin of Universe (BeginOfUniverse) is the earliest date of a project. The generated loaders use it as the start of validity when no source value exists, and as the date value of unknown-member rows.

Value and default

Set the value in the Historization group of the Additional Settings in Project Settings. It is a text field that takes a date in the format of the platform default:

Effect on generated output

The generated views and loaders use the value in these places:

• Store Entity and Entity: BG_ValidFromTimestamp of the first version of a new business key, when no mapped value exists.
• Version Valid From Term: replacement for a NULL source value.
• Unknown-member rows: BG_ValidFromTimestamp, BG_LoadTimestamp and every date or timestamp term.
• Stage: BG_LoadTimestamp of the first row of an increment table.

The first version in a satellite starts at the load timestamp, not at Begin of Universe.

Example

With Begin of Universe set to 18000101, the loader of a Store Entity on Microsoft SQL Server calculates the start of a new version as:

CASE WHEN [BG_Source].[BG_IsNewBusinessKey] = 0 THEN @LoadTimestamp
    ELSE ISNULL([BG_Source].[BG_ValidFromTimestamp], N'18000101') END

A new customer without a mapped start date then starts at 1800-01-01.

Related articles

• Reference: End of Universe (Project), BG_ValidFromTimestamp, Version Valid From Term (Dataflow Model Object)
• See also: Manage Project settings and Generator configuration