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Software Development on the SAP HANA Platform
Software Development on the SAP HANA Platform

Software Development on the SAP HANA Platform: Written by a SAP HANA expert, this book takes you from installation to running your own processes in no time. By the end of the course you'll have awesome data retrieval and analytical powers to call on.

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Software Development on the SAP HANA Platform

Chapter 2. SAP HANA Studio – Installation and First Look

In the previous chapter we took a quick look at what SAP HANA is under the hood. In this chapter we'll be getting a little more personal with SAP HANA itself. We will be looking at several aspects of the system, including:

  • The different ways of acquiring access to a SAP HANA server

  • Downloading and installing the SAP HANA Studio

  • An overview of the functions provided by the SAP HANA Studio

  • Importing some data into the SAP HANA server

    Note

    The examples in this book were all made and tested with SAP HANA release SP5, made available in November 2012. The Studio version used was release 45. If you use an earlier version of either the server or the Studio, some features will not be available (the whole of Chapter 11, Application Development Using the XS Engine, notably). Additionally, some of the screenshots reproduced in this book will not look exactly the same. The features, however, all work with at least release SP4 of the SAP HANA server,...

Getting access to SAP HANA


If you want to do any development work on SAP HANA, the first thing you need is access to a server.

There are currently three ways to access a SAP HANA machine. They have been listed in decreasing order of price:

  • Purchase a SAP HANA license from SAP, and then a SAP HANA appliance from a hardware partner

  • Sign up for the SAP HANA One license on a cloud-based service

  • Ask SAP nicely for a free 30-day trial of SAP HANA on CloudShare

Each of these options will give you access to SAP HANA, in slightly different ways.

Purchasing a SAP HANA license and appliance

This is obviously the most expensive option, and only really feasible if you are an end user client of SAP who wishes to use SAP HANA as the database for enterprise applications.

The purchase of a SAP HANA license gives access to the SAP In-Memory download section on the SAP Software Download Center (SWDC) website, as shown in the following screenshot:

In order to access the SWDC website, you'll need a SAP Service Marketplace...

Running the installation


Now that you have the SAP HANA Studio software downloaded, you can install it on your PC. The installation itself is very simple, but there are a couple of prerequisites:

  • If you are installing on Linux, there is only a 64-bit version of the software available. You must be running a 64-bit version of Linux.

  • If you are installing on Windows, you have the choice of either 32-bit or 64-bit. Choose the same version of the Studio as your version of Windows. If you don't know which version of Windows you are running, you can open the Control Panel and select System (this works with versions of Windows from Windows XP right up to Windows 8). The Windows version is listed under System type, as we can see here in the following screenshot:

  • You must have Java installed on your machine. Recent versions of Windows do not have Java preinstalled, so you'll need to download it yourself from http://www.java.com.

Once you have satisfied the prerequisites, you can run the installer. Just...

Welcome to the SAP HANA Studio


When you run the Studio for the first time, you are presented with a welcome screen presenting the main functions of the program, as shown here:

There are seven options on this screen (until release 38 of the Studio, only the first four were present):

  • Open Administration Console: This will open a perspective (layout) allowing administration of the server, from User creation, to Authorization handling. No development of objects can be done in this view.

  • Open Lifecycle Management: This perspective gives you access to functions for updating the server software. When a new version of SAP HANA is released, you can use this function to apply patches to your existing installation to bring it to the new version. Once more, no development can be done in this view, nor can any administration task be carried out, except updating the server.

  • Open Modeler: Undoubtedly, the view where you will spend most of your time, this is where the SAP HANA information models are created...

Connecting to the SAP HANA server


Now that we've taken a look at the different panels available in the Studio, we can connect to our SAP HANA server.

Note

You'll need the connection information for your server at this point. This includes:

  • The address of the server

  • The SAP HANA instance number

  • Whether you connect using a username and password, or using Single sign-on (SSO) and the SSO method if appropriate

If you don't know this information, ask your system administrator.

Additionally, for the examples in the book to work correctly, you will need the authorization to create schemas and tables, as well as modeling objects. When your system administrator asks the authorizations you need, you can say that they are:

  • PUBLIC

  • CONTENT_ADMIN

  • MODELING

Authorizations will be covered fully in Chapter 7, Hey! That's My Data! – Authorizations in SAP HANA.

In order to create a connection to your SAP HANA server, you can proceed in one of the following two ways:

  • Follow the Cheat Sheet panel's Adding a New Systems and...

Importing sample data


The first thing we need to do in order to begin developing data models in SAP HANA is to import some sample tables and data. Some data has been prepared for this book, which will enable us to use all the features of the SAP HANA Studio and develop a reporting application. You don't have to use the sample data if you don't want to; you can follow the examples in the book using your own data if you prefer. However, if you use the data that's been prepared, you'll be able to see the example application unfold, using the different functionalities that SAP HANA provides.

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

This sample data will allow us to build a large range of data models, and will show the different features available...

Previewing the sample data


Now that the data for the examples in the book is in our SAP HANA system, we can take a few minutes to examine it and get familiar with it.

Here is a visual representation of the sample data:

The Studio offers a very useful Data Preview tool, which can be used to see the contents of tables (and indeed any modeling view we create later). To access this function, just right-click on the table (or view) name, and select Data Preview. The following is a screenshot showing the contents of the CUSTOMER table we just imported, so that you can compare it with the data in your SAP HANA system:

The Data Preview function does what its name suggests, it shows you the raw data in the underlying table. There are other possibilities offered by this tool, which we will see in detail later.

You might like to take a few minutes to have a look at the data in each of the tables we imported, and compare what you see to the schema of the links between the tables on the previous page. When...

Summary


In this chapter, we have taken a look at the different options available to access a SAP HANA instance, from purchasing a license and a machine (very expensive) and accessing an instance on the cloud (relatively expensive), to a trial account offered by SAP (free).

Next, we installed the SAP HANA Studio, the administration and modeling tool used to interact with the SAP HANA server. We looked at the different functions offered by the software, and the parts of the user interface.

Finally, we imported some sample data into our SAP HANA instance. This data will be used throughout the book as a reference for the models we create, and using the Data Preview function in the Studio, we took a first look at the data itself.

In the next chapter, we'll be building our first data model in SAP HANA, an attribute view. This will allow us to gather data from several tables together in one place, creating one virtual table we can then re-use in other developments.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

What you will learn

  • How to install a SAP HANA environment
  • How to run your first HANA development
  • How to fully utilize each ?view? to maximize the power that SAP HANA offers
  • How to create a reporting user and give them the correct authorizations
  • How to deploy your reporting application to reporting software

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jul 11, 2013
Length: 328 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849689403
Vendor :
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Category :
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Product Details

Publication date : Jul 11, 2013
Length: 328 pages
Edition :
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849689403
Vendor :
SAP
Category :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
So, What Is This SAP HANA Thing Anyways? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
SAP HANA Studio – Installation and First Look Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Your First SAP HANA Development – An Attribute View Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Painting with Numbers – An Analytic View Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Let's Get Graphical – Graphical Calculation Views Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
You Talking to Me? – Scripted Calculation Views Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Hey! That's My Data! – Authorizations in SAP HANA Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
On Another Level – Hierarchies in SAP HANA Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Deploying Your Reporting Application to Reporting Software Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Data Provisioning Using Data Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Application Development Using the XS Engine Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.3
(3 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 33.3%
3 star 66.7%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Belecci Oct 06, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Für das Buch habe ich knapp die Hälfte bezahlt, verglichen mit itunes-Preis, was sehr günstig ist.Bislang bin ich nicht schlauer geworden, warum ich das Ganze in der Form brauchen soll.Vielleicht kommt noch der Teil, wie ich dies im Sap einsetzen kann.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Awor Leonard Apr 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Not so much detailed as I expected
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Mr. Thomas P. Jung Oct 10, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Please note: the publisher provided a free copy of the digital version of the book to me for the purposes of review.I have mixed feelings about this book. Most the content is pretty good, but there are two major points I would make against this book which I think potential readers should take into consideration.1. The title and description is completely inaccurate. This isn't a book about Software Development on HANA. It is a book about Information Modeling on HANA. It doesn't cover SQLScript Procedures/AFL/Table Creation/Schemas/Sequences/etc. It is OK for information modeling; but that alone. If your focus is only learning more about Information Modeling, then this is probably a source you should check out. However if you want holistic SAP HANA Development, you will certainly be disappointed by how much this book doesn't cover.2. While true that it contains one chapter on XSJS/UI5; the approach suggested by this chapter is completely wrong. I can't possibly stress this enough: I strongly warn people that the information in this chapter should largely be avoided at all costs and will actually lead you down a very incorrect path. I think the author completely misunderstands how XSJS should work and that misunderstanding comes out strongly in this chapter. The author proposes using XSJS to generate HTML mixed with your data. This is so completely against everything SAP suggests for the use of UI5 and XSJS. XSJS services should be pure data and contain no UI formating. The UI should be client side and only call XSJS services as REST services when data is needed or events which need processing on the server occur.Furthermore I tracked a list of smaller items of inaccuracy and outright incorrect information.My overall opinion: The author is someone who is strong in creating information models (Attribute/Analytic/Calculation views), but doesn't really have good experience with SAP HANA Development in the broader sense. If the book had only been advertised and contained information on this subset, it would actually be quite good. However by trying to expand into areas the author doesn't really understand, he does a disservice to the reader.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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