Category: Blog

Developing SAP HANA XS Web Applications – TechTarget

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Summary:

Developing HANA applications is a task split evenly between web, database and UI/UX Developers. This article outlines some helpful and useful tools for all 3 of the tasks when companies take on the challenge of HANA web app development.

Upon release of HANA SPS05, SAP introduced a great new feature called HANA Extended Services (Also known as the XS Engine). The concept was to embed a fully featured web server within the SAP HANA appliance. Not only was it a web server, but it also provided development tools and an application server. One core difference between traditional web servers and the XS Engine, is that it has the ability to execute SQL using the exposed core API’s using Server side Javascript (XSJS). Thus making accessing and modifying your database artifacts very simple and straight forward. With the SPS08 release of HANA, the XS Engine has come a long way and with the additional features, improved stability and the core performance increased, giving us an encouraging sign of a mature product. read more

My initial thoughts on SAP HANA SPS11

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Having been a long time follower and developer on the last 5 releases of HANA, I don’t believe I have ever been more excited to get my hands on a HANA release than SPS11. The inclusion of an entirely new XS runtime (XSA) and the ability to use Node.js and Java were just some of the features I was looking forward to. After figuring out that the SPS11 download was in the support/download portal on the 23rd November, I set out to get my machine up and running as quickly as I could …

After getting my SLES 11 SP4 machine installed/configured (I used the SAP SLES 11 SP4 Image from Suse), I downloaded the HANA SPS11 files, but after multiple failed attempts (even using the SAP Download Tool) the archives did not correctly uncompress and subsequently resulted in installation errors. After re-downloading the files no less than 5 times, I had a clean uncompress and the install was simple and straightforward, and worked like it should. I initially installed just a basic HANA instance, but struggled to subsequently install XSA. I ended up logging out of the root user account, logged in as my *adm account which seemed to get the install to successfully complete. While its been mentioned before, I will still reference the below statement from the documentation, since it will effect many admins wanting to install SPS11 on a SLES SP3 or lower: read more

What Ignited Tinder’s Explosive Growth? – GrowthHackers

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The location-based dating app Tinder was founded on September 1st, 2012, and launched the following October out of Hatch Labs, IAC’s “innovation sandbox.” IAC is the parent company that owns much of Tinder. Since the launch, the Tinder app has become a phenomenon. By January 2014, the app boasted more than 10 million users. [1] By December of 2014, the app had been downloaded more than 40 million times with users swiping 1 billion times per day. [23] On February 3rd, during the IAC earnings call, the company reported that Tinder saw 100% year over year growth in monthly active users (MAU). [24] Like many things with Tinder, it’s valuation is one that’s part myth and part truth. In the Spring of 2014, several sources reported that IAC dropped $500 million to buy another 10% of Tinder from Chamath Palihapitiya—valuing the company at $5 billion. Not long after the story was picked up, Tinder CEO, Sean Rad cited the report as “meaningfully incorrect,” [15] while estimates from Re/Code put the value of the company at the time at $550 million. [25] Later in 2014, rumors were swirling about additional investment in Tinder at $1 billion or more. [26] However, in December, IAC Chairman and Senior Executive Barry Diller reported that the valuation is irrelevant because the company is not a venture backed startup. [27] Beyond its breakout success in the highly-competitive dating space, Tinder has made waves both as a pioneer for mobile user experience (with it’s swiping paradigm) and via its sordid upper management scandal. In this growth study we’re going to focus on the growth engine that made the company so successful and leave a deep dive into the management scandal and sexual harassment lawsuit—that forced their CMO and co-founder Justin Mateen to resign and early employee Whitney Wolfe to leave—for other sites with much deeper journalistic and investigative chops. If you want to read more on the turmoil on the management team and lawsuits read more here. But in a world of heavily funded and popular services like Match.com, Plenty of Fish, eHarmony and others, how did this upstart breakout and totally reinvent online dating for the mobile-first set? In this growth study we’ll look at: read more

Migrating a BTP MaxDB Database to SAP Hana

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Overview: This blog describes migrating a simple MaxDB database from HCP to a dedicated HCP HANA instance. Also has some details around a open source tool called XSImport – a free, open source native XS app for importing CSV files into HANA.

HCPMaxDBtoHANA.png

In the Enterprise Mobility team at SAP we are currently working on an exciting project migrating one of our existing applications to a HANA backend, while going through a major code rewrite. During this process, I had the task of migrating a HCP based MaxDB over to a dedicated HCP HANA DB. The dataset I was working with was not particularly large (@1.3 GB) with the majority of the data residing in just a few tables. (For reference this is a standalone Java HCP app). Since remote tunnel access to production HCP Databases is not available, the only way to get the raw data was through a HCP ticket, the support team were helpful and responsive, and after a couple of hours I had my exported dataset. read more

Open Source Project: XSImport – a HANA app for importing CSV’s

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XSImport.jpg

During a recent small migration project from a HCP MaxDB DB to a HCP HANA DB I needed to import multiple CSV files, and go through a series of dry runs during the process. Since I was going to be doing the loads multiple times, I decided it would be helpful to write a small front end to make the processes of uploading failrly large CSV files into HANA simpler.

Over the past few months I have heard the question: “Whats the best way to get data into HANA from CSV?” While there are a few options if you have a HANA appliance and system level access to the system, there are not too many options with a HCP instance. After trying/testing the CSV import from Studio (size limit), a hdbti file (not great for multiple/repetitive options/file size challenges) it does not leave you with too many choices. After doing some digging it seems quite a few people have uploaded data through a server side script (XSJS) successfully and using the BATCH option while processing is pretty fast. read more

Open Source Project: Syscompare

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A couple of weeks ago I was moving code from 1 hana instance to another trying to keep them in sync. However, I thought there might be a better alternative for comparing the contents of the repos across my systems to ensure that the files matched. After doing some digging and not finding a solution, I decided to write a small tool to do just this, called Syscompare. It is a open source HANA app which uses the new File API and compares the files on each system and displays the differences.

You can read more about the application here, and find the files for the HANA app in Github.

Features:

– Compare repos across HANA instances

– Display file differences in the application read more

Building a Startup – The “big picture” on your road to success

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This is part 3 of my blog series called: “Building a start-up in the SAP HANA space“.

What is considered a “Startup”?

“A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed”

Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker.

Startup or Side Project?

To me, the big difference is your expectations. Generally in a side project, you have little or no expectations of financial reward or success, these projects are a labor of love and something which is intended to help a community or yourself to achieve a  goal. Don’t get me wrong, it could also include financial incentive, like getting paid for your time or materials. A startup is not much different, they too are a labor of love, and command a considerable amount of attention and dedication, however, your goal for the venture is some form of success. This goal is to generate revenue in some shape or form, and often it comes with the pressures of operational overhead, tight release schedules and financial burden. read more

Building a Startup – Your value proposition and elevator pitch

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This is part 2 of my blog series called: “Building a start-up in the SAP HANA space“.

Over the past 15 years, I have developed a variety of applications. Web, mobile, some in the startup realm, some just as side projects, customers projects, partner applications, and the list goes on. Although if there is 1 common denominator across all of them, is that I generally started to write code, before I knew *exactly* what I was going to build. Looking back, I realize why I did this, and generally it was because of all the enthusiasm I had for wanting to make something work, bringing something to reality and showing it *is* possible.

metric² was no different, of course I learned a few things over years, but since I was working with a newer technology, I was keen to get my hands dirty and see what was possible. Before I got started, I put together a list of core features, a technology stack, frameworks to be used, and how it should all be integrated. I thought I was doing things “differently” than before, by starting out with a sure fire plan to develop something which was going to win. But I missed one of the most important topics, my “Value Proposition”. read more

Building a Startup – SAP Startup Focus Program

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I have some fond memories of a television series from the BBC called “A Car is Born” a 15 episode show where the presenter, Mark Evans painstakingly builds a AC Cobra replica. The show highlighted his experiences, trials and tribulations of building something from the ground up.

At TechEd 2014 in Las Vegas I gave a presentation on being a part of the SAP HANA startup program, developing a product, and trying to make an impact in the world of SAP HANA. While its been an interesting ride, I really felt that my 45 minutes up at the podium was really not enough to convey the past 2 years of highs, lows, successes and failures. Since that was the case, I thought I would get back to some blogging about my experiences along the road, hoping that I can inspire, dissuade and educate others about my quest, just like the BBC show. If you are a budding entrepreneur, HANA guru or just wanting to gain some life lessons (at someone else cost), I encourage you to read on, and share your experiences through some of your life journeys. read more