Category: Design

iOS App: iMessage App – Stick Figure Family

paschmann

This was my first foray into iMessage Apps, and while extremely basic, was pretty fun to develop and deploy. Check it out in the App Store.

Description:
Stick Figs for iMessage let you add a variety of different stick figures representing you, your family and your pets. Use the sticks to add context to images and text you share with your friends and family, giving your messages and photos a personalized touch, and showing you care about your family. This collection has over 30 different variations for all occasions.

Git HANA – A free, open-source Github client for SAP HANA

paschmann
Git-HANA-Screenshot.jpg

Over the last few months, working on the metric² open source project, I have been frequently updating the GitHub repo. As a heavy XS Web IDE user, this entailed exporting or copying the contents of the files from the package into my local GitHub repository for the project and subsequently committing the files from there. Since there is a small disconnect between the source (my HANA packages) and the destination (GitHub) I like to often see what changes which are due to be committed, the differences between the files, or just compare the files between the 2 systems.

Being over dedicated to building solutions to some of my workflow challenges (see here, here and here), I created yet another small HANA native app called Git <> HANA. The application allows you to compare files between your local HANA package and your (or any other) GitHub repo, and it also lets you commit files directly from the UI to GitHub, and vice-versa. If a file does not exists, it will create it for you (on either side). There are a couple other cool features which you can read about below, or watch the little video I created. read more

Hacking SAP HANA Websockets

paschmann

Disclaimer: This is not a production or documented feature – its also more of a hijack than a hack  🙂 

I have been hoping for the inclusion of Websocket support on the HANA DB platform for a while now, and I was a little disappointed it was not packaged in the SPS08 release. My goal when building apps (or products) is to make use of the core platform its running on as much as possible, I firmly believe that when convincing an IT department, or company, to implement a product or app, the first question is: “How much infrastructure does this need?”. This can often be a deal breaker and why I am such a big proponent of the HANA’s DB + XS App Server integration – it consolidates the requirements into a single investment. Having a Websocket technology built directly in XS can be an additional selling point which developers are starting to expect these days. read more

Open Source Project: Metric² for SAP HANA – v2.0

paschmann

After releasing metric² at TechEd Las Vegas last year it has had well over a hundred downloads, and has a couple loyal followers always offering advice and feedback (which I am truly thankful for). Last week we released version 2.0 of the free and open source app and subsequently put it onto GitHub under the MIT license which you can find here.

The biggest changes of the new version of metric² include:

  • A new UI (Twitter bootstrap based)
  • The ability for users to create their own account
  • A few new metrics
  • No longer uses SAPUI5 (a blog post in itself!)
  • The biggest change was the front-end/UI and the code has been refactored and split up into multiple library files (XSJSLib) and is simplified for easier reading.

The primary goal of the app is, and always has been to try and visualize your big data. Along with providing a self service tool to monitor and provide insights on the data you have in, and around your HANA system, while using it to the fullest.

Short Survey

I am in the process of trying to understand where to take the app in terms of use and direction and if you are interested in helping guide the discussion, if you have downloaded, used or seen the app I would greatly appreciate if you took 1 minute to complete a short 5 question, multiple choice survey here. read more

Open Source Project: XSOData Service Browser

paschmann

Introduction

I was recently working on developing a couple of XSOData services for Metric² when I realized that it would be pretty helpful to have a way to develop, test, explore services and queries. I wrote a similar tool for SAP Netweaver Gateway and the iPad a couple years ago, and decided to model it with some similarities, but having the ability to build it directly into HANA using XS, would add some nice integration benefits.

About the App

Some selectable options:

Generated Query: read more

Open Source Project: Metric² for SAP HANA

paschmann
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Metric² is a web based, realtime dashboarding platform for SAP HANA, on SAP HANA.I recently gave a demo of the app at Demojam in Las Vegas (You can read my blog post about the event here). Metric² is a free app/download and this blog gives some insight into how it works, and how you can download and install it in your own HANA system:

Overview

Metric² is made up of 3 key areas:

Dashboards: Metric² can have multiple dashboards. Dashboards are designed as blank canvases, are quite flexible, and can contain widgets which are added can be simply dragged and dropped into their needed locations and also sized accordingly.

Widgets: Dashboards can have multiple widgets displayed. There are a variety of widgets including a range of predefined datasources (CPU, Memory, Disk etc.) but also include custom widgets (SQL, JSON, Yahoo) which can display a myriad of information to your team. read more

Why Demo Jam ROCKS – from a losers perspective ;)

paschmann

It was Tuesday night sometime back in 2009 at my first TechEd where I was sitting in the audience and really wishing I was standing up on stage, presenting something inspiring and innovative which would encourage the votes of the demanding audience of Demojam. Well, it took 4 years to creep over personal hurdles, family time and to gain an ounce of courage which persuaded me to post an entry in 2013, this blog gives some insight into what I did, what I would have done differently, and also why Demojam really needs people like YOU!

A couple of months ago (May through July) I went through the openSAP HANA course and was really impressed, not only by the DB, but more the HANA XS Engine as an Web/App server. Being a “learn by doing” kinda person I struggled to get the most out of the course content since it really didn’t apply to anything I was currently working on, until I realized the opportunity… As I described in my demojam presentation, I drank the HANA coolaid 🙂 Personally, it was not so much of the big data aspect that intrigued me, but rather this concept of the DB and the app server really being a single entity from a platform, as well as infrastructure perspective. Simple. I spent a couple weeks learning a lot more, since I had something to apply it against and started developing an app called Metric² read more

SAP UI5 – A Photoshop template of GUI elements

paschmann

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For me (and I am sure many others!), UI5 has become a really useful toolkit for easily developing web apps and POC’s with little effort around the SAP Ecosystem. The OData support, rich controls and business inspired examples lend itself well to the mantra of “Don’t reinvent the wheel”. At a recent SAP Inside Track event in NY, I made reference to the fact, that while developing a mobile app, I, or a graphic designer, can spend close to 40% of the total design & development phase/hours on the UI. Building “consumer grade” enterprise apps is a different way of thinking for app developers. I am sure many of you, like me, started out with a redefined canvas of boring, grey .NET controls or a “Enjoy” SAP CXTAB_CONTROL. But times are changing and we should all look to the creative and vibrant consumer world of both web and mobile apps to reconsider our methods and processes for developing great apps. read more