Get Started to Collaborate in SAP Business Application Studio

In SAP HANA Cloud, Data Definition Language (DDL) can be used to create a table or a view in a schema. When you make changes to data structures in this case, you need to make sure that these changes are accepted by the database. Alternately, you can also use Frameworks (e.g., NetWeaver) to generate DDL and take responsibility for the changes made to data structures.

In this tutorial group, you will generate design-time artifacts (or objects) to manage the data present in an HDI container. This is done using the support of a GitHub repository. You can manage changing data structures using two design-time object types: HDBTABLE and HDBMIGRATIONTABLE. This tutorial group will include both the approaches while also highlighting the advantages of using an HDBMIGRATIONTABLE over HDBTABLE.

Before you can start with your development space, you need to make sure that your SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA database is running.

1. Open SAP BTP cockpit.
2. If you are using a trial account, click on Go To Your Trial Account from the SAP BTP Trial homepage.
   

3. In SAP BTP Cockpit, select your Subaccount and within the subaccount, select your Space.

4. After selecting your Space, click on SAP HANA Cloud on the left sidebar.
5. On the tile of your trial SAP HANA database instance, click on Actions.
6. Select Open in SAP HANA Cloud Central. You might need to sign in with your user credentials.
7. In SAP HANA Cloud Central, check the status of your database instance from the list of all instances. Ensure it has the status RUNNING, otherwise click on the three dots icon in the column Actions and select Start.

1. Open SAP Business Application Studio. In a trial landscape you can get there via the Trial Home page in SAP BTP cockpit.

   If you are using a non-trial account, you need to first select your Subaccount from the SAP BTP cockpit. Then, click on Service Marketplace from the left-side Menu bar and search for SAP Business Application Studio. Finally, click on the three dots (Actions) icon for SAP Business Application Studio option and choose Go to Application.

   

2. A new window opens for SAP Business Application Studio. Click on Create Dev Space.

3. In the Create a New Dev Space window, select SAP HANA Native Application Dev Space as the option for the kind of application you want to create.
   

   This will add SAP Predefined Extensions to your development space that allow you to deploy native SAP HANA applications or analytical models.

4. Next, name your dev space in the field in the top left corner, for example as WS3_1. This name must start with a letter or number and only allows alphanumeric characters and underscores, no special characters. You can see if the name is valid if a green tick mark becomes visible alongside the name field.

5. Here, you could also select additional SAP Extensions for your dev space. To complete these tutorials, you do not need to select any of the additional extensions.
6. Finally, click on Create Dev Space at the bottom right corner of the screen.

7. A new window opens for Dev Spaces. Here, you can view all the existing Dev Spaces you have created.

   Important

   As a trial user, you can have a maximum of two Dev Spaces while only having one of them running. Throughout these tutorials, you can re-use the dev space you just created. If you have other dev spaces before starting these tutorials, we recommend you remove them. Alternatively, if you already have an SAP HANA Native Application Dev Space, you can create a new project inside that space.

8. The process of creation of development space usually takes a few minutes. Once the status changes to RUNNING, you can click on the name of your dev space to open it.

   

1. After you have opened your dev space in SAP Business Application Studio, select Start from template from the welcome screen to create a new project.
2. Choose SAP HANA Database Project template and click on Start.
   

3. Under Add Basic Information, add the name of your new Project as WS3_1. Click on Next.

   You can usually name your project as whatever you want. But to be able to follow these steps more easily, we recommend the name above.

4. Under Set Basic Properties, we suggest you keep the database module name as db. Click on Next.

5. Under Set Database Information, we recommend not to fill in the fields Namespace and Schema Name for the purpose of this tutorial.
6. Set SAP HANA Database Version as HANA Cloud. Also, select Yes for the option Bind the database module to a Cloud Foundry service instance?. Click on Next.
7. Under Bind to HDI Container service, enter your email address (the one you used for your SAP BTP cockpit login or SAP HANA Cloud trial account) and corresponding password to make the project target your trial account and click on the
   
   login icon . This will automatically select your Cloud Foundry Organization and Cloud Foundry Space.
   

8. Select Yes for both the options Create a new HDI service instance?, and Use the default database instance of the selected Cloud Foundry space?. A unique and non-existing service instance name will be generated automatically for you.

9. Click on Finish and your project will be created. This process usually takes a moment to complete.

On the left panel, you can now see your workspace where you have your files, and the SAP HANA Project panel where you can deploy your project and open the HDI container in the SAP HANA Database Explorer. Whenever you add a new database object that can be deployed to your HDI container, it will appear in this panel and you can deploy it. In this area you can also check the database connections of your project.
Moving your cursor to the name of an object, folder, or connection in this panel, you will see different icons:

• This icon
  
  will open the HDI container in SAP HANA Database Explorer
• This icon
  
  will deploy an object, folder or the whole project to the HDI container or other connected database.
• This icon
  
  (only on the Database Connections level) allows you to create a new database connection.
• This icon
  
  /
  
  allows you to bind (green color) or unbind (grey color) a database connection.

When you are opening the HDI container in the SAP HANA Database Explorer, you will automatically be connected as the run-time user and this connection will be added to your list of database connections. To check what user you are currently connected with, you can use the following statement in a SQL console:

  SELECT CURRENT_USER "current user" FROM DUMMY

This shows the statement being used in a connection opened from SAP BTP cockpit or SAP HANA Cloud Central:

Opening the HDI container from SAP Business Application Studio will show the run-time (RT) user of this HDI container:

You have successfully completed the first tutorial. In the next tutorial, you will create a table in your SAP HANA Database Project and insert sample data into it.