SAP HANA, XS Advanced - Access an external HTTP service

If you are using SAP HANA, express edition 2.0 SPS03 or higher, you can do this from the XS Advanced Cockpit. If you are using a lower version or do not have access to the XS Advanced Cockpit, scroll down.

Alternate between incognito and normal mode in your browser or use a different browser to open a new window and log in with XSA_ADMIN. In SAP HANA, express edition the default URL for the XS Advanced Cockpit is https://hxehost:51036.

You can use the XS CLI and commands xs a | grep xsa-cockpit to see the status and URL for the XS Advanced cockpit

Navigate into the HANAExpress organization (or the organization where your development space is) and into the User Provided services in the development space. Click New Instance.

Call the service EXTERNAL_HTTP and replace the JSON definition with the following set

{
	"host": "www.loc.gov",
	"port": "80",
	"tags": ["xshttpdest"]
}

Click Save

If you do not have access to the XS Advanced cockpit, you can use the following command from the XS CLI.

Make sure you are in the same space as in the application in SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA. You can use command xs target -s development to switch to the development space.

xs cups EXTERNAL_HTTP -p  "host","port","tags"

You will be prompted for the values. Use the same as in the JSON definition above.

Back in SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA, open the MTA.yaml editor in graphical mode. Add a new resource in the Resources tab.

Call the resource EXTERNAL_HTTP and set the type to

org.cloudfoundry.existing-service

Under Parameters, add the following key value pair:

service-name  : EXTERNAL_HTTP

Under Properties, set the following key value pair:

EXTERNAL_HTTP_SERVICE  : ${service-name}

Save the MTA.yaml file.

Go into the Modules tab. Add the EXTERNAL_HTTP service as a dependency to the Node.js module

Within the Node.js module with XSJS compatibility, within the lib folder, create a file called EXTERNAL_HTTP.xshttpdest.

Paste the following code in it:

description = "Library of Congress Images";
host = "www.loc.gov";
port = 80;
proxyType = none;
proxyHost = "proxy";
proxyPort = 8080;
authType = none;
timeout = 0;

Edit the proxy configuration if applicable

Create a new file in the lib folder called searchImages.xsjs. Add the following code into it.

var search = $.request.parameters.get("search");
var index = $.request.parameters.get("index");
if (index === undefined) {
    index = 0;
}
var dest = $.net.http.readDestination("EXTERNAL_HTTP");

var client = new $.net.http.Client();
var req = new $.web.WebRequest($.net.http.GET, "/pictures/search/?fo=json&q=" + search );
client.request(req, dest);

var response = client.getResponse();

console.log("response " + response.status);

var body = null;
if (response.body) {
    body = response.body.asString();
    console.log(body);
}
$.response.status = response.status;

if (response.status === $.net.http.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR) {
    $.response.contentType = "application/json";
    $.response.setBody("body");
} else {
    $.response.contentType = "text/html";
    var searchDet = JSON.parse(body);
    var outBody =
        index + " result of " + encodeURIComponent(searchDet.search.hits) + "</br>" +
        "<img src=\"" + encodeURI(searchDet.results[index].image.full) + "\">";
    $.response.setBody(outBody);
}

Run the Node.js module and the web module. Append the following to the URL:

/xsjs/searchImages.xsjs?search=HANA&index=1

Change the search parameter to chocolate and the index to 7 to complete the validation below. What number is shown on the top left side of the picture?