SAP HANA Calculation View Columns Origin

After using so many Calc.Views that call another bunch of Calc.Views, etc. is really difficult to identify the correct origin (table.column/formula) of some field. This was causing some rework to understand all information needed and to correctly check and model the data

To solve that, I developed a really simple way to connect to HANA, get the dependency data and generates a JSON using Python and jQuery:

SAP HANA: Exploring data using SAP Visual Intelligence

SAP Visual Intelligence is SAP’s latest innovation in the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer solution family. It is a desktop-based visualization and data manipulation solution that allows business users to acquire data from a variety of corporate and personal data sources and manipulate without any scripting.
They can then analyze this data, with beautiful visualizations, quickly discovering unique insight that can be easily shared, shaping the business faster than ever before. -- As mentioned by SAP

Let us see what SAP says that we can do with SAP HANA using SAP Visual Intelligence:

Generate Time Data in SAP HANA - Part 2

Procedure:

1. Generate the master data from the specific time frame that you are interested in

• On the Quick Launch Page > Data > Generate Time Data

Execution management by HANA Graphical Calculation View

SAP HANA, An appliance with set of unique capabilities has provided wide range of possibilities for end user to perform data modeling. One among them is 'Graphical Calculation View', which helps in leveraging the fullest potential of SAP HANA in data modeling sector.

This Document helps in understanding the nature of execution management by HANA Graphical Calculation Views by utilizing the allowed set of properties in it. So as to reveal out the effectiveness in handling the properties to manage the execution flow.

First among the property set under discussion is

Dynamic Currency reporting in HANA

In many reporting scenarios, it is often required to display the financial figures in multiple currencies. For example, most of the systems capture the "Net Sales in the Stores" in the local currency of the Store. For the Country level local reporting, it is often required to report the Net sales in the Local currency. But for the Regional Head Quarter reporting, the Net Sales values need to be converted to the Regional currency. The same figure at the Global Head Quarter might be required in the Global currency.

How to perform Currency Conversion in SAP HANA

In this document, I tried to explain "Currency Conversion" functionality. Through this, I am trying to provide the general functionality and idea about the Currency translation in SAP HANA.

Procedure:

1. Create an Analytical view

• Right Click on Analytical View > New

Projection Filter push down in Calculation View

*** Please note that below document is based on the personal experience of using different HANA Information modeling constructs. The results of Performance tests depend upon the data volume and the Query filters. It is advisable to make the final judgement based on your own testing of such models.

Many of the reporting scenarios implement data comparison business case like “This Year to Last Year comparison” or similar. Such business requirement implementation in HANA can be done using the Calculation View model which is discussed in many of the presentations / training sessions. Something like shown below.

Getting the Counters right with stacked Calculation Views

Data Modeling in SAP HANA provides great amount of flexibility to the end user. One of the key capabilities in Modeling sector of SAP HANA is computation of user required calculations. One of the variations in calculation which end user can perform in Calculation Views/Analytic Views is 'Counter'.

Let us now understand the operations under the hood when stack of Calculation Views are created in a project.

Consider a simple 'Product Details' table which comprise of the product information along with its sales information as shown below:

Product	Store	Customer	Quantity	Revenue	Unit
Headset	METRO	ALDI	2	120	PACKG
ipad	METRO	ALDI	10	6000	PACKG
ipad	METRO	IBM	10	6000	PACKG
Budweiser	EDEKA	IBM	360	720	BOTTL
Coke	EDEKA	ALDI	260	390	BOTTL
Coke	EDEKA	IBM	250	375	BOTTL
Coke	EBAY	IBM	200	300	BOTTL
Headset	EBAY	IBM	10	600	PACKG
ipad	EBAY	ALDI	10	600	PACKG

The Science and Art Behind HANA Performance Modeling

During the course of last 2 years, I’ve conducted SAP HANA performance workshops and reviewed information models at various customers. I encounter similar modeling issues or mistakes almost at all customer projects. The good news is that most of the performance problems can be resolved by making with minor changes to the model.

However it is critical to understand the reasons behind the performance problems consistently observed in the HANA implementations. Here are my observations.

1. HANA modelers have pretty good idea on how to build attribute views, analytic views, and calculation views which are part of HANA modeling. However, there is significant gap in the knowledge of using these HANA information views effectively to address the business requirements.
2. Some of the HANA modelers do not have data warehousing background and hence lack the knowledge of basic multi-dimensional analytical reporting, which leads to poor solution design.
3. Modelers and developers seems to have the knowledge of “what works and what does not work”, but they seem to lack the knowledge “Why it is behaving the way it is behaving”, hence the struggle to apply the knowledge effectively while building the models.
4. Finally there is a fundamental flaw in the understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Is performance testing a phase before Go-Live or is it part of unit testing? HANA’s query response is extremely fast for the smaller data set regardless of the modeling approach. This gives a false positive of efficient modeling. The realization of performance issues become visible only in Staging/QA system where models are tested against large data volumes.

SAP HANA: What are packages in SAP HANA?

What is a Package?

This is a procedure for grouping together the related information objects in a structured way.

Types of Packages:

Use:

It groups all the information models and makes it easier to transport (import/export) the models which we have created in an efficient manner. Means we can "Package" our data models and easily import/export them to another HANA Studio instance.

The power of Smart Data Access (SDA) with SAP HANA SP08

Introduction

Smart Data Access (SDA) was first introduced with SAP HANA SP06 and it enables enterprise to dynamically access and report across heterogeneous sources like SAP HANA, Sybase IQ, Sybase ASE, Hadoop, SQL Server, Teradata, Oracle and SQL Server.

Please refer to the links below, for more details

SAP Unveils SAP HANA Service Pack 6 (SP6) for Big Data and Spatial Processing

Modelling capabilities on these remote virtual (SDA) tables were introduced with HANA SP07, however this was limited to SQL based calculation views. Graphical calculation views can also be created using the SDA tables, however in this scenario the Aggregation (read. GROUP BY) was not pushed down to the remote database.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2gB-XPbh9E7bk5va1JnVlNOdEE

SDA Features Enhancements with HANA SP08 (Rev 82)

Finally SAP HANA SP08 (rev 82) introduced the capability of Aggregation (GROUP BY) push down to the remote database in down in graphical calculations. That’s truly opens the possibility of building models on top of SDA virtual tables and hence building analytic solution.