Column View & Business Content

[Former Member]

Apologies if these are silly questions, but can someone help?

a) What are they in sense why are they there? (I know when they are created, but not sure why?

b) In context of HANA what is Business Content?

Edited by: Anand Gupta on Dec 7, 2011 9:48 PM

[Former Member]

Hello Thomas & Anand

This discussion really helped me a lot to understand the column view.

Regards

Navneet

[tomas-krojzl]

Hello,

b) In context of HANA what is Business Content?

SAP HANA database is delivered empty and you need to bring the tables in by replication and do the modeling manually.

So far by default there is no pre-delivered modelling when you install SAP HANA database.

However SAP is trying to help customers with implementation by RDS (Rapid Deployment solutions):

http://service.sap.com/solutionpackages

Tomas

[Former Member]

Thomas and Anand ,

I dod not find info about column views any where...

thank you for nice explanation,

Raj Gorla

[former_member182467]

Hi Tomas

Is column view same as calculation view, because we create the model ( attributes & measures) in the calculation view as well. May I know the difference between calculation view and column view.

Thank You

DR

[tomas-krojzl]

Hello,

a) What are they in sense why are they there? (I know when they are created, but not sure why?

I guess you speak about column views..

First what is view good for. Technically it is new object that is allowing you to take data from one or more tables (by using join conditions), then filter out fields you do not like, add new calculated fields, rename columns, filter certain rows, etc.

Update: Important fact about (normal) view is that it is not storing any data - it is just describing "transformation" how to handle existing data and produce desired data.

When you need to query specific information from subset of tables it might be practical to define view and then query this view rather then to write very complex SQL statements.

When you create view manually it is stored in Views subsection. When you create model and active it will generate view in Column Views subsection of SYSBIC schema.

I think that difference between them is how these views are internally managed. While regular view is created by select statement - and you can see this statement in Open Definition dialog - there is no such statement behind Column View.

I would expect that Column Views will be much faster regarding the reporting.

Tomas

Edited by: Tomas Krojzl on Dec 7, 2011 10:13 PM

Edited by: Tomas Krojzl on Dec 7, 2011 10:32 PM

[Former Member]

Thanks Tomas,

Not sure yet, why we need them? The column views that are created when we create the HANA models. So they appear to be redundant objects.

So the question is why do we need them.

From SQL perspective I understand - roughly- what they are, but if I have already created a virtual definition which by itself should be able to handle all of what you described, my question would still remain why should we have them? What purpose does it really play?

Is it just that they are necessary to be created at Database level and that Models are Calculation Engines abstraction - in other words Models belong to the "Calculation Engine-Application server" and it needs to transmit the structure at database level?

(Orchestration Logic at Database.)

Am I just way off the mark?

[tomas-krojzl]

Hello,

one example why you need column views is that currently external tools like Excel or BOBJ cannot see the models you defined. All they can see are objects in Catalog section. Therefore the only way how to read the data is to query the column view in schema SYSBIC.

My personal opinion is that models technically does not exist as solid database objects. Models are just metadata describing the transformation. And when you activate the model then this transformation description is processed and column view according to the specification is produced.

Tomas

[Former Member]

Oh...silly miss.

Thanks Tomas.

I created models, tested data, but missed this point.

Are you aware of any Front-end Tool which sees these models or uses them?

Points already awarded for this one, I can open another if you want to double the your points.

[tomas-krojzl]

Hello,

I am not - but I think someone here on forums was saying something that it is planned... not sure.

Tomas

[tomas-krojzl]

Hello,

Are you aware of any Front-end Tool which sees these models or uses them?

Indeed. Currently connection is based on Relational connector to HANA db. Just as an interesting fact to add: at TechEd in the US the developer from SAP presented the new multi-dimensional connector for HANA, which is currently in the development. Once it is available, then you'll be able to connect to the HANA analytic views.
Regards,
-Vitaliy

Tomas

[Former Member]

Hi Tomas,

I see!

I just checked. Yes Indeed Excel uses it.

So at the moment Excel Uses MDX and hence the Model Views

All other tools use SQL and hence the SQL Views.

So the Architecture looks clearer.

Have to dig further what in reality it means.

Thanks again.

[Former Member]

Hello Thomas,

can you tell me how to create column view in CATALOG