Before we get started developing data models in SAP HANA Cloud, we should introduce the key tool we will use : SAP Business Application Studio
SAP Business Application Studio is a web-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) supporting a wide variety of development scenarios. One of those scenarios is data modeling in SAP HANA Cloud.
Business Application Studio natively supports Git for source file version management. Git controls are embedded into the Business Application Studio interface.
Business Application Studio is based on Theia, which is a project from the Eclipse Foundation to which SAP Contributes. It is plug-in compatible with Microsoft Visual Studio Code. This makes it easy to add extensions and there are many open-source extensions available that improve productivity of the developer.
Why is SAP Moving to Business Application Studio?
Historically, SAP HANA applications were developed using SAP Web IDE. SAP Business Application Studio is a next generation IDE and offers customers tools that are commonly used by the coding community worldwide. Many developers will already be familiar with development tools that look a feel the same, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.
SAP Business Application Studio will be the common IDE for all non-ABAP SAP products.
It offers a very good performance, and it is open, flexible and customizable. You can add lots of different plus-ins to improve productivity of developers.
NoteWeb IDE for SAP HANA can also be used for modeling in SAP HANA Cloud but is not recommended as it misses many additional productivity aids and features that supports the modeler. Web IDE will not be developed further and Business Application Studio will be the tool that receives all new features. Business Application Studio is the recommended tool for data modeling in SAP HANA Cloud.
