Development Modules
When you create or modify a calculation view with the SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA, you work on a Design Time object. The Design Time object is a file located in a HANA database (HDB) module of the current project. The project can contain several modules. A module contains files from the developer's workspace. Each file typically contains the definition of one database artifact, such as a calculation view.
To consume a calculation view, you must build (deploy) the design time file of the calculation view to generate a runtime object.
You choose "build" for one or several design time objects or for the entire module. Then, dependencies between these objects are checked, syntax checks are performed, and runtime objects are created. A calculation view is deployed as a column view. For each module, the system creates a dedicated HDI container, which is basically an isolated database schema.
To get started with modeling, you must first create a Project. Within your project, you then create a Module. There are a number of modules provided by SAP for each type of development object. Modelers usually only work with HDB (HANA Database) modules. Within a module, you develop source files of the type associated with the module. For example, in an HDB module, you create database artifacts.
When your module is built, you can add extra folders and subfolders to provide better organization of your content.
To create the various development artifacts and source files, you right-click a folder in your project and choose the type of file you want to create from the context menu.
As an example, if you were a modeler, you would work in an HDB module and create the following database artifacts:
You can also import individual artifacts into your project folders using the Import menu option. You can even import a complete project into your workspace.
Note
As projects are usually worked on by multiple developers, we recommend using Git to document and manage the source code versions. This tool is fully supported and integrated into SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA. A developer clones the current project from the shared Git repository into their SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA workspace. When they are done with development, they commit their source objects back to the shared Git repository with notes to describe what they changed.Development in SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA is file-based, which means that each source artifact is a simple file (identified with an extension). The file is easy to export and import within, and also across SAP HANA.
Each file you create has its own extension, such as .hdbfunction or .hdbcalculationview, which makes it easy to identify its type. This is also how SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA knows which editor to open for each type of artifact. Certain file types can be opened in only a text editor or a graphical editor. Some files type can be opened in both.
To deploy a runtime object from the source object, we must execute a build. The generated built objects can be viewed in the Database Explorer View.
